Blue White Illustrated

COACHSPEAK | EXCERPTS FROM BILL O'BRIEN'S WEEKLY PRESSER Can you evaluate defensive end Anthony Zettel's development. Is he a guy who might play more in the second half of the season? He's a guy who has improved a lot since we've arrived here. I talk about improved players, and he's definitely in that category. He's a very tough kid. He plays hurt. He practices hard. He's an instinctive player. That interception he made [vs. Michigan] was a very instinctive play. It was off of a zone blitz. All of the playing time is determined by how you practice, so as long as he continues to practice well, he'll play for us. How important is it for you to contain Braxton Miller, mainly on the scrambles and broken plays? It's a very difficult challenge playing a guy like Braxton Miller, who in my opinion is one of the top five players in the country. He's a really good football player who has improved immensely since he's been in [Urban Meyer's] system. Last year was his first year in the system. Now I think he's got great grasp of this system. He's throwing the ball well. I thought they played real well offensively against Iowa. If he gets outside the pocket, he's a dangerous guy. Sometimes those things are going to happen. We've got to play hard and play with great effort and do the best we can to keep him in there. When he gets out, we have to make sure that we understand our scramble rules. That's the difficulty with a lot of these teams that you face with dual-threat quarterbacks. It's just a dangerous thing when they get outside the pocket. They're excellent quarterbacks in the pocket and they're good outside the pocket. We'll just do the best we can. Some of your linebackers have been playing hurt. How did the bye week help Nyeem Wartman, Mike Hull and Ben Kline? Any time you have a bye week it helps, especially as it relates to the health of your team. So those guys were able to get some rest, have a couple days off over the weekend and basically rest and get treatment. They get treatment twice a day at our O C T O B E R 'GO BRUNO' Bill O'Brien says he texts "Go Bruno" to the head coach of his alma mater before each football game. "Bruno is a nickname for Brown," O'Brien says. "So that's usually a text that I send to Phil Estes." Tim Owen facility with Timmy Bream and the doctors. I think that always helps. I'm not going to get into the specifics of Ben Kline (shoulder). All I can tell you is that you're talking about another tough kid. I love coaching him. He shows up every day, practices hard, and he'll be out there in some capacity on Saturday night. How do you think Deion Barnes handled coming off the bench in your last game instead of starting? Have you seen an extra spark out of him in practice? I think we have a competitive team at defensive end. I think we have a lot of guys that can play for us. I think at the end of the day, everything that you earn, you earn it on the practice field. I've said this a bunch of times this year: I think Deion is playing fine. I think there are other guys that are playing well, too. One of the things that we do a good job of, I believe, is we rotate guys in on the defensive line. When you're playing these spread teams – these teams that throw the ball and run the read option – you're asking your guys to give great effort, especially the big guys up front. It's important to rest guys and get a lot of guys involved. I think that's what we're doing. I don't look at it as Deion coming off the 2 3 , 2 0 1 3 13 bench. I just look at it as Deion being a good team player and rotating in there and fulfilling his role when he's in there. How has Zach Zwinak responded after the fumble against Michigan, and have you seen a change in Bill Belton's confidence after what he did to help you in the second half of the Michigan game? I think Zach has practiced well this week. He came out and had a good practice yesterday. He's a great kid, tough kid, and he's going to play, obviously. And then Billy has improved quite a bit. He's another guy that's in that category of someone who has really worked hard to improve. This year he has taken advantage of his playing time when he's been out there. We'll continue to rotate guys in at that position, and both of those guys will play against Ohio State. Can you talk about Adam Geiger and his progress. Why did you put him in at FG/PAT holder as a walk-on freshman? I've talked about Von Walker, and there are others. They came in here, and it wasn't too big for them. You could see in the Dirty Show scrimmages that they were SEE O'BRIEN PAGE 14 B LUE WH I T E ON L I N E. COM

• Cover