Tressel On Miami: We're Going To Need Pressure

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State's showdown with the Miami Hurricanes only is a few days away.

The U's Hurricanes certainly don't lack confidence. Some say the team is even cocky. Whatever you want to call it, the 'Canes have swagger, for sure!

The football Buckeyes and Head Coach Jim Tressel hope to silence the swagger when the Hurricanes visit the 'Shoe Saturday.

Tressel talked about the matchup during his weekly news conference at 12 noon Tuesday.

Click here to watch the entire news conference.

And now, for many Buckeye fans, the season really begins.

No. 2 Ohio State hosts No. 13 Miami at 3:40 p.m. Saturday in the Bucks' biggest nonconference showcase game of the season. 

"We know the challenge is great. Miami is an excellent team … tough, fast, don't do a million things. And the good teams usually don't." OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel said Tuesday at his weekly news conference. "This will be a fun moment for the guys. We're going to find out about ourselves."

It will be the first meeting between OSU and Miami University since their 2003 Fiesta Bowl showdown for the BCS Championship -- won by Ohio State in overtime. 

The game will feature two of the premiere junior quarterbacks in America, Buckeye QB Terrelle Pryor and Miami's Jacory Harris.

"Both got put into action early in their freshman years, had to learn how take control of the huddle ... You call tell both are passionate and have big-play ability," Tressel said.

Ohio State will keep its collective eyes on Miami defensive end Olivier Vernon, who registered 3.5 sacks in the 'Canes opening win over Florida A and M.

Both OSU and Miami scored 45 points in their opening games. 

Ohio State should regain the services of starting defensive end Nathan Williams who missed the Marshall game with a knee injury. 

Tressel says the Bucks should be at full strength for Miami.

TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE

COACH TRESSEL: Welcome back. Hopefully you had a chance to labor on Labor Day. Our guys happened to be their off practice today but I'm sure there were a lot around the facility lifting weights and watching film and all the rest and we had a chance to practice on Sunday afternoon and get back on the practice field this afternoon. I know our folks are looking forward to this opportunity just like all of you are.

It was good that we got a football game in because like in any situation, after you've been practicing against yourself day after day and, I don't know, 43 practices or something against one another, it was good to go out and see how you'll do it when the lights come on. And now we have a lot of film with a lot of guys getting some action, we have a chance to go back and study and we have to take a step and that's the fun of going game one to two, and we know the challenge is great.

Miami is an excellent football team. Someone on the Big Ten call just asked me if I thought it'd be something unique that they might bring that maybe we don't normally see and, in my mind, the thing is they're not unique. They're tough. They're fast. They don't do a million different things. The good teams usually don't. They play good, hard, fundamental football. On offense they're very balanced. They're a 50/50 run/pass team which I think is the most difficult to defend.

Defensively they don't give you a million different looks. The ones that they do, they do them for good reason. Coach Shannon is a defensive guy by nature and has had great influence on their defense and their special teams are outstanding. Their kicker/punter may be one of the best in the country. His hang times on punts are in the 4.8/4.9 range which is extraordinary. His kickoffs are great. Field goals, I think he was 14 for 16 last year.

So what they bring is a good football team and they execute. They compete. They love to play. You can see they play with enthusiasm and I think there are six seniors starting on the offensive side and maybe five or six starting on the defensive side. There's a number of guys that are juniors on their starting lineup. There are guys that are starting for their third year, so it's a very veteran team and they are who they are and they do it very, very well and they make you play toe to toe. So it's going to be a tremendous challenge for our guys. Our guys are excited about it and we're looking forward to Saturday afternoon.

REPORTER: A couple of their guys are still -- maybe it's fans, alumni boosters, even the players mentioned the '02 championship game and that they saw that as some kind of revenge because they didn't feel they got the call. Go back to that call and how it changed history and can you reflect on what that meant to you and your program to win that title?

COACH TRESSEL: There were a lot of calls in the game, I'm sure the one you're referring to is the one in overtime. A call was made and you have to go play the rest of the plays and that's how history was written.

REPORTER: Very few people outside the State of Ohio gave you any chance going into that game, the spread was big, that was one of the big teams in college football, and noted so in most of the national press. In the lead-up to that game, did you feel like you had a chance in it and in playing that game, when did you feel like I think we can win this thing?

COACH TRESSEL: You're testing my memory. That was a long time ago. We felt like going into every game we played in 2002 all the way up to today that if we do what you're supposed to do, the things that it takes to win football games, we're going to win football games. The same will be true on Saturday. There are things that we have to do, things that we have to execute, and if we do that we have a chance and that's -- we felt that way going into that game. And I've mentioned to this group many times, ever since the first year we've been here, 2001, I felt like we were very capable of winning our games and that if we did the things we were capable of doing, we would, and that's the way we felt then and still do.

REPORTER: Jim, could you kind of compare and contrast the two quarterbacks, similarities, disimilarites?

COACH TRESSEL: I think they've traveled a similar road. They both got put in there at an early point in their freshman year. I don't remember exactly when it was in Miami's case, but in our case, it was the third or fourth game and had to kind of get thrown in with an older group and learn their way to take control of the huddle and then show it through their execution that they belonged there and then improve each and every day. And like any young kids, you can tell both of them are very passionate, both of them have tremendous big play ability. They love what they're doing. You can see they both prepare extremely hard. I've known Coach Whipple, their quarterback coach, for a long time. He was Ben's coach at the Steelers in Ben's early years and he's an outstanding Coach and I know he's helped them improve dramatically from year one to three, and I feel that way about our situation. I think Terrelle has done the same. So I think there's a lot of teams in college football that would like to have those guys as their quarterback.

REPORTER: Can you discuss the injury situation, namely Nate Williams and Orhian Johnson?

COACH TRESSEL: Orhian Johnson is 100%. He's been going. We didn't play him much because he didn't practice in the recent history going into the game, but he's done all the practicing since. Nate practiced some Sunday. He'll practice today. I think the thing that you have to be careful with is guys that miss some training camp and all of a sudden if you think they can go out there and play 50 some snaps, I think you're risking a little bit. So what we have to figure out in the course of this week is just how many snaps is he ready to go. He seems to be ready to go. He's excited and he says he's ready to go. And now we'll see how it goes this afternoon and Wednesday and Thursday.

REPORTER: What's your feeling about Boise State and TCU both won, it looks like they'll be in the mix all year. They kind of had one marquee game and their leagues do not seem to be on a parity with BCS leagues.

COACH TRESSEL: Because we were open this weekend, I had a chance to see a little bit of the TCU/Oregon State game. Those are two good teams. That was a battle. I got home to see the last part of the third quarter and the fourth quarter last night of the Boise/Virginia Tech game, those are two good teams. So all four of those teams are going to be making noise all year and it's a long year. It's like I'd like to believe that Ohio State and Miami are both good teams, but it's a long year.

REPORTER: Back on Nate Williams for a second. Does the pass rush concern you. You had one sack in the game, it was by Tyler Moeller coming off, I presume, the blitz or whatever. Is that an area where you guys are looking to obviously make more of an impact in this game?

COACH TRESSEL: Well, Marshall, I think, coming into the game felt as if they needed to do things that let the ball go quickly, which we face that a lot. So one might think that, well, the pass rush didn't do much, but maybe what the pass rush made them believe they should do created them getting the ball out early. But, no, that's huge. This is a game of pressure. If you can put pressure on your opponent whether it's when you have the ball or whether they have the ball or when people are kicking the ball, this is a game of pressure and we're going to need pressure.

REPORTER: Jim, how did you think your offensive line played against Marshall? How did they grade out and what's your impression of Miami's defensive line from what you've seen on film?

COACH TRESSEL: I thought our guys played pretty fair. I think we had -- I think Michael Brewster and Bryant graded a winning performance, but the others graded pretty darn well. What do I think of Miami's defensive line? They're very good. Our guys are going to have to take the next step for sure and they're veterans, they're quick, they're strong. They've been there. It will be a great challenge for our guys. I have felt good because we haven't had too much missed time through preseason and that's the way you get better and then they got to play, I think, I don't know 47 snaps or something with that first group, which you're hoping you'd get 40 or more, so if we can have a good week of figuring out what it is we think Miami might try to do and at least be mentally prepared, now we'll find out who can do what on Saturday.

REPORTER: The two big runs that Saine had, does that affect the mix with Herron at all, do you feel like you might need that homerun play against Miami more?

COACH TRESSEL: We'd love to have a homerun against anyone. I thought the most impressive running that was done on the night was done by Boom in that first drive of the second half. Sometimes if you're coming out of halftime and it's 35-7 or whatever it was and some guys might say, well, you know, let's think about the next game or whatever, I thought Boom sparked that drive. It was an 80-yard drive. I thought he broke some tackles. You can't take Boom out of the mix, but that's not to discount B. Saine. He was excellent. And would we love to have a homerun? Absolutely, but both those guys have got to keep getting better and better and we're lucky those are two good ones.

REPORTER: Talk about the emergence of Brandon now, obviously the Rose Bowl was a tour de force there.

COACH TRESSEL: Tour de force?

REPORTER: That's French.

COACH TRESSEL: Is that French? Okay.

REPORTER: But just talk about his emergence, it's sort of -- he's sort of like a playmaker.

COACH TRESSEL: When Brandon Saine got here as a freshman, we integrated him into things because he's a receiver, he can pass protect, he can run the ball. He had a little bit of a knee scope or something right in the middle of the beginning third of that year, but came back and did all right, and then the next year we were missing -- he missed nearly all of preseason with a hamstring and really missed a lot of playing time. I thought he came along well. I thought his tour de force was a little bit last year. I thought he did some great things as recent as -- he had a long run, he had a touchdown run against Michigan, in the Oregon game played well and he played well in this one. Brandon Saine is a good player. He can do something with the ball and he just quietly works and studies it and he's a smart player and a good receiver. It's just amazing to me that he's a senior. It's just gone in a heartbeat.

REPORTER: Roderick Smith, I guess --

COACH TRESSEL: Uh-huh, yeah.

REPORTER: How did he look? Do you look at him now? Is he an automatic redshirt? How do you approach him?

COACH TRESSEL: He's not an automatic redshirt. I think conventional thinking, because he missed all of preseason, would be I don't know if he could get enough reps now to be able to earn the right to go in before someone else, but you never know with injuries and so forth. I thought he looked good. Now, maybe it was because he had fresh legs and everyone else has training camp legs and so forth, but Sunday I thought he was flying around, he's got a smile on face, he's happy to be here. You've got to handle adversity, sometimes you get a little bit of a delay or a hiccup or whatever, he caught the ball in the back field once or twice on Sunday and I'm anxious to see him.

REPORTER: Because the Miami team was so legendary in the mid '90s and even up through the next decade or so, most of your players are also college football fans, they're aware of the history with you and things that the Hurricanes did.

COACH TRESSEL: Sure.

REPORTER: Can you sense that this is really special to the players particularly more so than many other games maybe, the fact that you're playing a team that was that high profile when they were growing up and they were fans?

COACH TRESSEL: Absolutely. I think our guys have tremendous respect for these guys. They've watched them. They see them on TV. They see -- now they're getting to see them on film. There's no doubt about it. When you respect your opponent and you know darn well they're good, that excites you.

REPORTER: You were talking about your pass rush little bit ago, what did you see out of the guys like Solomon Thomas?

COACH TRESSEL: I thought Solly was solid. He might have been a little bit nervous his first time out there and they were letting the ball go quickly, so sometimes you feel as if you're not accomplishing what you're supposed to as a D lineman if you don't get to the quarterback, but I thought he did well and he's got to keep doing well. He's got to get better. I'm sure there are some things -- I don't think he graded a winning performance, but it wasn't awful and the things that he didn't do the way we need done, that's what he's got to make sure he improves upon. But Solly has worked hard. He's a committed kid. He worked hard to gain his weight, keep his quickness, glad he's here.

REPORTER: Talk about a couple other new guys on the line, did any of those guys stand out to you?

COACH TRESSEL: John Simon has been getting better and better all the time. Obviously Cam was solid. Johnathan Hankins, I think he got between 15 and 20 plays, which it was all new for him and it's going to be even newer when he gets in this week because he's going to get some plays. And Garrett Goebel -- I thought Dexter Larimore was very solid up there. So I thought we did what we needed to do, but we've got to do it all better. If we don't do it all better, it won't be enough.

REPORTER: Obviously the last time these guys played a bowl subdivision team was Wisconsin in the champs bowl. How do you all use that video to reinforce or show your team this week about Miami, what they're all about?

COACH TRESSEL: In this day and age, we use it all, but you do use the most recent more because I'm sure they're using the most recent. They're probably starting at Purdue and going through our season. I doubt if they're even going to worry too much about whoever we played in the first half of last year and you try to watch as much film as you can and in this day and age with technology, you break it up conceptually so much that you do get some pictures from games that were way back and then you've got to try to figure out the evolution of why they're doing what they're doing just like they're figuring out the evolution of why we're doing what we're doing and then you guess, and someone asked on the Big Ten call, do we script our first X number of plays, and we have a ready list like everyone else does, if they do exactly what they've been doing before and everything we planned went just like we thought it would be, yeah, we might stick right to a list. But it doesn't seem to happen that way often with us. People always seem to have a little something, do a little something and I guess the fun of it is, is to guess the evolution of where they're going with the people they have. So using the Wisconsin film? That was the last time they played in a big game like this and we use it a bunch.

REPORTER: Do you worry about your team, I don't know, not taking Miami lightly at all, but --

COACH TRESSEL: Not if you watch that film. It was a good football game and the things that you need to do to win, Wisconsin did them, but there isn't anybody that's going to be taking this team lightly. They know they're a good team and they respect the way they play and they're excited to be on center stage with them.

REPORTER: Did Terrelle grade a winning performance against Marshall?

COACH TRESSEL: Coach Siciliano is a harder grader than I was, I think Krenzel got one in 14 games back in the day. No, he didn't. In fact, you'll have to ask Coach cyst this, but I think it was the best grade he's had since he's been here, which means he did a lot of the little things, because that's where you lose points, some of those things that no one even sees but we need to do, he graded solid.

REPORTER: Jim, Sabino didn't play on Thursday.

COACH TRESSEL: Right. Right now, day-by-day we're kind of redshirting him, but redshirting is a day-by-day thing, so he's got no injury issues or no -- nothing outside of football that's a reason for him not playing. So for this moment, he's redshirting and if everyone's healthy going into the ball game, we'll probably hold him from the ball game. He was 19 when he came here and we needed him because we were just so thin at some things. We'll get Storm Klein back this week. He had a hamstring or it was just -- nothing huge. And some of those things that Etienne did from a special teams standpoint and a depth standpoint with Storm back and we weren't sure going into the game because if one or two guys would have gone down, Etienne was going to have to play and he knows what's most important to us is 2010, but that doesn't mean that we ignore what might be healthy for an individual.

REPORTER: I wondered because a couple weeks ago we were talking about Andrew Sweat and you were saying there's no way he's going to redshirt in 2010.

COACH TRESSEL: He's ahead of Etienne.

REPORTER: Not to test your memory again, but from the '02 game, what does jump out at you? What do you remember? Obviously besides winning, what moments or what plays?

COACH TRESSEL: What I remember is that was a fast a game, I don't mean in time duration, I mean the way the people were flying around the field, as I think I'd ever been in. And those are two teams that were just loving the competition. They were just loving -- there's no way either team in my mind could have played the next week, it was that fast and that tough and it was kind of neat.

REPORTER: How much do you remember the Maurice Clarett play where he stole the ball, do you remember that?

COACH TRESSEL: I remember standing at the back view and saying, I can't believe he threw that ball and saw them running the other way and I said, oh, man, someone's got to get him down and all of a sudden we got the ball. So I remember probably a different part of the play than you do, but that's what good games are made up of obviously is plays that make a difference and if we'd have just thrown it through the goal post and gone to second and 10 or second and six or whatever we were, second and goal, I would have enjoyed that play a little better, but it is what it is. I guess it ended up being like a 15-yard loss as opposed to second and goal again.

REPORTER: There were so many big plays. Was the biggest one Cie Grant because it was the last one or what do you think the biggest one was?

COACH TRESSEL: You are testing my memory. You know, I have not watched that game. Some day I'll invite you all over and we'll sit in our rocking chairs and we'll break that game down and I'll tell you what I was thinking, if I can still think by then. Gosh, I don't know, there have been some lot of games since then and a big one to come.

REPORTER: You've had a few of those games now, obviously the championship game is the one that you won, can you say that team had something that the others didn't, because obviously this is a team that has those dreams as well, is there anything that the 02 team had that maybe the other teams didn't?

COACH TRESSEL: I think teams are defined based on what they have on certain days. Because there were some days that '02 team didn't have some of those things. We were fortunate. There were days that other teams had some special things and maybe a day they didn't, so collectively, it's hard for me to say that this one thing is about a team because the team is made up of so many individuals and so many moments, that's what's exciting about this weekend, this will be a fun moment for our guys. They're going to find out about themselves and that's why you play games to find out the score.

REPORTER: Before the Rose Bowl did you sense an eagerness or a confidence about Terrelle that maybe you hadn't seen before and I'm just wondering are you seeing that now as you get into this kind of big game week? What do you see that tells you he's ready, so to speak, for this challenge?

COACH TRESSEL: The thing about him is he thinks about it so much and cares about it so much that he has an ongoing anticipation. You could tell he was edgy and excited to go play because we hadn't played in whatever, 40 days. He's excited about this. Now, we played a couple days ago, and we've got some practices to go, but he's always a guy that looks forward to finding out how he's doing and seeing if he can do good things. So I don't see -- I see such a difference because I get to see these guys every day. I just see that growth every day and you guys only get to see them 10 times a year or whatever, but I think he's anxious about lining up and competing against a team he knows is very, very good and he's going to have to be at best if he's going to do his part for his team.

REPORTER: These major nonconference tests that you guys have had every year, the loss to USC or the tight game with Washington, the Texas game, do you feel like, looking at those games, have you felt good about the preparation going into those tests early in the year just about the way you guys were prepared, the way you guys played, you had to get up early in the season for that, has there been a theme with those games at all?

COACH TRESSEL: I think the fun of those have been the fact that all winter and spring long you could really be thinking about, hey, I can't wait until that type of game. Not to say it's more important than another game, but it has more interest than another game and not just by people outside but perhaps people inside. So I think that's healthy. It's fun. And it's also -- I think you learn about yourself so it's -- they've been very valuable in my mind.

REPORTER: You look at the USC game, for instance last year, did you feel good about -- obviously that was a tight game, did you think you guys were ready for that game the way you wanted to be?

COACH TRESSEL: Yeah, I think our kids played hard and they were ready and did we play extremely well? Not all the time, but our guys were ready to play. That didn't bother me. But you know so little about a team in September compared to what you know about them in December, our guys will go out and play and obviously if we play well enough.

REPORTER: That '02 team that we've asked a lot about --

COACH TRESSEL: I'm kind of happy about that too, that's really made my day.

REPORTER: I know, because it's the first time you've played them since then.

COACH TRESSEL: That's why.

REPORTER: Dovetailing to the point, does that mean anything to this week's game or is that just for media and fans to get excited about it or does that add something to the excitement for that group of players for Miami and Ohio State?

COACH TRESSEL: I think anytime you've competed before, there's a natural sort of rivalry, so absolutely. I think the fact we've competed before and everyone knew it and everyone knows it, now, will that make any difference? Not compared to the decisions we make on the field and the execution we have, but will it add a little bit more fun to it? Absolutely. If we'd never played before, like when we first played Texas, never in the history, does that add more to it? Well, probably not like having played before but in neither case, though, does it have anything to do with who's going to win the game. Who's going to win the game is who does the things inside the line.

REPORTER: Short of putting Terrelle on a scout team, how do you prepare for Jacory Harris and simulate that exactness?

COACH TRESSEL: You do as well as you can with your personnel. Kenny Guiton a week ago was the scout team player of the week and gave us a great look and needs to do the same. We like to go against one another, so we've been going against one another since April and through preseason and we'll do it today, so everything we can do to emulate what they do, but knowing full well that when we get out there on Saturday, they may do something a little bit different and you have to be prepared and we'll do the best we can with how we emulate it.

REPORTER: Talk about Mike Brewster getting a winning performance.

COACH TRESSEL: Speaking of that, I think he's over here in about -- ready? Real quick because we've got to -- I've got like three -- no, is Marla here? Okay. Well, Clay Hall's been pushing hard for Natalie to be into the back-up role of Lori, so --

REPORTER: Where have you seen Michael grow the most since he took over as a starter?

COACH TRESSEL: Just knowledge. To play the center position and the way Jim Bollman does some things, the center has so much responsibility. In fact, Alex Stepanovich was in here earlier, I think the fact Alex played under Jim and he gave him so much responsibility, Alex is now talking about maybe some day wanting to coach and he says, I think I've been caught by the bug. So knowledge. Michael now has played a bunch of games and had to make decisions and he's really grown that way. All right. Natalie, real quick, you get next to last.

REPORTER: It was interesting listening to your opening statements how you described Miami. How do you want this team to be described, this season, after seeing them play once, after seeing all the film this week?

COACH TRESSEL: I would hope we would be described as a team that plays extremely hard and fast and executes, and I remember Dom Capers used to always say, a technique team jumps off the film, when you put it on film and a team uses good technique, it just jumps off. That's what I would hope we could become. All right, Lori, you're the clean-up hitter.

REPORTER: I'm wondering how rare it is that a team is actually capable of being a 50/50 balanced team on offense, whether you think this year's Buckeyes have that capability.

COACH TRESSEL: Well, if you do a good job with pass protection, I think you have a chance and the teams that probably end up going a little bit further on the run side are the ones that are concerned that they don't protect well enough to throw and catching and keep from having turnovers. On the flip side, there are some teams that they don't like to run as much to be a 50/50 team. So you better be physical. You better have physical backs. Better have some physical folks up front. Are we capable of that? We would like to be capable of that and I think we're capable.

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