By Joe-S-U
Gregg and I recently had the chance to visit with former quarterback Craig Krenzel. In our tenure with Buckeye 50, we haven’t conducted many interviews except for the annual Media Day gathering every August. This was our first real sit-down talk, and we couldn’t have had a more gracious subject. There was no “pulling teeth” here- Craig gave honest, thorough answers, even to inquiries he’s probably heard thousands of times. He displays the same cool confidence as he did engineering the Buckeyes to the 2002 national title, content in his role as a husband and dad, looking forward to a new business venture. Having listened to Craig’s work on Columbus radio for the last couple of football seasons, I knew we’d get informed, straight-forward responses. Here is the final piece of our interview.
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Craig’s journey to Ohio State began in earnest after his junior year at Henry Ford II High School in Utica, Michigan. As Craig tells it,
Craig committed to Ohio State in the spring of his junior year, enabling him to enjoy being a senior with his collegiate decision made.
Craig was certainly a recruiting rarity for OSU, a Michigan blue-chipper. He and receiver Ricky Bryant were the only members of the 1999 recruiting class from the state up north, and by 2002 Krenzel was the lone Michigander on the roster. But things felt right-
After a redshirt year, Craig and Scott McMullen served as backups to Steve Bellisari in 2000 and through most of 2001. Buckeye Nation had been frustrated through Bellisari’s tenure with his inconsistency, but as the ’01 season wound down the Bucks were 4-2 in the Big Ten and still in the thick of the conference title hunt. Bellisari was putting together his best stretch of play, and the two teams ahead of OSU in the standings at 5-1, Illinois and Michigan, were next up on the schedule. It was in Ohio State’s hands, but early in the morning the Friday before the Illinois tilt, Bellisari was charged with DUI.
Craig and Scott were about to be tossed into the storm.
Myers, of course, was the Illinois linebacker that picked off a Krenzel pass in the fourth quarter and took it in for the back-breaking touchdown of what would be a 34-22 Illini win, ending OSU’s Big Ten championship hopes. Next up was a trip to Ann Arbor, where the Buckeyes hadn’t won since 1987. Michigan had dealt Illinois its only league loss and therefore owned the tiebreaker since Michigan State had picked off the Wolverines. The Maize and Blue were a win away from a BCS bid and a likely trip to Pasadena, but the Bucks were about to flip what had become a one-sided rivalry.
Krenzel was certainly ready -
The landmark 26-20 win that Krenzel engineered in Ann Arbor not only ensured a more peaceful offseason for Buckeye fans, it would help set the stage for a season that would set Columbus and all of college football on its ear. But first off was the Outback Bowl, and although Craig had helped author one of OSU’s finest wins in several years, Steve Bellisari got one last chance to showcase what he could do. Coming off the bench against South Carolina, Bellisari led a furious comeback from a 28-0 deficit to tie the game. But a late interception and runback set up a last second Gamecock field goal and ‘SC escaped with a 31-28 win. Craig’s recollection of this tumultuous period gives a glimpse from inside the “fishbowl” that is being an Ohio State football player -
Despite the last-second loss in Tampa, the glow of the win in Ann Arbor helped soothe any bitter bowl-game feelings. Craig’s play in the Michigan game helped to ease concerns over the quarterback situation as fans looked ahead. But little did anyone realize what a roller-coaster ride Buckeye Nation was in for.
Although he hadn’t played much in the 2002 Outback Bowl, Craig Krenzel’s workmanlike effort in the 26-20 upset win over Michigan had alleviated some fears over the quarterback position heading into the 2002 season. Although Jim Tressel had landed the much-ballyhooed Justin Zwick in his first full recruiting class, there really wasn’t much doubt who would be under center come opening day against Texas Tech. That sultry Sunday contest would be the launching point for a 25-2 record over the ’02 and ’03 campaigns for the Bucks, the most wins in any two-year period in Ohio State football history. The .926 winning percentage trails only the ‘68/’69 teams (.947) and “Chic” Harley’s first two squads of 1916/17 (.969) for supremacy in Buckeye lore. Craig would be at the helm of 23 of those 25 victories, including all 14 of the title season.
When you have the pleasure to talk with a national championship winning quarterback, you figure, “What hasn’t he been asked about?” When folks reflect back on that season, it’s usually the home stretch and title game that get hashed out the most. When we asked Craig about the win at Cincinnati, a 23-19 nail biter that would be a harbinger of things to come, his answer was, again, philosophical.
They may not have always played well, but win they did. And as the undefeated Buckeyes headed to West Lafayette to do battle with Purdue, Craig Krenzel was about to become a participant in arguably one of the single most important plays in all of OSU football history. Down 6-3 to the Boilermakers with less than two minutes to go and facing a 4th-and-maybe the season call from the Purdue 37. Krenzel airmailed one deep to Michael Jenkins for the game-winning score. The strike seemed to catch everyone off guard- particularly Brent Musburger, whose call of “Holy Buckeye” has become the de facto name of the play- but maybe no one more so than the Purdue defense. Craig relayed to us that on the field after the game, Boiler safety Stuart Schweigert told him that they had every Buckeye offensive play basically figured out and couldn’t believe the pass to Jenkins. As Craig told him,
One could understand Schweigert’s frustration- the “Holy Buckeye” play would be the only offensive touchdown that Ohio State would score against Purdue in both the ’02 and ’03 matchups, yet the Boilers lost both games as the Buckeye defense matched their counterparts move for move.
The win at Purdue would be the first of four straight down-to-the-wire classics to close the national championship season, and it was no secret that despite episodes of turmoil and controversy, Maurice Clarett had been a huge cog in the 14-0 machine. One might anticipate that Clarett would be a somewhat touchy subject to bring up to Craig, but not so-
Unfortunately, Clarett’s impressive frosh campaign would be the beginning and end of his turbulent career. And although Ohio State would stand on the brink of a return trip to the national title game before losing at Michigan, Craig says there was a missing ingredient that might have made a repeat possible-
For the last several years during Michigan Week, Gregg and I have attended the Diabetes Association’s dinner, and several members of the “Super Sophs” have served as panelists for the “debate” portion of the evening. For all the success they had, I can’t tell you how many of them to this day rue the only two losses they ever suffered- to Michigan in ’69 and to Stanford in the ’71 Rose Bowl. Being the competitor that he is, it was no surprise that a great deal of our chat with Craig recalled the two losses of the 2003 season-
The Bucks still managed to get in the BCS following the Michigan loss, and Krenzel would cap off his stellar career with a 4-touchdown pass performance in the win over Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl. While 2 were to his main man Michael Jenkins, Craig also hooked up with redshirt freshman Santonio Holmes for a pair. And while Craig admits that he would’ve like to have had Chris Gamble a bit more on offense in 2003, he offers up Santonio as an example of the
In that vein, Craig and Scott McMullen would give way to Justin Zwick and Troy Smith. And while the Buckeye offense would hit heights not seen yet during Jim Tressel’s reign, Craig would take his game to the next level. And it would be during a rehab stint in the NFL that a phone call would offer a great opportunity.
It’s a time-honored tradition at Ohio State, whether it’s Woody, Earle or Tress, that fans will be treated to healthy doses of conservative offensive football. Without a doubt, October and November weather around the Big Ten doesn’t lend itself to an all-out aerial assault. But regardless of the elements, why does it seem impossible at times for Ohio State to utilize all available offensive weapons? Why is seemingly every first down play a run between the tackles? When fans down through the years have sat in the Horseshoe and predicted plays from their seats, a sense of frustration grows. The bottom line is this- it sure seems easier for any team to be able to move the football when they’ve got the defense off balance and guessing.
Craig Krenzel’s “Holy Buckeye” touchdown pass to Michael Jenkins against Purdue in 2002 was huge on many levels, but part of the reason it worked- not taking a thing away from Craig and Michael’s abilities- is NO ONE expected a bomb from Ohio State on a 4th-and-1 play. Two weeks later, Craig converted a critical 4th-and-1 on the final winning drive against Michigan with a quarterback sneak. On the radio broadcast, analyst Jim Lachey noted that UM’s linebackers were 5 yards off the ball, and he alluded to the pass at Purdue when explaining why. Had “Holy Buckeye” never happened, would the Wolverines, or any other opponent, have done nothing except crowd the line in a similar situation? In our talk with Craig, he gave a little “chalk talk”-
Even though Craig may have preferred a different offensive approach, he was wise enough to understand his limitations as a quarterback while maintaining the confidence that he could get the job done-
Even if you haven’t come from a college offense where you put the ball up 40 times a game, the NFL still takes notice if you’ve won over 90% of your starts at quarterback. Craig did a short stint in the NFL, but it was during down time from an injury that one of life’s next chapters came calling-
It should come as no surprise that the Craig Krenzel that you’ve “met” in our interview is the same one that fans have heard on the airwaves. Besides the obvious qualification as a former Buckeye player, Craig has informed opinions and articulates them well, whether it’s the Bucks, college football or any other sport. And personally, I find it refreshing to have someone whether it’s at 610 or The Fan who isn’t afraid to question things about Ohio State football. Having been involved myself with radio sports; I asked Craig about the difficulties, if any, he had of balancing being a fan with being a broadcaster-
Although we could have taken our entire interview time talking about the fans and hashing out Buckeye Nation’s demands every year, Craig hinted that expectations are perhaps no higher than right in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center or the southeast corner of Ohio Stadium-
One thing is for certain- while football is still a team game, the young man who now is in Craig Krenzel’s old position is one of the biggest keys to whatever degree of success the 2009 Buckeyes will have. The interview would not be complete without getting Craig’s take on the young man under center now for the Scarlet and Gray. Although you always have to keep in mind the wildcard that is Jim Tressel’s play-calling, you would hope that the Buckeye offense would be more consistent in 2009. Coming off of a roller-coaster year with a midseason quarterback change and fluctuating results of 4 games with 40+ points mixed with 3 games with no offensive touchdowns, it would stand to reason that a more seasoned Terrelle Pryor and diving deeper into the playbook might make the “O” more of a known quantity.
Craig liked what he saw in the spring out of Terrelle, but there’s always room for growth-
Most Buckeye fans’ last images of Pryor are from the Fiesta Bowl loss to Texas, which not only was far from a passing clinic but also featured several head-scratching runs out-of-bounds as if Terrelle lacked confidence in his running ability. In Krenzel’s eyes, it was the apex of a slow regression from the regular season.
One of the main reasons Terrelle was inserted into the lineup to begin with was the absence of “Beanie” Wells. With no C-Dub, OSU had no real running threat and Terrelle at least provided that. When the Buckeyes went into East Lansing and pummeled Michigan State the week before Penn State’s visit to Columbus, it seemed Pryor, and the offense, had found its stride. But the Nittany Lions put the clamps on Wells, and Terrelle couldn’t make enough plays in the passing game to sustain the offense. Was he feeling the pressure or did Tressel just not want to gamble? In any event, the air attack sputtered last year and as Craig pointed out, the triggerman has to keep the cool head and work to slow the game down-
By all accounts, Terrelle is a bright young man and Jim Tressel has more than once spoken of how his QB wants to learn and soak up all he can about the offense. A lot of the points Craig makes are things that come in time. The quarterback change, the high profile losses and the hamstrung offense all left somewhat of a bad taste in the collective mouths of Buckeye Nation, but starting September 5th is hopefully when the growing pains of having a true freshman at quarterback last year will start to bear fruit. And while “The Vest” is probably not going to ever completely unshackle the offense, Craig feels the staff can assist Terrelle’s progress without having to shoot the works.
If anyone needs any proof of that, go back and watch Colt McCoy’s work in the Fiesta Bowl. No matter how good any quarterback and his offense are, no one is going to complete 77% of their passes over a season, as McCoy did, by playing “bombs away”.
Ultimately, how Terrelle performs for the rest of his Ohio State career is a two-way street- his work ethic and continued experience combined with Tressel’s trust in turning Pryor loose. Although Florida would’ve beaten Ohio State in the 2006 BCS title game no matter how you want to slice it, some people claim that Troy Smith’s evolution into a pure pocket passer hurt because the Troy of the 2004 Michigan game for instance could’ve made plays with his feet and perhaps stemmed the Gator tide. Personally, I doubt it would’ve mattered, but it is a tremendous challenge to Jim Tressel and his staff to mold Terrelle’s passing game without sacrificing a running ability that is perhaps second-to-none in college football among quarterbacks. Craig feels the sky is the limit if the right balance, or something close to it, is achieved-
If you want to talk about unlimited potential to cause chaos, you must be talking about the BCS. It probably wouldn’t make me feel a whole lot better, but it would be nice if one of the “powers-that-be” would have the stones to just say it’s all about money. We asked Craig to temporarily assume the mantle of BCS Commissioner and give us his thoughts-
Craig has made a very successful transition from the playing field to the business world. In addition to his radio work with “The Fan” in Columbus, he has lent his voice and likeness to Buckeye Nissan and JD Equipment, but it’s a new business venture that had him very enthusiastic-
At one time the collegian who took charge in the huddle for the Buckeyes, Krenzel now enjoys being in the enviable position of calling his own shots-
Those leadership qualities were a huge factor in one of Ohio State’s greatest eras of football success. Not to mention a competitive fire that is still evident around the Krenzel household-
Who knows, in another 15 years or so, it may be the name Braden Krenzel featured prominently on Scout.com? And maybe Jim Tressel will once again find his way into the Krenzel family living room, looking to add another legacy name to his recruiting class. One thing is for certain- it won’t matter if it’s 15 years from now or even more. The name “Craig Krenzel” will still be remembered fondly by all of Buckeye Nation
* * * * * * * * * * READER COMMENTS * * * * * * * * * *
From Marc Rhoades: (August 26th, 2009)
REALLY enjoyed the Craig Krenzel interviews. You did a fantastic job! Craig was the epitome of the "intelligent" QB... didn't possess the skills of the great ones, but he NEVER hurt you... and when you needed the play... he produced. I'd take him as my QB anyday. I'll never forget Holy Buckeye... was ready to cry from the agony of defeat... and in an instant... had tears of joy. Anyway, was really great to hear his thoughts on so many varied topics... thanks so much!
Marc, DDS '72
From FREEBIRD76: (July 23rd, 2009)
I gotta tell u guys ive been a long time fan of the site and this Kenzel thing has got to be one of the coolest things ever! Hearing what its like "on the inside" is amazing....something a lot of ppl will never experience. Have you thought of interviewing other past players? Keep up the good work!
Chris
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5/30/09
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Craig Krenzel
Interview
“He looked a little sharper this spring, but physically there are things in the way of throwing, mechanics and footwork (that can improve.)”
“Watching last season, he looked more polished and more comfortable in his first start against Troy then he did at the end of the season. I don’t know if they were giving him more to digest or if he was feeling the pressure, but he seemed to be making better throws early in the year. As the season went on, he’d have more errant throws, and he just looked more uncomfortable back there to me.”
“If you are not comfortable where you need to throw the ball, I don’t care how gifted you are, you’re not going to look smooth and polished and refined. It has to be second nature where you don’t have time to think. You do your thinking Sunday through Friday. You can watch a guy throw well in practice and then he steps on the field Saturday and his feet get turned because his head’s getting turned in six different directions. Know the system better, study defenses and know what the offense is trying to do.”
“There’s a lot Terrelle can do, and it’ll be fun to see how they try to utilize him. A guy like him can be a very deadly weapon if used in the right way. I don’t think you can achieve enough consistency if you’re saying ‘He’s an athlete, he’ll run around and make plays’. I’m not saying that’s what Coach Tressel and them are thinking, I’m sure they’re trying to scheme to find ways to make his arm as deadly as his feet. If they can get him understanding his offense, and their defenses, as well as helping him physically, his potential is unlimited.”
“Coach Tressel and the staff can do a lot of things to help him out. Fans watch a lot of these offensive systems and wonder how guys can get so open and quarterbacks can get so much time and how their offense’s can look so good. I’ve played for and talked with a number of different offensive coordinators, and one common theme of great offensive systems is they get their quarterbacks ten or so “gimme” completions- a screen, a six-yard hitch, a ten-yard out. Those are balls that most guys at that level should be able to throw in their sleep.”
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Craig Krenzel with Joe-S-U (5/21/09)
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“In a perfect system, you’d have some sort of 16-team system. Use the current BCS system to slot the teams. I don’t like a lot of people’s viewpoints that these small conferences are begging for an equal opportunity. Go get in a different conference. Look at Fresno State or Utah. Go join the Pac-10; they’d love to have you. Either make it mandatory that everyone has a conference championship or that no one does. Neutralize the playing field, but obviously there’s politics involved in every form or fashion. I don’t care who wins their conference. You end up matching the best teams in the country up against each other and to me ultimately that’s what competitive sports is all about. Outside of a playoff, I don’t know that you could get a whole lot better than the BCS. It’s flawed, there’s no doubt about it, but there’s no perfect system.”
“My full-time career is in insurance. My partner Craig Lett and I have an independent insurance agency. There’s really no insurance need that we can’t do from personal, home and auto to business, commercial and life. We can handle every walk of insurance, and we represent some really good companies as an independent agency. We have an office in his hometown in West Virginia, and we’ll have an office here in Ohio. There’s travel involved back and forth, and it keeps me busy."
“Everyone loves working for themselves, and I don’t want to say (necessarily) being in control or being in charge, but (being) heavily involved in a decision making process. Work with people to figure what’s best for everyone involved.”
“As an athlete, I hated to lose. In every walk of my life I’m a competitor. One of the biggest challenges I have as a father is I’ll be playing basketball with my 3-year old son and he takes a shot and I’ll throw it right back in his face. Beth, my wife, is always asking ‘When are you going to let Braden win?’ and I say ‘I don’t let anybody win’. Part of it’s joking, but that’s just my personality- I hate to lose.”
“My high school coach had sent out a highlight film after my sophomore year. His name is Terry Copacia. He’s an excellent quarterback coach. He taught me most of what I know. He had started getting some feedback and responses. My first scholarship offer actually came from Duke. My brother played football there and (at the time) was still playing. We sent the tape over there and they quickly offered a scholarship. After my junior season, we sent out another highlight tape and started getting some interest. I’d gone to some camps in Michigan and had started being recruited. This was back before recruiting was blown out of proportion the way it is now. I pretty much narrowed it down to Michigan, Ohio State and Stanford. One of the guys that was recruiting me from Michigan State left and became tight ends coach at Stanford. He started recruiting me there and I really liked Coach Willingham and all that, but in the end it was too far from home. My family couldn’t afford to fly out there and visit and see the games and obviously West Coast they don’t televise. I wouldn’t see my family and that’s important to me. That was kind of ruled out. Conversely, Michigan was a little too close. I grew up about 45 minutes from Ann Arbor, and although my family would’ve let me have the college experience, I had a lot of high school friends that were going to UM and I knew they’d stay in the area, and I wanted to get away and meet new people. Ohio State just felt like the right fit. Chuck Stobart was the guy that recruited me, Tim Salem was the quarterback coach so he was heavily involved in recruiting me, and Coach Cooper was still there.”
“I liked the coaches, I liked the university. Scholastically, it’s a good academic institution, which was very important to me. I liked everything about the city. Perennially, it’s a Top 5 or Top 10 program in the country that’s always on TV. It just seemed like the right place.”
“(Steve) was a roommate of mine, so I had known what happened before anybody else, definitely before Coach (Tressel). We found out the next morning that Scott was going to start. We were at a point that we rotated back and forth as to who was the number 2 guy, depending on the week. When that situation came up, they gave Scott the start and they said that we’d both play. Whether it was in college or the NFL, I was prepared and if I had to play, I was going to as ready as I possibly could. In the second half, I threw for a touchdown and we made a run and we’re up on Illinois. Ty Myers- I’ll never forget that name.”
“I felt great about that game. First and foremost, nobody expected us to win. Nobody knew what to expect of me, but I didn’t feel any pressure. If we play poorly or if I play poorly, I’m still gonna get a chance to come out in spring ball (and win the job). Not that that was my thought process, but subconsciously there was no outside pressure.
I’ll never forget before that game, I roomed with Darnell Sanders. He asked me if I was nervous, and I told him No and he was kind of surprised about it. To me, nervous is that you don’t feel confident that you’re ready, like there’s a lack of preparation. I’ve always been confident in my abilities physically, and I always felt confident that I was mentally going to be prepared and ready.
We had a good football team. The season (hadn’t gone) the way we wanted it too, but we had a lot of good football players on that team.”
“I think the fans are so loyal and so passionate and love Ohio State football so much that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that these our 18-22 year old kids. We’ve all made stupid decisions in our lives. Sometimes you get in trouble, sometimes you don’t. How many people that were upset with Steve in that situation had been in the same situation in their lives?
It’s kind of a double-edged sword. How quickly we hold these players to a double standard. Now don’t get me wrong- You have an obligation and a responsibility to represent yourself and the university, your family and your teammates. The average person has a responsibility to family, job and friends. It’s the same responsibilities, you just don’t hear about them as much. That same person doesn’t have the ability to influence people the way that we do, which is probably the biggest difference. When you’re in the “fishbowl”, you know you’re in it and that’s part of the gig. At times, it’s hard for other people to realize that we’re really no different. People think that there’s this whole different life, but I can tell you I’m no different than any other married father of two. But that perspective isn’t always there.
I always tell people that Steve Bellisari is one of my best friends. I think he looks back and he learned a tremendous amount from that situation. The old cliché ‘it will make you stronger’ is definitely the case here. Obviously, he would have liked to have seen things go differently. I personally think Steve caught a bit of a bad rap for that whole situation. I don’t think people appreciate what he did for this university enough.”
“The discussion after that game was, ‘We played awful’. We did not play well at all. We walked from that game like a handful of others saying ‘We didn’t play well’. The key ingredient there was that we had an incredible, incredible group of guys that cared about winning and winning for each other first and foremost. That’s something that you don’t really see every year with every team. We had some upperclassmen that had been part of 6 and 6 with no bowl game, or 8 and 3 with the Outback Bowl. That’s not what we came to Ohio State for. You should be competing to win the conference and for a national title, in our opinion, every year. That’s why you come to a place like Ohio State- you come to play in those big games.
We had been a part of teams and games and seasons that were just subpar, and I think that really helped my class and the class before us- some of the older guys like Donnie Nickey, Michael Doss, and Kenny Peterson- all these guys that had been around and seen 6-6 and just said, ‘This sucks’. There was a maturity that was already there. There was an understanding that it’s a long season, a long road. Even during the 6-6 season, there weren’t many games that we at least didn’t have a chance. So there was a maturity in the sense that this game could go either way.
Every game’s a maturing game. Whether you win by 50, lose by 3 or get blown out…to me that’s the best thing about the game of football. You can’t walk off the practice field, the game field or out of the film room and not learn from it, saying “Look, this is where we need to get better or what we did wrong.” Every game is an opportunity to grow and mature as a team and as an individual player. When you’re in the heat of the battle, your focus is on winning and playing well.”
“You had every play but one figured out.”
“He was a good teammate- people are surprised when I say that. You want to talk about a guy that was aware. I knew I could count on him to step in front of a linebacker and knock the guy out of the way in pass protection. He knew the gameplan inside and out, (as well as) his responsibilities. From a football standpoint, it was a maturity level well beyond a freshman.”
“We couldn’t run the ball very well that season. (But) we had a whole new outlook. Who was going to be in that backfield vs. who everyone would have like to have seen in that backfield- it made a big difference. Mo, Lydell, Branden Joe filled in, (and) those guys did a good job, but I’m not one to beat around the bush- when you get guys like Clarett…”
You take a guy like Eddie George- if he goes down; you’re going to see a difference in who’s on the field. (Say) if Peyton Manning gets hurt, for instance. I played the kid in high school, (and) I played against him at Wisconsin- Jim Sorgi is not going to be Peyton Manning. It’s a fact of life. I firmly believe if he (Clarett) is eligible, we probably play for another national title. Obviously, there are no guarantees, but he could do things. His vision (and his) physical ability (were) through the roof. What he saw, his vision, the cutbacks, his patience for being so young, it was absolutely unbelievable.”
“We were geared for a repeat. From an outside perspective, going into ’02, there was a lot of uncertainty, a lot of question marks. Most people felt the ’03 team would make another run at it, and we should have.
We lost that Wisconsin game. I don’t use my injury as an excuse. I did not feel rusty. I won’t use the weather as an excuse. You could say the weather hurt us in that rain and wind we didn’t attempt to throw the ball a whole lot.
If the weather’s nicer in Madison, and we sling the ball around 30 times throughout the game instead of at the end when it quit raining, do we win? Maybe. I don’t know, but we were still the better football team. If you had told me before the game that we lose because Chris Gamble gets beat, I’d have said ‘no way’. The kid’s one of the best corners in the country. The other loss that season- if you’d told me Saturday morning going into Ann Arbor my senior year- and this is how much I thought of our defense- that we would score 21 points I would’ve told you that we would have won by at least 8 points. I didn’t see Chris Perry having the game of his career.”
“we don’t rebuild, we just reload” mantra-
“Chris was playing a little bit of offense, maybe a third of the plays. They kind of locked him up on defense. I wish we would have had more stuff to get him the ball ‘cause he was special. If you want to talk about how good players are at Ohio State, take Drew Carter. Played one year of high school football, had a couple of injuries early here, plays half of the ’03 season and is still a fifth-round pick in the NFL. We had so many weapons, when Drew goes down, here’s Santonio Holmes…”
“If (a defense is) playing you loose on first down (with the corners off), throw a six-yard hitch and maybe you’re looking at second-and-two. Second and two’s a fun place to be. Even if they’re pressing, I’ve worked enough with my receivers that we have the timing to complete it. I trust he’ll be there, instead of me running around taking a sack, or (us trying) to run the ball because everyone (knows) we’re going to run the ball and now it’s second-and-8. There are things you can do to make it easier for everyone on the field."
“When I was with the Bengals, those guys (offensive coordinators) were sharp. They designed systems and plays where the majority of the time the ball’s going to the first read, the primary guy, because we’re in the right play, (even if there are) adjustments made with protection or routes.”
“I could’ve been better. I wish I was. I was adequate. I could make any throw we needed to make. I won’t sit here and tell you that I could throw as well as (Tom) Brady, Peyton (Manning), Carson Palmer, Drew Brees or some of these guys that are just freaks. The throws they (can) make off their back foot, (or) turned around, it’s unbelievable. I couldn’t do that. I never would have been able to.”
“After a couple of years in the NFL, I got injured. The program director at (Columbus radio station) 610 WTVN contacted me to see if I’d be interested in doing “Bucksline”, their (Thursday night) roundtable show. I was still rehabbing my elbow that had been injured in Cincinnati, and I knew I wasn’t going to play. It sounded like something that would be fun. It was either sit around for the football season and do absolutely nothing or do something like that and have a little fun. I did it for 2 seasons, and I decided that I really liked the radio thing. At this point in my life, it’s not going to be a fulltime gig, but I thought it’d be fun to do something year round and talk about other sports- I love golf, hockey, college sports in general. 610 was more talk-oriented and “Bucksline” was really the only sports-related stuff they had. I was contacted by 1460 The Fan, and we’ve worked it out that when our schedules permit I’ll do the Friday afternoon show, and then do “Buckeye Roundtable” in the fall.”
“People think that there’s varying amounts of pressure depending on the public’s expectations. The fans have this perception that if they don’t expect too much out of this team, then there won’t be as much pressure since the team’s expecting what we as fans are expecting. I can tell you that’s not the case. Nobody expects more out of the team than those guys in the locker room and the coaching staff. Beating Michigan, winning the conference- those goals don’t change just because (someone in the media might) say “Ah, the Buckeyes just don’t (have) it this year. Every year, we expect a conference championship and a crack at a national title. Regardless of what ESPN, The Dispatch, (or) guys like myself on the radio all say, I guarantee you they are talking in that locker room about winning a national title this year.”
“I don’t have the typical fan’s perspective. I don’t have the emotion. I love Ohio State football, I want us to win every game, but if we don’t I still have the players’ mentality where I want to look at it and figure out why. As an athlete, you get angry, but the great ones forget it. You learn from it, you watch the tape and figure out what you did wrong. You don’t have time come Tuesday morning to still be mad- be mad Saturday night, but come Sunday it’s back to work. After three hours of watching the previous day’s game, it’s (a) half-hour (or) 45 minutes of ‘Who’s next’? Next thing you know it’s Monday and you gotta go to class. I still have that analytical approach. I hate it when Ohio State loses, it tugs at your heart, but I’m not the guy that isn’t going to sleep that night. I really never had trouble sleeping even when we lost. Even if we won a game, I’d sit and recall the dozen things that I could remember off the top of my head that I screwed up. It’s not necessarily the emotion of winning or losing, it’s the emotion of the overall performance. I was always a big analytical stickler when I played.”
