Jim Tressel Team Quotations

Mike is strong as a bull, and a surprisingly fast guy. And he's one of those players whose motor only has one speed - all out. He plays so hard that he gives the other team all kinds of problems.

I think consistency is always the measuring stick to see if you're going to get good. Our goal is to become a consistent offensive football team that does its part and whatever needs to be done to win.

Our guys are going to tell you that this is a better Indiana team than the one they last met. And if they don't see that, then, you know, they may be in for a rude awakening.

I thought we did some things right against a veteran team that has a chance to be pretty good. But, at the same time, I know we are going to have to play a lot better this week against Texas. Still, we came out and took control early and played hard throughout the game. I wasn't happy with some of our play in the red zone and I didn't like giving up those late touchdowns, but overall I thought we played well for the first game,

We have a little different world, but preparation is critical, especially when you're not as efficient as you want to me. To give a player or team the chance to be successful, it really begins with preparation.

That's what a top-5 team should look like.

What we philosophically are going to do, if we can pull it off, is have a home-and-home with a team of great interest to our fans. Every other year we can have eight home games and the year that we travel, have seven.

We're anxious to get into Big Ten play. I think the Big Ten is going to be a very, very tough conference this year. As you look at everybody from side to side and throughout the conference, they've had some tough ball games, they've had some great wins. I just think it's going to be a very strong league, and we start out with an awfully strong one with the university of Iowa. They're a physical football team. They have dropped a game, but they didn't have their quarterback that day. They're just an outstanding team as they've shown over the years, and we have to be ready to compete.

When you have to play extra people in the box to stop his run it's going to leave you a bit vulnerable to the pass. I thought he played hard. He kept getting hit and beat up and kept coming back. And his team won.

There's great speed out there on both sides. I feel good about the speed of our football team, and I see the speed of their football team on the video. Yeah, it's a match-up from that standpoint and I think it will be fun to watch because I like the way both teams play. I think it will be a fast game. I think there's no question about it.

You sit down and say, 'OK, what is it that our team needs right now?' It's not like we're guessing on people who haven't been around for a long time.

This is a tough defensive football team that he's going to face in a tough environment, and it's a great challenge for him and a great challenge for the guys that will be on the field at the same time with him, and we certainly hope that he can continue to be efficient, make good decisions and so forth, but that's what Saturday is for -- to find that out,

I consider any drug or alcohol offense to be a very serious matter and will treat this incident accordingly. The last thing we told the team after practice yesterday morning was to set their clocks ahead an hour when they went to bed at 10 o'clock last night. I'm disappointed that message did not get through to everyone.

The kids we recruited this year, from the time they were 13 to 18, have seen us on TV more than any other team in the country and have seen us win big games and three BCS bowls. Ohio is where we're always going to begin, but we're trying to get better in all phases, and it doesn't matter where the players are from.