Jim Tressel Played Quotations

Obviously, it was a different scenario than we've played under recently.

I think it adds a lot to this game. We've only played four times before in our history and the two great programs, here we are in one of the great settings in college football. I think it adds a little something to the intrigue.

I thought we gave great effort against a very good Texas team. Our defense, in particular, played with great emotion. Offensively, we have to do a better job in the red zone. That was a concern after the Miami game and it is still a concern. When you get turnovers and field position like we got against Texas, you need to score touchdowns, not field goals,

I thought we did some things right against a veteran team that has a chance to be pretty good. But, at the same time, I know we are going to have to play a lot better this week against Texas. Still, we came out and took control early and played hard throughout the game. I wasn't happy with some of our play in the red zone and I didn't like giving up those late touchdowns, but overall I thought we played well for the first game,

I think we learned some things about ourselves today. We saw some good things and we saw some things we need to work on. We didn't play a lot of our veterans because we know what they can do. It was nice to see some of our younger players step up and make plays. I thought we really played hard, but that didn't surprise me. Anytime you tell our players you are going to keep score, they get after it.

I think remembrance of how good you better be because you have to play a lot better than the last time you played them. If revenge becomes a factor, I'm afraid you lose sight of what it is that you're trying to square away. It's our performance that we need to square away, but all of us have lived with our lack of performance that day.

We played twice in the '30s and twice in the '90s and that's the end of it. We're not that far apart and with the great tradition of both football programs and both schools, what more could we ask for?

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 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.

Of course, we believe the greatest rivalry is Ohio State-Michigan. It's played each year at the end of the regular season, many times impacting the Big Ten championship, and it's played in front of more than 106,000 fans every year.

Of course, we believe the greatest rivalry is Ohio State-Michigan, ... It's played each year at the end of the regular season, many times impacting the Big Ten championship, and it's played in front of more than 106,000 fans every year.

As you could see, our kids played hard. Every second is important. Our defense kept coming after them. Our offense made some big plays and they stepped up and made those big plays.

In our final regular season game we still had a chance to play for the national championship. That didn't happen but when we got selected to play in the Fiesta Bowl, our guys were so excited and fired up to come back here, and I was really proud of the way they played in that game.