Buckeyes Say They Overlooked Purdue

COLUMBUS, Ohio—What’s brewing today with the 2009 Ohio State Buckeyes ...

BUCKEYES BUZZ: Based on what most of the fans saw on Saturday, it shouldn’t come as a huge shock that coach Jim Tressel and at least a few players felt that the Buckeyes overlooked the Boilermakers in Purdue’s shocking 26-18 upset.

Tressel said it was his fault if the players didn’t realize what they were getting into - a Purdue team that was upset it was only 1-5, that had played much better than its record.

“I didn’t think I did a very good job of getting them to really understand the challenge we had,“ he said. “I didn’t sense that from anyone that, ‘Man, these guys are good’ or ‘Man, I can’t believe they’re not 5-1.‘ There wasn’t any of that.“

His players agreed.

“We may have overlooked them a little bit,“ WR Dane Sanzenbacher said. “I don’t think it was any specific thing or anything we were trying to do. We just came out and didn’t execute and they played very well on both sides of the ball. You mix those two together and they did enough to get the job done.“

DL Todd Denlinger went along with that.

“It was a bad feeling,“ he said. “Maybe a little overconfidence, maybe a little immaturity. There were a lot of things that maybe kind of go into it.“

LOOKING AHEAD: Minnesota invades on Saturday at noon. It’s homecoming at Ohio State; the Buckeyes are 63-19-5 playing on the big day for alums.

The Buckeyes are also 18-2 after a loss under Tressel and are 41-7 against the Golden Gophers.

FALLING FAST: QB Terrelle Pryor led the Big Ten in pass efficiency last season. This year he’s sixth.

He’s also 63rd in the nation in pass efficiency, right behind Ohio’s Theo Scott and a few notches ahead of ex-Duke basketball player-turned-Syracuse QB Greg Paulus.

TRESSELESE: Tressel, on his offensive woes: “Terrelle’s problems are no different than the whole team’s and I know you love to talk about it and that’s okay, but the whole team, the more deeply you understand what it takes at your particular role, the better chance we have to being successful and that’s something that you wish you could put in a computer chip or I hope that fantasy team’s not working, I’m going to go hire that one or this video game, I can’t beat that one, I’m going to get this one. The fun of working with people is just that.“

QB QUESTIONS: Tressel, a former college QB and assistant coach in charge of QBs, was asked if he’s ever benched a quarterback to get his attention.

“I’ve only done that once with a young guy because all he could remember was the couple passes he completed - he had amnesia about his turnovers,“ Tressel said. “It worked because he didn’t throw another pick the rest of the year and it was a good deal. But that’s what I thought he needed. I don’t think that’s what Terrelle needs.“

LOTT OF GOOD NEWS: S Kurt Coleman is among 20 quarterfinalists for the Lott Trophy, given annually to the best defensive impact player in college football.

Others up for the award include Big Ten players LB Pat Angerer of Iowa and LB Greg Jones of Michigan State.

Considered the front-runners are Tennessee DB Eric Berry and USC S Taylor Mays.