Jim Tressel addressed several items at his weekly press conference, including the suspension of starting safety Kurt Coleman and his opinion of the IU football team. Like most coaches for their opponents, he had nothing but praise for the Hoosiers.
Safety Anderson Russell will take Coleman's starting spot. Redshirt freshman Ohrian Johnson will see his first significant playing time when the Buckeyes need an extra defensive back. As far as addressing the suspension, Tressel said it was yesterday's news and made no further comment on the issue.
Here's Tressel's thoughts on the Hoosiers:
The thing I like about Indiana's team, when Coach Hoeppner went in there a few years back, they put a plan together. Obviously unfortunately he passed, but his plan has remained and Coach Lynch and the rest of the staff took over and have just tried to carry it on, and right now if you look at their defensive side, for instance, I think there are like seven true seniors, either four this-year or fifth-year seniors that are contributing and there's four fifth-year juniors. There are guys that have been there, played against everybody, experienced a lot.
Tressel mentioned stability at QB this season has helped IU:
I thought last year they hurt themselves a little bit by having that unsettling issue at quarterback. Sometimes it was Chappell, sometimes it was Lewis and back and forth and it was tough to get continuity for them and Chappell is their guy.
And finally, his perspective on the game Saturday:
So they've done some things to progress to this point and obviously sit at 3-1 and I'm sure feel deep down that they should be 4-0 and had the opportunities to do that and will have learned whatever it was that made it not possible to take that step. I know they're excited about their first Big Ten home game, so our focus, our preparation, our advancement, our progress has got to be straightforward and incremental as we get ready to go on the road in the Big Ten.
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