Another player that Tressel is excited about is junior wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. He has been one of the most explosive players in the college game the last two years, but this year he might take it to another level.
“I think he progresses every day and I think he’s a totally different receiver than he was as last year began,” Tressel said. “Again, because he’s had more experiences. He’s seen the things that people do. He understands what the people were doing to focus on Santonio Holmes and that’s why they were playing such and such and he’s very aware that some of that focus could be on him and he may be seeing some different things than he’s seen in the past and I think he understands the game. But there’s only one way to understand the game, that’s play it, and I think he’s coming along.”
Tressel is all about the team concept. But he doesn’t have a problem with the fact that OSU is running Heisman campaigns for Smith and Ginn.
“It’s part of the modern game, there’s no question about it,” Tressel said. “I think it’s part of the tremendous interest that has grown in the sport. It’s right now our ticket interest and that type of thing is unbelievable. The amount of interest in people watching on television and so forth is incredible, some of which is because they intimately get to know someone chasing records or someone being considered, so that’s not a bad thing. As long as it’s left within those confines. It really has nothing to do with the team and its goals, but we’d like to believe that the better the team does and moves towards their goals, then most certainly individuals’ goals perhaps could be attained as well. And if the team doesn’t do well, there won’t be a whole bunch of discussion of those individual awards and our guys are aware of that.”
There has been a lot of talk about how far Smith has come in terms of film study and reading defenses. Tressel calls the plays for the Buckeyes, but just how much freedom will he give Smith to call audibles at the line of scrimmage?
“Anytime it works, he can do it. He’s got total freedom,” Tressel said, eliciting laughter from reporters. “That’s why we always used to say with Craig (Krenzel). Between every series he’d say, ‘Get the play in sooner so I can change it. I need more time.’ We do a significant amount of checking from run to run, pass to pass, pass to run, some formational type things. You line up in a formation and the QB puts us in the best situation. We’ll have a significant amount of that.
“I think what we do have from an offensive standpoint is how guys demonstrate what they’re capable of doing, you just keep adding that to their repertoire. That’s what’s fun about watching a quarterback develop. You do the same with linebackers and secondary. The more they’ve shown what they can do and they can master, then the more is in their whole package. And we’d like to think that our package can grow, but only at the pace that the rest of the people can do it. You can’t lose sight of the fact that all 11 people have to do it.”
The Players’ View
Smith was asked the same question that was posed to Tressel: How much freedom will the Buckeyes’ senior quarterback have to call audibles at the line of scrimmage this season if he sees something he doesn’t like?
“I think I will have the right amount to do that if there is an adjustment there that needs to be made,” Smith said. “But the staff game plans so we won’t have to get into situations like that. I put all my trust into the staff to put us in situations and play calls that will pretty much be the right plays. Sometimes during a course of a game you’re going to have to make adjustments though and those adjustments will be made.”
Smith also commented on being named one of OSU’s captains for this season. It was a foregone conclusion, but it still feels good to him.
“Man, that’s like a dream come true,” Smith said. “There were a lot of people through the early stages of my career here and through the later stages of my career in high school that told me I would never be doing some of the things that I’m doing now. And this is a tremendous honor and it’s a very, very strong act of humility and pride and passion that I have for the guys here who selected me. For them to be able to look at my in my eyes and think that I would be a formidable leader to lead them this year says everything in the world. It speaks volumes.”
