Rick Minter Quotations

He has a standard of excellence he wants to set the bar at. That's what drives the man. He has a way of envisioning his dream and he doesn't compromise what he wants that end result to be.

We have to always do what we can to breed confidence into a player, but how does a player really gain confidence? It's being successful. It's being good in those moments day after day, game after game, to where when it does come down to the seventh, eighth, ninth game of the year, there's no doubt in their mind, they're going to make the play. It comes down to confidence.

I think they were given up for dead last year, and this year, they've been kind of a maligned group.

I think today you're just a culmination of all the people you've come in contact with along the way.

I think the way (Weis) thinks in so many ways. He's rough and tough and doesn't hold back words ... he tells it like it is. I like straight-shooters. And with it comes our aggressive approach on defense. I think I'm a good fit and happy to be here.

Really what it gave me a chance to do is, really up close and in person, learn that there really were a lot of ways to skin a cat. So I learned from those guys who really worked under me watching them coach defense their way.

We could have altered the course of history ... and didn't. That's all life is, putting yourself in a position to be successful and grasping the moment when it's there. We had 'em on the ropes, but we weren't good enough to finish them. That's why they turned out to be national champions. Even though it was prelude to a bunch of close games to come for Ohio State, they learned something that day about themselves.

We all want the same thing in our case, defensive excellence at all times.

Anthony is a lot more confident in what he is trying to do on the field now. He plays more aggressively and physically rather than with hesitation, uncertainty and a lack of confidence. Maturity and experience is the key to those things.

The bottom line is it doesn't matter what I know, it's what I get them to execute.

The way SC does it is a little more prolific -- like Charlie does it. The Florida State offense was a four-man, Purdue-looking offense -- nickel and dime, nickel and dime, nickel and dime, and before you know it, you've got a lot of yards.

It was embarrassing for us to play the way that we played.

The danger is they take the ball out of our hands with long, meticulous, slow, grinding drives.