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some of our guys. Some of the depth we do have at defensive tackle, creates some flexibility for us, as well. A2er Shaka Toney had his breakout game, you talked about developing him into a three-down defensive end. How has that progressed? That doesn't happen over a couple of weeks. It's an ongoing process. We're very excited about Shaka and his future. We still feel like at this point he's still a situa- tional defensive end. We were forced on Saturday to not use him in situations, and play him more as an every-down defen- sive end. That's going to be an ongoing process. You don't resolve that in a couple weeks, although we're very excited about his fu- ture. We talk about every defense not hav- ing the key to stopping Saquon Barkley, a blueprint as it were. Did Ohio State do anything different than Michigan did the week before? How important is it to find a solution to working all that out with him in the running game? I don't think I've necessarily communi- cated it the way you just did, that every defense has the blueprint. I don't think I've communicated it that way. But, yeah, it's a challenge. I think one of the issues is that we've played some really good defen- sive football teams in terms of stopping the run. Northwestern is one of the best defenses in terms of stopping the run. Michigan is one of the best in the country at stopping the run. Ohio State is one of the best in the country at stopping the run. Michigan State is another one of those teams. I think that's a little bit about our league, as well. We've done a great job all year long getting Saquon the ball in dif- ferent ways. I've said this before, when you run a one-back offense, people can outnumber you. If you do that, it creates opportunities in the passing game. Earlier in the season, we were having some of the same challenges and were successful. We're going to continue to do that. That's life running a one-back offense. We've been very, very successful. Saquon has had dramatic impacts. Have some people had a better plan than others and created some conflict there? Yeah. But that's also why Trace has been able to throw for the yards he's been able to throw for and have success that way. We just have to continue to be creative and be willing to use Saquon as many dif- ferent ways as we possibly can. Like I mentioned, I think the biggest issue is not the production that Saquon is having, it's taking the negative-yardage plays away. It's not handing the ball off in a situation where we're going to get a tackle-for-loss. Don't get me wrong, sometimes they're going to call the right defensive call at the right time, and sometimes we make the right call. That happens. That's part of football. But I do think if we can eliminate and cut in half some of those negative- yardage plays, that will be very helpful. You were talking about the negative plays. When the defense is getting quickly into your backfield, it looks a lot of times like it's not just that the of- fensive line is getting physically beat, it's a lot of other things. Talk about what goes into all 11 men on offense working to protect or to keep you from really getting badly physically beat like that. There are different techniques. You got people who are going to mesh charge. When they're doing it with really good athletes, it magnifies it, there's no doubt. Changing our tempo up, changing our back's alignment up, motion and shiB, it's a combination of all those things. It's making sure that we're putting our guys in the best position to be successful, which we've done a large portion of the time. It's making sure that we are pulling the ball and throwing the ball when we're supposed to. It's being willing to lower your shoulder and get three yards when there's not a great situation. There's blocking on the perimeter. It's all of us. It's myself, everybody included doing a better job. Again, I don't know if I would describe it exactly the way you did. Is there any way to prepare a defense in practice for sudden-change situa- tions, or is it something that's mental and has to be overcome during a game? I think it's a combination of both. We talk about the situation, explain the situ- ation, what to expect in those situations. A lot of people, when they get a sudden change, have the momentum, and they're going to try to keep the momentum by taking a shot. We talk about that, the im- portance of not allowing them to get the big play in that situation and keep the momentum. We've been good at it in the past. So it's not like it's a philosophical change or things like that. We're going to keep em- phasizing it in practices and meetings, keep coaching, explaining what to expect, what are the plays they run in those situa- tions, what kind of shot plays can we ex- pect. It's all those things that factor in. One thing that's come up in the past few days, media and fans seem to think Saquon Barkley is getting the ball from a stand-still position as opposed to going forward. Is there anything to that? Is that a misconception people have? Is that a real concern where you want him bursting forward? We're doing it very similar to what we've done it for the last two years with one of the most explosive offenses in the country. We actually sped it up a little bit this off-season. We're doing it exactly the way we've done it with one of the most explosive offenses in the country for the last two years. This is the style that we've been playing. This is how we've been doing it. We've had negative-yardage plays for two years. Can we get better in this area? Yes. We've had one of the most explosive offenses in the country, again. For a little bit of per- spective, in the last 18 games, we've been 16-2. We've lost those two games by four points with one of the most explosive of- fenses in the country. How would you assess the offensive line in the fourth quarter at Ohio State when Ryan Bates was out of the game? How do you think those guys held up? Yeah, I think they're getting better. I think Coach [Matt] Limegrover is working hard with those guys. I think they're get- ting better. You have Connor McGovern, who is a true sophomore starting at the center position. I see him getting better every single week. I see [Steven] Gonza- lez, a redshirt sophomore, is playing pretty well. There have been times when I know we would like to be a little bit more consistent with both those guys. Chasz Wright has been a starter off and on and has done some really good things over the last year. We're going to need him to play well this week. Ryan Bates has been a guy who has played a lot of football for us as a redshirt 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 13

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