Ohio State’s offensive players had their turn with the Sugar Bowl media on Sunday afternoon. Here’s some of what they said:
OL TAYLOR DECKER
(on the experience so far in New Orleans) “It has been a lot of fun. I’ve never been down here and experienced a city like this. There has been a lot going on. There has been a lot of ‘distractions’, but it hasn’t taken away from our preparation. We still have our goal in mind, but it has been a good experience so far.”
(on keeping focus in the playoff environment) “We know that we are here to play a football game, and if it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t be here. That is our main focus of this whole trip. Yeah, we want to have a good time and experience the city and enjoy our time here, but the purpose is to play the game.”
(on what it means to be a part of college football history) “Without a doubt, I appreciate it. It is very humbling. In my time at Ohio State, we’ve won a lot of games and done a lot of things, broke a lot of records. I am just fortunate to be a part of this team and playing on this team. The week before, we didn’t even know if we were going to get a shot at the first ever college football playoff. It has been exciting and a really good experience.”
(on if the team takes being an underdog personally) “I wouldn’t say so. I would say that they have respect for us and we have respect for them. They’re ranked number one for a reason. They’re kind of the pinnacle of football right now, the standard. That’s deserved. They have done a lot of good things over the past couple seasons. It’s a great opportunity for us to show what kind of team we are and what we are capable of.”
(on the confidence of QB Cardale Jones throughout practice) “He has taken every rep, with the ones and twos. I definitely think he is going to be ready for any and all situations that he is going to face in the game. I think he is getting really comfortable with his checks and reads, not that I know a lot about quarterback, but he just seems more comfortable. He has gotten all kinds of reps since training camps. We run just as many reps with the twos as we do with the ones. So, he has seen a lot of the looks. He has played against a lot of different defenses. He just hasn’t gotten to do it on a big stage until the Big Ten Championship. And I think the way he performed then is a testament to how he has taken those reps seriously throughout the season.”
RB EZEKIAL ELLIOTT
(on being the most underrated player in the game) “I feel like I may be a little bit underrated, but I just attack every game as just a chance to put my name out there, perform on big stages.”
(on the importance of setting the tone of the running game early) “They’re a great team. They have a big front seven. You don’t really get much movement off the line of scrimmage. The key to our offense is getting the running game going so we can take shots down field, so establishing the running game is going to be very important.”
(on practicing in the Superdome) “It wasn’t too bad. A lot of the guys thought it was very humid and warm, but I didn’t feel any problems. I thought it felt fine. It’s a big dome; I mean I’ve never been in a dome that big. I’ve been in the Arizona dome and obviously the Indianapolis dome, but it’s a different venue.”
(on the Alabama defense) “They are a very big, physical team. Their d-line, their linebackers are just big guys and so they are a lot bigger than the guys we play. Their linebackers are all 250, interior d-linemen all 300 pounds, so getting some momentum early in the game, getting movement off the line of scrimmage is going to be important.”
(on Coach [Urban] Meyer advice on playing a [Nick] Saban-coached team) “They’re going to be good. They’re going to be the same talent level as us. They are going to be a well-coached, fundamental team; just going have to go out there and it’ll be our will versus their will.”
(on team having strong faith in Cardale [Jones]) “It’s just kind of the mentality of our team; you know just the brotherhood of trust. We’ve been through so much together, through thick and thin. He proved himself at the Big 10 championship. We’re going to do whatever we can to keep him comfortable. We don’t want him to feel like he has to do too much and he won’t have to do too much. All he has to do is spread the ball around and we have to keep him comfortable in the pocket.”
TE JEFF HEUERMAN
(on how you avoid distractions in a city like New Orleans) “Curfews. We have curfews at night which helps. Also, keeping the team together and make sure when guys do go out they are all together. The coaches haven’t said you can’t go out and have a little fun we just have to be smart about what we do. It’s Tuesday of a normal game week is how we look at it. [Being in New Orleans] is an education too. You don’t know if you will ever be back to New Orleans, so we have an opportunity to get out view the city and sample what it has to offer.”
(on SEC speed vs. Big Ten Speed or the preconceived lack thereof) “I’m not sure what it means exactly. We have quite a few fast guys on our team. I don’t really pay a whole lot of attention to that or the talk about the SEC vs. Big Ten talk. All four teams [in the playoffs] are good football teams with strengths and weaknesses and anyone can be beat on any given day. You just have to come out and execute your game plan. Execution is the biggest thing.”
(on what he sees on Alabama’s defense) “They are a very good defense. They know what they want to do and they do it very well. They have a very good secondary. They don’t do a whole lot of crazy things schematically. They know what they want to do and they do it well and execute. It’s going to be a good challenge for us”
(on Alabama’s defensive vulnerability and defensive performances late in the season) “They are a good defense. I don’t know much about their previous history. They have quite a few talented, All-SEC guys on defense. We just need to execute, honestly. We have the skillset and our execution is going to be the key to this game. Which team executes better and executes more plays will win this game.”
(on team’s success with third-string quarterback starting) “We have great leadership on this team. Every time something bad has happened to us we’ve just rallied even more. It has brought us closer together as a team. We’ve fought so much adversity and kept kind of building on top of it. It’s got us to the College Football Playoff and to the final four where we wanted to be.”
QB CARDALE JONES
(on scouting Alabama) “Countless hours, dating back to last year’s Sugar Bowl versus Oklahoma. We’re just trying to be ready for any and everything.”
(on whether it is an advantage, in regards to being scouted, to have only played in two games) “Nick Saban and Alabama’s coaches have seen it all. We’re not trying to fool anybody here. We’re trying to come out and play football.”
(on getting comfortable as the starting quarterback) “Of course game speed and practice speed is completely different. It’s so different for a quarterback. It’s more mental than physical to me, especially with the type of offense that we run. Just getting that to work from all the mental reps has helped a lot.”
(on what it means to be a starting quarterback in the Playoff Semifinal) “It’s humbling, because this is a point in my career that I always wanted to be at. Then again, we still have to get the job done as far as winning this game goes.”
(on the magnitude of this game for him) “Personally, this is the biggest game, hands down. It’s a one-game season, the first ever college football playoff. This is the game that goes to the national championship, so it is the biggest game.”
(on facing Alabama’s defense) “By far, this will be the best defense we’ve played against all year, the most physical defense we’ve played all year, and the fastest defense we’ve played all year. They’ve got some unbelievable guys on defense that we do our best to simulate and get that look. That’s going to be a challenge for not just me, but the offense.”
WR EVAN SPENCER
(on Alabama’s SEC speed) “They’re fast and they’re a great team. They’re really talented, but I think we’re pretty talented too. We got a lot of speed and we got pretty much everything we can do on the field, as do they, so I think it’s going to be really exciting to watch.”
(on getting tired about hearing about Big Ten speed) “Yea, I mean I do, but it’s out there and you just kind of have to deal with it. You have your own thoughts about it, but go with what’s there I guess and show up to play and prove everybody else wrong.”
(on Urban [Meyer] modeling this program after Alabama) “They’re a really successful team and as of late they’ve been number one and they’ve proven themselves really. I think every team in the country for the most part is striving to be the best team in the country, and I think that’s just kind of the nature of football in general. I mean you want to be number one and when a team’s been number one for a while you want to get up there and knock them off and prove that you’re the better team.”
(on he [Urban Meyer] bringing up past battles with Nick Saban) “I mean it’s interesting to us and it’s good to look at on TV, but I mean he hasn’t really brought it up much because it’s different team, different atmospheres and really just different kind of feels for it. We got our things that we have to do well to win the game. They’re mutually exclusive in the sense that now is the present and we have to do what we can now. What happened in the past is past, but it does prove for a good storyline.”
(on noticing anything different with Coach [Tom] Herman since his announcement) “No, I mean he’s, I don’t want to say a happy-go-lucky guy, but he’s a really good guy to talk to. I mean he’s really personable and none of that’s really changed, so it’s the same old Coach [Tom] Herman we’ve known to love and that I’ve been with for three years now. So it’s weird to think about him leaving, but all throughout when we’ve been here it doesn’t even seem like he is, because we’re going day to day business as normal, and if nobody had told me he was leaving I wouldn’t have known.”
(on preparing for Landon Collins) “He’s a great player. He’s really physical and you can tell that he really knows the game, but I feel our offense has a good plan for him and the entire defense as a whole. He’s a great player and I look forward to playing against him.”
Christopher Walsh has covered Alabama football since 2004 and is the author of 19 books. In his free time, he writes about college football.
