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C O A C H S P E A K • E X C E R P T S F R O M J A M E S F R A N K L I N ' S W E E K L Y P R E S S E R What did you like from what you saw and heard from the players on Sunday? Do you have confidence about their preparations for Michigan State? I could not have more confidence in our players. They had a player-only meeting on their own on Sunday. Sometimes I have a hand in those. I did not have a hand in this one. It was not a long meeting at all. The feedback I got, it was really good. There were some things I think they just wanted to get off their chest. Then Sunday's practice was good. Meetings were good. I think it starts with me. I went in with the staff Sunday morn- ing, went in with the players. I think we as the coaching staff set the tone for every- thing. Coaches weren't defensive. Players weren't defensive. We were able to make corrections. We were able to learn from it, grow. We've got a resilient group of guys with tremendous character and heart and belief in themselves and belief in what we're doing. We'll have a great week of practice and go play a tough opponent on the road. I felt good with how things were han- dled on Sunday. Obviously, everybody handles those things differently. But over- all, I was pleased with our program and how we were on Sunday. The tempo of the Ohio State offense was pretty significant. I think they ran 78 snaps in the game. Now you have to play on the road at noon against a physical Michigan State team. Is there any bigger challenge for you to get the defensive guys ready a2er they were on the field so long against Ohio State? I don't think the number of reps were crazy for the offense or defense, or time of possession. I don't think it was one of those games that was really skewed in that way. But, yeah, we're going to have to be ready for a completely different style. The tempo caused some communication issues for us, some alignment issues for us. Then being on the road [hindered] the communication aspect. It's amazing how much it factors in. They were able to do a lot of check-with- me at the line of scrimmage, where those things are challenging when you're on the road. They took advantage of it and did a really nice job. But, yeah, we're going to have to be ready this week for a com- pletely different style. We're going to have to be great from a recovery standpoint all week long. We're going to have to be smart with how we practice, as well. But that's the case for everybody at this time of year. We had a bye week going into Michigan. I think it helped us. Ohio State had a bye week going into us. I think it helped them. Now, both us and Michigan State have to come off really tough games and be ready to play. That's the reality of this time of year in college football. You embrace it, make the best of it, and you work through it. That's what we will do. How do you evaluate the play of your wide receivers, including blocking and their ability to get separation? I think our wide receivers are playing re- ally well. They've made a bunch of big plays. I've said all season long, I think we block well on the perimeter. I don't feel we did that as well on Saturday. [Ohio State has] got really good, long, big ath- letes that in space and sometimes those probably weren't the best matchups. But it is what it is. Your initial question was, how have the wide receivers played in terms of creating separation and block- ing for the season? I think good. I think we feel really good about how those guys have played. Have there been times and areas that I think we can improve and get better? No doubt about it. Did some of those things show up on Saturday? No doubt about it. We're just going to con- tinue to improve and continue to grow there. But overall… I feel really good about them. You mentioned this today and Satur- day a2er the game: "I thought we changed our identity." In what way? What steps can you take to prevent re- peating that? One of the things that is a challenging deal is that when you run the style of of- fense that we run, where we probably are a pass-to-run team, we're going to throw the ball to create running situations. When you get into four-minute offense, the football book, the game-management book from the beginning of time, [says that] as you run the ball, you eat the clock up, make them use their timeouts. If you throw the ball, [and it's] incomplete, the clock stops – not the scenario you want to be in. The reality is that when you run this style of offense, you can't try to become something else in four-minute. When we actually went back and watched the tape, when we tried to run the ball, we weren't successful. When we tried to throw the ball, Trace was run- ning for his life, and they were able to take advantage of the stadium environ- ment, similar to how we did the year be- fore. It's easy to sit there and second-guess it after the fact, but I do think we probably could have been a lit- tle bit more aggressive in terms of throwing the ball, doing some other things to help our offensive line out a lit- tle bit. Overall, I think we probably could have been a little bit more aggressive there. Again, when I went back and watched the tape, we weren't really doing either well to give yourself confi- dence. You may be relying on some younger defensive ends down the stretch: Shaka Toney, Shane Simmons. How do you think those guys are responding to that? How do you help them because of this situation? Yetur Matos falls into that category, as well. Shaka probably played too many plays on Saturday, but it was the situation we were in. We have to continue develop- ing those guys and getting some of the veteran guys back, as well. Some of those injuries are starting to add up for us a lit- tle bit at certain positions. It's a great opportunity for those guys to continue to grow and develop and make plays. Obviously, with some of those younger players, it's easier to play them in a one-back offense, spread-style situa- tion, where it's going to be a lot of pass- rush, compared to a Michigan State situation where they're going to try to run the ball down your throat and play-action pass. We're going to have to continue to de- velop those guys. I think you guys know we do have some position flexibility with N O V E M B E R 1 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 12

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