Ohio State safety Ronnie Hickman previews matchup with Georgia

yeah yeah that means a lot a lot of players have come through this program I've just been in college and just being able to get the chance to play in a national championship um it's a it's a blessing you know we can't take this romantic you know I think the guys in the room understand that so we have to do everything uh detailed and really focusing on everything um yeah I definitely thought um after that game I definitely thought things are definitely going to go yeah after that so I definitely didn't think we were going to be able to come back but you know kind of work some serious ways and we got a second chance I just asking if you could scoot up just to go out there and compete like I said you know anytime you get a chance like this um you just got to take advantage of you know we're willing to play one on that schedule we just wanted a second chance and we got that so you know we got to put in the work and these upcoming weeks and these practices and get prepared and we'll hunt a business when that time comes come out here listen to those five big plays like what was the conversation I guess afterwards came down to to three things really it's uh fundamentals details and and execution we did we did either of those things on those players specifically and um and you kind of see how the episode what was his message in terms of I don't know like dialing battery regression or or being worse um you know coach knows has a as a very uh he likes the closest place the way he does I mean you know that that helps us a lot I think it helped us throughout the whole season um but like I said it came down to just executing and doing our job and on those plays specifically we didn't get there George's tight ends I mean both obviously uh challenge ones in All-American the others you know Washington's huge I mean when you watch them on film what presents the biggest challenge for you guys in the secondary with those two um just two athletic guys you know they have a very athletic role um not just those two guys but you know they have different guys in that room they can do different things and kind of move better than the average title but you know it's a challenge and uh it's an opportunity for the guys in the room and and with their quarterback stats and they they haven't taken a lot of sacks and the drug protection's been pretty good I mean when you see him I mean what is something with him that makes him tough to defend as well I mean he's obviously a better quarterback yeah like you just said um I think his experience um I think he's a little bit older than the guys that he's playing with so he has that edge on on some of his opponents and anytime you're dealing with a QB who has experience you know they can read things a little bit uh better they can read quicker and stuff like that so you just got to be on your toes in preparation and how much I mean is there a difference to it when you know that a lot of the players on this roster are four and five star guys a lot of the players on their rosters of five star guys and a lot of NFL players are going to be on this field I mean is there something to that that makes it extra exciting to prepare for when you know a lot of these guys are going to be playing on Sunday on both sides that's what you're coming for um you want to compete against the best and play and play against the best and ultimately that makes you a better player so uh that's what you come in for this year is it something different about Georgia knowing that they have two like you said versatile tight ends on the field at the same time um I mean it's definitely going to be a challenge like I said but it's an opportunity for us to showcase our skills and as a defense to Showcase that um you know whenever the talents are presented I'm a rather than take it on it I mean it doesn't really matter bottom line is um we'll be playing in that game so whether people feel like we should or should it it doesn't really matter because we are they win how much extra motivation you know that's that's the prize at the end I mean we gotta we gotta take it a day at a time on one practice at a time right now we're focusing on Georgia I'm so if that time comes or when that time comes uh we'll deal with it though Ronnie when you have any loss or a game like the Michigan game how much in film do you go through and dissect maybe things that went wrong or do you guys kind of know what went wrong and you flush it and put it behind you and move on to the next thing no it's uh it's critical you dive into the film um as a team as a defense as a unit as hard as it is to watch the Players and stuff like that you have to do it to part of the game and I think we did a good job of going over our mistakes and stuff like that so you kind of have to how nobody wants to make mistakes you guys work every day to make sure they don't happen but when you look at what happened how fixable would you say some of the issues against Michigan very fixable and I think that's what hurts us the most um no matter how the outside looks at it we know what happened we know what went wrong obviously we got to do better we got to fix it there's no excuses but I think that's What Hurts the Most we know that it's problems that are fixable and just stuff that you do routine I I can understand why that would hurt right but also is there a part of it and not that it's going to be easy against Georgia obviously it's two great teams but there's is there some idea of like okay we we can make sure we don't do those things again in this next game and if we don't make those same mistakes we're going to be in a much better spot you know what I mean yep yeah okay so that's because sometimes it can just be like oh man like we did our best and a team still attacked us right yeah that definitely wasn't the case so yeah we got to correct the things that we need correct them okay and just I'll ask a nice question about this just can you just describe maybe the confidence level or how you guys talk about it or what you see in practice how would you describe your confidence in your ability to not have those things happen again um I'll tell you know we've been having some of the best practices we had all season just the energy and the motivation and for the guys in that room offense and defense um like I said earlier you know being able to have this second chance is huge um so we're just doing everything we can to not let us live to our families okay didn't get to ask you after that maybe a little bit of extra juice to how you're approaching this game to use how it yeah I mean you gotta approach every game like it's your last but uh most definitely um you know playing in the college football playoffs and I'm having a chance to win a National Championship it's something that doesn't come along often so you gotta take advantage of the opportunity and do whatever is necessary what are you telling the guys far as practices are concerned how are you leading them to is there a difference in attitude I guess after uh the mission or the announcement yeah for sure now right now as far as for sure after that loss we're probably at the lowest we could possibly be so first to get that news that we're back in it you know I think everyone including staff they know uh what it means to be able to come back just because we've had it all taken away from us um so first I have this chance that the guys don't need much motivation we know what's at Stakes we know what uh we can ultimately achieve by the end of the season and start in front of us so it's all on us loose and aggressive that's what Ryan said he wants you guys to play [Laughter] was or wasn't pass interference in your mind it looked like he just went straight up through the Galick here maybe Tommy that's a tricky call but um it was definitely called PR you know so I can't draw on it too much yeah but so what do you learn from that call you understand what I'm saying I mean because me technique-wise it looked almost yeah perfect yeah you know I thought that going kind of straight up and not Adam yeah I thought that would kind of stop the pi but I guess it didn't so in that case you kind of just got to turn around um and try to play offense as best as you can and I think that'll help avoid the defensive PR cards yeah uncatchable ball though did you yell that yeah um I definitely thought that was going to come through and kind of get the flag out of there but it didn't um so you know you got to live with it and one of them lead up to here is what is the key with these two tight ends Georgia could throw at you I mean Darnell you know zero is six foot seven looks like he weighs 280. I mean just a beast and then the other guy can outrun some folks if you know I mean they use it buyers they use them all kinds of different ways what kind of special I guess challenge is that present when they put both those guys on the field just discipline um you know you got to have great ideas of playing Garden tight ends and Georgia doesn't they do a good job of you know hiding them some ways and slipping them out here and there with a couple delays um so you just got to be disciplined how do you guys think you handled when you played Notre Dame and Michael Mayers one of the best tight ends in the country how did you feel like you guys did against that tight end uh I would say we definitely did uh did pretty well I guess um a lot of hype coming into the season so huge sound for us but it also like I said an opportunity for us to Showcase so we are as a defense uh obviously I don't remember his stats but I don't think he did too crazy he had like one big play but no it wasn't he didn't go crazy for sure yeah like nine or ten catches but but nothing yards I mean that's the key right yeah so um we knew they were going to Target him a lot but you just gotta hold those explosive plays down I mean the reason is like you know I think mayor and then the combination of Bowers in Washington I think those are probably that might be the best tight end situations in the country and it's like okay well you open the season with one of those and I I thought you guys did as well against him as anybody in the country do you learn anything does that mean anything now when you're playing another offense that features the tight end and has some really talented guys at that position just another opportunity to showcase our skills yeah um you know we'll do the work and do the right film study and stuff for them like I said they do a lot of stuff with their tight ends but it's just another chance what has been drilled the last two weeks too though about basically three big plays against the against the secondary I mean when you when you break it down because three big pass plays for touchdowns well what have y'all drilled mostly about that about knowing where your help is about um knowing you don't have you know one where a guy just broke right out over the middle and there was no safety there obviously because y'all were doing other Shenanigans with your safety but what were I guess the lessons learned from that from those three plays in particular I mean we talked about those in after watching the film I mean this past few they feel a few practices we've just been working on the basics and fundamentals the coaches have done a great job of explaining to us what went wrong and stuff like that so we've been drilling those things yeah yeah and there's there's a thing about giving up a 25-yard pass but not letting it go for 50 right I mean that is that part of the the drill yeah but sometimes you are going to get beat yeah yeah you got to get the ball on the ground [Music] to get the ball down so when you fail those things you got to drill those things and practice over and over again yeah we'll probably ask you this next week or a week and a half from now in George but I'm gonna ask it right now when you're playing a guy like Stetson Bennett who can just keep a drive Alive by running scrambling whether J.J McCarthy did that a few times and said some other quarterbacks did that against y'all what if y'all I just re-emphasized in in that regard about not letting quarterbacks Escape or because occasionally they're going to do it anyway yeah I mean for the secondary you know whenever that quarterback's scrambling or anything like that uh we're kind of taught to plaster our guy you know stay man-to-man on our God linebackers whoever containing the quarterback to do their job so you know we all have a job on the field you know if we all do our job we'll all be happy again what are your impressions of the receivers I know you talked about the tight ends but you know McConkey is one of the guys he made several big plays for them and then Jackson there it's almost like we talk about the tight ends so much that they've got two pretty good guys on the outside receivers um definitely something that we're not overlooking you know we've watched the filming I really like 84 I feel like he's one of those really good details Shifty receivers that you've always gotta you know lock in when you when you line up against um so you know they have a they have a great set of receivers and um like I said earlier it's just another great change for us to charge skills another good opportunity Ronnie what is the now you know you guys run whatever coach Knowles calls for you guys but I think their their first Michigan's first touchdown I think you and Lathan Blitz and I think Tommy and Steele blipped on that play an aggressive call and One Missed tackle and it's a touchdown I know coach Knowles and Coach day have said you guys want to be aggressive right but just in general what's it like for any defense trying to balance being aggressive you know zero Blitz at times get after him and then all the other times maybe drop coverage and make them make a play I know it's a it's easy from here to try to look at it but what is the right balance for any defense I mean I'm not a d coordinator I'm a coach or anything but like I said earlier it comes down to to do things fundamentals technique and execution on those plays where they those big plays you know we didn't do all of those three things you know it came down to a tackle they need to be made we didn't make it and several other plays where it came down like you know simple things that you just know that we could do and we just failed to do it on that play so at the end of the day we just got to get better better on those things what does when you guys do at times though come after a quarterback what kind of effect does that have maybe if even if you don't get home on that play how important is it maybe at times to put that in a quarterback's head to let them know there's going to be times when you guys are going to get after him with a couple blitzers that was good I mean as a blizzard it's fun yeah as a Defender it's not so fun you kind of just praying on them and get there as quick as possible but it's needed in this area of college football yeah um you know you got to put pressure on the quarterback you got to force me to get it out early and stuff like that and this works for us you know this whole season um it doesn't just come down to one game but but like I said we we failed to do uh those things in those big plays during that game and we just got to work on those to get better so when you're the guy going after the quarterback let it rip it's all fun but you there are times when someone else has that assignment and you're back there as a last line of defense there's no help man but uh that's football that's what you that's what you signed up for wait um do you like the way well yeah he can go well let me yeah just quick and you answer him do you like the way coach knows is called the defense this year I mean I'm of course you got to say yeah but I mean yeah I like the aggressiveness I see ya I like it buddy what's the key in the week of practice activations and you don't know in case you have another game to really play for what's the key to stay motivated it's a feel like you lost everything you feel like everything was gone um but coach Jay did a great job keeping our heads in it um you know it's hard to come in the facility and stuff like that but you know he told us we're not it's not over till it's over basically I mean he was right you know we came in and still practiced and stuff like that that week after in the moment we may not have wanted to do it but uh you know we look at it now and I'm glad coach they had us out there was was had to talk talked to guys got you guys going what was that like to see for him JT's a phenomenal player but uh hit off the field as well you connect someone in the locker room um so for him you know especially being here yeah I don't really treat him like a young guy because you know once you start making plays you're making plays but uh for him to be the greatest and the age he's in and where he's at development watch for him to come up in front of the whole team and kind of just open up his heart to us it was huge and I think it uh opened up a lot of the other guys hard to see you know we're still in this you know it's not over um it's not open Ronnie thank you very much