Ohio State’s Nicholas Petit-Frere, Jonathon Cooper, Garrett Wilson, Shaun Wade Recap Rutgers, Preview Maryland

Coming off a 49-27 victory against Rutgers, Ohio State will travel to College Park, Md., to take on the Terrapins on Saturday, Nov. 14.

Ohio State’s Nicholas Petit-Frere, Jonathon Cooper, Garrett Wilson, and Shaun Wade spoke to members of the the media Nov. 10.

Nicholas Petit-Frere

The biggest lesson is just to keep swinging, don’t let mistakes get to you, just keep improving every single day. The way we practice, prepare and train in terms of film study and everything is very big in terms of what we do on Saturday.
Every team is always going to bring something different. We practice so hard and we train and we watch film that we should be the fastest, most confident team because we put the work in.
I just try to focus on playing as hard as I can to help us win games. As long as we do our jobs and we play as hard as we can, everything will work out for everyone in the end.
I learned a lot, especially from him and everyone that was behind me. From Isaiah Prince, Branden Bowen, Josh Alabi, and watching film of tackles who were here before me. Thayer has inspired a lot of confidence in me.
I feel powerful, especially with the weight behind me, but I also feel confident as well. And that’s the key.
Always react; don’t overreact things. Getting a few games in just always feels more comfortable, being able to see things.
Everyone has a different journey and a different path. As a unit, we always try to figure out how people’s lives are and things that they’ve done to get to that point.
Thayer was one of the first people that I met here. He took me under his wing as a little brother. He’s been like a big brother to me. At the end of the day, there’s a reason why we were all brought here together. At this end of the day, we were all brought together here for a reason.
Technically, he’s actually slightly younger than me, so that’s funny to think about.
He’s one of the more physical blockers that we have here. We have a great group of guys who do the extra-effort plays, even when they don’t get the ball.
Everything has just been going right for me. I’ve just been on an upward slope, just trying to get better at everything.
Came in at 265 pounds and now I’m weighing 312.
It’s super rewarding because we’re winning games. It’s a great feeling being a part of that.
It’s hard at first when you first get here and you’re trying to learn the plays. It’s such an extensive playbook with different types of situations. Once you learn a part of it, it all builds off itself though.

Jonathan Cooper

You do get caught up in week to week when it comes to the season. It’s kind of hard to think of the season as a whole. We don’t want to take a week for granted, or even a day for granted.
A lot of people have reached out to me and congratulated me. Not anyone like LeBron James or anything.
Nick [Petit-Frere] is a great player. I’ve definitely seen him grow throughout the years. He’s definitely developed into an amazing tackle for us. I’m really proud of him.
For us to get better with our hands and our get-offs and stuff. He’s never satisfied, but I feel like you need that in a coach. He’s really hard on us and we’re really hard on ourselves; we want to be better. We want to do better.
I think we’re generating a lot of pressure. We were getting there and definitely affecting his passing. I think people are really starting to realize the kind of defensive line we have and they’re not passing or holding onto the ball very long. But we’re still making an effect the best way we can
We can’t run upfield and create gaps for those quarterbacks. They know how to use their feet as well. We need to make sure we keep them in the pocket.
I do remember that scare two years ago very well. That was a good team back then, and I feel like they’re a better team now.
I think Zach [Harrison] is playing pretty well. If you go back and look at the tape, he’s doing good. He’s doing great things, developing more confidence and so on as the weeks go by.
He’s the fastest defensive lineman we have. Now you’re starting to see how fast he is with improved confidence. You can see he is strong and super tall.
We are getting there, the ball is just getting out quick. They respect our pass rush , so you don’t see a lot of drop-back passing .
It’s hard to get prepared for those and see those throughout the week. You have to go back to your rules. I think we’re going to look at more trick plays and see what we can do. But there’s only so much you can do with trick plays.
We got to be better. Our defense as whole, we’ve got to be better. All those calls can lead to scores. We really haven’t finished as strong as we’re supposed to, and that’s something I’m trying to talk to my guys about.

Chris Olave

Just his consistency. Chris [Olave] never had a bad practice. He never drops anything. He’s very consistent.
When I first got here, he [Olave] was really quiet. But now that I’ve gotten to know him, he’s not as quiet.
Just the perimeter blocking. Our receiver room has put a big emphasis on that. The jet sweeps have been working better with improved blocking on the edge.
Being in this offense and playing with Justin [Fields], he’s always going to put it where it needs to be.
Being able to be consistent throughout the season will be the biggest thing for us. It’s going to start to get colder and teams will have more film.
Just watching the offense my senior year in high school with Dwayne [Haskins], I saw what they were doing and the success they had in the passing game. I tried to come in with no expectations, but just the way this offense has gone the past two years and how things are opening up in the passing game, I expected that.
Coach [Ryan] Day said that he saw that I could play any position at receiver coming out of high school, and he liked that.
Those are the people I looked up to growing up. Seeing their names along my name, that was super special to me. Hopefully we can break some records.
The biggest thing is being consistent. Getting good practices in and that translates on Saturdays.
Being on the field, you definitely can feel your groove once you ‘re in your groove. The only thing that can take that away is getting taken out of the game.
As an offense, you want to take the pressure off your defense. We feel like if you’re putting up 40 points like we did, then we’re doing that. We know what we need to do, and that’s scoring every drive. That’s our expectation.
Just being a receiver, when I see a play that I’ve got a deep route on, my eyes get big. There are some calls that Coach Day makes that I know what he’s trying to do or which mismatch he sees in the secondary when he makes the call.
There’s some that just come as second hand knowledge. I probably have 3-4 plays that I have to focus on in the game because I might have messed those up during practice.
We have no clue. I’m just playing and once we get to the locker room, then I figure that out.
As a receiver, you’ve got personal goals, and 100 yards is usually a landmark of a good game for a receiver. If that’s what the team calls for, I think I can do that.

Shaun Wade

Really just keep on getting better. Me getting better and our team getting better.
All I care about right now is the team getting better.
Things I can work on, just playing the ball in the air. You’re going to get caught on, the greatest get caught on them.
The biggest challenge is the distance from the ball. I’ve just been going back watching Jeff [Okudah] and Damon [Arnette] from things they did last year.
The ball is definitely in the air longer. Really it’s just learning every day. That’s why I came back, just to learn and get better.
These last games I’ve definitely been going for the interception, and sometimes I realized I need to just go for the PBU.
On that play, I could have just broke the ball up because I was there. I kind of jumped back, and I should have jumped into him. We didn’t make any body contact. If there were body contact, it might have distracted him.
Everybody still has something to work on. You’re never perfect at corner.
More disappointment. No lack of confidence. You’re going to be disappointed if you want to be great.
They’ve got good receivers. We’ve got to practice hard and come ready because they are going to be ready.
I talked to Coach [Kerry] Coombs, Sevyn [Banks], Proct [Josh Proctor], Hook [Marcus Hooker], basically all the DBs, and I said we got to be on our ‘A’ game.
The threat of quarterbacks in the Big Ten definitely has grown. Even Northwestern’s quarterback is looking good.
With Tua’s brother [Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa], he’s definitely a dog. He’s not that tall, but if he gets out of the pocket, he can definitely run and scramble.
Last week, we knew they were going to do a lot of trick plays. They did eight trick plays in their first two games, so we knew Coach [Greg] Schiano was going to bring out some trick plays for us.
If we keep him in the pocket, I know that’s going to work. And we’ve got to stick with our guys.

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