Sept. 29, 1996
Off The Practice Field...Head Coach Lou Holtz
JOHN HEISLER: Good morning. Coach Holtz will make some opening remarks;
then we will take some questions.
COACH HOLTZ: The game started
off with the opening kickoff when the right side didn't collapse and our
safety man didn't play it well. I can't remember the last time somebody
returned a kickoff to our side of the field and it just -- got momentum.
Then we have them third down and 8 and we miss a tackle and the
quarterback scrambles instead of kicking a field goal. They get a touchdown
and we get the ball and drop a 40-yard pass. That is the way the whole day went.
I want to congratulate Ohio
State and credit them. I thought they played an outstanding football
game.
Let me talk a little bit about our front 7. I thought our
front 7 on defense played awful, awful well against a very, very strong
offensive line. If there was one thing that was really critical
and there were so many plays in the game that were critical, but we did
not play well, particularly, other than our front 7. I thought Rosenthal
played very well. Doughty played well. I thought Powlus played pretty
well. Marc Edwards played awful well. But two minutes and 16 seconds to
go, they had the ball on their 16 yard line and in three plays they
went 74 yards and that touchdown before the half was really critical.
Going down 15 to 7 is a little bit different. We came back in the second
half. I still felt we could come back and win the football game. Came
back the second half and drive down to about their 5-yard line; on
second down, a tremendous effort by Vrabel. The young man made a
tremendous effort and tackled Powlus after a 2-yard loss and we had to
settle for the field goal. The game, you still felt in the fourth
quarter we had a chance to win. Hindsight, I look back, on fourth down
and 11 from their 26, probably should have kicked a field goal, but at
that time I felt we needed touchdowns and ran a play on fourth down and
11. We came up with a yard short. They had a blitz. Ron had to release
the ball a little bit quicker than what we would like and the receiver
consequently came up a yard short. Nice tackle by their safety man.
Defensively,
they just made plays with their receivers, but I thought our front 7,
considering everything, played pretty well and held up pretty well
against the run. I was afraid people would play man-coverage and jump up
on it and bring their safety man up to the line of scrimmage and with
the twist and the stunts we could not handle it. I feel bad for our
players. I have never had a team play this bad in a big game since I
have been coaching. And I am sort of mystified why, although I have
certain reasons to suspect certain things. But even in the warmup,
we weren't very sharp. I told the team in the locker room, I said, I have
never seen a team have as poor a warmup as we did and I couldn't tell you
what it was. And then, to get off to that terrible start, we fought
back; played somewhat intelligent, but the turnover hurt, the fumble
hurt, obviously. But the main thing was our inability to move
the ball consistently the first half and then the drive with two minutes
and 16 seconds to go in the punt return. But we did not play
well. And the better team won.
Q. Lou, when you are talking about you are mystified as to the reasons,
are you pinpointing lack of adequate preparation or effort on the
players part?
COACH HOLTZ: I don't fault the effort of the players.
I think so much of it has to do with confidence. Players were excited
about playing. But you know, Ohio State was impressive on film and you
know, it is impressive when you play somebody who is averaging 71 points a
game and has scored every time they have had the ball, with their first
team. The kickoff. Everybody is excited to
go down there and make the play. And I go down, but
we had five guys that they didn't even account for on the kickoff
return. Five guys on the right side, which instead of folding in their
anxiety, they are going to go down there and splash the guy on the
12-yard line. They run down there, well, the guy is by him. No, it
wasn't a case of wanting to play at center. We just weren't sharp.
Offensively I look at it, when people run a lot of twists -- we
have always been a smash mouth football team. That is the nature of our
game. And what has happened is we have gotten away from that and become
too much of a finesse football team and yet when people lock up on our
receivers, one-on-one, we have trouble. I give Ohio State credit on
that, you know, just looking at it, and I want to tell you this:
I thought Powlus played an excellent football game. I thought he
was under tremendous pressure. I thought he ran the club well. He
checked off well; delivered the ball where it had to be. He threw two
interceptions. The one interception he threw was after we drove down
there - they came with an inside blitz and we had a crossing rout route
with the two receivers where they would pick on one another and they
dropped a linemen out. I think it was a linemen that
intercepted the ball. Nose guard - he dropped out and here comes
pressure and he drops out and he sees man-coverage and see him crossin,
that was picked up. The other interception was a perfectly thrown
pass. The tight end just had it for the first down; bounced up and they
intercepted it, but I thought he played well.
Q. Coach, you talked about that you didn't give your players as good a
chance as they could have had. What do you mean by that and also did you
see the altercation between Coach Cooper and one of your players and if
so, do you know what happened there?
COACH HOLTZ: I can't believe Coach Cooper would get a confrontation with a
player. I know John Cooper and I have too much respect for him. If he
did anything, he was just trying to break something up. What I saw was
it was a pass that hit our receiver and bounced up in the air and they
intercepted it and Ron Powlus came over and made a very, very good
tackle. I mean, probably the best tackle we had by a skilled position
player and as he rolled over and started to get up, and I am sure he
wasn't in the best mood, somebody pushed him down, you know, and you
can't tell from film. I don't fault anybody, but I don't believe Coach Cooper --
I just would be
shocked and I just can't believe that happened and it didn't show on the
film. And I looked at the end zone copy and I looked at the regular
copy, the sideline copy and the end zone copy. I did not have the end
zone copy, the kicking game yet, but I did look at the side-view of it.
Q. Are you concerned at all with what Ron Powlus said afterwards about
the season being over, the National Championship being over and the
impact that may have on the rest of the team?
COACH HOLTZ: Oh,
tremendous devastating blow to us, yeah, you are concerned any time you
set your goals high and you lose them this early, yeah, it is
devastating, and -- but I tell you this -- we will address
that. We will address that. I am concerned about
Washington. I am concerned about Washington right now which lost their
opening game to Arizona State in the last second and Arizona State has
some fine quarterback, but they also have one of the best tailbacks I
have seen just judging from highlight film. So Arizona State is
obviously for real. So you know, I am worried about Washington
and I am worried about Air Force. Air Force just was running the ball up
and down on everybody. Then I am worried about Navy. Worried about them
all, but the main thing, I am worried about is our football team right
now, but, yeah, it is devastating and I just told the story on TV. Skip
called me last night and a week ago he played probably the best team in
the conference or at least supposedly away from home, New Hampshire and
didn't feel they played particularly well. They had three turnovers and
got inside the 5 twice and didn't score and he lost and came home and
started looking at the film Saturday night. He got mad and he went home
and my grandson is there and he is watching a video called King Lion. He
just told me one little phase of it that I think is applicable, the lion
is standing there and the monkey takes a bat and hits him in the head.
The Lion says why did you do that. He said, it doesn't matter, it is in
the past. And a few minutes later the monkey took the bat and swung it
at the lion again; the lion ducked this time. The lion said, why did you
do that. The monkey said, doesn't matter, it is in the past, but you
learn from the past and I think that if you love the game of football
and you compete - yeah, you aren't always going to have everything you
want and everything isn't going to happen in our disappointments, but I
would be disappointed. I would be shocked if this football team closed
shop. And it isn't going to close shop. There is no way this is going to
happen.
Q. Does the loss yesterday shift your focus of the bye week now where
before maybe you wanted to get a few guys healthy and look at some
younger plays, do you have to now bring this team back and make sure
their focus is not only on Washington, but the rest of the way out?
COACH HOLTZ: I think that is obvious that we do have to regroup.
You can never tell what you are going to do the next day until you see
what happens today. Yeah, you can have general plans in the future, but
we just have to approach it. I am going to meet with the team today at 2
o'clock. I will meet with the team at 2 o'clock. I don't even know what
I am going to say to them yet, but we will meet with them at 2 o'clock,
and we will give them off tomorrow and we will practice Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday.
Q. Coach, you were on the staff of the '68 Buckeyes that one the
National Championship. Could you draw any similarities between this team
and that team and is the potential of this team there to be as good as
the 1968 team possibly?
COACH HOLTZ: I can't compare 1968 and
this year because so many different things changed, but I do think Ohio
State has a great chance to win the National Championship. Now I
want to tell you why: No. 1, there are certain qualities you have to
have. (1) you must have a strong offensive line. You must have a great
secondary. The secondary is critical. If somebody makes a mistake up
front, they move the change. If somebody makes a mistake from the
secondary, you miss-tackle in the secondary, they light up the
scoreboard. I think Ohio State's secondary is very, very good. I think
Springs and Howard are fine, fine corners. I think number 13, their
strong safety really made a lot of key plays like the tackle on Autry
Denson. I think Kelly really plays hard. He plays smart and he
played the ball -- they play excellent man. They play very good zone.
They are also very strong up front, Vrabel and Garnett, and Fickell and
the rest of them. So I think defensively they are a great football team.
When they ran a lot of twist and did an awful lot of other things, the
difficulty on that is -- and we have had people run twists on us and
then they have given up running twists on us in the past, but the
difference is the secondary came up, as I said, their safety man-made
the tackle seven times and our longest gain was eight yards and he never
missed a tackle. Their safety never missed a tackle. And so, I think
their secondary is very good. I think their offensive line is
excellent. I think Pearson is a very, very fine tailback, excellent
speed behind a big offensive line and they are so big, they sort of
blocked out the sun. I think Jackson and Germaine does a nice job as
quarterback, they don't make many mistakes; don't beat themselves. I
think Tillman and their other receivers give them a chance against
man-coverage. But I don't think that we can play them any better than
our front 7 played yesterday. I think our front 7 played well. The
problems -- the thing that disappointed me that offensively we have
taken out all our quick-hitting plays and things like that and become
more of a finesse and a formation team and I still think that is the
direction we would like to go. If you are quick-hitting hard-nose
football team and allow your players to be more aggressive, then you can
hurt the twist and the stunt. We had to run a little bit more option
than we ever have. That was because of the man-coverage and because of
the twisting. I think last night counting the option and the play action
off the option, we ran 10 plays for 104 yards and we dropped a 40-yard
pass in the open. But we could not do anything when we handed the ball
off deep in the backfield because of all the twisting and the safety man
being up there on him.
Q. What is the value in a game like that of the element of surprise that
Ohio State had with their defensive stuff that they hadn't shown you
before and is that -- are those things that can be prepared for, what
kind of advantage is it for Penn State this week against Ohio State
having seen all of that stuff on film that you hadn't seen before?
COACH HOLTZ: Well, there are two things on this. One, they changed
defensive coordinators, so it is not like they had the coordinator from
a year ago. Two, they changed their defensive front this year from last
year. Because last year they were a 4, 3 and a 4, 3 stack team. This
year they are a 50 eagle team. Now, any time somebody is a 50 eagle
team, you understand they also can play some double eagle and they can
play some eagle to the tightend. They had not shown -- they had shown a
little bit of double eagle, and most people would split the end out, and
so consequently, you didn't get a chance to see what they would do to a
tightend. But the twisting and the stunting, and things like that, I
think will give Penn State a better view of their stunts and what they
will do and what their theory is, and tips and tendencies and they
brought forward to the split-end side and we did not pick it up the
first half and I got to be honest, there was one or two occasions where,
you know, you bring four to a side and you are sort of rolling the dice
when you throw the football, you bring four to a side, which they did on
occasion, second half, I thought we did a better job on that. One time
they did some things and got away with it. The only sack we had the
second half, I think was after we got the ball on the one yard line and
moved the ball out to about the 14 and they came with the blitz and we
release at tightend, but the quarterback wasn't prepared. The guy didn't
cover the tightend. He blitzed and so it was unaccounted for in the
quarterback thing, they just turned the tightend loose. But I
think that Penn State -- I think anybody will have a hard time beating
Ohio State because they are so good in every single area of the game and
their secondary is good and their offensive line is good and they have
good skilled people. But I think if there is two ingredients that all
great football have and the secondary is the one that is overlooked the
most. Ohio State had a great secondary in '68 and not because I coached
them. We had great athletes. I mean, three of them were first round
draft picks and the other one went in the second round. True, we
had three sophomores and a junior on that football team, but they were
great football players. But when I look at a team that can be
outstanding, I look at those areas, offensive line and secondary.
Q. Followup. You said you didn't feel like you gave your team a chance
mentally, emotionally --
COACH HOLTZ: No. If I had to do it over
again, I wouldn't do anything different. You try to sense the thing --
we had them loose Friday night which you want before a big ball game.
You want them loose - I don't know. I cannot put my finger on it right
now. I just don't know, but when I say it was obvious in warmup that we
were not sharp. Our backs didn't run sharp. They didn't run sharp in
warmup. They didn't run sharp the first half. I mean, we are in the open
field. There is a safety man. We run right into him. We don't try to
move him; don't try to avoid them -- it is like we were in a stuper. I
don't know, maybe the opening kickoff caused that, but then again the
opening kickoff should have never happened if we -- we did some things
that we haven't done in ten years; we haven't done it all year.
When I say we didn't give them a chance, I think that, you know,
we have gotten to be a finesse football team and you can be a finesse
football team to a certain extent, but you have to have skilled people
make plays. You got to try to get one-on-one coverage and I don't think
that, you know -- we have taken away some aggressiveness from our
offensive line and things like that, and it is a combination where I
just didn't feel we allowed our players to be aggressive enough. I think
that we've become too much of a finesse team and so consequently our
offensive line looked very poorly. But I want to tell you Mike
Doughty and Mike Rosenthal played awfully, awfully well. Kaczenski
played pretty well. But you know, in something like this -- and it is
painful, as a head coach you got to be honest and realistic, I just look
back and say, we weren't ready. I wouldn't do much different can't
account for that. But you try to say we have gotten away from
some things that we really believe. Despite all that, the punt
holds up it would have been interesting to see.
Q. (inaudible)
COACH HOLTZ: I don't know if we have a lot of options. I
think we have got to look at our safety situation. I think that
definitely has to be. I don't know what options we do have. We are going
to have to look at it and see. Right now I am just interested in meeting
with the staff and then meeting with the team and then taking the next
48 hours and really examine it.
Q. (inaudible)
COACH HOLTZ: No, I don't think you can. I really don't know. I know
this: Powlus can run it. I mean, he made some throws that were
incredible if you look at it. I am talking about the post rout. The post
rout to Malcolm Johnson. He put it the only place you could possibly put
it. Kelly made a nice play, but, you know, I mean it was right there and
I have seen Derrick Mayes catch those many times. You just got to make
that play. You know, he hit a couple outcuts under pressure that, you
know, were not successful, but you can't fault that. And I just don't
think that, you know, we just can't allow people to play us in
man-coverage and get away with it. That is always -- that was a concern
I have had since day one.
Q. (inaudible)
COACH HOLTZ: What speed are you talking about?
Q. Talking about their secondary, talking about their wideouts.
COACH HOLTZ: You can neutralize speed. What makes it difficult
on Ohio State you neutralize speed, with speed, or with a gun. Either
one will neutralize speed. You can play zone and you can crowd the ball
and keep the speed confined, but then again, with an offensive line,
they are going to pound you. What you have to do, you just have to be
able to, you know, our miss-tackles in the secondary hurt us a great
deal. But then again, that is speed and an open field creates problems.
Q. You mentioned that you don't have many options, but can you ensure --
what might be some options in the secondary (inaudible)
COACH HOLTZ:
I am a great fan of Deke Cooper. Doesn't have great speed. You know, we
just have to look. In the next week we are going to see. We put Deke
Cooper out on the wideouts on the punt return. Those guys are pretty
good. I don't know if you noticed the job Deke Cooper did, on that last
punt, I mean their sprinter wasn't seven yards downfield and Deke still
has him and Deke got position on him. I mean, the guy just does some
things. I don't know, we are going to have to see. Devron Harper
runs pretty well. I think our corners are playing pretty well. I really
do. But you know, it had to be a combined effort. We expected Ohio State
to make some plays and that is to miss some tackles. They are just too
skilled. Not two for 60 minutes. The one that really killed us was the
one before the half. That is the one that killed us.
Q. (inaudible)
COACH HOLTZ: I think it is an attitude and some other
things you do with the football. When people are running twists,
etcetera, then you just got to come off the ball; be aggressive and run
quick-hitting plays. When you hand the ball off seven yards deep in the
backfield and then those twists and things like that can be a problem.
However, when people run twists, it slow down the pass rush. There isn't
any great pass rush when you get twists. You might bring a guy late on
twist, but you are not going to get up in him so consequently then you
got to be able to throw, but that means your receiver has got to be able
to get the guys open.
Q. The coach's poll has you ranked 14th. Where after Ohio State do you
think you belong?
COACH HOLTZ: I have no idea. We just -- let us
give credit to Ohio State. As I say, it was disappointing we didn't
play well. Don't even think about that. My concern now is the football
team. Like he said about Powlus, I haven't read it yet. That is my
concern right now, our football team; not the polls, not anything else
but our football team. I say we will bounce back. I am saying that
because that is the result I want; that is the result I have got in my
mind; that is the result we are going to get. There is no way I am going
to sit here and write you a check saying we are going to get it. Is it
going to be easy? No, but somehow that has to be the end result.
Q. Can you think of a better team you have played?
COACH HOLTZ:
I can't think of a team that played better against us than what Ohio
State did and in so many things, so many things. It just -- you look at
the film you say, you know, it is almost like destiny. I mean, you talk
about having the right stunt at the right time and no rhyme or reason
necessarily for running it, running a twist stunt with the end coming
underneath when you got a trap called and then having the guy loop out
when you have a sweep called and they are both -- you look at it, they
are both the same down and distance when you'd called it. If you look
and say, well, maybe you have a tendency -- no, it is same down and
distance but sometimes you expect them to be right 50% of the time, but
I give them credit. We did not play well - make no mistake about it. But
I think as a football coach you have an obligation to give them the best
chance to win and I don't think that we did that, but we didn't know
what they were going to do either, I have got to say that to you.
Q. A lot of teams play their best game against you guys. Do you think
Ohio State did that?
COACH HOLTZ: I think they played very, very
well and was very well drilled. They were really very, very much in tune
with what they had to do and how they had to do it and were very, very
sharp. I can say that. And I can't remember a team playing any
better defensively against us and -- but when you have that happen, you
have to make some plays. When we had a chance to make them, you know, we
did not make them. We had the ball four times the second half - not
counting the time it took punt return, you know, then the game is over.
First time we took the ball on about our 16 and we drove down to
their 5 and had they settled for a field goal. We never went
three downs and out the second half. Next time we had the ball, we get a
first down, we had to punt it. Next time we got the ball, we got them
deep in our territory and drove down; ended up on their 16 yard line
half a yard short. Next time we got the ball, drove it down for a
touchdown. So the second half we played a little bit better; made a
few adjustments at halftime, etcetera, but, no, they just played
awfully, awfully well, and in a game like this, momentum should go back
and forth and it didn't go back and forth enough. A great game is a
great fight, one guy hits one guy and the other goes and hits the other
guy. But you know, like the momentum started with them on the kickoff
return and we didn't get a chance to get the momentum back when we
dropped the 40-yard pass. Now we had a chance to make some deep plays
and very possibly pass interference could have been called, but wasn't,
it was an uncatchable ball. Guy was knocked down. It was an uncatchable
ball. Looking at the film, we are lucky that the ball didn't hit the kid
in the eye on the ground, but it was uncatchable. But what I am saying
is that -- then we get the block punt; we can't take advantage of it.
They seize the momentum right at the end of the half. I mean, up until
-- you come out the second half, you are down one score, but that one
was critical. Then when we finally did get the momentum back, we cause a
fumble. Ball is rolling deep. I watched team after team pick that fumble
up and run in. Our guys coming, all of a sudden it takes one of these
weird sideline bounces. We are lucky to get the ball. Then, of course, a
punt return. So momentum would -- we did not get the momentum swinging
back and forward enough. They are an excellent team; protect the passer
very, very well, don't make many mistakes. As I said, secondary
offensive line, good kicking game, good skilled people.
Q. (inaudible)
COACH HOLTZ: That doesn't occur very often during the
course of it. But that is why in the past, you have always tried to have
certain things in your offense that you can adjust to and adapt to no
matter what they do that you just plug in this or plug in that. But here
at Notre Dame, it happens quite often and you get accustomed to it. You
have got to be able to make adjustments and your players have to be able
to handle it. When we did have the right thing going, you know, we
missed a guy. There was a play just come to my mind, it was -- I don't
know -- in the fourth quarter, I guess, early in the fourth quarter,
they came with the blitz and the one thing that would happen on the
blitz would be -- if you pitch the ball, when we came down and they
blitzed the linebacker and I mean, the guy just missed him. It wasn't a
case where he came free. The guy just missed him. He was right there.
The guy is -- what is Kelly, 6'3", 214 pounds, we missed him, which
caused Ron to pitch the ball earlier. We got about nine yards on him,
but if that guy can come out there you have got two blockers and two
defenders guy; you got a guy in an open field. You have got to be able
to plug different things in. And we just never fell into a rhythm.
Anything else? Okay.
