OSU’s Jonathan Cooper On Greg Mattison: ‘Once A Buckeye, Always A Buckeye’
CHICAGO — The Michigan Wolverines are the Big Ten favorite for the first time since 2012 in Cleveland.com’s annual poll, something that doesn’t sit well with the Ohio State contingent at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. Head coach Ryan Day is more reserved than his predecessors Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer, but the expectations about beating ‘That Team Up North’ haven’t changed.
Day made that clear on the unofficial first day of college football season to many fans.
“The thing I learned from Urban right from the minute I got there – you’ve got to work The Game every day, and the way to honor the rivalry and to respect the rivalry is to work it every day, and we do,” he said, noting there are specific ‘Michigan drills’ they do at the end of every practice and workout.”
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He remained diplomatic when asked how he felt about U-M being picked first in the Big Ten (OSU was second, Michigan State third).
“We have a lot to prove. We have a new staff; new team. We haven't done anything,” he said.
But he made it clear his team was aware of it.
“I think our guys read it; they see it, especially with social media,” he said. “It's more available than ever. But, again, that's not something that we focus on. I've talked to our guys about the expectations at Ohio State couldn't be any higher year in and year out. We know that. But if we focus on all that, we can get ourselves distracted because it really doesn't matter.
“I know that sounds like coach speak, but it's true. Because in the end, what matters is if we win the game, and the only thing that's going to help us do that is if we get better day in and day out and focus on right now. And, again, I know that sounds like cliché, but it's truth and it's what we've got to focus on.”
But his players made it clear they still expect to win it, and they’ll be trying to with a pair of coaches that came to them from Ann Arbor. Former U-M linebackers coach Al Washington’s defection was no surprise given his strong Buckeye roots, but defensive line coach Greg Mattison shocked most when bailed to become OSU’s new co-defensive coordinator.
The move surprised OSU defensive end Jonathon Cooper, too, but he insisted both guys were accepted into the Buckeye family immediately.
“Coach Mattison is great,” he said. “We all just accepted him when he came in. Him being from The Team Up North didn’t really affect us that much because he came to coach us. We know that he’s a great coach, has a great legacy with The Team Up North. He has a lot to bring to the table, a lot of experience.
“We like that. We like seeing the plans he has for the defense. I just think he’s a special coach and we’re going to have a special season with him. We embraced them both as soon as they got this job. The players, we accepted them as soon as they stepped on campus, spoke to us. You know the saying — ‘once a Buckeye, always a Buckeye.’ As soon as they became Buckeyes, we accepted them that way. They were family. They’re our coaches, and we’re going to do whatever we can to listen to them and do what they say.”
Cooper was also diplomatic when asked about Michigan being tabbed as the preseason Big Ten champion.
“They’re a well-respected team,” he said. “They go hard, and they work hard.”
Wide receiver K.J. Hill, though, made it clear it was going to be hard to outwork them when it came to the last regular season game of the year.
“Right now, we’re training in the offseason and we do workouts for them. Push-ups, sit-ups, everything in the name of them, called the Team up North workout,” he said. “It’s at the end of every workout on Thursday when you’re tired, got finishers outside, got punching bags with the ‘M on there. Everything we do is for them.”
And it never stops, he added. He wasn’t all that surprised by last year’s 62-39 victory in Columbus, he said, though he did give Michigan credited as a “great team,” saying they knew what they were in for.
“But it started in January to go against them,” he said. “I feel like that’s the advantage we’ve got over them. Each and every year we’ve just got to attack it because last year is over now. Now we’ve got to play this year. We’re the underdogs again this year.
“That’s just more fuel, more for us to prove ourselves throughout the season and then when we get there to unleash everything we’ve put in for them.”
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