Ohio State’s Trapasso a Guy semifinalist
Meeting with reporters in person for the first time since Saturday night’s 13-6 loss to Penn State, coach Jim Tressel said Thursday he could not foresee giving up control of offensive play-calling.
Tressel said he was not interested in bringing in a young, innovative offensive guru. He said it was better to have the players, assistants and himself decide on plays as the game unfolded.
He said offensive masterminds usually don’t last long in the business of college coaching.
“I’ve read about those guys that have shredders in their office, because they’re a genius and they don’t want anyone to ever see (their plays),”
he said.
Tressel said he doesn’t often bump into them, either.
“I haven’t met one and most of them I’ve read about are either selling insurance or commentating,”
he said.
GUY GUY: A.J. Trapasso was announced Thursday as one of the 10 semifinalists for the 2008 Ray Guy Award, which goes to the nation’s top collegiate punter.
From a list of 53 nominees, the semifinalists won out based on net average, percentage of punts inside the 20-yard line, average return yardage and percentage not returned.
The award honors Guy, the first punter inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and a legendary weapon for the Oakland Raiders from 1973-86.
Cincinnati’s Kevin Huber, Iowa’s Ryan Donahue and Michigan’s Zoltan Mesko join Trapasso as semifinalists.
Trapasso is averaging 42.3 yards per kick, has placed 12 inside the 20 and has had five result in touchbacks.
NOT DOWN: Ohio State has more than 40 fourth- and fifth-year seniors on its roster this season. As many as 13 considered turning pro last year after the national championship loss to Louisiana State but elected to stick around for another season.
Tressel said those players are not crushed by Saturday’s loss and do not feel as though they wasted the year — even though it seems unlikely they can win another Big Ten title and make it back to a third straight BCS title game.
“The good news is that they came back for a lot of reasons,”
he said. “Shoot, if you’re not interested in those kind of things (championships), then your heart’s not beating. But if that’s all you’re interested in, then you’re probably in low morale. Fortunately, those guys came back for probably 98 percent of reasons that had nothing to do with that.”
He added, “At least the way they practiced (Wednesday), unless they’re the greatest actors I’ve ever seen, their morale is simply that they want to get better and they want Ohio State to do well.”
TRESSELESE: Tressel, asked if he would consider staff changes: “I think you always, if you’re willing to try to decide which players are in the right position, you certainly better be willing to consider which coaches are in the right position and are you doing the right things. That has to be the beginning of all your thinking. Are you doing the schemes that your players are capable of doing and are you teaching them? And then are you utilizing them at the right times? I know that’s a hard one too, because, one moment you might think it is and the next moment, well, I didn’t know they were blitzing.”
