Urban Meyer/ Coach Warinner/ Coach Ash Press Conference 11/11/14

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http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/111014aab.html

Some excerpts:

Q. Can the weather work against you this weekend, the northern stadium looks open.
COACH MEYER: The weather? It's going to be cold, I imagine, Minnesota in November. And I don't know. I don't know the I heard there's no snow or rain right now. I don't know. I think they're a very good running team. Might limit some of the throw game stuff and their defense is kind of built to stop the runs. Those are I don't know enough about them. It's just Monday.


Q. Was Saturday's offensive performance what you wanted to see when you
COACH MEYER: It's our best performance that we've had since we've been here. It's very balanced. And I think you have to, what I always like to do is obviously statistically I think we probably had more yards against other teams. But that was against a legitimate top 5 defense in America and a bunch of NFL players on that defense. And it was very well executed.


An Interview With: COACH ASH

Q. I'm sure you've watched Minnesota tapes at this point.
COACH ASH: I have.

Q. What do you see about them on film?
COACH ASH: To start, they're a well coached offense. They're a physical offense. I think Coach Kill has done a great job with that program. Watching the program develop over the last four years he's been there, he's done an outstanding job. He's got an offensive line that's physical and backs that run hard.
He's got several tight ends that do a great job of blocking at the point of attack. And they've got a nice scheme to keep you guessing some misdirection. And they have power downhill and stuff. A lot of challenges as we go forward and face Minnesota.

Q. How does Minnesota utilize its tight ends, in particular Max Williams, No. 88?
COACH ASH: Well, he's a traveling he's a guy that motions around. They put him as a wing a lot of times. He motions around. Lead blocker at the point of attack. A guy that gets down on a lot of play actions, whether it's verticals or wheel routes to get behind the coverage.

He can get matched up on corners. He's got a little size advantage on some smaller DBs, goes up and makes nice plays down the field. But he's a good all around player. Good blocker at the point of attack. Like I said, can get down the field, stretch you vertically in the play action pass game and go up and jump make some catches in the air on some smaller DBs. So he's a handful.

Q. One of the leading teams in the nation in terms of yards per completion. Is that a result of the effectiveness of play action, or is there something else at play there?
COACH ASH: Well, yeah, they do such a good job of running the football right now, you've got to devote more defenders to stop the run. And it isolates your backs in one on one situations.
And they've done a great job exploiting that. Taken deep shots in certain personnel groupings over the top and connected with them. Obviously that increases your average per completion when you're able to do that. So they've done a good job with that to complement the run game.

Q. When you look at Cobb, their running back, what stands out about him? He seems to be one of the more spectacular runners in the country right now. What jumps out at you about him?
COACH ASH: Starts with their offensive line, they're doing a great job blocking up front for him. He's a hard runner. When he gets that ball, he's a downhill runner.
They run a nice A, get power, not looking to bounce looking to run downhill. He's a hard runner and he gets the yards. He keeps his legs driving all the time. He's a load. He's a challenge. And he fits well with their scheme.

Q. With Minnesota, it's kind of a no frills offense. Like they're going to run, line up and run the football. Do you guys stress, do you guys go back to some of the basic fundamentals of forming up and tackling this week and stress that more so in practice this week because of the nature of the offense?
COACH ASH: Not necessarily tackling, because tackling is such a big emphasis for us to begin with. If you're going to be any good on defense, whether it's pass game or run game, you've got to be good at tackling.

I think so far this year we've been pretty good at our tackling. That's because of the emphasis that we put on it. What we really have to get back to is emphasizing the fundamentals of run fits. We have to be in the right spot.

We've got to be more explosive with our block destruction to be able to get off blocks and make tackles. Those are some of the things we did not do a good enough job on Saturday against Michigan State that we've gotta do a better job against Minnesota's run game. Fit and run is the right way, being more violent with our hands, getting off blocks and get more guys to the point of attack. If something is wrong it doesn't turn into a 10 , 15 yard gain. It's a 3 , 4 , 5 yard gain. And you can get them down. That's where we've got to be better.

 

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Q. As far as the defense goes, obviously you gave up 37 points. But as far as the pass defense with Chris Ash being hired, was that the triggering and aggressiveness, was that closer to what you had in mind?
COACH MEYER: Yes, you take away I think when you get ahead by a couple of scores, what happens you start playing that bend but don't break which I can't stand it. I'm not sure many people can't stand. But it's also probably the smart thing to do, keep the ball in front of you, close the middle of the field, which we did and gave up some yards. I'm not in a panic. I think our defensive coaches are a little upset with the way things transpired that we've got to get fixed.
We're still looking for that rotation at defensive line, that's how I'm upset about that, that we can't get that done. And so there's going to be a lot of pressure on guys this week to get that done.

Q. When you recruit somebody like Jalin Marshall, even in high school, do you start envisioning all the various ways you can use him or do you have to wait until they get on campus before you can start tinkering?
COACH MEYER: We put the APB out every year for the multi dimensional athlete on offense. And that's the tight end H and it's the tailback H. And just over the years that position has evolved.
You like moving those checkers around when you can have guys that can take direct snaps. And a quarterback, the thing I always look at is Joe Haden was a quarterback in high school. You're not just going to put your best player out there for 30 plays a game at corner. If he's a great player, he's going to touch the football.
So Jalin Marshall played quarterback in high school. That's right where he should have played. Probably the best I do know because I watched him, he was the best player on that team. So the APB's always been out for those kind of athletes that can do multiple things.

Q. Do you feel this year you're more comfortable taking a quarterback out and putting in Dontre Wilson or Jalin in that wildcat than you were the past couple of years?
COACH MEYER: Oh, yeah. More with Jalin because he's a quarterback. Dontre we didn't do a lot Jalin was cramped when we did the little trick play with Dontre in there, but more comfortable with we're slowly teaching Curtis. I think the wildcat's legitimate especially at tempo. But Jalin gives you and he can throw. We have a couple of passes ready for him, too.

Q. When you look at J.T. Barrett, you were asked a while ago about the Heisman kind of thing and stuff, but where has he made the biggest jump from the standpoint of just poise or what you want out of him, what can you definitely point to he's so much better than he was against Virginia Tech?
COACH MEYER: Just the understanding of the game, I think Tom's done a very good job with him. I think the personnel around him has really improved. He was prepared for this game. So were the wideouts. Our two coaches on that side of the ball. Offensive staff did a heck of a job getting the group ready. I felt it during the week, too.
But his biggest jump is just being the manager. He does a good job getting us in the right play. He understands defenses really well now. And his accuracy, when he's accurate, that's a tough one to stop. Because he gets us into the right the ones he missed I think the week before, he went to the right place with the ball. He just misfired. You don't see him very often go to the wrong place with the ball.
He's a very intellectual quarterback. Very smart quarterback.

Q. Joey Bosa had 6.5 sacks previous three games, some stat like that. Saturday night he was shut out from a sack standpoint. But did you see them very much ganging up on him as you studied things? Did you see frustration on his part? What did you see from him?
COACH MEYER: I saw good players get frustrated at times when they don't live up to the statistics or whatever. And I did, I just finished watching the defensive side of the ball today.
They did, they slid the formation to them. They had two guys usually assigned to him. A lot of pressure on the other guys to hold up their end of the bargain. Joey didn't play he graded at champion. Has things to work on, too. That's legitimate, when you hear they're putting a tailback to him or sliding to him, that leaves a guard and tackle to slide to him. That's real, which is smart. That's not going to go away...


Q. How have you got this dramatic improvement over two months? I know that's kind of
COACH WARINNER: That why they call me Coach. That's my job. I mean, help guys go where they can't take themselves. My job as a coach is to take players where they can't take themselves.
So if they're willing to work hard to train, to listen, to be coached, then we help them get that last step. Like I said, it's a combination of how we practice, how we prepare, how we teach, and then are they willing to take that and absorb it and can they take it to the field. And experience helps you take that to the field.
Because all those things were in place early but it takes a while to learn how to take what you practice and how you train and your mind and your body and take it to the field. So it's starting to occur on the field and that's our expectation for those guys.

Q. Daryl Baldwin, that must remind a lot of people of the Reid Fragel situation two years ago. I'm curious from your standpoint which guys had further to go? Reid was a tight end where Daryl was a defensive lineman. But becoming of age as senior at run tackle, which had further to go?
COACH WARINNER: That's hard to quantify. I've never thought of it that way I'd have to think about it for a second. But they both had things that they had to do to get where they're at and both of them were willing to do it. So once again it takes a player willing to accept coaching and learn and apply what he's being taught.
And those guys are a great example of that that it's never too late for your career to blossom. And that if you're willing to do things within the framework of our program, that you can be successful.

So Daryl moving over from a defensive lineman, he had to learn offensive line fundamentals, offensive line terminology.

Q. I know you guys have seen surprises from defenses having two weeks to prepare for you, did you see less of that Saturday night?

COACH WARINNER: Michigan State was pretty much what we thought, what we had prepared for. They were they're a good defensive team. They've been very successful. And they have a plan of how they want to do business and they did what we thought they'd do when we went into the game. There wasn't a lot of difference to that.
Reid knew that to some degree but it was a new system when we got here. So everything was really new, other than playing offense and then going to offensive line. Instead of on passes going out, he had to learn to go backwards and block.
So there was a big transition for both of them, to be honest with you.