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Look, I mean no disrespect to you, but you have to understand how some of these player comments come off to a Virginia Tech supporter.
Yes, Decker, and especially Coach Meyer, had some complimentary things to say about VT, but in the whole context of the article, it all comes off as lip service.
The underlying theme to this whole article sounds like Ohio State is calling last year's game a fluke and should have never happened. Hell, I can understand that mindset, but at least give us a little bit of credit. Is our football program at the level of OSU's? Of course not. But it's not like we are Akron or Indiana either. The fact of the matter is, we flat out were the better team that day. Give us that much credit and move on.
Look at this way - how upset would an OSU fan be if a VT player came out and said "We went into the vaunted Horseshoe, in front of the biggest crowd in the history of that stadium, and took a dump on your 50-yardline"? To me, that is almost the level of disrespect the OSU players are making with their comments. Let's go through them.
"They played a defense that we weren't ready for," Decker said. "Now that we've seen that and we've seen their defenses, we're going to be prepared for those. We're going to be prepared for the Bear."
To me, I would be mad at this quote if I were an OSU fan because he basically admits VT outcoached OSU - which should be horrifying for a Buckeye considering Urban probably makes more himself than the entire VT staff.
That quote also basically says to VT "your defense can't match up with our offense. You just caught us with our pants down."
Fair enough. Challenge accepted. Again, to me that is huge bulletin board material.
"I don't feel like they just flat out went out there and beat us man to man," said Decker, one of eight returning offensive starters. "I don't think they just won every one-on-one battle. They had a great scheme and they had a great game plan ... and they have really good players.

"But I think if our preparation was on the same level, we'll beat them every time."
Again - basically he is saying all things being even, we are going to run you off the field. You can't tell me that is not bulletin board material. That is a direct insult to our defense.
"It looks like we weren't blocking anybody, but they were bringing more than we could block," Decker said. "And that was just a matter of our approach to preparation because we had not seen that defense on film."
Well, that's great. I'm sure Bud Foster is pleased to know you think his scheme was a one-hit wonder and a fluke. I'm sure he is sucking his thumb knowing a snot-nosed college kid has his decades of knowledge figured out after one game.
"It wasn't like we were getting beat for those sacks," Decker said. "We had six blockers, they were bringing seven. We had five blockers, they were bringing six."

So what happens if the Hokies bring seven defenders this time?

"I can't give away our game plan," Decker said. "But we've got it figured out."
I guess we will see about that in a month, won't we?
"We did a terrible job at executing against them last year — running [the] plays and staying in gaps and stuff," said Washington, one of seven returning defensive starters. "If we just execute our game plan, we'll be fine."
Again, a complete lack of respect. And then I will leave with this quote, which basically contradicts the we weren't prepared mantra that seems to be the excuse for last season's game.
"We're going to be really good regardless of who's out on the field, just because of the culture," Perry said. "We have great players who can fill in. It doesn't matter who's really running out there in the starting 11."