Tracy Claeys
Q. What have you been able to gather about the team's psyche coming off a pretty crushing loss and knowing you've got Ohio State this week?
COACH CLAEYS: We'll know if it's crushing how it goes this week. I thought our kids obviously were disappointed in the fact that we lost a football game and put a lot of time in. But when you play hard and play in a great football game like that where any play and that game can change, you invest some time, you're going to be a little bit disappointed.
But they'll bounce back. They're a great group of competitors. We have another great opportunity. So we'll be ready to go. We'll be ready to go. I believe that.
Q. Given the emotion of last week, how do you guard against a letdown, obviously, playing No. 1 Ohio State, but how do you guard against?
COACH CLAEYS: We won't have a letdown. I believe that. You're not very competitive at this game if you can't get ready to play this game. No. 1 team in the country. Going into a great stadium. They haven't been beaten in a regular season game yet. So there's no, no matter what happens, if something goes wrong, talk about a letdown.
I tell you, they're a good football team. They have a very small margin for error. That's what our kids have to be prepared for. We have to make sure we play our brand of football and not make a lot of mistakes. If we do that, I think we showed a year ago that we'll have an opportunity in the fourth quarter.
But, yeah, the difference to them is you're dealing with a team that the skill they have all over the field and the front seven they have on defense and their secondary, they're just not very big margin for error. But any time you play a good team, you don't have a very big margin for error.
Q. You go against all the skill guys they have. Does it still start with trying to stop Elliott?
COACH CLAEYS: No question, and I don't think he gets credit for the way he blocks. I think he's the best blocking tailback that there is. He's the best I've had to defend. So a lot of the lead plays, he does a tremendous job blocking. But we did a good job of limiting him a year ago, and I think that gave us an opportunity. It's easier said than done, but, yeah, we need to limit how many touches he gets.
Q. What is the toughest part about coaching this team right now knowing that you're being looked at as a potential successor to Coach Kill?
COACH CLAEYS: Doing all the media stuff, just timewise. I don't mean that to be funny. That is the one thing when Coach was still hanging around, he took some of that stuff off my plate, you know what I'm saying?
So, like I say, the football part is easy. I've been doing this a long time and love doing it. It's being able to do the other stuff. The other thing is as far as wanting to be -- I've said I want to be the next head football coach here. I think I can do it. But believe me, I'm not putting any pressure on my self as far as that goes. But that choice, I've learned to not worry about things I can't control, like I've said. I don't have control over that. All I can do is make sure the football team is prepared as well as I can, and I'll live with the results.
Q. You look at the way the defense played against Nebraska compared to Michigan, it just seemed like having De'Vondre and Cody at full-go made a huge difference for you guys. What did you think was the difference?
COACH CLAEYS: Right, that's the thing I said about the media. The hard thing too is you get to Tuesdays, and since last night I've been trying to look forward. And you've got to come in here and look backwards. But I think that just shows how bad I screwed up on the injuries in the practice rotation. That's what I talked about when they got hurt late in that week versus the Nebraska game. We had to move kids around in order to play, and they did it more comfortable and they played slower.
Here we practiced the groups we practiced. They had a lot of reps and those kids felt good and they played faster. So I think we were able to get through practice and with healthy people and I thought both sides of the ball played with more energy and that's all because I do believe knowledge is power and confidence and the kids felt good about what we were doing and played fast.
Q. What went into moving Jack to the middle?
COACH CLAEYS: Well, because we didn't know if Cody was going to be able to go still. So we had to make sure that we had -- I'm a big believer in at linebacker, if you've got a week to prepare, you put your best guys on the field. If your back-up at one place is better than who you're going to start in another place, then you're wrong.
So we just felt like we were going to play our best people on the field at that time. So we started our best three linebackers that were healthy at the time and work around that.
Q. Did you go back with Matt and sort of reevaluate the last sequence at the end of the game?
COACH CLAEYS: Sure, sure.
Q. Is there something in the game that you analyzed?
COACH CLAEYS: I talked about it, you know what I'm saying? That situation was taken care of between me and Coach in the past. I screwed up. I didn't designate -- as I said, I didn't designate a time management guy like what I did for Coach Kill. So that will be taken care of this week. We've still got the two opportunities that we thought we were going to get, and we've got to get the ball six inches. But there is no question.
If I had to do it all over again. We would have clocked the ball coming out of the play reversal, and we would have gotten one more opportunity. At the same time, we shouldn't have needed one more opportunity to get the ball six inches. So it is what it is. Moving on.
Q. Are you defensive coordinating or is Jay doing it?
COACH CLAEYS: Jay's doing an awful lot of it. He really is. I'm there to help him with the adjustments. I met with him this morning. That's all I did last week too. I helped with the adjustments when they were hurting us, so I'm in there during the game planning part of it, and I'll help him out with adjustments and that.
But our defensive staff has worked together a long time. We all believe in the same things, so we'll continue to work together, but he's taken over an awful lot of it, and then that allows me -- because I need to spend time. That situation of the game also would not have happened if I was more familiar with the plays on offense. So I need to spend more time in with offense just learning what they're doing and not necessarily being a bother to them, but knowing what the plays are.
That's also, somebody asked the difference with Coach Kill was around, knowing he was going to come back, he stayed in with them. I never did that the last time. So this time I need to do that.
Q. (Indiscernible) a full-timer to staff yet?
COACH CLAEYS: Well, Jay Nunez was our special teams quality control. So we did add him. So he's helping Coach Sawvel with the special teams part of it. So he was promoted to fill that spot. So he's taken Jay's work with him also. But he's taken a lot of the paperwork and time consuming things and meeting and that. And then the other thing is I'm sitting in on special teams meetings, which is the first time in years that I've done that. But that's part of the transition and knowing what's going on. I need to know all of that.
Q. Are you (Indiscernible)?
COACH CLAEYS: No, the only thing we may get into it is whether run or pass. You know what I'm saying? Those guys have done a good job. Obviously, if you get into a situation where you see in the end of a game where sometimes on third downs you go, hey, do you run the ball at the end and make them use their last time out? Do you throw it and try to get the first? I'll be involved in those type of situations.
But as long as I know what's going on going into the game, which I will this week on offense, they've got a job to do just like all of us.
Q. Do you feel like going forward here as far as offense, do you think that you tend a little bit more toward maybe attack, more of an aggressive philosophy versus maybe a little more conservative, minimizing mistakes? What is your thought on that?
COACH CLAEYS: Move the chains. Take care of the ball, period. I mean, really, you don't turn the ball over. You move the chains. You ask kids to do things they're good at doing, which I think we've done a good job of that with Mitch at the last couple games. Put those kids in position to do plays they're comfortable doing, I think you'll have success.
So that's what I tell the guys. Get the ball to the best players we have in as much space as you can. Make somebody tackle them in space. So whatever fits in those parameters is what we're going to do.
Q. Ohio State's quarterback change play much into your plan?
COACH CLAEYS: No, in the off-season we went through and broke down from their games a year ago, and our quality control people have broken down the game this year when the different quarterbacks are in there. What changes, again, just like Michigan, they did a great job with the open week of taking Peppers and doing some different things with him out of different personnel that they had shown.
So it's the unknown of what Braxton's going to do is what's probably going to have a big impact on the game. So that's the thing. We'll prepare as well as we can for it, but that's where the adjustment is at. I'm sure he's going to take on a bigger role. I just don't know what that is.
Q. What are your thoughts on the way (Indiscernible)?
COACH CLAEYS: He's a good player. They went with awkward different formations. Like I said, they did it with all big personnel at one time and unbalanced. They did things like that. The other thing that they did a good job of is that the opening drive of the second half was three of those different formations on things that they did with him they saved until the second half. So they didn't just shoot all their bullets in the first half. So we had adjustments to do so.
They did a good job with him and offensively they needed an athlete like that. He's a very good football player. He can play on either side. He really could.
Q. You said you learned not to worry about things you can't control. Was there a time when you had a harder time?
COACH CLAEYS: I really did. I can remember when I learned it too because we were at Northern Illinois and we barely beat -- I think it was North Dakota, a 1AA school. We won a game. I don't know. To don't hold me to it. Sometimes I forget the scores, it was 21-17 or one of those deals, and I was going back to the locker room after we won, and I had three or four people hollering at me telling me I better not cash my paycheck that week. That I didn't earn it.
From the outside I don't think people -- some people don't understand is that we put a lot of hours into this to prepare for each game. Not every game goes the way we want it to. I did take it pretty personal, and it bothered me for a little while. I called a good friend that I had and he made me laugh a little bit, and another coach, and said, hey, your job is to control the things you can control, and you can't have control over that. From that point on I've really tried to live by that.
When I go to bed each night I try to put my head on the pillow knowing I did the best I can and made the right decision with the information I've had. I've slept pretty good since then. The only night I haven't since then in the last while is Tuesday night after talking with coach before practice, knowing that that decision was going to come down the next morning and not knowing what it was. I did not get a lot of sleep last Tuesday night.
Q. With the changes that happened last week and your mentality and the uncertainty for the rest of the staff, do you have to communicate that mindset to the rest of the guys? How is their psyche right now given the uncertainty?
COACH CLAEYS: They're doing good. We're all moving forward like we're going to be here. Anything else would be a cheat to the kids and to the University. I really feel good about things. So we're all in this together. We've been together a long time, and everybody's approaching it the exact same.
Q. I know you can't speak about specific recruits, but just in general, what was your sense of how it went with those kids here this weekend?
COACH CLAEYS: I think it went great. The hardest thing is the uncertainty part. But just ask them to hang in there as long as they could. Obviously there comes a point when I don't want some kid to end up with an option that they don't like. I think that's unfair to the kid. I just told them I hope they're open and honest with us. When that opportunity comes that they feel like they need to start looking at different options for them to be comfortable, then to just let us know and I understand.
I don't know what else to tell them. You know what I'm saying? But told them we would sure love to have them hanging there as long as possible. But it's a great university. There is no question, because of that we're able to hold some kids in. At the same time let's not fool anybody. The kids are going to school because of the people involved in the football program also and that weighs heavily on that trust. So all they can do is fight every day, and I'll fight every week on the phone to keep them in there as long as I can.
And, again, it's a situation from here I don't have any control over. I'll just do the best I can, and our staff will do a great job and do the best they can.
Matt Limegrover
Q. Another good day for Mitch for your high-passing yards. What was key for him and how healthy is he to be able to keep it on the read option?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Well, I think a lot of it has to do with his health. He's probably as healthy as he's been since the beginning of the season. Still taking too many hits. We've got to keep working on that, but standing in there. I think one of the things is he's standing in, delivering the ball better than he has because I think he's feeling better and because of that he's more accurate and being able to put the ball where he needs to on a more consistent basis.
Q. The way you went in there and put heavy pressure on him, has that been the big difference with him when you face the pressure he's facing?
COACH LIMEGROVER: I think without a doubt. There was a time when he was a little skittish, and he was stepping away from his throws and wasn't getting much on it. He's more confident stepping in there. Like I said, we still need to do a better job of protecting him, but overall he's facing it pretty well and putting the ball where it needs to be put. I think that's been a huge difference for him and for us as an offense right now.
Q. (Indiscernible) how much has he gone through?
COACH LIMEGROVER: I don't know. He's a tough dude. That's all I can say. You watch some of those hits and you cringe. I don't know what the exact science is of it, but it's like repeated car crashes, in my opinion, what happens to his body when he takes those shots. Because anytime you watch a quarterback when he does decide he's going to stand and deliver that football, he's exposed, and if somebody's breaking free late, they have a shot at him. He's a certified tough dude. I'd go to battle with him any day.
Q. This time of the year I'd expect the other teams are keying in on KJ, but he's still finding a way to get open.
COACH LIMEGROVER: KJ's a remarkable young man as far as that goes. For what he's gone through, and I talk about it all the time, there are just some kids that have it, and I can't fully describe it, but you kind of know it when you see it in a young man. And KJ's got it when it comes to finding ways to get open and making himself available.
There are kids with a lot more raw talent than KJ, necessarily. They can run faster or bigger. Probably have better hands or what have you. He's just the kind of kid you could tell growing up, he was the kid that always had some kind of basketball, football in his hand. He was always doing something. He was always around the ball and right in the middle of everything. I think that's continued on.
I know Mitch feels very comfortable. When in doubt, he's going to try to find KJ. And he knows if he gets it in the area, KJ's going to find a way to make a play.
Q. You did get the chop block there it felt earlier in the drive. What's changed? Is it just the offense has matured a little bit?
COACH LIMEGROVER: You know what? I don't know. I'll be honest with you. I usually try to have a good answer to everything because I think everybody collectively in the stadium's shoulders went down. The only ones that didn't were probably the guys that were standing out there on the field because that is, like you said earlier in the year, that's an insurmountable climb to make right there.
I think we've got enough kids right now that have just gone the heck with it, let's go play. Let's not worry about this or that. Let's just go out and play. One of the things for two weeks we preached to them is sometimes we get caught up in the big picture as coaches and as players. The single thing we talked to the offense about for two weeks was just play one play hard. Just play that play. Don't worry about the half, don't worry about the end of the game, don't worry about the score or how much time's on the clock. Just go out and give us one play at a time, and you'd be amazed at how one play turns into two, turns into four, turns into five.
I really think that drive was indicative of that, the fourth-down play. You're talking about some things that maybe game 2 or game 3 would have been a does not compute for those kids. I think they just kind of decided, hey, we are going to play one play and figure it out from there. When that happens, that success starts to build.
Q. Can you take us to the second to last play, 19 seconds left, kind of what went into that and why that play call was something you wanted to do. Reflecting on it after that?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Yeah, the biggest thing about it was we knew they were going to give us man. We knew they were going to make it tough. We had tried early in the game out of the same formation to run off tackle, and they really had gotten some people through. Didn't feel like running it off tackle was going to be the way to go. Felt like we needed to throw. We had two options. We had that and a naked that we had. Based on what we have done traditionally and how they were playing it felt like they'd be ready to sniff out the naked and didn't want to lose any yards on it. So it was either going to be our-catch, no-catch type of deal.
Wanted to get a little confusion on their part. Get people moving around. The one thing is they brought in extra D-linemen, so we felt like when that happens then people are out of their comfort zone trying to get people spread out and covered.
In the emotion of thinking we won the football game, and I know Tracy keeps blaming himself, but I should have been the one to say, hey, we need to Spike it here, stop the clock, collect ourselves, and then do what we need to do from there. And he's been falling on that sort of a lot. But that needs to be -- there was a whole lot of emotion, and starting to reel it back, getting the kids reeled back. We knew that was going to take a little time, unfortunately not as much time as what ended up happening.
Felt really good about the call too. Give their kid credit. He had good eyes. Stayed locked on Brandon. Wasn't obviously the end result that we wanted. You know, Tracy said we're a half yard from this thing. We need to go. I wasn't going to argue with him. We didn't get it done. There is a group of guys that I coach that feel terrible about that. There is no more playing football that's going to be, hey, it's either you're going to do it or you're not and then a quarterback sneak. We couldn't get it done, so those guys are living with that now.
Q. When Mitch was talking after the game he said he was surprised to see the clock going on that. Anything as a staff that -- again, back to the emotion of that moment, you think you've just won the game.
COACH LIMEGROVER: I knew the clock was going to start. Wanted to get the play in. I think ultimately what happened, and Tracy alluded to it, it's not making excuses, but not having that voice that was kind of separated out as far as like -- and Tracy talked about it, he and Coach Kill during that time when that's happening, those are usually the guys as I'm getting ready for a call, I'm in the moment, getting ready to make a call, those guys would have had a better chance to talk with each other.
I think that was a tough part of the deal because I wasn't of a mind at that time to be able to talk with him about, okay, here's what's going on kind of big picture. My thought was, hey, how are we going to get this thing? It didn't work out the way we wanted. How are we going to get this back?
I think that's where I probably let him down a little bit. I knew the clock was going to run. But I felt like we had this. We were could come back. To be honest with you, I called the play with the full expectation we were going to score a touchdown. So when it didn't happen, then we had to go to Plan B.
Q. What have you noticed on film about Ohio State's defense?
COACH LIMEGROVER: You know, they're a little different than Michigan. I think they're probably better in the linebacker and secondary from a coverage and playing the game standpoint. But I really think probably it's very similar up front as far as what they bring.
They've got some really, really good players that we've got to be prepared for. We've got to step up to the challenge if not the same even more than we did against Michigan. Because even though statistically they're not quite the same as Michigan, I think they play a little tougher schedule, and I don't even want to say they've held their own because that's not giving them enough credit. They've gotten after some people.
We're going to have to have the same kind of week preparation-wise that we did last week. I think that's going to be the number one key for us. Guys come out today, we start putting that game plan in, and they work hard. We do what we need to, we hit the things we need to, and if we can execute the way we did Saturday night, we've got a chance.
