Jim Tressel Game Quotations

I would question in a game like this if we will have room for ceremony. Every play will be critical.

Good defenses will wear on you. Our defense just kept coming after them and as the game goes on, good defenses are harder to go against.

Tyson is a wonderful young man, who loves the game of football and loves being at Ohio State and following in the footsteps of his dad. Our players, coaches and everyone in the Ohio State Athletics Department family are praying fervently for his recovery.

I think legacies are shaped everyday, ... Shaped in your film preparation, shaped in how you take care of everything that is your responsibility, and then of course every practice, and then of course it's magnified in the games because the majority of the people, that's what they see in your life -- what you do on Saturday and what you do on television and so forth. I hope that his focus is on day-to-day preparation and his performance play-to-play, and we'll let those legacy discussions happen long after he's gone.

The kids we recruited this year, from the time they were 13 to 18, have seen us on TV more than any other team in the country and have seen us win big games and three BCS bowls. Ohio is where we're always going to begin, but we're trying to get better in all phases, and it doesn't matter where the players are from.

Occasionally, all of us, I'm sure, think back to, gosh, if I would have called a different game ... we might have beat Texas. But you better not spend too much time thinking about those things. Once you get into conference play, the guys are looking hard to see who beat who and who do we have next and what have we got to do. I think their focus is very good.

We always say the spring game is mostly fun because you've been working hard and now you get to compete. Any time you keep score, you'd like to win. It's probably a little more impact than a normal spring practice. But they (the players) all know we've got 29 practices ahead of us before we line up for real against Northern Illinois.

I don't think I've seen Troy yet totally in command and relaxed. He really wants to do well and couldn't wait to get in and play after sitting out a couple games there when we were playing two weeks ago. This week I thought was very, very valuable in that he got 71 snaps and that he got a lot of plays on tape and a lot of things he can learn from. I just think it's just relaxing and being in command with the whole situation. To me, that's the biggest task that he has to tackle.

Our defense is special. People come in with great plans against them and it's the game of their life to have a chance to play against out defense and our guys just keep fighting and keep fighting and believing in each other.

He's smart. He doesn't panic. He has an awareness for the whole field. He can tell by how you line up and who's in the game what may be coming. He's tough. He never misses a practice snap. You have to drag him off the field in games.

Any time you can have a big play in the punting game, it's probably the difference. I suppose if you look at the game and really analyze it, it was a tie game other than that.

What we philosophically want to do is schedule games that are of great interest to our fans. Maybe the best pro of these games is it's something our players will remember for a lifetime. They'll cherish these memories.

What we philosophically are going to do, if we can pull it off, is have a home-and-home with a team of great interest to our fans. Every other year we can have eight home games and the year that we travel, have seven.

You just never know (about recruits). So who will do it? I don't know that any of us at this time last year would have thought ... (freshman) Malcolm Jenkins would start five games at cornerback.

Both Troy and Justin had good work today. ... They shared the reps and they'll probably share the game. Exactly who will play the first play and who will play the twelfth play, I'm not sure, but I think they both deserve to play in a big game like this and they will.

If you had to pick two great schools you'd want to see play, if it's the last game you'd ever want to see in your life, it might be these two.

especially because they're Ohio State and Texas, two great schools that if you had to pick two you'd want to see play, if it's the last game you'd ever want to see in your life, it might be these two and that makes it special, two great football states, two great schools, two of the largest alumni in the world. The interest level is tremendous.

He can play the game of football. There are some guys who are just fast, but are maybe not football players. Derrick Williams is a football player. He's out there having fun.

It's a tough football game for all of us to be playing so early. We'll see if we can compete.

This is one of those games that I don't know that you have to worry about getting anyone's attention,

This is one of those games that coaches and players look forward to. Shoot, we can't wait and I am sure they feel the same way. It matches two great research universities, two great football programs and two states that really support their teams against one another. Everyone has been talking about it since the end of last season. I know this; it won't be hard to get our players' attention this week,

As you know, we had a heck of a ball game with Michigan State, ... John L. (Smith) and his staff did a great job. The lead changed hands often in that game, two teams playing extremely hard, and like we face each week in the Big Ten, it was a battle down until the end. I'm real proud of the way our kids continued to play. We fell behind (but) we kept going after it and I'm very proud of them.

A lot of the games I've watched over the years, the unnoticed things are that 3rd-and-7 play where there's bracket coverage and everyone was tied up, and that quarterback ran for a first down and changed the momentum of the game. So we don't discount the importance of that, but you have to do things in progression. I just think Troy needs to be a little bit better from his progression standpoint.

Exactly who will play when, obviously we're not going to outline for you today, but I think Troy's performance in the '04 season, his performance in the spring and his performance in preseason warrants him deserving to play. I think Justin's performance last season and this spring and this preseason and now Game 1 of this season warrants that he should play.

We've said for years that if you can run well, you'll be able to do a lot of things well. We did a much better job in the run game and then that opened up opportunities to throw it well.

You evaluate the entire production. If we had caught that ball and win the game by nine points, I don't know if we're sitting here and saying we're perfect. You still figure out how we can be the best we can be.

We had data of a year ago, spring practice, the preseason practice and the first two games ... now we have to make a decision. I've never pretended that every decision I make is right ... I've been reminded of that.

If it's the last game you'd ever want to see in your life, it might be these two teams, and that makes it special. Two great football states, two great schools, two of the largest alumni in the world. The interest level is tremendous.

If the first game was today, Justin would start and Troy would probably play significantly. We'll go into preseason where both Justin and Troy will get work with the first group.

When you're talking about Troy, I don't think you ever think you use words like that. I mean, that's over, and I think he's done a great job of handling his adversity. This is game No. 12 of 2005 as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not going to lie. We're anxious to be a part of a matchup like that. It's two states that love the game of football.

A game of this sort is all about making new memories. I don't think we're going to fall short about that.

We better go into a game wanting to get Teddy and Santonio the ball,

We have a clock for each team, ... What we try to point out is you need to use every second to get ready for the opportunity to play a ball game because you only have, in this day and age, eleven opportunities, and next year begins twelve. You have to make sure you use your preparation time to get ready for that and most especially use your preparation time throughout the entire year so you're at your best in that last game. That's just something we believe in terms of preparation and something that we talk about and obviously have.

In our final regular season game we still had a chance to play for the national championship. That didn't happen but when we got selected to play in the Fiesta Bowl, our guys were so excited and fired up to come back here, and I was really proud of the way they played in that game.

I thought we gave great effort against a very good Texas team. Our defense, in particular, played with great emotion. Offensively, we have to do a better job in the red zone. That was a concern after the Miami game and it is still a concern. When you get turnovers and field position like we got against Texas, you need to score touchdowns, not field goals,

It's normal for our buses and bags to be inspected. That's the times we live in. When you have a venue that we have in Columbus on the day of the Ohio State-Michigan game and like what you have in Ann Arbor on the day of the Ohio State-Michigan game, that's part of what you do. We regret if there were any surprises a year ago. They weren't intended.

There are many times in a game there's a moment where you can break the spirit a little bit. It was only a 13-0 game. They had hope because of the score. Then all of a sudden when the score was 20-0, there's a little bit different emotion.

There's something special about playing in the Fiesta Bowl, no doubt about it. The seniors have done so much here (becoming the first group to win four bowl games and tying a school-record with 43 wins as a class), I wanted to make sure we sent them out as champions.

We felt coming in ... he was a guy that was really into the game of football and you could just tell as he got here that he was maybe further advanced than the normal guy. ... Now he's got to obviously take the next step as we go into the Big Ten, but I think he's done a nice job.