With the weekend’s games fast approaching, here’s a look around the Big Ten at quotes from various team’s weekly media press conferences.
Illinois – Ron Zook
Summary:
Everybody is excited about getting started in the Big Ten conference, and not so excited about the team we're playing. It's really a good football team. Anyone who has seen them play understands that number one, they have a program that has tradition and so forth, but number two, we think they're a better football team than they were last year.
On Daniel Dufrene:
Well I think if you go back and look at how we felt last year, we didn't feel like Rashard Mendenhall was going to be an every down back. It just turned out that way. Ever since we've been here we've been fortunate to have more than one back, and I think a lot of times you need more than one back.
Indiana – Bill Lynch
Summary:
Knowing that the Big Ten season is here, and certainly our guys have a tremendous amount of respect for Michigan State. Not only what they've seen on tape this year, but certainly our game with them last year where they got after us pretty good. So we're anxious to get after it today when we're in full pads and really get in to the gameplan.
On stopping Javon Ringer:
Ringer's really good. But I'll tell you what, their scheme is good… They're very, very well coached up front. They're very physical and then (Ringer) is a great back behind it. He's also the kind of back that's durable enough to carry the ball 40 times and he's done it week after week.
Michigan – Rich Rodriguez
Summary:
Michigan will be back. Michigan plays error-free football and hard-hitting defense and we have to get that back.
On Steve Threet:
Well, he's going to be the starter, yeah. He played well enough in that game for us to have confidence in him. Nick is still in the picture, too. Nick was in a tough situation. We were behind. I think he tried to maybe force a few things and all that. But Nick is still in our thoughts a little bit.
Iowa – Kirk Ferentz
Summary:
We’re obviously excited about homecoming weekend. I know it’s a little bit special for everybody and certainly good to have a lot of folks back on campus. We’ll have a great challenge on our hands with Northwestern.
On Northwestern’s defense:
Probably the biggest ting I’d say about them, they’re just not giving up big players. They’re playing very, very well right now. Playing smart. Making you work for everything. When you do that, that’s the sign of a good defense.
Ohio State – Jim Tressel
Summary:
We've got to make sure that we step it up. We did step it up a little bit this past weekend. We've got to take a larger step this weekend because there's nothing more critical than the beginning of something and beginning of conference play is what we're looking forward to.
On Terrelle Pryor:
The thing that's best about his decision making is that when he errs he knows exactly why. Sometimes I've had guys come off the field and say, why did you throw it there? I don't know. And he's not that way. He knows where everyone is. He's got a great ability to keep his head up, a calmness about him to see, and he had one throw that probably shouldn't have thrown and he knew the minute he let go of it.
Penn State – Joe Paterno
Summary:
You never know what to expect. I don't, really. I was just hoping we could play well enough to win a couple of games. I thought we had the potential to be a decent football team. We've been fortunate. We've played some people that haven't played really well against us, so I'm still reluctant to get too excited. But I hoped we could win all four of them, if that's what you're driving at. Yes, I had hoped we could win all four of them.
On stopping Juice Williams:
There's no best way. I think it isn't as if you can just gang up on one aspect of the game, whether it's their option game or their sprint out pass game or whatever. I think you've got to be balanced. If there's a tendency, as your game goes on, hopefully you can pick that up and take something away they might want to use in a key situation. But it's a game of chess. He's good. He can beat you running. If you play the pass and if you don't play the run, he can beat you throwing the football. They have a good screen game. We didn't do a very good job against the screen against Temple.
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