Bob Stoops had his weekly press conference on Monday with the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks and Ohio State Buckeyes at the center of the conversation. After addressing Oklahoma’s 59-17 win Saturday night he moved his attention to Ohio State. Here’s what he had to say.
“On to this week, big week with Ohio State coming to town. Excellent football team that everybody knows that Coach Urban Meyer and his staff do a great job, great tradition, really an exciting week for everybody. Offensively everything goes through J.T. Barrett, an exceptional athlete at quarterback, throwing the football really well. A lot of excellent players. Curtis Samuel, number four, is a guy that first comes to mind. So many different ways they can get him the football, electrifying guy in the way he can run. Excellent running back in Webber as well. Wilson another great athlete they put out at wide out and can play in the backfield as well. Talented guys around all of them.” – Opening statement
“Defensively, same thing, very sound, haven’t given up a touchdown yet this year. Very, very good defense. Four-man front most of the time, they’ll get into some of the three-man front, but mostly a four-man front with a lot of good players. I love their middle linebacker, McMillan, great player. I really love their free safety, Hooker, great athlete back there, covers a ton of ground and already has three interceptions. Really great player.” – Opening statement
“We’ll see, those guys all played better outside of the one play, and that’s more of a mental error than anything. All of those guys played in a better way this past week, so we’ll work on that this week and see who it is.” – On the cornerbacks opposite Jordan Thomas
“There’s some advantage there that we’ve dealt with a guy who’s similar, and you can try and tweak and adjust some things that maybe you thought you could’ve done better. The other side of that is they got to see how you want to play it, so they get to make their adjustments as well.” – On having already played a mobile quarterback in Greg Ward Jr.
“It starts with their quarterback. They do a great job. The balance to be able to run and throw. Their quickness on the outside. Defensively the same thing. Their strength up front, quickness in the secondary.” – Bob Stoops on what worries him about Ohio State
“Obviously it would be a huge boost, to be heading into Big 12 play the following week. It’s always a huge boost to win a game like this.” – On what a win over the Buckeyes would mean