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Opening Statement
KIRK FERENTZ: Certainly good for us to have a bye. I imagine everybody feels that way. I think it came at a good time for us. A good time for us to be together. Also to be away from each other too. That's important.
Finishing the first part of the season 3-3 was certainly not a goal. To finish with a 3-point loss stings for a couple days. No question about that. Lingers for a little bit.
It was good to get back on the field, back to work on Tuesday. Everybody was in the building Monday, got a workout in. Had to a chance to watch film. Pushed that to Monday. Couple days on the field, go to work. Focusing on us partially, then partial time was developmental work with the younger guys, and we took a break and got back at it again on Sunday, which is kind of a normal deal for us.
So that's pretty much where we're at at this point. Now we're transitioning to the second half of the season. Obviously, six games before the bye and six games after this year. So that's where our focus is right now during the course of last week just to encourage our guys to think about that as a six-week block and get ready mentally and physically for this.
Transitioning to this game. We face a big challenge this Saturday playing Ohio State. Pretty much any year I talk about Ohio State, you're talking about a team that is very talented. They're very well coached. That's certainly the case this year in both of those areas.
As you might expect, ranked near the top of the national polls for good reason. They have a really good football team. Very explosive offensively. You start with the quarterback, a tremendous player. They have great receivers and a big physical offensive line. Probably as big as we've seen, and they're executing at a high level. Good tight ends and good running backs.
They're explosive, as I said, and they score points in a hurry. That jumps out at you. Tough to knock them off their track. That's the biggest challenge. Defensively, talented at all three levels. They have a good defensive linemen, outstanding linebackers, and good guys in the secondary.
The other thing I notice about them quickly is they play a lot of guys on defense. There's a lot of players in and out, and doesn't matter who's in there. They're playing at a really high level.
They're multiple with their schemes. It's a new scheme. They have a new defensive coordinator. Looks like he's done an outstanding job in a short amount of time, half the season. They play in sync and have been tough to get points on and move the ball against.
And they play with the lead a lot of the time, which they probably enjoy that. They've done a good job with that as well. Good special teams, good specialists, good return guys, dangerous return guys.
All in all, a tough challenge. Factor on top of it that it's a tough environment to go into, tough Big Ten environment. Always has been. Certainly won't be any different. Part of that, they have a nice streak going. Part of that is the environment. The bigger part is they're a really good football team, good program, and have been historically since I started in the league in '81. That part doesn't come as a surprise.
Big challenge for us. We're looking forward to getting ready for that and seeing where we measure up Saturday.
Our captains, the same four guys; Jack Campbell, Sam LaPorta, Kaevon Merriweather, and Riley Moss.
Our Kid Captain won't be traveling with us, but Gavin Miller from Ogden, a 13-year-old now who had surgery before he was born and a kidney transplant by age 1 and is now very healthy 13-year-old, doing well, and getting total support over at the Family Hospital. So that's great. He has a twin brother named Braden too as well. So we'll think about those guys when we're on the road.
I'll throw it out for questions.
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