Ohio State Head Coach Jim Tressel from here in Chicago

 

Jim Tressel once again finds oy his Buckeyes in the driver seat. Photo courtesy of Troy Benoit.

Returns 16 starters, 10 on offense

Happy with the maturity of the teams leadership. The back half of our team, we need to find out a little bit more about. We need them to provide some depth. There are roles that need to be filled. I am anxious to see how our freshman progress through fall camp.

On playing with a target on your back: The reality that we’ve had for years is we normally have the target, but you don’t focus on that. We just want to be as good a football team as we can be. We like being targeted. It’s part of the deal.

Growth of Terrele Prior: Talked about this several times, don’t wanna bore you. He was trying to find his way early, thrust into a leadership role his sophomore year and that took some adjustment, and the bowl practice was really where he made some great strides. His spring and summer have been good, and he is really excited to get going this year.

This is a veteran and as tough as the Big Ten has been since I got here. Public perception aside, this is a very good conference.

On the OSU/Michigan rivalry and divisions: I can’t see a change where that game won’t be a great game. It didn’t used to be the final game of the season. Wherever they put that game, it’ll be a great football game. Adding Nebraska to the fold is going bring some neat changes, but I have no trepidation at all about that addition affecting the OSU/U of M rivalry.

How would you break up the divisions?: Geographically would be logical. Or, you could not want to geographical, and they make the choice how you want things to look. Our leadership will set us up with the best possible alignment.

Coming off a bowl in, how did that affect the off-season workouts? Watching the film, nothing is as good as it seems and nothing is as bad. We know we were representing the Big Ten as well as Ohio State. Of course it felt terrific to win that ballgame, but then it’s back to reality in preparing for the next season.

One a 9 game Big Ten season: We may have one of our Big Ten teams that could be a special team and make a run at the title, and with 5 road games on the schedule, that could hinder that. From a scheduling standpoint, it’s really important to have home games (mostly because with 36 sports, we need the money to support them). For us, I’m not sure it’s a great financial move, and for the league it could nick a team that could have a chance for a national title.

Do you and your coaches talk about realignment and expansion? The staff has spent less than 3 minutes talking about that all year. The seniors of course don’t care. They’ll be gone. Some of the younger guys are talking about it, but we try to focus on the task at hand and the 2010 season.