Jim Tressel Guys Quotations

When there's a little hole there, it's nice to go straight ahead. When there's another jersey, the instinctive part of any fast guy ... is maybe run sideways once too often. But that's the instincts fast guys have, that they can run around enemy jerseys. But you see a hole, hit it. That's what Teddy did.

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.

He's got something about him that people enjoy following. I don't think you can be followed if you don't produce, and he produces. He's got a certain confidence and aura about himself that, hey, if you guys will follow me, we have a chance, and I think he's grown a lot.

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.

I think in this day and age, you've got to be able to attack with a lot of different things. There are so many good guys out there that can throw and catch, and the evolution of football -- there's so many good ideas. Sometimes, things trickle down a little bit from the pros. Now, the pros don't allow their quarterback to get hit quite as much as we do in college football in our spread offenses and so forth, but I just think because people are so well-schooled on defense, you've got to give them more problems. I think if you have that as part of your package, it can give you a chance. Some of the people in our league do it very, very well.

I think we got a lot accomplished. I think we know more about what the capabilities are of the guys we have and we know even more vividly how far we have to go at some positions as opposed to watching the films of last fall.

I said, 'Well, you'd be alone because we're giving the guys the day off,'

Our guys are going to tell you that this is a better Indiana team than the one they last met. And if they don't see that, then, you know, they may be in for a rude awakening.

Our punt return game, those guys have done a great job up front, plus Tone (Holmes) and Teddy (Ginn Jr.) back in the back. Somebody told me (the Aztecs) had nine three-and-outs. When they're starting with the ball on their 11 and they're having a three-and-out, and our punt-returners are catching the ball around midfield, that's huge for the offense.

My standing rule has always been, let's discuss guys going out if they might be a first-rounder. And I don't know why he wouldn't be a first-rounder, but I'm not an NFL guy.

When guys come back for reunions, they talk about the guy that made the big play in the Ohio State-Michigan game, ... That's just the legacy that's left and I'm sure the same thing goes up there when people come back and talk about the great pride they have in their program.

We feel like we've got some guys, we'd like to get the ball in their hands. Plus, we also think that if you can prove that you can do a good job throwing it, there aren't quite as many people in the box when you are trying to run it. Then I think when you add the quarterbacks into the run package, that's another bit of pressure you can put on the opposing defenses. So you'd like to be able to do it all, and I think that's why you see so many people doing it, and specifically the guys that we've got that are capable of making things happen when we deploy that way.

We think Santonio Holmes is a great player, ... Early last year, he was about the only guy that was making plays for us. The people we played against saw that and put more attention on him. Some of our young guys then got a little more involved and that eased the burden off Santonio a little bit. If we can get to the point where we can recognize that he is being singled, we need to go to Santonio Holmes, because from a receiver standpoint he's top-notch.

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.

This is a tough defensive football team that he's going to face in a tough environment, and it's a great challenge for him and a great challenge for the guys that will be on the field at the same time with him, and we certainly hope that he can continue to be efficient, make good decisions and so forth, but that's what Saturday is for -- to find that out,

All of our guys are happy that we've got that guy. They've watched how hard he's focused this spring, they've watched the work that he's done. He proved that in front of 63,000 going down (the field) on that first drive.

They didn't have a wing. I'm sure guys started salivating on edge because I don't care how fast the snap and the hold is, if there's not a wing there I was just praying they could get the snap off in time. I knew we were going to have a chance.

This is too tough a ballgame. Guys only want to go out there if they can contribute.

They were never gone. You saw what their defense did a year ago. Offensively, I thought they struggled a year ago because they had (Zack) Mills part of the time and they had Robinson part of the time. They were different guys and it was hard to get a real flow.

They were never gone, ... You saw what their defense did a year ago. Offensively, I thought they struggled a year ago because they had (Zack) Mills part of the time and they had Robinson part of the time. They were different guys and it was hard to get a real flow.

I love his intensity. I love his detail. He?s on top of every single thing. But maybe most important, I love the way his guys play, and that?s a tribute to his staff.

I like having guys that you have to take a special look at,

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 just thought, based upon who had had preparation over the course of time and where we were and what we were doing, that both guys could contribute to a win.

I think our guys have a handle on the fact that while the national championship is a goal, what work you do today determines whether you have a chance at that or not. And so I think they're a pretty focused group on living for the moment, getting better.

He's trying out, kind of like five or six other guys that we've allowed to walk on and try out in the spring.

The environment at the Fiesta Bowl, from the time you land until you play the game, is extraordinary. There are wonderful memories when you walk into that stadium. I think our guys are going to relish that feeling and enjoy every moment of that.