Jim Tressel People Quotations

Obviously, my reaction to that is it's sad because, as I said the last few times people have brought up the subject, my hope would be that he would have an opportunity to go over to NFL Europe and make a comeback. I hope it's not true, but beyond that I don't know much.

He's got something about him that people enjoy following. I don't think you can be followed if you don't produce, and he produces. He's got a certain confidence and aura about himself that, hey, if you guys will follow me, we have a chance, and I think he's grown a lot.

I think in this day and age, you've got to be able to attack with a lot of different things. There are so many good guys out there that can throw and catch, and the evolution of football -- there's so many good ideas. Sometimes, things trickle down a little bit from the pros. Now, the pros don't allow their quarterback to get hit quite as much as we do in college football in our spread offenses and so forth, but I just think because people are so well-schooled on defense, you've got to give them more problems. I think if you have that as part of your package, it can give you a chance. Some of the people in our league do it very, very well.

I think it's very exciting. It gives college football a great jump-start into the '05 season. We have the good fortune that a lot of people know who we are and who the Longhorns are.

I think the recruiting process, with all the Internet interviews and people checking up to see what things are said about them on the Internet, I think it's distracted young people a little bit. I'm not sure it's what they should be keeping their closest eye on, but I understand when someone's talking and you're one of the subjects, you're a little bit interested.

I think people want to follow humility and they want to follow production, and A.J. gives you both of those things. On the field he just has a sense to diagnose what's happening and then do the right thing.

We really work hard before the season and during the season ... at focusing on what's going on this second. I think there's a lot more people outside of our building that talk about that (the BCS), what's going to go on in January and whatever.

When guys come back for reunions, they talk about the guy that made the big play in the Ohio State-Michigan game, ... That's just the legacy that's left and I'm sure the same thing goes up there when people come back and talk about the great pride they have in their program.

When you have to play extra people in the box to stop his run it's going to leave you a bit vulnerable to the pass. I thought he played hard. He kept getting hit and beat up and kept coming back. And his team won.

We feel like we've got some guys, we'd like to get the ball in their hands. Plus, we also think that if you can prove that you can do a good job throwing it, there aren't quite as many people in the box when you are trying to run it. Then I think when you add the quarterbacks into the run package, that's another bit of pressure you can put on the opposing defenses. So you'd like to be able to do it all, and I think that's why you see so many people doing it, and specifically the guys that we've got that are capable of making things happen when we deploy that way.

We think Santonio Holmes is a great player, ... Early last year, he was about the only guy that was making plays for us. The people we played against saw that and put more attention on him. Some of our young guys then got a little more involved and that eased the burden off Santonio a little bit. If we can get to the point where we can recognize that he is being singled, we need to go to Santonio Holmes, because from a receiver standpoint he's top-notch.

As I said the last few times people have brought up the subject, my hope would be that he would have an opportunity to go over to NFL Europe and make a comeback.

It was along the lines of hoping he would have a chance to get things together and make a run at things with NFL Europe. NFL Europe is for folks with some ability to get an opportunity. And as I said the last few times people have brought up the subject, my hope would be that he would have an opportunity to go over to NFL Europe and make a comeback.

Our defense is special. People come in with great plans against them and it's the game of their life to have a chance to play against out defense and our guys just keep fighting and keep fighting and believing in each other.

You sit down and say, 'OK, what is it that our team needs right now?' It's not like we're guessing on people who haven't been around for a long time.

You never know for sure in the preseason how teams are going to be. You can make your best guess based on the people that are returning, and that type of thing. But the thing about the Big Ten, we play a grueling out-of-conference schedule. And then, when you get into the league and you go into those opposing stadiums, it's hard to win. Our stadiums are incredible. It's like you're already down by a touchdown when you walk in the door.

You never know for sure in the preseason how teams are going to be, ... You can make your best guess based on the people that are returning, and that type of thing. But the thing about the Big Ten, we play a grueling out-of-conference schedule. And then, when you get into the league and you go into those opposing stadiums, it's hard to win. Our stadiums are incredible. It's like you're already down by a touchdown when you walk in the door.

In this day and age, you have to be able to attack with a lot of different things. Because people are so well-schooled on defense, you have to give them more options.