Joe Paterno Press Conference
Oct. 14, 2008
Q. One of your players said this morning that you mentioned the losing streak to Michigan right after the Wisconsin game. I was wondering why you felt you had to do that.
A. You tell me. I don't know why I said it. It was after the game. I just wanted to get things in focus, try to make sure that we didn't walk out of there with our heads in the clouds. Just said, "Hey..." I forget exactly how I did it. I think we haven't beaten them in nine years or something like that probably. Is it nine years? I'm not even sure I'm right on that.
Q. When you look at this Michigan team on tape, what are some of the bigger differences between this team maybe and some of Lloyd Carr's teams?
A. You've got to be careful when you look at the Toledo tape. Then you've got to go back and look at their Notre Dame game. You've got to look at their Illinois game, things like that. They're almost like a different football team. Obviously, they're struggling a little bit in certain key positions. But there's talent all over the place. They've got a lot of good kids that are going to be really good. I just hope they're a week away. Again, I'd have to go back and think about Lloyd's teams. I really haven't been that interested in those teams as I am in this team. I've got to worry about this team, not the ones that Lloyd had.
Q. When you've lost to a team like that, nine times in a row, can it be a mental thing? Is that perhaps why you brought that up after the game?
A. No, no, no. It's not a mental thing. We had a couple tough ballgames that could go either way. And a lot of it was not due to the people playing the game. Some outside people blew a couple things and made it a little tougher to win. But, no, I don't think it's a psychological thing at all. Even if Lloyd were there, that's not the problem. The point I wanted to make is, "Hey, you're not going to have a bunch of guys coming into State College and they're going to be in awe of us," or anything like that. We've got to be ready to go out and play and go out and play a good, tough football game.
Q. After the last game you gave the pluses and minuses of coaching from the press box. I wonder how you feel this week. Are you considering coaching from the press box the rest of the season?
A. Well, I'm playing it day to day, really. I'm not sure what we're going to do this week. Some days I really feel that I can go out there and almost jog. Other days it's really sore. I just got to play it by ear, play it one day at a time, and then when the season's over, have somebody take a look at it and get it fixed up.
Q. How much do you think Aaron Maybin has improved in the last year?
A. I think he has improved, but he's always been a really good prospect. He's been a little flighty, a little bit undisciplined, played his own defense at times, which made you a little bit nervous about him. But, he's settled down and he's paying attention to details. I think if he gets a little stronger... He's not the biggest kid out there playing. He's a 240 pounder that should be a 255 pounder. He's got a body fat percentage of about 4 percent. He's struggled putting weight on because he's got so much energy. I think he's getting better. I think he can get better. But, number one, he's got to get a little stronger.
Q. Speaking about Michigan, can you assess this defense they've played this year and how that will affect the way you play your offense?
A. Well, they play basically two looks. They play what most people are playing, the four man down. But the minute they get in some kind of a passing situation, they go with three down guys, an extra linebacker and an extra defensive back. They're a typical Michigan team when you look at them. As far as personnel, they have kids who can run. They hustle. Against Toledo, that's a really bad evaluation. You really get in trouble if you start to evaluate that football team based on what happened with Toledo. So, I don't see a lot different in the way they play. Their enthusiasm, the fact they're football players, they'll hit you when they get there, all those kinds of things. Playing a club like Toledo, they're going in to score, kid makes a little mistake, throws the ball, (Toledo) runs it back 100 yards for a touchdown. Sets the tone. They're not that experienced yet. They're still struggling with a lot of young people. That probably has a bigger impact on that kind of a team than it would an experienced football team. But I don't see a lot of difference in the type of people they have, than the ones we've played against through the years.
Q. Could you talk about any type of influence you think Jay (Paterno) has had on you maybe recently? Have him and Galen (Hall) convinced you to go and do different things offensively?
A. Well, I hope every one of the assistant coaches has had some impact on me. I try to listen to them and learn, watch them coach. Sometimes they come up with some things that are really awfully good and I try to make sure that I'm not blind to the fact that maybe we didn't do it that way 10 years ago, that we're not going to do it way this year. I think they've all had an impact on me. But, basically I go back to it depends on who they want to do it with; with whom they want to do it. We're not going to do some things that they may like and may look good on the blackboard if I'm not comfortable that we don't have the personnel to do it. I think this year our offensive personnel suits exactly what Galen and Jay want to do in the passing game. I think we're on the right track. I think I'd say the same thing defensively. At one time I was nervous about the scheme we were in because we had to get rid of a couple guys, and then we had some people hurt. We debated whether we would change a couple alignments. But the defensive coaches felt that they could get that done with the way we had been doing things, so I went along with it, and they were right. That's the same thing that happened on the offensive side of the football. You have to give Bill Kenney, Dick Anderson and Mike McQueary some credit, too. Bill and Dick have been with me a long time. They know exactly how much time I'm going to give them to practice. I'm not going to let them have all the time they want, worry about some different things that would not have occurred to a younger coach who had not been around here. I think obviously they've had an impact. But, I just want to make sure that all those coaches out there, that's a good staff, and again, I'm going to say what I've said 50 times, I listen to all of them and watch 'em all.
Q. It seems offensive lines in general are known for having their share of characters. This team has a few. What does it say about this group, that they're able to transition from lightheartedness to being one of the better lines in your tenure?
A. I should have taken more psychology courses, I guess, in college. Everybody's got a personality. One of the hardest parts of coaching sometimes is, when do you sit on them and when do you let them go? What is it a good combination? When does it look like it's going in the wrong direction; maybe the wrong guys are leading the pack? Those are all things you have to take into consideration when I would answer that question. I think the combination and the chemistry and the respect for each other that the offensive linemen have, they may clown around, they may horse around. I'm not sure what they do off the field, but when they're on the field, they're all business. They'll have a joke. They'll tease me a little bit, play a couple games on me. But that's fine. That's fun. They know when to go to work. The minute they don't, then, of course, obviously I've got a problem. But right now I think it's a good group of kids who are working hard together.
Q. Every player on every team in the country talks about taking their season one game at a time, maintaining focus. Some players can't seem to do it that way. This team doesn't seem to have a lot of those guys. Did you expect that because of how many seniors there were? Are you pleased with how well they've done it so far?
A. At the beginning of the season I was hopeful it would happen that way. When you get into a season, you kept asking me how good we are, and I kept saying, "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know." We have to wait until we see some adversity, see if we have the kind of leadership that will carry us through. So far so good. I think we've had good leadership. I think the leadership starts with people who are mature enough to understand that you don't win the game talking about it, you don't win the game in newspapers, you don't win the game unless you're ready in pads each week to play against a team that's out there to beat you and can beat you. You see that every week. I think we have some mature kids that understand that. In the locker room, they probably talk about it a lot. I think it's so far so good. You get to a point where after a big win, as we had against Wisconsin, where things went so well for us, you always have something in the back of your head you got to watch and make sure nobody gets out of line, nobody gets carried away with the one win, that they can focus in on the next win. I can't tell you today whether we have or haven't. We only practiced yesterday for about an hour and 10 minutes without pads. I'll get a better feel for it after practice tomorrow night. But I think we'll be okay.
Q. What is the status of wide receiver Brett Brackett and also tailback Brent Carter?
A. Carter's going to have his knee operated on. He has an ACL (right, torn). Brett, I don't think they're going to let him go this week, had a pretty good concussion. He was on the practice field yesterday but didn't do anything. So I would doubt either one of those kids would play. I know Carter won't.
Q. Daryll Clark, seven starts in, are you surprised how well he's picked up every part of that very difficult job of being a quarterback?
A. Well, I thought he started to do that at the end of last year. When we put him in there against Texas A&M, I thought he handled himself well, knew what was going on, was poised. So I had high hopes that hanging around with the wideouts, the other skilled people during the winter program, then in spring practice, that he'd come out of it ready to be a big league quarterback, as I felt both he and Pat Devlin would. Both of them are big league quarterbacks. So, it's not a surprise to me, but you're never sure. Again, I think he's done, what you said -- he's done in the seven games he's played. He's played with maturity. He's been alert. He knows what's going on. He comes out in the football game, knows what's happening. He's learning all the time. I always like to stick Pat Devlin in there because Pat's in the same boat.
Q. When your program gets on a roll like it is now, do you or have you ever allowed yourself feelings of vindication?
A. Do you enjoy silencing the critics now and then? I don't know what I have to vindicate. You know, you guys have got to write columns and you've got to figure out something to write. We've probably won more games in the last three and a half years than any team in the country. We won 11 and 9 and 9 (and first seven this year). I don't know whether that's the best or what. I've never felt I had to vindicate myself in any way. My only job is to make sure we do the best job we can for the kids out there busting their butt and try to win as many games as we can and play as well as we can and do it with a little class, make our fans feel good about the team and their university. But as far as vindicating myself, no. That's up to you guys.
Q. You talk about your leg and knee. Can you disclose the specific injury?
A. I don't know for sure. It's probably something to do with the hip. I don't know. I haven't got time to spend time going through a lot of examinations and things like that right now. We'll wait till the season's over, see what happens.
Q. Are you getting a lot of get well cards?
A. No, I don't get get well cards. Can't we talk about the football team and not me, for crying out loud?
Q. You have a lot of fifth year guys that were here in 2004, Shipley, Cadogan... Those are the guys that have won probably more games since they've been here than any group of seniors around. How good do you feel those guys (fifth-year seniors) were able to go through that 2004 experience and then kind of help you get things back?
A. Well, obviously they're all helpful. How helpful? You know, they had some pride. They wanted to do well. They were good football players. The combination wasn't quite right (in 2004). We were one or two players short. When things didn't go well, we didn't have a couple players that could play big plays. We all knew where we were. It was just a question until we could get that thing straight. Maybe it took a year longer than I thought it would have. That was all there was to it. A bunch of good kids. I never doubted we'd end up with a good football team. We had a bunch of good coaches who enjoyed working with them.
Q. You've often talked about the importance of playing fast. With the success the defense has had recently, how much of that was physical speed, athleticism? How much of that comes with experience, knowing where you need to be?
A. A lot of it comes with experience. I mean, I can line a guy up. Line the same guy up three weeks ago, he won't make the two or three plays he made Saturday because he's not ready to anticipate, he doesn't read the formation, he doesn't have the kind of confidence in himself that when he sees something, lets go. He may wait a second and make sure what he sees he sees, which is one step too slow. That only comes with playing and confidence, staying healthy, repeats on the practice field. So, yeah, I think that we're playing faster. We have to.
Q. Should Daryll Clark's name be mentioned more in terms of Heisman Trophy contention?
A. I don't get into that. You guys are the guys that have to get involved in that. I don't see the other guys. For me to tell you that this guy's better than that guy, better than that guy, better than that guy... I wish I had the luxury of just sitting there and listening to all the pundits say how, "this guy's great, that guy's great." I don't know. I think Daryll Clark's a heck of a college football player right now, heck of a college quarterback. Where would he rate? I don't know. We've got a lot of football to play yet. Doesn't make so much sense to me to go out there and start saying, "I think Daryll ought to be here, here and here." We've got a lot of football to play, and a lot of things can happen in that period. We started out early saying he's got to stay focused on what he's got to do, get better each week, and we'll see what happens.
Q. You've said in the past that having an undefeated or a national championship team every decade, you wanted to get one this decade. Is that something that's still in the back of your mind?
A. Well, I think when we just missed out a couple years ago (2005), it was a disappointment to me. But I don't know. I really haven't thought about it that way. You know, certainly you'd like to be able to say, "Hey, I had an undefeated team in X number of decades." But, I really don't think about it. I'm sure if it happens and somebody starts talking about it, I'll probably go and ask for a raise (laughter).
Q. One more question about the Heisman. Given all the success you've had, is it a little surprising you've only had one Heisman winner?
A. Well, there again, I thought Lydell Mitchell should have won it (in 1971). But the circumstances that year were that the kid from Cornell (Ed Marinaro) had a great year, so the votes got split. Blair Thomas was that far away from winning a Heisman Trophy (1989). When he didn't score on that great drive, we gave him the ball eight, ten times against Alabama. Missed it by that much. Richie Lucas missed it (in 1959). Very close. We've had our shots at it, but we just missed a little. I can't do anything about it, so it doesn't surprise me or bother me or whatever. I'm disappointed that maybe one or two of those kids could have had it. It would have been nice to have. It would have been nice for them more than anybody else, and their families. Obviously, it would be nice for the university. But first it would be important to them.
Q. How fearful are you that a program like Michigan can get it all together on one Saturday? They've struggled, but they do have a lot of talent and good coaches there.
A. What's your point?
Q. Are you worried that this is a team that is somewhat dangerous and can play at a very high level?
A. Yeah, I'm saying that. I'm saying I think Michigan is a good football team, and they can go out there and beat anybody, probably, if they can get a couple of kids that start to feel good about themselves, make a couple plays, get a little momentum. You've got to look at a couple other games. Forget the Toledo game. You literally have to wipe that thing out. They didn't play very well at all. But they got off on the wrong foot. I don't know whether they went in the game without looking back at a couple things. But then you look at a couple other games they played, they played really well. I keep saying they're a good football team. How good? How good are we? I don't know yet. I think it's going to be a real tough football game.
Q. Michigan quarterback Steve Threet is questionable this weekend. Is it any more difficult having to prepare not knowing who the starting quarterback is?
A. They both played half the game last week, so we saw both of them. The big kid (Steven Threet) started the first half, and the other kid (Nick Sheridan) played the second half. They're fairly similar. One is a little better runner than the other. I won't get into which is which. One is a better runner. The other has probably more experience. The thing they have coming back, they have a real fast wideout, No. 9 (Martavious Odoms) , who they have not had, who is a big plus. That other kid, No. 2 (Sam McGuffie), a freshman kid, starting to get better as a running back. He ran for over 100 yards Saturday. They're starting to get some people back now which will help the quarterbacks. I'm not sure they've made up their mind whether the quarterback is going to play or not. Have you heard something I haven't heard?
Q. No.
A. But both those kids are good athletes. Both quarterbacks played against Toledo.
Q. You said they're fairly similar. Does that mean you can prepare for one quarterback?
A. They're not going to change their offense because one guy's in or the other guy's in. They may emphasize one thing a little bit more than the other thing. No, you've got to get ready to play what you've seen offensively. They're a spread offensive football team. They'll go fast on you. They'll go slow on you. They'll change the pace on you. They're clever. If you're not sound in something, they'll pick it up, the coaches will pick it up, and they'll keep coming back to it until you take it away from them. It will be that kind of a game.
Q. Earlier in your coaching career would you have ever put an offense on the field that looks like this one, everything spread out?
A. I played it. Back in 1959 we went to two wideouts, two slotbacks, and Richie Lucas was under the center. We went to him when we had the lonesome end. No, you play with what you've got. I can't seem to get that across. It isn't the formation. It isn't the scheme. It's who's executing it. No, we've been all over the place. But, you know, people are having fun with it. The fans like it. I think when you've got the kind of wideouts, skilled people we have, it's kind of fun to watch, I know that. But if they weren't that good, Daryll and Pat were not capable of handling some of the intricacies of what they had to do, it wouldn't look so good.
Q. Seems like you're getting some positive contributions from some of your backups. Can you talk about the depth? Are you happy with the depth you're developing?
A. Yeah, I am. That's one of the nice things about having had some games where we had pretty good control of it early. You could get some of those kids in, they get some experience, so they're not in shock when they go in. I really like our young kids. I think we have a lot of kids that haven't played that are going to be really good football players. So I feel good about some of those young kids that have had an opportunity to play. (Michael) Mauti is starting to play, (Nate) Stupar. Even some of the kids that are a year older now, (Navorro) Bowman and (Bani) Gbadyu, are starting to do some things now. The wideouts -- we haven't seen a lot of (Derek) Moye, but Moye is a redshirt freshman that's going to be a real good wideout. (Graham) Zug has gotten in there and played well. Without Carter, (Brandon) Beachum is going to have to play this week as a third guy. So there's a lot of good, young talent. I feel pretty good about our depth. I'm still concerned about maybe two or three more offensive linemen that have to come to the front. That's always the toughest part. Maybe one or two guys on the defensive line, because we can't afford to have anybody hurt on the offensive line or defensive line. We don't have anybody ready yet. But they're getting there. Other than that, I think we're in pretty good shape.
Q. Have you consulted with doctors for what your options would be to get your hip fixed up after the season? Would your ultimate goal to be to return to the sideline?
A. Geez, I don't have the slightest idea. I'm trying to figure out how we're going to beat Michigan. I'm not worried about where I'm going to be.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Joe Paterno Press Conference (10/7)
Joe Paterno Press Conference Transcript
Oct. 7, 2008
Q. Is it a big adjustment going from playing a finesse team such as Purdue to playing a more physical team such as Wisconsin?
Well, it's a different game, obviously. You expect certain things to be different. It will be a little more smash mouth kind of football, because Wisconsin's a tough football team and prides themselves in their physical toughness.
But, I think you've got to line-up properly, and you've got to tackle and you've got to get to the football.
You may not have quite as many lineup problems ordinarily, but Wisconsin gives you so many different looks with two or three tight ends that move around and jump around that you really don't get any benefit out of that.
So I think it's just a question of mentally. You've got to get ready to get into a tough football game. I don't know. It's football.
Q. Could you give us an update on the health of Mickey Shuler, Andrew Quarless and Jordan Norwood?
Norwood's going to be okay. Quarless and Mickey didn't do much yesterday, but it was only Monday. Today's Tuesday so, I think I'll know more after today. But they both tried to do a couple things (Monday) and I told them just take it easy, don't overdo it. But there's no question Norwood will be okay, unless something happens this week.
Q. Can you give us an update on your health situation? Is your leg feeling any better?
Yeah, it gets a little better. It's up and down. It's one of those things I'm going to have for a while, so I've got to live with it.
We'll see by the end of the week whether I feel I can get on the sidelines or coach upstairs. I don't think it's a big concern for the squad. It's not a big concern for me because with the staff we have, as I've said several times, it isn't a big deal.
But, you know, I'm going to have to live with it for a couple of weeks, maybe more than that. But, hey, that's why I get that big money (laughter).
Q. Can you talk a little bit about the fact that A.J. Wallace started the last game, and he was on earlier talking about the lingering hamstring problems. Is that all that's kept him out of the starting lineup?
We thought we had three corners coming into the season that had experience, could play and everything else. And when A.J. got hurt, we thought A.J. would play a little bit of offense as well as defense just as we started out with him in mind of doing that as kind of a back up guy to Derrick Williams, in case Derrick got banged up or got tired. Then he (Wallace) got the hamstring pull. So that set him back a little bit.
But (Lydell) Sargeant, he (Wallace) and (Tony) Davis, they're three good corners and they all should play, keep them fresh. Nowadays, when you have to be ready for a lot of spread, you need that extra defensive back. We're fortunate that (Drew) Astorino's come through the way he has. That's really given us two extra backs. We've got three inside guys now and three outside guys, which is a big plus for us.
Q. Are you pleased with (Navorro) Bowman handling his responsibilities this year, having to deal with the team and losing his father?
I think so. He's played well. He played Saturday a little banged up, so I think you'd have to say he's done well.
Q. Did you think the spread offense would be as successful so far as it has been? Do you think it can be successful in a place like Camp Randall Stadium?
You guys ask me such hypothetical questions, and I really haven't given much thought to it. I think it can be successful anywhere if you have the right people,in the right places, doing the right things, at the right time, as I've said a thousand times.
I think that would be up to their coaches and their coaching staff as to whether their personnel would be better suited to the spread than it is to what they're doing right now. They're playing awfully good football right now. They lost two tough games that they let slip away from them against two good football teams.
I don't know whether they'd even be interested in talking about the spread. It depends. We've gotten a little bit more of it. Not quite as much as some of these other people because we have a quarterback that can run and some of the things that he can do from the spread are suited for him.
Q. We saw Chaz Powell back there on one of the kickoff returns this past weekend. Should we expect to see more of him in that position? What do you think about what he can do for you?
I would hope we see more and more of Chaz as the season goes on. Chaz has not been a really confident kid, particularly since we've made him a wideout, and he played defense last year. We moved him over to back up (wideout), doing some of the things that Derrick Williams does as we thought we would do with A.J. But when A.J. got hurt, we switched over to Powell.
I think he should be playing more and more. He's potentially a very good football player. He doesn't have quite the little confidence or the concentration he needs, but he is only a redshirt freshman. We're asking him to do a lot of things he's not done before. So I think he'll get better and better as the season goes along, and hopefully we'll get more and more out of him.
Q. What are the advantages and disadvantages to coaching upstairs as opposed to down on the sidelines?
Actually, as far as making a significant contribution to the strategy side and on the tactical side, you're better off upstairs. You can see more. You can get, as long as we have the kind of communications we have now, you can I can talk to everybody on the sideline with the one microphone and the one set of ear phones, and they can all talk to me.
So I think that's an advantage. But the disadvantage is you like to be on the field. You like to be down there, get a feel for what's going on. If somebody's gotten a little bit out of whack and you want to sit them down and say, "come on, forget that last one, let's do this one," and so forth.
But there again, I know you guys say, "here he goes again," but I've got to go back to the fact that we have a coaching staff that's very, very sensitive to all the things that I should be sensitive to. I think they do a good job. If a kid doesn't get in as much or he makes a mistake, they kind of encourage him, bring him along and say, "let's get on with the next one."
So, I don't think there's as much of a disadvantage of being upstairs. If I said to you, "depending on the people downstairs running the show for you," it might be an advantage.
Q. Can you talk about the defensive line and the injuries and suspensions the first half of the season? And do you think Wisconsin's line is going to be their biggest test of the season so far?
I think so. Although, I think Oregon State was a little better football team than I think we thought they were.
I think this will be a real physical test for it (PSU defensive line). No question about it. Wisconsin is a very big, strong, well organized, precise, experienced offensive football team with a dynamic kid running the quarterback spot. He doesn't have the stats that a lot of these other quarterbacks have, but he really is a cocky kid and he plays well. He plays like a coach's kind of quarterback.
Obviously, they've got great backs. At least three great backs and a big, strong fullback about 260 (pounds), I think, who knocks people back. It will be a challenge for the whole defensive football team, not just the down guys.
Q. Daryll Clark earlier today was talking about facing the Wisconsin linebackers. Did you see any of their game against Ohio State over the weekend? And what did you think of how they played and neutralized Terrell Pryor in that game?
I saw the whole game. I've seen the whole game twice, both on television and on tapes because we get the tapes on Sunday night.
I think the Wisconsin linebackers can run. Both 11 (DeAndre Levy) and 2 (Jonathan Casillas), are fine outside guys and the guy inside (Jaevery McFadden) is a tough son of a gun. And I think they did a good job with Pryor. I thought they did a good job in both games. They let Michigan off the hook, and I think they let Ohio State off the hook. I think they had that game in pretty good shape. One or two mistakes here, and Pryor is a kid with a lot of ability who made a couple of tough plays for Ohio State and got them back in the ballgame.
Q. After what's happened with Wisconsin the last couple of weeks, if you wanted to sort of psycho analyze their team, you would say maybe that could be devastating to them or maybe it could be the kind of thing that will have them backs to the wall and come out really fighting. What is your instinct and your experience? What is your guess about what kind of temperature they'll have on Saturday?
You know, I have enough trouble coaching my own team without trying to coach somebody else's team. But, you're not playing some people that are aren't used to winning. You're not playing people that don't have a great tradition, don't have a lot of pride. Certainly as they look at the tapes of the two last two games they're saying to themselves, "Boy, we could have had both of those games. Let's see if we can make up for it."
You're talking about kids that are good football players, representing a great school, great tradition who are well coached. They're going to come out and play. They're going to play their game, I would think. I can't believe anything else.
But it's up to us to go out and play the best we know how to play and see which team is the better team, period. That's why we play.
Q. Some of your players placed the blame for some missed opportunities on third down last Saturday to the poor footing on the field. Is that what you saw?
Poor footing? You can blame it on everything, you know. I was just telling the coaches this morning in the old days we had a guy around here by the name of Frank Patrick who coached the backs. He had played at Pitt, played on some of the great Jock Sutherland teams. Every time a kid slipped he'd say, "Don't cut on the inside foot. Don't cut on the inside foot." I can still hear him yelling it, "Don't cut on the inside foot."
Sometimes young backs get excited and a little too cocky. I don't know whether it was the field, I really don't. Because they (Purdue) didn't slip. I think we were maybe in a hurry to make a cut and (didn't have) good balance, didn't make the cuts. I can't really tell you. You can't tell that from the tapes.
Q. The way that the Badgers use Travis Beckum, who is healthy now, is it almost like another running back? I mean they pound away with Clay and Hill.
Yeah, I think that they'll be close. I think they use Beckum really well. They use his talents. He's a big enough guy that he can cut off blocks on the back side and take an elite block with them. He's probably a 235 pounder, maybe bigger than that. He's got nice hands, can catch the ball well and runs when he catches it. So they're trying to get him the football as a receiver. They want to get him in the football game where he can block and help with their running game, so they can't keep sticking nickels in there on him.
He's not a guy that can go in there and play with a 175 or 180 pound corner on him. He's big, he can run, he can block. He's not a wideout. He's good enough to be a wideout, but they're not playing him as a wideout. They're playing him as a wideout-tight end.
Q. It was two years ago at Wisconsin that you got the broken leg. How much did that individual play kind of change your life from that point until now?
Well, I don't think it's changed my life in a dramatic way. I think it's obviously made it a little more difficult to do some things I used to enjoy doing. But that wasn't the result of the broken leg.
My (left) knee is fine. Dr. Sebastianelli did a great job with that. I don't have any problems with my left leg, it's my right leg. That's because I tried to overdo some things and it was poor judgment on my side without consulting with some people about how much I could put on my right leg.
But that part's changed me a little. I can't walk like I used to walk all the time. I used to love to get up and walk five, six miles. But I can't do that and still go out and go to practice for a couple hours. It just wears down on me. But what I have can be fixed, so we'll work on it.
Q. Question about Evan Royster. When he came here you said you liked the fact that he was a lacrosse player when you were recruiting him. What was most attractive about his lacrosse background?
I never saw him play lacrosse. I couldn't really tell you. But I know what it takes to be a good lacrosse player. He was one of the better lacrosse players in the state of Virginia that has good high school lacrosse, and he may have been the best high school lacrosse player (in Virginia).
But he's bright, and he's an excellent student. I saw some pictures (tape) of him with the football. He's got good hands. Could change directions, had good sight, could see things. He looked like he was going to be a good football player, a good running back. If he hadn't been a good running back, we felt he could have been a good corner.
Q. If he wanted to, would you consider letting him (Evan Royster) play on the Lacrosse team?
It depends. We've had other kids play lacrosse, other kids play baseball, other kids went out for track. I don't see any reason why he couldn't.
It depends on his grades. Depends on where he is depth wise and how far along he is in his development as a football player. There are a lot of things that would go in to it.
Q. I know you've said you've taken week by week off on the sideline. But has this injury affected your thinking about your future after this season?
No, it really hasn't. I don't know. It hasn't, let me just leave it at that. It really hasn't.
Q. There's been a lot of comparisons to this year's squad to '05. Does this year's team remind you of 2005 at all?
Well, I think we've got to play a couple more tough games before you can compare them. (The ) 2005 (team) was three seconds away from playing for all the marbles and won a couple of tough games.
We've got to play a couple more football games before I ...they can do a lot of things that the '05 team could do. But to put them (lifts hands) one's here, and one's here, one's like this, I don't know. I just think we've got a good young squad and we've got to just keep plugging away.
Q. If you could, one more mobility question. You used to put a lot of stock in walking through the team at the beginning of the game. How much do you miss that and how have you been able to replace that somehow, that interaction?
I try to spend a little more time in the locker room with them; walk around in the locker room during the week. I have a motor cart they drive me around in now (at practice). In fact, I can harass them more now than I did when I could walk. I can get there faster. Though, I have a lousy driver. He's going to put me in the wall one of these days (laughter).
But, I miss running out on the field. I would be dishonest if I told you (otherwise). I used to love to get out there and the crowd fired me up and the whole bit. But there are a lot worse things that can happen to you.
Q. It's the mid point of the season. I'm wondering if you can assess the progress of your defense. What areas need to be improved on most? What are you most pleased with?
I think we're playing good, solid defense. You consider the injuries we've had up front, the people we lost for games and people we lost for the season that we could have had, and as I said, some really good prospects that have been hurt. I think they've done very well.
People don't realize, but Purdue played a heck of a game against us. I think they had one penalty. No turnovers. They didn't give us anything easy. Our guys just hung in there and played them tough. One big pass was about the only play they were really out of position on. The kid made a great catch out of it.
So, I think we've played good, solid defense. I really do. I think some of these guys that came back, both (Abe) Koroma and (Maurice) Evans will help us, particularly in a game like this where you've got to have more than a couple of (down) guys at a time in there. I mean, you've got to substitute for them, because they'll wear you down.
So, I think that this (week) will be a challenge. I think most of the teams we've played, we've measured up to and could handle what they were doing. This is a little different. We're in a little different situation this week. It will be interesting to see how we handle it.
Q. Any areas specifically where you'd like to see more improvement?
I'd like to see them fluid everywhere all the time. I wish we could have come up with a couple more interceptions in the first games when we had a shot at it. But we weren't confident enough to go in there and grab the ball and knocked it away. Every once in a while we go around a block, which you've got to expect. But I think we're getting there.
Q. After talking to a lot of your players, it seems like you have a lot of thoughtful, very intelligent guys on this year's team. How does that make your job easier? What is the advantage of having so many guys who are of that caliber on the team?
Well, I think with all the things you said comes a little sense of pride of who they are, what they are, and what they can do with their lives. Football is a very big part of it right now for them, and they want to do well in it. They feel an obligation to their teammates.
So it's easy to sit them down as a group or sit them down individually and talk to them about what they can do with their lives and how they can affect other people because of what they have going for them and how they're coming together and what we can do as a team.
Sometimes you get kids that just don't understand that. They won't buy into it. They're used to being the big shot, the hot shots, they don't want to think about what they've got to do for other people. They're only interested in what's going to happen to them. So it is a lot easier.
I've said this. They've been a good team. It's been a good group of guys to be around. I really have enjoyed this team.
Q. You've been able to change up the offense, and give the defense a different look every week. How much of is that is having trust in the offensive line to be in the right spot and make the right block?
Well, I trust in the offensive line, but I also trust in Bill Kenney and Dick Anderson. I think that Galen (Hall) is the organizer, but those two guys have to go out there and make sure they (O-Line) adjust to different stunts, give them the right drills to handle stunts. Give them enough situations to where they get to recognize what looks they're going to have to block.
They've worked hard. It's a pretty good line right now. I don't think what we have to do, anybody else doesn't have to do. I think every good football team every week has to make some of those adjustments.
Q. A follow up to the offensive line. Wisconsin has five seniors and two juniors in their front seven defensively. What do they do well with their experience?
They come off the ball and knock your jock off. They don't make mistakes, all right?
They're just a good football team. Good football. If the guys you're talking about, the seniors and two juniors, they're all very big, strong guys. They're not flopping around out there. They're not big, strong fat guys. They're big, strong guys who are good athletes and agile. They adjust well. They combo block you well. They're tough to get around on pass protection. They're just they're good.
Q. Will this be your offensive line's toughest test (so far)?
Yeah, I think so. They're going to play eight guys in a box. They're going to stop your run. They've got good corners. That number 17 (Allen Langford) is a heck of a football player. Number 25 (Shane Carter), their safety is really a big time safety. As I said, they've got three good linebackers. So I think it will be a test for us to be able to move the ball.
Q. I know you had a tough trip to Madison two years ago. But is this a trip you enjoy seeing their passion for college football and everything around Madison on game day?
I had a lot of fun going out, didn't enjoy it coming home (in 2006).
I think it's a great place to play a football game. I hate to get down into some of these things that take away from the fact that there are two good football teams that are going to go out.
It sounds cornball when I start to say it. I sometimes back away from it. They're going to go out there before a great stadium, a great crowd, very enthusiastic, very partisan. And I mean, if you don't like that, why do you come to a place like Penn State?
So I think it should be a fun Saturday for a kid 18, 19, 20, 21, going against good football players on national television at night. The whole bit. You dream about those things when you're 14 or 15 years old. So now they have an opportunity, and I think it should be a heck of a night.
Q. When you look at your defensive line, you had essentially three ends in (Aaron) Maybin, (Maurice) Evans and (Josh) Gaines, do you want to just get the best players on the field? And if that means putting Gaines inside, how much of that comes into play just making sure you have your best players out there?
I don't think can you do that with defensive lines today because of how much effort it takes to rush the passer and how strong you have to be play after play. You play against a 340 pounder, 330 pounder and you're a guy like Gaines at 265 pounds, unless you've got somebody behind him, they're going to wear you down. So we've really got to have three or four guys inside, and three or four guys outside, because otherwise you can't hold it up. In the fourth quarter, they'll kill you.
Q. (Mickey) Shuler -- is it the ankle that bothered him earlier this season?
Yes, it's the same one.
Q. Will (Andrew) Szczerba go in their place then?
Szczerba would play. And (Greg) Miskinis, who is a kid from down the road here (Lewistown).
Oct. 7, 2008
Q. Is it a big adjustment going from playing a finesse team such as Purdue to playing a more physical team such as Wisconsin?
Well, it's a different game, obviously. You expect certain things to be different. It will be a little more smash mouth kind of football, because Wisconsin's a tough football team and prides themselves in their physical toughness.
But, I think you've got to line-up properly, and you've got to tackle and you've got to get to the football.
You may not have quite as many lineup problems ordinarily, but Wisconsin gives you so many different looks with two or three tight ends that move around and jump around that you really don't get any benefit out of that.
So I think it's just a question of mentally. You've got to get ready to get into a tough football game. I don't know. It's football.
Q. Could you give us an update on the health of Mickey Shuler, Andrew Quarless and Jordan Norwood?
Norwood's going to be okay. Quarless and Mickey didn't do much yesterday, but it was only Monday. Today's Tuesday so, I think I'll know more after today. But they both tried to do a couple things (Monday) and I told them just take it easy, don't overdo it. But there's no question Norwood will be okay, unless something happens this week.
Q. Can you give us an update on your health situation? Is your leg feeling any better?
Yeah, it gets a little better. It's up and down. It's one of those things I'm going to have for a while, so I've got to live with it.
We'll see by the end of the week whether I feel I can get on the sidelines or coach upstairs. I don't think it's a big concern for the squad. It's not a big concern for me because with the staff we have, as I've said several times, it isn't a big deal.
But, you know, I'm going to have to live with it for a couple of weeks, maybe more than that. But, hey, that's why I get that big money (laughter).
Q. Can you talk a little bit about the fact that A.J. Wallace started the last game, and he was on earlier talking about the lingering hamstring problems. Is that all that's kept him out of the starting lineup?
We thought we had three corners coming into the season that had experience, could play and everything else. And when A.J. got hurt, we thought A.J. would play a little bit of offense as well as defense just as we started out with him in mind of doing that as kind of a back up guy to Derrick Williams, in case Derrick got banged up or got tired. Then he (Wallace) got the hamstring pull. So that set him back a little bit.
But (Lydell) Sargeant, he (Wallace) and (Tony) Davis, they're three good corners and they all should play, keep them fresh. Nowadays, when you have to be ready for a lot of spread, you need that extra defensive back. We're fortunate that (Drew) Astorino's come through the way he has. That's really given us two extra backs. We've got three inside guys now and three outside guys, which is a big plus for us.
Q. Are you pleased with (Navorro) Bowman handling his responsibilities this year, having to deal with the team and losing his father?
I think so. He's played well. He played Saturday a little banged up, so I think you'd have to say he's done well.
Q. Did you think the spread offense would be as successful so far as it has been? Do you think it can be successful in a place like Camp Randall Stadium?
You guys ask me such hypothetical questions, and I really haven't given much thought to it. I think it can be successful anywhere if you have the right people,in the right places, doing the right things, at the right time, as I've said a thousand times.
I think that would be up to their coaches and their coaching staff as to whether their personnel would be better suited to the spread than it is to what they're doing right now. They're playing awfully good football right now. They lost two tough games that they let slip away from them against two good football teams.
I don't know whether they'd even be interested in talking about the spread. It depends. We've gotten a little bit more of it. Not quite as much as some of these other people because we have a quarterback that can run and some of the things that he can do from the spread are suited for him.
Q. We saw Chaz Powell back there on one of the kickoff returns this past weekend. Should we expect to see more of him in that position? What do you think about what he can do for you?
I would hope we see more and more of Chaz as the season goes on. Chaz has not been a really confident kid, particularly since we've made him a wideout, and he played defense last year. We moved him over to back up (wideout), doing some of the things that Derrick Williams does as we thought we would do with A.J. But when A.J. got hurt, we switched over to Powell.
I think he should be playing more and more. He's potentially a very good football player. He doesn't have quite the little confidence or the concentration he needs, but he is only a redshirt freshman. We're asking him to do a lot of things he's not done before. So I think he'll get better and better as the season goes along, and hopefully we'll get more and more out of him.
Q. What are the advantages and disadvantages to coaching upstairs as opposed to down on the sidelines?
Actually, as far as making a significant contribution to the strategy side and on the tactical side, you're better off upstairs. You can see more. You can get, as long as we have the kind of communications we have now, you can I can talk to everybody on the sideline with the one microphone and the one set of ear phones, and they can all talk to me.
So I think that's an advantage. But the disadvantage is you like to be on the field. You like to be down there, get a feel for what's going on. If somebody's gotten a little bit out of whack and you want to sit them down and say, "come on, forget that last one, let's do this one," and so forth.
But there again, I know you guys say, "here he goes again," but I've got to go back to the fact that we have a coaching staff that's very, very sensitive to all the things that I should be sensitive to. I think they do a good job. If a kid doesn't get in as much or he makes a mistake, they kind of encourage him, bring him along and say, "let's get on with the next one."
So, I don't think there's as much of a disadvantage of being upstairs. If I said to you, "depending on the people downstairs running the show for you," it might be an advantage.
Q. Can you talk about the defensive line and the injuries and suspensions the first half of the season? And do you think Wisconsin's line is going to be their biggest test of the season so far?
I think so. Although, I think Oregon State was a little better football team than I think we thought they were.
I think this will be a real physical test for it (PSU defensive line). No question about it. Wisconsin is a very big, strong, well organized, precise, experienced offensive football team with a dynamic kid running the quarterback spot. He doesn't have the stats that a lot of these other quarterbacks have, but he really is a cocky kid and he plays well. He plays like a coach's kind of quarterback.
Obviously, they've got great backs. At least three great backs and a big, strong fullback about 260 (pounds), I think, who knocks people back. It will be a challenge for the whole defensive football team, not just the down guys.
Q. Daryll Clark earlier today was talking about facing the Wisconsin linebackers. Did you see any of their game against Ohio State over the weekend? And what did you think of how they played and neutralized Terrell Pryor in that game?
I saw the whole game. I've seen the whole game twice, both on television and on tapes because we get the tapes on Sunday night.
I think the Wisconsin linebackers can run. Both 11 (DeAndre Levy) and 2 (Jonathan Casillas), are fine outside guys and the guy inside (Jaevery McFadden) is a tough son of a gun. And I think they did a good job with Pryor. I thought they did a good job in both games. They let Michigan off the hook, and I think they let Ohio State off the hook. I think they had that game in pretty good shape. One or two mistakes here, and Pryor is a kid with a lot of ability who made a couple of tough plays for Ohio State and got them back in the ballgame.
Q. After what's happened with Wisconsin the last couple of weeks, if you wanted to sort of psycho analyze their team, you would say maybe that could be devastating to them or maybe it could be the kind of thing that will have them backs to the wall and come out really fighting. What is your instinct and your experience? What is your guess about what kind of temperature they'll have on Saturday?
You know, I have enough trouble coaching my own team without trying to coach somebody else's team. But, you're not playing some people that are aren't used to winning. You're not playing people that don't have a great tradition, don't have a lot of pride. Certainly as they look at the tapes of the two last two games they're saying to themselves, "Boy, we could have had both of those games. Let's see if we can make up for it."
You're talking about kids that are good football players, representing a great school, great tradition who are well coached. They're going to come out and play. They're going to play their game, I would think. I can't believe anything else.
But it's up to us to go out and play the best we know how to play and see which team is the better team, period. That's why we play.
Q. Some of your players placed the blame for some missed opportunities on third down last Saturday to the poor footing on the field. Is that what you saw?
Poor footing? You can blame it on everything, you know. I was just telling the coaches this morning in the old days we had a guy around here by the name of Frank Patrick who coached the backs. He had played at Pitt, played on some of the great Jock Sutherland teams. Every time a kid slipped he'd say, "Don't cut on the inside foot. Don't cut on the inside foot." I can still hear him yelling it, "Don't cut on the inside foot."
Sometimes young backs get excited and a little too cocky. I don't know whether it was the field, I really don't. Because they (Purdue) didn't slip. I think we were maybe in a hurry to make a cut and (didn't have) good balance, didn't make the cuts. I can't really tell you. You can't tell that from the tapes.
Q. The way that the Badgers use Travis Beckum, who is healthy now, is it almost like another running back? I mean they pound away with Clay and Hill.
Yeah, I think that they'll be close. I think they use Beckum really well. They use his talents. He's a big enough guy that he can cut off blocks on the back side and take an elite block with them. He's probably a 235 pounder, maybe bigger than that. He's got nice hands, can catch the ball well and runs when he catches it. So they're trying to get him the football as a receiver. They want to get him in the football game where he can block and help with their running game, so they can't keep sticking nickels in there on him.
He's not a guy that can go in there and play with a 175 or 180 pound corner on him. He's big, he can run, he can block. He's not a wideout. He's good enough to be a wideout, but they're not playing him as a wideout. They're playing him as a wideout-tight end.
Q. It was two years ago at Wisconsin that you got the broken leg. How much did that individual play kind of change your life from that point until now?
Well, I don't think it's changed my life in a dramatic way. I think it's obviously made it a little more difficult to do some things I used to enjoy doing. But that wasn't the result of the broken leg.
My (left) knee is fine. Dr. Sebastianelli did a great job with that. I don't have any problems with my left leg, it's my right leg. That's because I tried to overdo some things and it was poor judgment on my side without consulting with some people about how much I could put on my right leg.
But that part's changed me a little. I can't walk like I used to walk all the time. I used to love to get up and walk five, six miles. But I can't do that and still go out and go to practice for a couple hours. It just wears down on me. But what I have can be fixed, so we'll work on it.
Q. Question about Evan Royster. When he came here you said you liked the fact that he was a lacrosse player when you were recruiting him. What was most attractive about his lacrosse background?
I never saw him play lacrosse. I couldn't really tell you. But I know what it takes to be a good lacrosse player. He was one of the better lacrosse players in the state of Virginia that has good high school lacrosse, and he may have been the best high school lacrosse player (in Virginia).
But he's bright, and he's an excellent student. I saw some pictures (tape) of him with the football. He's got good hands. Could change directions, had good sight, could see things. He looked like he was going to be a good football player, a good running back. If he hadn't been a good running back, we felt he could have been a good corner.
Q. If he wanted to, would you consider letting him (Evan Royster) play on the Lacrosse team?
It depends. We've had other kids play lacrosse, other kids play baseball, other kids went out for track. I don't see any reason why he couldn't.
It depends on his grades. Depends on where he is depth wise and how far along he is in his development as a football player. There are a lot of things that would go in to it.
Q. I know you've said you've taken week by week off on the sideline. But has this injury affected your thinking about your future after this season?
No, it really hasn't. I don't know. It hasn't, let me just leave it at that. It really hasn't.
Q. There's been a lot of comparisons to this year's squad to '05. Does this year's team remind you of 2005 at all?
Well, I think we've got to play a couple more tough games before you can compare them. (The ) 2005 (team) was three seconds away from playing for all the marbles and won a couple of tough games.
We've got to play a couple more football games before I ...they can do a lot of things that the '05 team could do. But to put them (lifts hands) one's here, and one's here, one's like this, I don't know. I just think we've got a good young squad and we've got to just keep plugging away.
Q. If you could, one more mobility question. You used to put a lot of stock in walking through the team at the beginning of the game. How much do you miss that and how have you been able to replace that somehow, that interaction?
I try to spend a little more time in the locker room with them; walk around in the locker room during the week. I have a motor cart they drive me around in now (at practice). In fact, I can harass them more now than I did when I could walk. I can get there faster. Though, I have a lousy driver. He's going to put me in the wall one of these days (laughter).
But, I miss running out on the field. I would be dishonest if I told you (otherwise). I used to love to get out there and the crowd fired me up and the whole bit. But there are a lot worse things that can happen to you.
Q. It's the mid point of the season. I'm wondering if you can assess the progress of your defense. What areas need to be improved on most? What are you most pleased with?
I think we're playing good, solid defense. You consider the injuries we've had up front, the people we lost for games and people we lost for the season that we could have had, and as I said, some really good prospects that have been hurt. I think they've done very well.
People don't realize, but Purdue played a heck of a game against us. I think they had one penalty. No turnovers. They didn't give us anything easy. Our guys just hung in there and played them tough. One big pass was about the only play they were really out of position on. The kid made a great catch out of it.
So, I think we've played good, solid defense. I really do. I think some of these guys that came back, both (Abe) Koroma and (Maurice) Evans will help us, particularly in a game like this where you've got to have more than a couple of (down) guys at a time in there. I mean, you've got to substitute for them, because they'll wear you down.
So, I think that this (week) will be a challenge. I think most of the teams we've played, we've measured up to and could handle what they were doing. This is a little different. We're in a little different situation this week. It will be interesting to see how we handle it.
Q. Any areas specifically where you'd like to see more improvement?
I'd like to see them fluid everywhere all the time. I wish we could have come up with a couple more interceptions in the first games when we had a shot at it. But we weren't confident enough to go in there and grab the ball and knocked it away. Every once in a while we go around a block, which you've got to expect. But I think we're getting there.
Q. After talking to a lot of your players, it seems like you have a lot of thoughtful, very intelligent guys on this year's team. How does that make your job easier? What is the advantage of having so many guys who are of that caliber on the team?
Well, I think with all the things you said comes a little sense of pride of who they are, what they are, and what they can do with their lives. Football is a very big part of it right now for them, and they want to do well in it. They feel an obligation to their teammates.
So it's easy to sit them down as a group or sit them down individually and talk to them about what they can do with their lives and how they can affect other people because of what they have going for them and how they're coming together and what we can do as a team.
Sometimes you get kids that just don't understand that. They won't buy into it. They're used to being the big shot, the hot shots, they don't want to think about what they've got to do for other people. They're only interested in what's going to happen to them. So it is a lot easier.
I've said this. They've been a good team. It's been a good group of guys to be around. I really have enjoyed this team.
Q. You've been able to change up the offense, and give the defense a different look every week. How much of is that is having trust in the offensive line to be in the right spot and make the right block?
Well, I trust in the offensive line, but I also trust in Bill Kenney and Dick Anderson. I think that Galen (Hall) is the organizer, but those two guys have to go out there and make sure they (O-Line) adjust to different stunts, give them the right drills to handle stunts. Give them enough situations to where they get to recognize what looks they're going to have to block.
They've worked hard. It's a pretty good line right now. I don't think what we have to do, anybody else doesn't have to do. I think every good football team every week has to make some of those adjustments.
Q. A follow up to the offensive line. Wisconsin has five seniors and two juniors in their front seven defensively. What do they do well with their experience?
They come off the ball and knock your jock off. They don't make mistakes, all right?
They're just a good football team. Good football. If the guys you're talking about, the seniors and two juniors, they're all very big, strong guys. They're not flopping around out there. They're not big, strong fat guys. They're big, strong guys who are good athletes and agile. They adjust well. They combo block you well. They're tough to get around on pass protection. They're just they're good.
Q. Will this be your offensive line's toughest test (so far)?
Yeah, I think so. They're going to play eight guys in a box. They're going to stop your run. They've got good corners. That number 17 (Allen Langford) is a heck of a football player. Number 25 (Shane Carter), their safety is really a big time safety. As I said, they've got three good linebackers. So I think it will be a test for us to be able to move the ball.
Q. I know you had a tough trip to Madison two years ago. But is this a trip you enjoy seeing their passion for college football and everything around Madison on game day?
I had a lot of fun going out, didn't enjoy it coming home (in 2006).
I think it's a great place to play a football game. I hate to get down into some of these things that take away from the fact that there are two good football teams that are going to go out.
It sounds cornball when I start to say it. I sometimes back away from it. They're going to go out there before a great stadium, a great crowd, very enthusiastic, very partisan. And I mean, if you don't like that, why do you come to a place like Penn State?
So I think it should be a fun Saturday for a kid 18, 19, 20, 21, going against good football players on national television at night. The whole bit. You dream about those things when you're 14 or 15 years old. So now they have an opportunity, and I think it should be a heck of a night.
Q. When you look at your defensive line, you had essentially three ends in (Aaron) Maybin, (Maurice) Evans and (Josh) Gaines, do you want to just get the best players on the field? And if that means putting Gaines inside, how much of that comes into play just making sure you have your best players out there?
I don't think can you do that with defensive lines today because of how much effort it takes to rush the passer and how strong you have to be play after play. You play against a 340 pounder, 330 pounder and you're a guy like Gaines at 265 pounds, unless you've got somebody behind him, they're going to wear you down. So we've really got to have three or four guys inside, and three or four guys outside, because otherwise you can't hold it up. In the fourth quarter, they'll kill you.
Q. (Mickey) Shuler -- is it the ankle that bothered him earlier this season?
Yes, it's the same one.
Q. Will (Andrew) Szczerba go in their place then?
Szczerba would play. And (Greg) Miskinis, who is a kid from down the road here (Lewistown).
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Joe Paterno Press Conference (9/30)
JOE PATERNO PRESS CONFERENCE
Sept. 30, 2008
Q. Do you think it's harder to win on the road in the Big Ten than it has been in the past? And if so, why?
I don't really know. We've, obviously, had some problems on the road, but we've been beaten by teams that just either were better than we were, were better coached or just played better. I don't know. I have never really looked at it that way.
I think a road trip's a road trip. Whether it's in the Big Ten or you're playing somebody else. I hadn't even thought about that, to be frank with you. Obviously, you prefer to play home.
You get a crowd such as we had Saturday with all the excitement and the enthusiasm and everything like that, you'd prefer to be home.
I think if you're good and you're prepared and your kids have their heads on straight, if you're good enough, you win. If you're not good enough, you don't win.
Q. How is Jordan Norwood's hamstring? And can you talk about what he means to your offense especially when he's not there?
Well, I think he's going to be okay. Don't hold me to that. We practiced yesterday with just shells. It was a tough football game. It was a physically tough football game. We've been pushing it pretty hard. And I wanted to just give him a chance to take a blow.
So we didn't work that hard yesterday. We will work hard today, and I don't know if we can get Jordan involved in some things.
But hopefully you get some people who can do some things. Maybe not as well as he can do them, but they can do them. We can't change the whole structure of the offense of your team regardless of who gets hurt.
He's a heck of a football player. Obviously, we'd love to have him. But we're going to play our game the same way we play with or without him.
Q. Evan Royster's had three straight 100-yard games; are you surprised how well he's running the ball? He seems to be turning it outside a lot?
To be totally honest with you, yeah, I'm probably a little surprised he's had that much success. But you've got to give not only him, but the offensive line some thought in the fact that (Daryll) Clark adds another dimension where they have to be careful. They can't jump in there and go all over him if Clark pulls the ball out and runs with it.
But, yeah, I've always said he was a good back. A good, solid back, a tough kid, good eyes, good feet. A very coachable kid; very, very coachable. If he makes a mistake and you explain maybe he was too fast breaking away from the blocker or on the screen pass to have a little more patience, things like that.
He's very bright, and he's obviously a very good athlete. He was voted I think the best lacrosse player in the state of Virginia when he was in high school. And he comes from an athletic family. He has a brother who went to Stanford was a football player and so forth.
So he's done better. This is a long answer to your question. He's done somewhat better than I thought he could do. Maybe not the first two games. The first two games I thought, "hey, this kid's going to be a pretty good back."
Q. Purdue's defense has had a very difficult time against the run. When you see a situation like that, does it impact much of your game planning or are you to the point where you overstress that, or do you still try to maintain bounds?
Well, there again, Purdue played some people that maybe they felt they had to protect against the pass a little bit more than they did the run. So I'm a little bit cautious in how I would answer that.
I think we've got to go in there and be ready to have a balanced attack, because they might put eight guys in the box against us, which they have not done a lot of against some other people. So you've got to run and throw the football.
Again, you try to play your game, and hopefully your situation is broad enough and flexible enough that you can adjust to whatever may happen, and that's the way we're looking at Purdue.
Purdue's played some pretty good football teams, and some of those teams are not big-name teams but they're good solid football teams. So I think we go into this football game to do pretty much what we've done all year. We're going to try to have some balance between the run and the pass.
Q. Were you pleased with A.J. Wallace's play on Saturday, and are you hoping to get him more snaps now that he's healthy?
I think A.J. did all right. I don't know whether he did anything particularly outstanding. The other kid there that we took out for awhile, Lydell Sargeant, has been playing really well for us. But we had to give Wallace a little work because we really only have three kids that have played that much at the corner spot. But I think A.J., obviously has a lot of ability.
I don't know whether he's any better than Sargeant, but they'll both play.
Q. You spoke a little about your offensive line. Can you just assess them as the five-game hold so far?
I think they've done well. I really do. I think they've had a lot of poise and been consistent. They've played well as a unit. They haven't been perfect, obviously. But I think they're doing well.
They're not the biggest offensive line that's going to be put up on the field with a couple of teams. But they come up with the ball well. They know what they're doing. Both Dick Anderson and Bill Kenney, the two offensive line coaches, do a great job with them and get them well prepared. So, I'd have to say they've done a good job.
Q. Could you evaluate the play so far of Josh Hull and Tyrell Sales? And how far ahead are they than some of the younger guys like Nate Stupar, Michael Mauti and Chris Colasanti?
I think both Hull and Sales have played well. Of course, we take Sales out when we go to the nickel package because we want to get another pass defender in there. But I think they both have played well. And I think (Navorro) Bowman -- you didn't mention Bowman -- Bowman's played very well.
How much they are ahead of Stupar and the other younger kids, well, athletically they're not much further ahead of them. But as far as experience and wins and things, they're much ahead of them.
There's always...the younger kids are getting better each week. And the more they play, the better they'll get. The other kid, (Bani) Gbadyu is in the same boat. They're kids with a lot of athletic ability, but they've just got to play. You know, just see things and get hurt by certain things and learn from it and those kinds of things that you get from experience.
But the two kids you mentioned, they've both played well.
Q. You've spoken about the relative ease that you've had with the players on this team and some of the players have joked about busting your chops. Is it harder now to not blur the line between serious Joe and say, comical Joe?
Oh, I don't know. You've got to be yourself, I think. You can't be worried about, "hey, I shouldn't have told that joke" or "I shouldn't have horsed around with this guy." You do what you've got to do. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. If it works, great.
I don't think of it that way. I really don't. There comes times out there on the field in practice or even during the game when you want to feel like just horsing around a little bit with them because of the fact it just seems as if that's what ought to be done at that particular time, so you do it.
But I really don't have any pre-meditated program of what I'm going to do when I go into a game or when I go into practice.
But I do think the point I was trying to make with that is the fact that these kids will mature more, and I think have enough respect for their coaching staff. Not necessarily me, but the coaching staff, that you can horse around with them a little bit and they'll respond in a proper way.
Q. How far along has Mark Rubin come since he moved to safety last year?
I think he's doing really well. I thought that (Illinois) was probably as good a football game as he's played so far. He's gotten a lot more physically aggressive. He made some plays Saturday that were really aggressive football plays, which he might not have made a couple years ago.
Going back to the question about a couple of linebackers are ahead of a couple others. Well, it's tough to be aggressive if you're not really sure of yourself. You go, but you're not saying, "should I go? Shouldn't I go? Should I go all out? What can this guy do to me?" You don't have the kind of confidence that you need in order to put everything out. And it evens up that stage, and those other kids are good at that stage these days. But he's playing very, very well.
Q. You've spoken about being on the road already today. You have night games coming up later this season on the road. Is there an advantage one way or another, a disadvantage to maybe playing earlier on the road or later on the road?
I really wish I could tell you I think about those kind of things. I only think about things I can do something about. I can't say, "well, it's going to be tougher to play on the road this week because it's a night game" or "it's going to be tougher to play at home because it's going to be a 4:30 game" or something like that.
You try to evaluate the football team you're going to play. You try to put together a travel schedule to make it possible for your kids to be mentally and physically ready to play as well as they can. And you go play.
Sure you'd like to -- you'd love to have it where we used to have it where every game was a 1:30 game and you played that (time) every week and you get in a regular routine. But, that's not the way the game's played today. The game's played where one week you get this, another week you get that. And there's a time that's a factor in it when the game is played.
But there are pluses to that. There is the television; the crowd seems to be a little more enthusiastic when you play later in the day. All those kinds of things. You've got to say, "hey, here's what we've got." If you're good enough, you handle it. If you're not, you make excuses and you don't handle it.
Q. With Bowman and (Aaron) Maybin and some of the other kids that have made a lot of big plays on defense, I wonder if Josh Gaines isn't a little under the radar? Do you agree that he's a little under-appreciated in what he brings as a player and a leader and what he brings to the table?
I think that's a good point. I do think he is (under-appreciated). He's not gotten the kind of credit he should have in all the areas you talked about. He plays both defensive end and defensive tackle. We only had three kids on defense at the end spot last week.
We took a kid like (Jack) Crawford out of there (vs. Illinois). Though Crawford's going to be a great football player some day, we just played with three kids (at defensive end). We played Maybin, Gaines and Evans. And Gaines, when we needed a tackle played some tackle, defensive tackle. Played in there on the offensive tackle.
He does a good job. He's a quiet, sure, very confident kid who rubs off on the rest of the football team. He rarely makes a mistake. If he gets hurt, it's because you've got to block him. He's not unblockable. There isn't anybody that plays football that's unblockable.
So, I think the point you make is well taken. I think he is. I think he's probably not gotten the kind of credit the other kids get, because they're free-lancing most of the time on the outside.
Q. Earlier today Daryll Clark and Jared Odrick both indicated there seems to be a noticeable difference in leadership and confidence this year compared to last. Do you agree with that?
You guys get me in a spot. I hate to say something that's going to sound like it's -- that we don't appreciate what's happened.
We went to two bowl games the last two years and won both bowl games. It isn't as if we've been a bunch of bums out there. These are three good football teams in the last three years. In 2005, a couple seconds away from playing for all the marbles.
In the last two years we played good, tough teams in bowl games -- Tennessee, Texas A & M. So I think if the kids feel that, I'm glad. I think this team ought to be their team, and they ought to feel good about that.
But for me to get up here and say we've got more leadership this year than we had last year, that's not my style, really.
Q. To follow up on the question of leadership. Are there a certain set of -- you have a new group of captains this year. Have they added anything different this year? What kind of impact have they had on this group of players?
Again, I'll answer the same as I just answered. I think you better talk to the kids. I think the captains have been solid. We've talked about Gaines. Half the people around here don't know who Gaines is. But he's probably one of the stronger leaders on the team.
I think there's good leadership on this team, but I thought there was good leadership on the team the last couple of years. I'll back off on that question just like I did the last one.
Q. This is going to be the last time you coach against Joe Tiller. What are you going to miss about him?
Joe, I like Joe. I'm not going to miss coaching against him. He's a heck of a coach. He's gotten as much out of his squad as anybody's gotten in the Big Ten in the last 15 years.
He's just a good, solid guy. He's become a friend because he and his wife and my wife and I have been on trips together with the Nike people. We've gotten to be good friends. We've sat around many a night and just talked over football and other things. I'm going to miss him just being out of the profession.
Competing against him is not something that you particularly enjoy. He's a tough competitor. He gives you a big smile and the whole bit, but he's a tough guy. He's a tough guy.
So, I'm just going to miss him. I won't get to see as much of him as we're used to seeing him. But I won't miss coaching against him.
Q. You mentioned that you thought Josh Hull has played well. He's got 21 tackles in five games. You may not be aware of this, but he's been really heavily criticized by a lot of people in the media and by fans. Do you think any of that criticism is fair?
I didn't know he was being criticized. You want me to clear up what a good football player is?
Q. I'm asking do you think any of that criticism --
No, no, he's been a good, solid football player. I'm not going to get into (that) and justify criticism. I get into that all the time. People call me up and say, :Do you know what so and so said about you?" And I say, "No, I don't know what they said about me and I really don't care." And I think Josh is probably in the same boat.
Q. There's been more buzz in the last couple days about Penn State possibly being a national title contender, Big Ten title, obviously. How do you handle that hoopla with the team? What is the message you get across to them this week?
I just say we've got Purdue this week. If we don't pay attention to what's right in front of you, then all that stuff down the road isn't going to happen. We've just got to turn on, and go out there and practice well, practice hard, try to play as well as we can play. And, hopefully, we can win a couple more football games.
But, all you've got to do is point to some of the guys that were invincible. Playing two of the greatest college football teams in the country at one particular time. Now, it's not that you're struggling, but all of sudden they're not the guys everybody thinks they were two, three, four weeks ago.
I don't think that's a hard job, not on our squad anyway. It may be tough with some other people, I don't know. But I think our guys have their heads on pretty good. I think they'll be all right.
Q. What can be done to expedite Norwood's injury and to get him ready to go?
We've got the best medical staff anybody could ever have. He gets treatment every day. He's got to bring it along. The hamstring, when you're a skill player, is not easy to get over with. Because when you want to practice, you've got to go all out, otherwise, your timing gets off.
So it's just going to take time. He may be ready tomorrow for all I know, or he may be ready to go out there and test it today. We don't want to push him. It's not fair to him. I think he's got to come along when he's comfortable and the doctors have to agree with him that he's okay to go all out.
We're not going to push him. I don't think that's fair to him or the team. We've got a lot of football games to play. We've still got seven football games.
Q. How's Mickey Shuler? Where's he at?
Mickey will be okay. He played a little bit Saturday; he jumped in there. I didn't want to play him Saturday if we didn't have to. But I think Mickey should be okay now.
Q. Purdue has become known for their quick passing game. What kind of problems does that pose for a defense and how do you prepare for that?
Well, everybody's got a little bit of a quick pass game. It's just a question of how well they do it. You've got to be lined up properly. You've got to react to the ball and go from there, and you've got to tackle. The kid catches a five-yard pass, the way you get hurt is if you don't tackle.
So yeah, we've got to play our game. We're not going to change our game. Purdue does a lot of things. But they have a short pass game all day. They have done a good job with the little inside wide play. So we've just got to play our game. Be able to practice well, anticipate some things and be there when the ball's caught.
Q. You've had some trouble with fumbles this year; what have you done to address that issue?
We talk about it all the time. We have ball-carrying drills every day. But we've had troubles with them, yeah. We're constantly on top of the kids that do it.
The kid that fumbled Saturday, (Stephfon) Green, the redshirt freshman, he gets a little careless, gets a little carried away. Clark, obviously, was close, but it wasn't a fumble. He was down, but he still should protect the football. But you just talk about it and you have drills for it all the time. But you're still going to have fumbles.
Q. How much of that might be mental?
I don't think I would take any case with it right now. I don't think it's got to do with a matter of approach. Kids go into the football game knowing they have to protect the football and how important it is. So I don't really think that.
I think that you've got to give the other guy credit. Illinois has done a really good job the last two years grabbing the football and taking it away from people.
And we had stressed that when they played Lafayette - from Louisiana - when the kid grabbed the ball. Number 44 (Brit Miller) grabbed the ball, the kid ran with the football, took it and ran the other way for a touchdown. So we were very aware of that. We spent a lot of time trying to make sure that didn't happen.
But you get in the pile, you try to make an extra yard, you switch a little bit, first thing you know the ball's exposed a little bit. And he was alert enough to see it and they grab it. Try to pull it out. Hopefully, you don't let that happen, but it's going to happen once in a while.
Q. Graham Zug's seen a lot of playing time recently with the injury. So what's he done in your eyes to earn that playing time?
Well, Graham Zug's a good player. The way he's practiced and the way he's played. I mean, he catches the ball well. He's a good wideout. He doesn't have quite the speed of the kids he's played behind. But he goes in there and he's very effective. He's earned the right to play.
Q. How's your leg feeling? Are you going to be all right for Saturday?
I think I'm going to be all right. My leg doesn't feel great. You know, that's a long way, Saturday. But, yeah, I'll be okay. I tell the guys on the team there is a difference between being hurt and being injured. If you're injured we don't want you to play. But if you're hurt, you better get out there. Right now I'm hurt.
Q. How pleased have you been over the years with how Jeremy Scott and John Thomas have gotten your guys ready to play? And how closely do you interact with those guys when you see something like, "this guy needs to be a little faster or this guy needs to be a little stronger?"
I try not to get too involved with them. I think they're both extremely capable people. Really committed and dedicated to getting the job done.
I'll go down there once in a while and watch the kids lift. Or I'll go down there and check the weights or I'll go down there and horse around with J.T. and Jeremy and a couple of the kids on the squad.
But I think they do a great job. I think the last thing they need from me is to go down there and start horsing around. I hate to embarrass my team, when I go down there and bench press a 400 pounds. Doesn't look very good (laughter).
Q. Back to Graham Zug for a minute. Is he related to you (laughter)?
Q. He comes from a Penn State family. He's been coming to these games all of his life. How cool and how surreal do you think it is for him to be on the field now playing where he watched? Those kind of questions you have to ask the kids. They're all different. How they react to different things.
I wish I could say, "well, I know this kid got," "well, this is the way he's reacting" or "this kid's acting this way." I think you have to talk to the kids about that.
Zug, I know he's from a Penn State family. He didn't have a scholarship. He came as a walk-on. I just gave him a scholarship this past pre-season because he's worked so hard and he's doing well. He deserves it.
I think any time anybody does something, when there are doubters that don't think he can do it. "What are you going out there for?" You could have gone to a couple of smaller schools and played and all that kind of stuff.
He shows people that, "hey, I'm better than you thought I was. " I think there's got to be some satisfaction. And that would be me. I'd be walking around with a sign, "See, I'll show you." But we're talking about Zug. He's got to be himself.
But everything he's gotten, he's deserved. Nobody gave him anything easy. And nobody, even when he came here, thought that he was going to be the football player he's become. That's hard work. He's worked hard and he's a great student. He's a heck of a kid.
Sept. 30, 2008
Q. Do you think it's harder to win on the road in the Big Ten than it has been in the past? And if so, why?
I don't really know. We've, obviously, had some problems on the road, but we've been beaten by teams that just either were better than we were, were better coached or just played better. I don't know. I have never really looked at it that way.
I think a road trip's a road trip. Whether it's in the Big Ten or you're playing somebody else. I hadn't even thought about that, to be frank with you. Obviously, you prefer to play home.
You get a crowd such as we had Saturday with all the excitement and the enthusiasm and everything like that, you'd prefer to be home.
I think if you're good and you're prepared and your kids have their heads on straight, if you're good enough, you win. If you're not good enough, you don't win.
Q. How is Jordan Norwood's hamstring? And can you talk about what he means to your offense especially when he's not there?
Well, I think he's going to be okay. Don't hold me to that. We practiced yesterday with just shells. It was a tough football game. It was a physically tough football game. We've been pushing it pretty hard. And I wanted to just give him a chance to take a blow.
So we didn't work that hard yesterday. We will work hard today, and I don't know if we can get Jordan involved in some things.
But hopefully you get some people who can do some things. Maybe not as well as he can do them, but they can do them. We can't change the whole structure of the offense of your team regardless of who gets hurt.
He's a heck of a football player. Obviously, we'd love to have him. But we're going to play our game the same way we play with or without him.
Q. Evan Royster's had three straight 100-yard games; are you surprised how well he's running the ball? He seems to be turning it outside a lot?
To be totally honest with you, yeah, I'm probably a little surprised he's had that much success. But you've got to give not only him, but the offensive line some thought in the fact that (Daryll) Clark adds another dimension where they have to be careful. They can't jump in there and go all over him if Clark pulls the ball out and runs with it.
But, yeah, I've always said he was a good back. A good, solid back, a tough kid, good eyes, good feet. A very coachable kid; very, very coachable. If he makes a mistake and you explain maybe he was too fast breaking away from the blocker or on the screen pass to have a little more patience, things like that.
He's very bright, and he's obviously a very good athlete. He was voted I think the best lacrosse player in the state of Virginia when he was in high school. And he comes from an athletic family. He has a brother who went to Stanford was a football player and so forth.
So he's done better. This is a long answer to your question. He's done somewhat better than I thought he could do. Maybe not the first two games. The first two games I thought, "hey, this kid's going to be a pretty good back."
Q. Purdue's defense has had a very difficult time against the run. When you see a situation like that, does it impact much of your game planning or are you to the point where you overstress that, or do you still try to maintain bounds?
Well, there again, Purdue played some people that maybe they felt they had to protect against the pass a little bit more than they did the run. So I'm a little bit cautious in how I would answer that.
I think we've got to go in there and be ready to have a balanced attack, because they might put eight guys in the box against us, which they have not done a lot of against some other people. So you've got to run and throw the football.
Again, you try to play your game, and hopefully your situation is broad enough and flexible enough that you can adjust to whatever may happen, and that's the way we're looking at Purdue.
Purdue's played some pretty good football teams, and some of those teams are not big-name teams but they're good solid football teams. So I think we go into this football game to do pretty much what we've done all year. We're going to try to have some balance between the run and the pass.
Q. Were you pleased with A.J. Wallace's play on Saturday, and are you hoping to get him more snaps now that he's healthy?
I think A.J. did all right. I don't know whether he did anything particularly outstanding. The other kid there that we took out for awhile, Lydell Sargeant, has been playing really well for us. But we had to give Wallace a little work because we really only have three kids that have played that much at the corner spot. But I think A.J., obviously has a lot of ability.
I don't know whether he's any better than Sargeant, but they'll both play.
Q. You spoke a little about your offensive line. Can you just assess them as the five-game hold so far?
I think they've done well. I really do. I think they've had a lot of poise and been consistent. They've played well as a unit. They haven't been perfect, obviously. But I think they're doing well.
They're not the biggest offensive line that's going to be put up on the field with a couple of teams. But they come up with the ball well. They know what they're doing. Both Dick Anderson and Bill Kenney, the two offensive line coaches, do a great job with them and get them well prepared. So, I'd have to say they've done a good job.
Q. Could you evaluate the play so far of Josh Hull and Tyrell Sales? And how far ahead are they than some of the younger guys like Nate Stupar, Michael Mauti and Chris Colasanti?
I think both Hull and Sales have played well. Of course, we take Sales out when we go to the nickel package because we want to get another pass defender in there. But I think they both have played well. And I think (Navorro) Bowman -- you didn't mention Bowman -- Bowman's played very well.
How much they are ahead of Stupar and the other younger kids, well, athletically they're not much further ahead of them. But as far as experience and wins and things, they're much ahead of them.
There's always...the younger kids are getting better each week. And the more they play, the better they'll get. The other kid, (Bani) Gbadyu is in the same boat. They're kids with a lot of athletic ability, but they've just got to play. You know, just see things and get hurt by certain things and learn from it and those kinds of things that you get from experience.
But the two kids you mentioned, they've both played well.
Q. You've spoken about the relative ease that you've had with the players on this team and some of the players have joked about busting your chops. Is it harder now to not blur the line between serious Joe and say, comical Joe?
Oh, I don't know. You've got to be yourself, I think. You can't be worried about, "hey, I shouldn't have told that joke" or "I shouldn't have horsed around with this guy." You do what you've got to do. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. If it works, great.
I don't think of it that way. I really don't. There comes times out there on the field in practice or even during the game when you want to feel like just horsing around a little bit with them because of the fact it just seems as if that's what ought to be done at that particular time, so you do it.
But I really don't have any pre-meditated program of what I'm going to do when I go into a game or when I go into practice.
But I do think the point I was trying to make with that is the fact that these kids will mature more, and I think have enough respect for their coaching staff. Not necessarily me, but the coaching staff, that you can horse around with them a little bit and they'll respond in a proper way.
Q. How far along has Mark Rubin come since he moved to safety last year?
I think he's doing really well. I thought that (Illinois) was probably as good a football game as he's played so far. He's gotten a lot more physically aggressive. He made some plays Saturday that were really aggressive football plays, which he might not have made a couple years ago.
Going back to the question about a couple of linebackers are ahead of a couple others. Well, it's tough to be aggressive if you're not really sure of yourself. You go, but you're not saying, "should I go? Shouldn't I go? Should I go all out? What can this guy do to me?" You don't have the kind of confidence that you need in order to put everything out. And it evens up that stage, and those other kids are good at that stage these days. But he's playing very, very well.
Q. You've spoken about being on the road already today. You have night games coming up later this season on the road. Is there an advantage one way or another, a disadvantage to maybe playing earlier on the road or later on the road?
I really wish I could tell you I think about those kind of things. I only think about things I can do something about. I can't say, "well, it's going to be tougher to play on the road this week because it's a night game" or "it's going to be tougher to play at home because it's going to be a 4:30 game" or something like that.
You try to evaluate the football team you're going to play. You try to put together a travel schedule to make it possible for your kids to be mentally and physically ready to play as well as they can. And you go play.
Sure you'd like to -- you'd love to have it where we used to have it where every game was a 1:30 game and you played that (time) every week and you get in a regular routine. But, that's not the way the game's played today. The game's played where one week you get this, another week you get that. And there's a time that's a factor in it when the game is played.
But there are pluses to that. There is the television; the crowd seems to be a little more enthusiastic when you play later in the day. All those kinds of things. You've got to say, "hey, here's what we've got." If you're good enough, you handle it. If you're not, you make excuses and you don't handle it.
Q. With Bowman and (Aaron) Maybin and some of the other kids that have made a lot of big plays on defense, I wonder if Josh Gaines isn't a little under the radar? Do you agree that he's a little under-appreciated in what he brings as a player and a leader and what he brings to the table?
I think that's a good point. I do think he is (under-appreciated). He's not gotten the kind of credit he should have in all the areas you talked about. He plays both defensive end and defensive tackle. We only had three kids on defense at the end spot last week.
We took a kid like (Jack) Crawford out of there (vs. Illinois). Though Crawford's going to be a great football player some day, we just played with three kids (at defensive end). We played Maybin, Gaines and Evans. And Gaines, when we needed a tackle played some tackle, defensive tackle. Played in there on the offensive tackle.
He does a good job. He's a quiet, sure, very confident kid who rubs off on the rest of the football team. He rarely makes a mistake. If he gets hurt, it's because you've got to block him. He's not unblockable. There isn't anybody that plays football that's unblockable.
So, I think the point you make is well taken. I think he is. I think he's probably not gotten the kind of credit the other kids get, because they're free-lancing most of the time on the outside.
Q. Earlier today Daryll Clark and Jared Odrick both indicated there seems to be a noticeable difference in leadership and confidence this year compared to last. Do you agree with that?
You guys get me in a spot. I hate to say something that's going to sound like it's -- that we don't appreciate what's happened.
We went to two bowl games the last two years and won both bowl games. It isn't as if we've been a bunch of bums out there. These are three good football teams in the last three years. In 2005, a couple seconds away from playing for all the marbles.
In the last two years we played good, tough teams in bowl games -- Tennessee, Texas A & M. So I think if the kids feel that, I'm glad. I think this team ought to be their team, and they ought to feel good about that.
But for me to get up here and say we've got more leadership this year than we had last year, that's not my style, really.
Q. To follow up on the question of leadership. Are there a certain set of -- you have a new group of captains this year. Have they added anything different this year? What kind of impact have they had on this group of players?
Again, I'll answer the same as I just answered. I think you better talk to the kids. I think the captains have been solid. We've talked about Gaines. Half the people around here don't know who Gaines is. But he's probably one of the stronger leaders on the team.
I think there's good leadership on this team, but I thought there was good leadership on the team the last couple of years. I'll back off on that question just like I did the last one.
Q. This is going to be the last time you coach against Joe Tiller. What are you going to miss about him?
Joe, I like Joe. I'm not going to miss coaching against him. He's a heck of a coach. He's gotten as much out of his squad as anybody's gotten in the Big Ten in the last 15 years.
He's just a good, solid guy. He's become a friend because he and his wife and my wife and I have been on trips together with the Nike people. We've gotten to be good friends. We've sat around many a night and just talked over football and other things. I'm going to miss him just being out of the profession.
Competing against him is not something that you particularly enjoy. He's a tough competitor. He gives you a big smile and the whole bit, but he's a tough guy. He's a tough guy.
So, I'm just going to miss him. I won't get to see as much of him as we're used to seeing him. But I won't miss coaching against him.
Q. You mentioned that you thought Josh Hull has played well. He's got 21 tackles in five games. You may not be aware of this, but he's been really heavily criticized by a lot of people in the media and by fans. Do you think any of that criticism is fair?
I didn't know he was being criticized. You want me to clear up what a good football player is?
Q. I'm asking do you think any of that criticism --
No, no, he's been a good, solid football player. I'm not going to get into (that) and justify criticism. I get into that all the time. People call me up and say, :Do you know what so and so said about you?" And I say, "No, I don't know what they said about me and I really don't care." And I think Josh is probably in the same boat.
Q. There's been more buzz in the last couple days about Penn State possibly being a national title contender, Big Ten title, obviously. How do you handle that hoopla with the team? What is the message you get across to them this week?
I just say we've got Purdue this week. If we don't pay attention to what's right in front of you, then all that stuff down the road isn't going to happen. We've just got to turn on, and go out there and practice well, practice hard, try to play as well as we can play. And, hopefully, we can win a couple more football games.
But, all you've got to do is point to some of the guys that were invincible. Playing two of the greatest college football teams in the country at one particular time. Now, it's not that you're struggling, but all of sudden they're not the guys everybody thinks they were two, three, four weeks ago.
I don't think that's a hard job, not on our squad anyway. It may be tough with some other people, I don't know. But I think our guys have their heads on pretty good. I think they'll be all right.
Q. What can be done to expedite Norwood's injury and to get him ready to go?
We've got the best medical staff anybody could ever have. He gets treatment every day. He's got to bring it along. The hamstring, when you're a skill player, is not easy to get over with. Because when you want to practice, you've got to go all out, otherwise, your timing gets off.
So it's just going to take time. He may be ready tomorrow for all I know, or he may be ready to go out there and test it today. We don't want to push him. It's not fair to him. I think he's got to come along when he's comfortable and the doctors have to agree with him that he's okay to go all out.
We're not going to push him. I don't think that's fair to him or the team. We've got a lot of football games to play. We've still got seven football games.
Q. How's Mickey Shuler? Where's he at?
Mickey will be okay. He played a little bit Saturday; he jumped in there. I didn't want to play him Saturday if we didn't have to. But I think Mickey should be okay now.
Q. Purdue has become known for their quick passing game. What kind of problems does that pose for a defense and how do you prepare for that?
Well, everybody's got a little bit of a quick pass game. It's just a question of how well they do it. You've got to be lined up properly. You've got to react to the ball and go from there, and you've got to tackle. The kid catches a five-yard pass, the way you get hurt is if you don't tackle.
So yeah, we've got to play our game. We're not going to change our game. Purdue does a lot of things. But they have a short pass game all day. They have done a good job with the little inside wide play. So we've just got to play our game. Be able to practice well, anticipate some things and be there when the ball's caught.
Q. You've had some trouble with fumbles this year; what have you done to address that issue?
We talk about it all the time. We have ball-carrying drills every day. But we've had troubles with them, yeah. We're constantly on top of the kids that do it.
The kid that fumbled Saturday, (Stephfon) Green, the redshirt freshman, he gets a little careless, gets a little carried away. Clark, obviously, was close, but it wasn't a fumble. He was down, but he still should protect the football. But you just talk about it and you have drills for it all the time. But you're still going to have fumbles.
Q. How much of that might be mental?
I don't think I would take any case with it right now. I don't think it's got to do with a matter of approach. Kids go into the football game knowing they have to protect the football and how important it is. So I don't really think that.
I think that you've got to give the other guy credit. Illinois has done a really good job the last two years grabbing the football and taking it away from people.
And we had stressed that when they played Lafayette - from Louisiana - when the kid grabbed the ball. Number 44 (Brit Miller) grabbed the ball, the kid ran with the football, took it and ran the other way for a touchdown. So we were very aware of that. We spent a lot of time trying to make sure that didn't happen.
But you get in the pile, you try to make an extra yard, you switch a little bit, first thing you know the ball's exposed a little bit. And he was alert enough to see it and they grab it. Try to pull it out. Hopefully, you don't let that happen, but it's going to happen once in a while.
Q. Graham Zug's seen a lot of playing time recently with the injury. So what's he done in your eyes to earn that playing time?
Well, Graham Zug's a good player. The way he's practiced and the way he's played. I mean, he catches the ball well. He's a good wideout. He doesn't have quite the speed of the kids he's played behind. But he goes in there and he's very effective. He's earned the right to play.
Q. How's your leg feeling? Are you going to be all right for Saturday?
I think I'm going to be all right. My leg doesn't feel great. You know, that's a long way, Saturday. But, yeah, I'll be okay. I tell the guys on the team there is a difference between being hurt and being injured. If you're injured we don't want you to play. But if you're hurt, you better get out there. Right now I'm hurt.
Q. How pleased have you been over the years with how Jeremy Scott and John Thomas have gotten your guys ready to play? And how closely do you interact with those guys when you see something like, "this guy needs to be a little faster or this guy needs to be a little stronger?"
I try not to get too involved with them. I think they're both extremely capable people. Really committed and dedicated to getting the job done.
I'll go down there once in a while and watch the kids lift. Or I'll go down there and check the weights or I'll go down there and horse around with J.T. and Jeremy and a couple of the kids on the squad.
But I think they do a great job. I think the last thing they need from me is to go down there and start horsing around. I hate to embarrass my team, when I go down there and bench press a 400 pounds. Doesn't look very good (laughter).
Q. Back to Graham Zug for a minute. Is he related to you (laughter)?
Q. He comes from a Penn State family. He's been coming to these games all of his life. How cool and how surreal do you think it is for him to be on the field now playing where he watched? Those kind of questions you have to ask the kids. They're all different. How they react to different things.
I wish I could say, "well, I know this kid got," "well, this is the way he's reacting" or "this kid's acting this way." I think you have to talk to the kids about that.
Zug, I know he's from a Penn State family. He didn't have a scholarship. He came as a walk-on. I just gave him a scholarship this past pre-season because he's worked so hard and he's doing well. He deserves it.
I think any time anybody does something, when there are doubters that don't think he can do it. "What are you going out there for?" You could have gone to a couple of smaller schools and played and all that kind of stuff.
He shows people that, "hey, I'm better than you thought I was. " I think there's got to be some satisfaction. And that would be me. I'd be walking around with a sign, "See, I'll show you." But we're talking about Zug. He's got to be himself.
But everything he's gotten, he's deserved. Nobody gave him anything easy. And nobody, even when he came here, thought that he was going to be the football player he's become. That's hard work. He's worked hard and he's a great student. He's a heck of a kid.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Joe Paterno Press Conference 9/23
Joe Paterno Press Conference
Sept. 23, 2008
Q. Is your team playing the way you had anticipated going into the Big Ten portion of your schedule?
You never know what to expect. I don't, really. I was just hoping we could play well enough to win a couple of games. I thought we had the potential to be a decent football team.
We've been fortunate. We've played some people that haven't played really well against us, so I'm still reluctant to get too excited. But I hoped we could win all four of them, if that's what you're driving at. Yes, I had hoped we could win all four of them.
Q. Are Koroma and Evans practicing, and is there any chance they could play Saturday?
Well, we'll see. They took practiced yesterday. I'm not so sure what I'm going to do the rest of the week.
Q. On the situation of the Big Ten, many people have been looking at it as a more wide open now than when the season began with some of the things that have transpired. Where do you look at your team's position as you start off the Big Ten schedule?
We have a tough football team to play this week. I think Illinois is a good, solid football team. It's the first Big Ten game we're going to play. I think you play it one by one.
I haven't had a chance to really spend a lot of time looking at anybody else in the league. But, obviously, I've paid a little bit more attention to Illinois because of the fact that we're playing them first.
I know you fellas have to put something in perspective every week. I don't have to. I've just got to put one thing in perspective, and that is the team we're going to play, and I try to do that.
I can tell you, I think Illinois is a good, solid football team. They beat us last year and played really well. They have some wonderful personnel. Their quarterback (Juice Williams) is an outstanding player. They've got a couple of skilled people that are excellent. They play solid defense and have a good, solid kicking game. That's what I'm looking at. We've got to play well.
Q. How much do you think Illinois' quarterback has progressed in the last three years? I think Williams played very, very well against us last year. He's obviously better this year. He's been a little bit more consistent. I think they've depended on him a little bit more this year than last year. They don't have that other back, (Rashard) Mendenhall, that was with them last year.
So, I think that they're depending more and more on the quarterback. And I he's doing a really good job for them. He's a big kid. He runs well. I think he's made good progress.
Q. Do you know what happened with the (kickoff) coverage last week, and how are you addressing the kickoff coverage this week?
I wasn't pleased with the kickoff coverage. But, again, I had gone into the game trying to tell people I thought they had a good kickoff return guy who had been very successful before.
They have a lot of confidence in their kickoff return game. We didn't do a good job but that's really probably not fair to Temple and the kid (Travis Shelton) who ran the ball back. You have to give them some credit for doing a good job.
But we've talked about it. We're going to work hard on it this week and try to do a little better job, if we can. Because last year we went down the field the first time we had our hands on the ball. Kicked off to them, and they ran right down our throats for a touchdown on the kickoff. So we're aware of the fact that we've had some problems there.
Q: Why is the conference such a grind week in and week out? After 15 years of being in the conference do you feel you've acclimated yourself to that grind?
Well, I think we are playing good football teams every week, whether you call it a grind or a challenge. I'm not sure which way you handle it. We, obviously, had a chance last year to do really well against everybody in the league except Ohio State, which was the one team that we just weren't good enough that particular day.
But, I think most anybody in a good conference probably faces the same problems. Last year we didn't have any open dates. This year we have one open date. The other conferences all have a little different scenario as to how their season goes. So they do have open dates. Some will finish up until the first week of December.
The Big Ten, last year, we went right through. This year everybody's got a week off. In fact, Illinois had a week off last week to get ready for us. And I think when we play Wisconsin, they have a week off before. So there are some teams that can get a break in what you call the grind.
But it's a good, competitive league, and I you've got to be ready to play it. Whether we all of a sudden got used to it or not that's hard for me to say.
In 1994, when we were in the second or third or fourth year in it, we won them all. So I don't think it's that. I think it's your football team. I think it's a combination of that and the way you play the home and away schedule. Our away schedule is pretty tough this year. So, it's a combination of a lot of little things.
But if you're good, you're good. You handle it. If you're not good enough, you're not good enough. You don't handle it.
Q: lllinois is coming off a bye week this week. I was just wondering if that would be an advantage for them?
I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. If I had my preference, I'd rather have a bye week. But it doesn't always turn out to be an advantage. We've had bye weeks and didn't play well the week after the bye week. So if we get licked, it's because they're a better football team or they do a better job than we do. I don't think it will be because it's an off week.
Now if they have some people banged up that wouldn't be able to play, and because of the week off they can play, that might be helpful to them. I'm not threatened very much about that, really.
Q. What's the status of Mike Lucian and Mickey Shuler for this week's game?
I think they'll both be okay. Neither one of them did much yesterday, but I think they're going to do more today. I'm hopeful we'll have both those kids ready to play Saturday.
Q. Navorro Bowman and Aaron Maybin are two kids who look like they're really coming on fast to us because they make a lot of spectacular plays. Are you seeing, when you look at the film and see the total picture of every down they're out there, are they coming on? Are they getting better as fast as it appears to us that they are?
They are both good. They make some mistakes, obviously. You wouldn't see the bad things. You see the good things. But I think they both played well (vs. Temple). They're getting better each week. They're both good athletes, and they like to play and they hustle. They have a chance to be really good.
But they've got to get into situations with people that know a little bit more about them and pay more attention to them. Maybe the teams we've played so far haven't done that. But I thought both of them played well Saturday.
Q. Al Golden mentioned last week that when Andrew Quarless is in the lineup, it adds another dimension to the offense. I was wondering if you agree with that?
I don't want to take anything away from Mickey Shuler, because young Shuler, he and Quarless are very close. Shuler might be a little better blocker, and maybe Quarless is a step faster. But they're both good tight ends.
Our problem is, there again, you've only got one football and you're trying to get it to a lot of guys.
I keep talking to Galen (Hall) and Jay (Paterno) saying, "let's get the ball to the tight end more." But, if you do that, you take away from this or that.
So, we've got a good balanced group of people who can go get the football and can hurt you with the pass. There again, it depends on what people want to let you do and whether somebody's having a good day or a bad day. I think Quarless is a good football player. I think Shuler is, too. Both of them are good tight ends.
Q. How is your leg feeling and do you plan to be on the sideline on Saturday?
I hope to be. I could have gone down in the second half on Saturday if I wanted to. But I figured we've got a lot of football ahead of us, and maybe I will take it easier upstairs. I intend to be on the sideline.
Q. About Juice Williams again, can you talk about the types of challenges that a mobile quarterback places on your defense? What is the best way to contain a quarterback like that?
There's no best way. I think it isn't as if you can just gang up on one aspect of the game, whether it's their option game or their sprint out pass game or whatever. I think you've got to be balanced. If there's a tendency, as your game goes on, hopefully you can pick that up and take something away they might want to use in a key situation. But it's a game of chess.
He's good. He can beat you running. If you play the pass and if you don't play the run, he can beat you throwing the football. They have a good screen game. We didn't do a very good job against the screen against Temple.
So, they are going to move the football. And we're not going to contain them. They're going to move the football. They were beaten by Missouri and I think Missouri scored 48 points to beat them. They're going to score points.
Q. How serious is the injury to Doug Klopacz?
Klopacz is gone for the year. He's got the same thing that Hayes has. He's out for the year. He's got an ACL. It's an added a problem for us in the sense that we had counted on Klopacz being number two (center). But we've been practicing (Stefen) Wisniewski at center all year. So if we got in a jam, and (Mike) Lucian's okay, and we can move him back to offense, and Lucian can be the back up guard on the inside, and Wisniewski can be the back up center. We'd have to make some kind of combination.
But all those kids play center. (Rich) Ohrnberger practices at center. Lucian practices at center. Wisniewski practices at center. Then we have a red shirt freshman, a kid by the name of (Quinn) Barham, who has been practicing there. So we have people, but none of them would be as good as Shipley would be at center.
Q. You said after the game on Saturday that the Koroma and Evans situation wasn't in your hands anymore. What changed that allowed them to come back? Is Judicial Affairs going to make a decision soon?
I think they'd have practiced last week if I had let them.
Q. Did Judicial Affairs make a decision or what changed to allow them to go back to practice?
I'm not going to comment on that. If you want to, call Judicial Affairs.
Q. You've mentioned several times that you don't know how good a team is until it overcomes some adversity. In 1994 against Illinois, you were down 21 0 and that team ended up coming back and going undefeated. How did that team overcome the adversity that day?
Great leadership. Obviously, we had some great football players. There were reasons we were down 21 0, and we had some bad luck at the hotel. The power had gone out in the hotel and so forth. So we were down. We had a lot of poise. Kids made a couple of plays. We got back in the football game. We ran a fake reverse pass just before the half that tied up the ballgame.
But the big thing about that football game was we were still down with 5, 6 minutes to go, and we had the ball. We had to score a touchdown, and we had the ball on our own 5 yard line, with 5 or 6 minutes to go. And they sucked it up. Took the football down. (Kyle) Brady made a great catch.
We went down the field, and we did things under pressure. And that's what I mean about adversity. You get in a game with somebody who's got to do something. Even in 2005, people forget we're 4th and 19 when (Michael) Robinson hits the kid (Isaac Smolko) over the middle, the tight end from Ohio...4th and 19. We went down there and won that game. From there on we were a pretty good football team.
Those are the kind of things. If you're going to have a good year and you're going to have the kind of football team that you can say, "that's a heck of a football team." Like Bo Schembechler said after the 1994 Illinois game. He said, "I didn't know how good they were until now. They're a great team."
Q. You have had 11 fumbles in the last three games. How much of a concern is that and how do you address that in the middle of a season?
It's a tremendous concern. You don't address it just in the middle of the season. We address it every day. We have ball-carrying drills and take away drills. It worries me. It really does. I don't think it's good putting the ball on the ground that many times.
We talk about it, we practice it. As I said, we set up drills where the kid carrying the football has to protect it with one or two guys trying to pull it out, that kind of thing. But I don't know what else to do.
Q. Can you talk about trying to get ready for 8:00 p.m. games considering you're playing in three again this year? What's different about that? What do you do? What do you tell your guys because they're waiting all day to play?
I'm not worried. I'm just worried about keeping myself awake until 12:00 o'clock at night by the time it's over. You know, you adapt. Sometimes we forget when you're young it's a little different. There are games on during the day. They're watching football games in the day. We go out to Toftrees when we're home, and we can keep people away from them. They can sit around and watch the game together or they can take a walk if the weather's decent. It's similar when we're on the road. But you'd prefer to play earlier.
When we're home I think playing at 8:00 o'clock is good for us. The crowd's more into it. And I think there's a lot of excitement around it. So I don't think that's going to be a disadvantage to us. Maybe when we're on the road I'll feel differently. I don't know. But playing at home I don't think it's a big problem.
Q. What kind of shape are Koroma and Evans in given they haven't practiced in two or three weeks?
Next question. I'm not going to get into that with those guys. Simple as that.
Q. Is A.J. Wallace's hamstring still bothering him?
No, there was a little bit of a misunderstanding I think there. I said he wasn't in there in the second half. I called down to Tom Bradley. I said, "Tom, get Wallace in there." He said, "his hamstring's bothering him." I looked down there and he's in on a couple of the return teams. I think he's okay. I really do. He practiced yesterday and he looked okay.
Last week he not only had his hamstring bothering him a little bit, he had a day he was sick. He had eaten some food that created some stomach problems. So he didn't practice one day last week, and that may have had some bearing on his efforts to play on Saturday. But he played the first half, and I thought he was going to play the second half.
I talked to him this morning about it, and he said it was a little sore..
Q. Devon Still has said that he expects to be back for Michigan or a little later than that. Have you ruled out that possibility?
No, I think he can still come back. That would be great because he's already given up one year. But that's a guess. I don't think our doctors could tell you yes or no, and obviously, I can't. But I'm hoping he will be back.
Q. I am looking for a little history lesson here. New Beaver Field. What do you remember about it? Before you moved over here, do you have fond memories of that place? And if you do, can you share some?
I've told this story a thousand times. I know you get bored hearing my old war stories. But it (Beaver Field) used to be right across the street from the Rec Hall. The baseball field was right across the street. The whole athletic layout was right there.
We used to go over and have a pre-game meal at the Nittany Lion Inn and walk over to the stadium. In fact, when I first came here we used to dress the freshmen in what was the old water tower. You know that water tower? That used to be their dressing room, but we'd go over there.
It was kind of nice. It was more of a small college kind of stadium. That kind of a feeling, for wont of a better word.
But Coach (Rip) Engle came in one day and said we're going to move the stadium. And I said, "What do you mean?" Talking to the whole staff, he said Dr. Walker, President Walker, said we're going to move the stadium. And I said, "you're going to move the stadium?"
Most of the time I shoot my mouth off right away. But I wanted to think about it. After the meeting was over I walked over to him, and I said, "you know, Coach, that would be a big mistake. You're going to destroy Penn State football." (laughter) That's how smart I was. That was 75,000 seats ago.
I can still remember when we were going to be playing West Virginia, and then we had to play Syracuse in 1959. And the West Virginia coaches were scouting us.
In those days, it wasn't as it is today where you don't scout. You're not allowed to go scout someone. There would be a couple of guys that would scout you all year. So you'd see them maybe Friday night you'd have a couple of beers with them and that kind of thing. When you were on the road, the same thing.
So Whitey I can't think of his last name right now he was scouting us and so forth. So we were talking before the game underneath the stands. We were talking and I said, "what are you guys going to do against Syracuse?" Syracuse was killing people. We were about to play them in two weeks.
He said, "we made up our mind we're just going to take the ball and shove it right down their mouth." The score was 28 0 at halftime (laughter).
Every once in a while, a guy says, "shove it right down their mouth," I bring up the West Virginia story. But it was a fun place. It was good for us at that time. I think Dr. Walker had more foresight than any of us. He moved the place, and I think it all turned out for the better.
Q. You're 1 7 in your past eight Big Ten openers. Can you pinpoint any reason for that? And what are some of the troubles moving from non conference to conference play?
I haven't got the slightest idea. I really don't. Are we 1 7 opening the Big Ten (schedule the past eight years)? I don't know. I just don't know.
Q. Does the routine differ much this week? You have a routine that's probably set. They're fresh from a bye, do you alter that? And then you have to go from 8:00 o'clock and turn around and travel. How much of the whole picture do you just play it week to week?
Well, I think you've got to play it week to week. Obviously, a lot will depend on how we play this week. If things go well and the routine during the day works out pretty well, then you don't change as much.
If things don't work out well and as you look at it you say, "well, one of the reasons we didn't do as well as maybe we could have was because of this." Maybe it's the routine, maybe it's the schedule, maybe we didn't pay attention to this early enough or something like that.
You try to analyze it, but right now I couldn't tell you. Right now, I wouldn't know. We're just going to play this one. It's a home game, and I can't worry about what they're going to do on their off week. There is nothing I can do about that. I can only do something about us.
I'm going to try to make sure that we're prepared as well as we can be prepared. We're not over-practicing. We don't overreact to the fact that they have a week off. We're going to do a lot of different things. And we're going to try to play this game as if they didn't have a week off. Then we'll go from there. I think you have to play it almost week by week.
Q. What's been the key to the offensive success converting third downs?
Well, I think people, obviously. I think the quarterbacks have done a good job. I think the play calling has been good. And we've got some people who can make some big plays.
Q. Do you think that the way they've been able to convert, especially a lot of 3rd and longs, does that show that they might be a team that could overcome some adversity later on?
Well, it's helpful. I'm hopeful that we're going to be able to do those things. But that's not the way you asked the question. You want me to make a declaration of some kind, which I can't. I hope you're right. I don't know. I haven't got the slightest idea whether you're right or you're wrong.
I can't be wishful thinking. Hopefully we can continue to make third down plays. Obviously, that would be very beneficial to us as far as the success we want to have the rest of the year.
But whether we can or we can't, obviously, has got a lot to do with the opposition and what we've done previously. They're going to look at what we've done and how we've done it...try to take that away from us and are we flexible enough that we can do it with something else and overcome the fact that they've adjusted to what we have done? I don't know if that makes any sense, but that's basically where we are.
Q. Jordan Norwood leads the team in catches. A lot of those have been over the middle. (Brett) Brackett had the touchdown over the middle Saturday and the tight ends got involved. Was there more emphasis placed on throwing the ball over the middle this year? (Anthony) Morelli didn't seem to do that a lot in the last couple of years.
I'm going to have to look at the stats on that. I'm not sure you're accurate about Morelli throwing it over the middle, that part of it.
You take what they give you, or at least you try to take what they give you. You've got three good wideouts. Most everybody worries about (Deon) Butler and (Derrick) Williams on the outside. So I think it would make it easier for us to get the ball in the hole with them.
Q. How do you and Coach Buggs determine who goes from what spot on the kickoff coverage team? And have you had a chance to look at the film of the Temple game and see maybe what went wrong on a couple of those returns?
Sure we did. We had one guy who got collapsed one time; double-teamed him out of it. And the other guy went a little too wide, and the kid did a good job finding the hole and getting up into it.
As I said earlier, I think you've got to give Temple credit. Temple scored and they did a good job. That still is not all of it. That's not the only reason they did well.
We didn't cover quite as well. A lot of those kids hadn't had that kind of pressure on them before. There's a lot of young kids on the kickoff team. Several freshmen.
You'd like to get them in the football game, plus the fact that you don't want to get some of the older guys too tired.
We're addressing it. They'll learn. I think we'll be better. We'd better be better, because this Illinois kid (Arrelious Benn) can return kicks.
Sept. 23, 2008
Q. Is your team playing the way you had anticipated going into the Big Ten portion of your schedule?
You never know what to expect. I don't, really. I was just hoping we could play well enough to win a couple of games. I thought we had the potential to be a decent football team.
We've been fortunate. We've played some people that haven't played really well against us, so I'm still reluctant to get too excited. But I hoped we could win all four of them, if that's what you're driving at. Yes, I had hoped we could win all four of them.
Q. Are Koroma and Evans practicing, and is there any chance they could play Saturday?
Well, we'll see. They took practiced yesterday. I'm not so sure what I'm going to do the rest of the week.
Q. On the situation of the Big Ten, many people have been looking at it as a more wide open now than when the season began with some of the things that have transpired. Where do you look at your team's position as you start off the Big Ten schedule?
We have a tough football team to play this week. I think Illinois is a good, solid football team. It's the first Big Ten game we're going to play. I think you play it one by one.
I haven't had a chance to really spend a lot of time looking at anybody else in the league. But, obviously, I've paid a little bit more attention to Illinois because of the fact that we're playing them first.
I know you fellas have to put something in perspective every week. I don't have to. I've just got to put one thing in perspective, and that is the team we're going to play, and I try to do that.
I can tell you, I think Illinois is a good, solid football team. They beat us last year and played really well. They have some wonderful personnel. Their quarterback (Juice Williams) is an outstanding player. They've got a couple of skilled people that are excellent. They play solid defense and have a good, solid kicking game. That's what I'm looking at. We've got to play well.
Q. How much do you think Illinois' quarterback has progressed in the last three years? I think Williams played very, very well against us last year. He's obviously better this year. He's been a little bit more consistent. I think they've depended on him a little bit more this year than last year. They don't have that other back, (Rashard) Mendenhall, that was with them last year.
So, I think that they're depending more and more on the quarterback. And I he's doing a really good job for them. He's a big kid. He runs well. I think he's made good progress.
Q. Do you know what happened with the (kickoff) coverage last week, and how are you addressing the kickoff coverage this week?
I wasn't pleased with the kickoff coverage. But, again, I had gone into the game trying to tell people I thought they had a good kickoff return guy who had been very successful before.
They have a lot of confidence in their kickoff return game. We didn't do a good job but that's really probably not fair to Temple and the kid (Travis Shelton) who ran the ball back. You have to give them some credit for doing a good job.
But we've talked about it. We're going to work hard on it this week and try to do a little better job, if we can. Because last year we went down the field the first time we had our hands on the ball. Kicked off to them, and they ran right down our throats for a touchdown on the kickoff. So we're aware of the fact that we've had some problems there.
Q: Why is the conference such a grind week in and week out? After 15 years of being in the conference do you feel you've acclimated yourself to that grind?
Well, I think we are playing good football teams every week, whether you call it a grind or a challenge. I'm not sure which way you handle it. We, obviously, had a chance last year to do really well against everybody in the league except Ohio State, which was the one team that we just weren't good enough that particular day.
But, I think most anybody in a good conference probably faces the same problems. Last year we didn't have any open dates. This year we have one open date. The other conferences all have a little different scenario as to how their season goes. So they do have open dates. Some will finish up until the first week of December.
The Big Ten, last year, we went right through. This year everybody's got a week off. In fact, Illinois had a week off last week to get ready for us. And I think when we play Wisconsin, they have a week off before. So there are some teams that can get a break in what you call the grind.
But it's a good, competitive league, and I you've got to be ready to play it. Whether we all of a sudden got used to it or not that's hard for me to say.
In 1994, when we were in the second or third or fourth year in it, we won them all. So I don't think it's that. I think it's your football team. I think it's a combination of that and the way you play the home and away schedule. Our away schedule is pretty tough this year. So, it's a combination of a lot of little things.
But if you're good, you're good. You handle it. If you're not good enough, you're not good enough. You don't handle it.
Q: lllinois is coming off a bye week this week. I was just wondering if that would be an advantage for them?
I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. If I had my preference, I'd rather have a bye week. But it doesn't always turn out to be an advantage. We've had bye weeks and didn't play well the week after the bye week. So if we get licked, it's because they're a better football team or they do a better job than we do. I don't think it will be because it's an off week.
Now if they have some people banged up that wouldn't be able to play, and because of the week off they can play, that might be helpful to them. I'm not threatened very much about that, really.
Q. What's the status of Mike Lucian and Mickey Shuler for this week's game?
I think they'll both be okay. Neither one of them did much yesterday, but I think they're going to do more today. I'm hopeful we'll have both those kids ready to play Saturday.
Q. Navorro Bowman and Aaron Maybin are two kids who look like they're really coming on fast to us because they make a lot of spectacular plays. Are you seeing, when you look at the film and see the total picture of every down they're out there, are they coming on? Are they getting better as fast as it appears to us that they are?
They are both good. They make some mistakes, obviously. You wouldn't see the bad things. You see the good things. But I think they both played well (vs. Temple). They're getting better each week. They're both good athletes, and they like to play and they hustle. They have a chance to be really good.
But they've got to get into situations with people that know a little bit more about them and pay more attention to them. Maybe the teams we've played so far haven't done that. But I thought both of them played well Saturday.
Q. Al Golden mentioned last week that when Andrew Quarless is in the lineup, it adds another dimension to the offense. I was wondering if you agree with that?
I don't want to take anything away from Mickey Shuler, because young Shuler, he and Quarless are very close. Shuler might be a little better blocker, and maybe Quarless is a step faster. But they're both good tight ends.
Our problem is, there again, you've only got one football and you're trying to get it to a lot of guys.
I keep talking to Galen (Hall) and Jay (Paterno) saying, "let's get the ball to the tight end more." But, if you do that, you take away from this or that.
So, we've got a good balanced group of people who can go get the football and can hurt you with the pass. There again, it depends on what people want to let you do and whether somebody's having a good day or a bad day. I think Quarless is a good football player. I think Shuler is, too. Both of them are good tight ends.
Q. How is your leg feeling and do you plan to be on the sideline on Saturday?
I hope to be. I could have gone down in the second half on Saturday if I wanted to. But I figured we've got a lot of football ahead of us, and maybe I will take it easier upstairs. I intend to be on the sideline.
Q. About Juice Williams again, can you talk about the types of challenges that a mobile quarterback places on your defense? What is the best way to contain a quarterback like that?
There's no best way. I think it isn't as if you can just gang up on one aspect of the game, whether it's their option game or their sprint out pass game or whatever. I think you've got to be balanced. If there's a tendency, as your game goes on, hopefully you can pick that up and take something away they might want to use in a key situation. But it's a game of chess.
He's good. He can beat you running. If you play the pass and if you don't play the run, he can beat you throwing the football. They have a good screen game. We didn't do a very good job against the screen against Temple.
So, they are going to move the football. And we're not going to contain them. They're going to move the football. They were beaten by Missouri and I think Missouri scored 48 points to beat them. They're going to score points.
Q. How serious is the injury to Doug Klopacz?
Klopacz is gone for the year. He's got the same thing that Hayes has. He's out for the year. He's got an ACL. It's an added a problem for us in the sense that we had counted on Klopacz being number two (center). But we've been practicing (Stefen) Wisniewski at center all year. So if we got in a jam, and (Mike) Lucian's okay, and we can move him back to offense, and Lucian can be the back up guard on the inside, and Wisniewski can be the back up center. We'd have to make some kind of combination.
But all those kids play center. (Rich) Ohrnberger practices at center. Lucian practices at center. Wisniewski practices at center. Then we have a red shirt freshman, a kid by the name of (Quinn) Barham, who has been practicing there. So we have people, but none of them would be as good as Shipley would be at center.
Q. You said after the game on Saturday that the Koroma and Evans situation wasn't in your hands anymore. What changed that allowed them to come back? Is Judicial Affairs going to make a decision soon?
I think they'd have practiced last week if I had let them.
Q. Did Judicial Affairs make a decision or what changed to allow them to go back to practice?
I'm not going to comment on that. If you want to, call Judicial Affairs.
Q. You've mentioned several times that you don't know how good a team is until it overcomes some adversity. In 1994 against Illinois, you were down 21 0 and that team ended up coming back and going undefeated. How did that team overcome the adversity that day?
Great leadership. Obviously, we had some great football players. There were reasons we were down 21 0, and we had some bad luck at the hotel. The power had gone out in the hotel and so forth. So we were down. We had a lot of poise. Kids made a couple of plays. We got back in the football game. We ran a fake reverse pass just before the half that tied up the ballgame.
But the big thing about that football game was we were still down with 5, 6 minutes to go, and we had the ball. We had to score a touchdown, and we had the ball on our own 5 yard line, with 5 or 6 minutes to go. And they sucked it up. Took the football down. (Kyle) Brady made a great catch.
We went down the field, and we did things under pressure. And that's what I mean about adversity. You get in a game with somebody who's got to do something. Even in 2005, people forget we're 4th and 19 when (Michael) Robinson hits the kid (Isaac Smolko) over the middle, the tight end from Ohio...4th and 19. We went down there and won that game. From there on we were a pretty good football team.
Those are the kind of things. If you're going to have a good year and you're going to have the kind of football team that you can say, "that's a heck of a football team." Like Bo Schembechler said after the 1994 Illinois game. He said, "I didn't know how good they were until now. They're a great team."
Q. You have had 11 fumbles in the last three games. How much of a concern is that and how do you address that in the middle of a season?
It's a tremendous concern. You don't address it just in the middle of the season. We address it every day. We have ball-carrying drills and take away drills. It worries me. It really does. I don't think it's good putting the ball on the ground that many times.
We talk about it, we practice it. As I said, we set up drills where the kid carrying the football has to protect it with one or two guys trying to pull it out, that kind of thing. But I don't know what else to do.
Q. Can you talk about trying to get ready for 8:00 p.m. games considering you're playing in three again this year? What's different about that? What do you do? What do you tell your guys because they're waiting all day to play?
I'm not worried. I'm just worried about keeping myself awake until 12:00 o'clock at night by the time it's over. You know, you adapt. Sometimes we forget when you're young it's a little different. There are games on during the day. They're watching football games in the day. We go out to Toftrees when we're home, and we can keep people away from them. They can sit around and watch the game together or they can take a walk if the weather's decent. It's similar when we're on the road. But you'd prefer to play earlier.
When we're home I think playing at 8:00 o'clock is good for us. The crowd's more into it. And I think there's a lot of excitement around it. So I don't think that's going to be a disadvantage to us. Maybe when we're on the road I'll feel differently. I don't know. But playing at home I don't think it's a big problem.
Q. What kind of shape are Koroma and Evans in given they haven't practiced in two or three weeks?
Next question. I'm not going to get into that with those guys. Simple as that.
Q. Is A.J. Wallace's hamstring still bothering him?
No, there was a little bit of a misunderstanding I think there. I said he wasn't in there in the second half. I called down to Tom Bradley. I said, "Tom, get Wallace in there." He said, "his hamstring's bothering him." I looked down there and he's in on a couple of the return teams. I think he's okay. I really do. He practiced yesterday and he looked okay.
Last week he not only had his hamstring bothering him a little bit, he had a day he was sick. He had eaten some food that created some stomach problems. So he didn't practice one day last week, and that may have had some bearing on his efforts to play on Saturday. But he played the first half, and I thought he was going to play the second half.
I talked to him this morning about it, and he said it was a little sore..
Q. Devon Still has said that he expects to be back for Michigan or a little later than that. Have you ruled out that possibility?
No, I think he can still come back. That would be great because he's already given up one year. But that's a guess. I don't think our doctors could tell you yes or no, and obviously, I can't. But I'm hoping he will be back.
Q. I am looking for a little history lesson here. New Beaver Field. What do you remember about it? Before you moved over here, do you have fond memories of that place? And if you do, can you share some?
I've told this story a thousand times. I know you get bored hearing my old war stories. But it (Beaver Field) used to be right across the street from the Rec Hall. The baseball field was right across the street. The whole athletic layout was right there.
We used to go over and have a pre-game meal at the Nittany Lion Inn and walk over to the stadium. In fact, when I first came here we used to dress the freshmen in what was the old water tower. You know that water tower? That used to be their dressing room, but we'd go over there.
It was kind of nice. It was more of a small college kind of stadium. That kind of a feeling, for wont of a better word.
But Coach (Rip) Engle came in one day and said we're going to move the stadium. And I said, "What do you mean?" Talking to the whole staff, he said Dr. Walker, President Walker, said we're going to move the stadium. And I said, "you're going to move the stadium?"
Most of the time I shoot my mouth off right away. But I wanted to think about it. After the meeting was over I walked over to him, and I said, "you know, Coach, that would be a big mistake. You're going to destroy Penn State football." (laughter) That's how smart I was. That was 75,000 seats ago.
I can still remember when we were going to be playing West Virginia, and then we had to play Syracuse in 1959. And the West Virginia coaches were scouting us.
In those days, it wasn't as it is today where you don't scout. You're not allowed to go scout someone. There would be a couple of guys that would scout you all year. So you'd see them maybe Friday night you'd have a couple of beers with them and that kind of thing. When you were on the road, the same thing.
So Whitey I can't think of his last name right now he was scouting us and so forth. So we were talking before the game underneath the stands. We were talking and I said, "what are you guys going to do against Syracuse?" Syracuse was killing people. We were about to play them in two weeks.
He said, "we made up our mind we're just going to take the ball and shove it right down their mouth." The score was 28 0 at halftime (laughter).
Every once in a while, a guy says, "shove it right down their mouth," I bring up the West Virginia story. But it was a fun place. It was good for us at that time. I think Dr. Walker had more foresight than any of us. He moved the place, and I think it all turned out for the better.
Q. You're 1 7 in your past eight Big Ten openers. Can you pinpoint any reason for that? And what are some of the troubles moving from non conference to conference play?
I haven't got the slightest idea. I really don't. Are we 1 7 opening the Big Ten (schedule the past eight years)? I don't know. I just don't know.
Q. Does the routine differ much this week? You have a routine that's probably set. They're fresh from a bye, do you alter that? And then you have to go from 8:00 o'clock and turn around and travel. How much of the whole picture do you just play it week to week?
Well, I think you've got to play it week to week. Obviously, a lot will depend on how we play this week. If things go well and the routine during the day works out pretty well, then you don't change as much.
If things don't work out well and as you look at it you say, "well, one of the reasons we didn't do as well as maybe we could have was because of this." Maybe it's the routine, maybe it's the schedule, maybe we didn't pay attention to this early enough or something like that.
You try to analyze it, but right now I couldn't tell you. Right now, I wouldn't know. We're just going to play this one. It's a home game, and I can't worry about what they're going to do on their off week. There is nothing I can do about that. I can only do something about us.
I'm going to try to make sure that we're prepared as well as we can be prepared. We're not over-practicing. We don't overreact to the fact that they have a week off. We're going to do a lot of different things. And we're going to try to play this game as if they didn't have a week off. Then we'll go from there. I think you have to play it almost week by week.
Q. What's been the key to the offensive success converting third downs?
Well, I think people, obviously. I think the quarterbacks have done a good job. I think the play calling has been good. And we've got some people who can make some big plays.
Q. Do you think that the way they've been able to convert, especially a lot of 3rd and longs, does that show that they might be a team that could overcome some adversity later on?
Well, it's helpful. I'm hopeful that we're going to be able to do those things. But that's not the way you asked the question. You want me to make a declaration of some kind, which I can't. I hope you're right. I don't know. I haven't got the slightest idea whether you're right or you're wrong.
I can't be wishful thinking. Hopefully we can continue to make third down plays. Obviously, that would be very beneficial to us as far as the success we want to have the rest of the year.
But whether we can or we can't, obviously, has got a lot to do with the opposition and what we've done previously. They're going to look at what we've done and how we've done it...try to take that away from us and are we flexible enough that we can do it with something else and overcome the fact that they've adjusted to what we have done? I don't know if that makes any sense, but that's basically where we are.
Q. Jordan Norwood leads the team in catches. A lot of those have been over the middle. (Brett) Brackett had the touchdown over the middle Saturday and the tight ends got involved. Was there more emphasis placed on throwing the ball over the middle this year? (Anthony) Morelli didn't seem to do that a lot in the last couple of years.
I'm going to have to look at the stats on that. I'm not sure you're accurate about Morelli throwing it over the middle, that part of it.
You take what they give you, or at least you try to take what they give you. You've got three good wideouts. Most everybody worries about (Deon) Butler and (Derrick) Williams on the outside. So I think it would make it easier for us to get the ball in the hole with them.
Q. How do you and Coach Buggs determine who goes from what spot on the kickoff coverage team? And have you had a chance to look at the film of the Temple game and see maybe what went wrong on a couple of those returns?
Sure we did. We had one guy who got collapsed one time; double-teamed him out of it. And the other guy went a little too wide, and the kid did a good job finding the hole and getting up into it.
As I said earlier, I think you've got to give Temple credit. Temple scored and they did a good job. That still is not all of it. That's not the only reason they did well.
We didn't cover quite as well. A lot of those kids hadn't had that kind of pressure on them before. There's a lot of young kids on the kickoff team. Several freshmen.
You'd like to get them in the football game, plus the fact that you don't want to get some of the older guys too tired.
We're addressing it. They'll learn. I think we'll be better. We'd better be better, because this Illinois kid (Arrelious Benn) can return kicks.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Joe Paterno Press Conference (9/2)
Coach Paterno answers questions from the media
Q. Do you expect to learn more about your team this week against Oregon State? If so, are you looking forward to that?
I don't think there's any question we should know a lot more about ourselves this week. Yeah, you'd like to get excited about the fact that you're winning a game; I don't care against whom.
I think we've got to be realistic that that was a tough assignment for the Coastal Carolina kids to come up here with that kind of crowd and the whole bit. But, they've got some good athletes, and I was pleased we came away from it, playing with no turnovers and minimum (number of) penalties. A couple of stupid penalties, and playing fairly disciplined football game and some kids played, for their first time in a football game, played well.
But, that's a long shot from playing against a team as good as Oregon State. Oregon State's a good football team. So I think what we have to do is just see if we can get a little better. As most of you have heard me say before, if you've got a good football team, it probably gets better from the first game to the second game at any time in the season. We'll know a lot more about our football team this Saturday.
Q. Oregon State passed for more than 400 yards against Stanford in their opener. Is their offense comparable to anything you've seen in the Big Ten or is it a lot different?
I think Oregon State got behind a little bit. I don't think that was necessarily their game. I don't know Mike Riley really well. I haven't coached against him. Except I know him by reputation and we've been on some Nike trips together. I think he's a really nice person, and obviously an outstanding coach.
But I don't think I'd go by the fact that they threw the ball as much as they did against Stanford. I think they got behind a little bit and a couple of things happened there.
We've got to be ready to handle the running game. So I don't know whether I would overreact to the amount of throwing they did last Thursday night. I think we've got to be ready for a more balanced attack. I think everybody saw it.
Q. You were talking the other day about your defensive line. I know Josh Gaines moved inside for a few plays. I wonder how much that gives you versatility, and how well Aaron Maybin played on Saturday?
He played all right. Maybin's got a long way to go. We've got better players than he playing right now. Maybin some day will be good. But Gaines and (Maurice) Evans, (Jerome) Hayes, I thought those kids played really well. And I think Maybin eventually will be a good football player.
But, he's got to be a little more disciplined. Not make as many mistakes and those kinds of things. But he hasn't played a lot. He's still young. I thought overall we did all right.
I think Coastal Carolina, when they decided to do a couple things inside, they did it well. The kids ran hard. A couple of those kids are quick. Obviously, they don't have the kind of depth and the size and maybe the power that a team like Oregon State has. But I think overall we did a decent job.
We've got to be better. Because, as I said, I don't think Oregon State's going to come up and throw the ball 50 times. I would be surprised. I think we've got to be ready to stop a couple running plays.
Q. If you would reverse roles with Oregon State, you'd been away last week, now this week you're facing having to go across country. How would that impact the way you prepare your team and how hard you can push them in practice?
Well, I don't like to coach somebody else's team. I've got enough troubles coaching my own team. I think the one thing that I would think that Mike Riley has going for him is the fact that he did coach at San Diego, the pro team, and would have had to take a team across the country to play in the NFL. And he's got he would have a good feel for the problems that he faced the clock changing on you and all those kinds of things.
So I think they'll come here prepared and they'll be ready to go. Mike will have them ready to play. And I don't think there will be any...we can't hope that something's going to happen in the way of their preparation that's going to make it easier for us. I don't believe that at all.
I think he knows what he's doing. He's had the experience of taking a team across the country, and I think we just have to understand it. Forget about where they're coming from. Take a look at their personnel, take a look at the way they're coached and take a look at what we have to do better in order to win.
Q. How concerned are you with the ability of Oregon State's wide receivers being quick across the board?
I think they're very good. I am concerned about them. In fact, we had a long talk Sunday night about it.
Numbers are the guys I look at when I look at the tapes. And I stayed up until quarter to 1:00 eastern time on Thursday night to watch the game with Stanford. And I was very impressed with them, and I'm very impressed with their quarterback.
I think the quarterback is a very poised kid. He had to make some tough plays to keep them in the ballgame. You know, Oregon State, (if) the kid doesn't fumble it in the end zone, they might be in an overtime game. They gave Stanford a lot, and they really beat themselves. Oregon State beat themselves. So I go into that game thinking we're going to have our hands full, and nothing's changed.
Q. How did you assess the linebacker play you got against Coastal Carolina on Saturday?
I think it was good. It wasn't great. It was good. I think (Josh) Hull had a lot of pressure on him to play, and really run the show up front. I think he did well. I think maybe (Bani) Gbadyu and (Navorro) Bowman played well. (Tyrell) Sales at times played well. A couple of the younger kids we stuck in there played a little hesitantly. But, overall, I thought it was a good first outing for them.
Q. What kind of memories do you have about Irv Pankey? His son is one of the starting linebackers on Oregon State.
Pankey was a great kid. I can still remember Irv in the locker room after we played Maryland. Irv was at the game. He came in. He was a great big kid, big smile. He was a heck of a player. As a matter of fact, one time I was trying to talk him into being a coach, and I might have hired him as an offensive line coach.
You know, if the kid's anything like his old man, it will be a fun game for Irv. Irv was a great guy to coach, and I enjoyed coaching him. It's funny, last week (Wally) Richardson's brother's playing against us. This week we've got Pankey's kid playing against us. I don't know...I must be getting old (laughter).
Q. What did a kid like Josh Hull, a former walk on, what did he do to go from a walk on to now the starting middle linebacker at Linebacker U?
Well, he came here as a walk on. We encouraged him. He's a great student. H wanted to come to Penn State. He's down the road (Penns Valley HS), in fact, I think his folks work at the university. So he started out with a little break on his tuition and some things.
We took a look at the situation, thought he could play, and he went to work. You know, each year he's gotten better, and Ron Vanderlinden has done a great job with him. He's smart, tough, and very, very committed to being good. That's a pretty good combination.
He's strong. He's about 230, 235 (pounds). He, as I said, he's an engineer and a great student. He handles the engineering classes as well as coming out to practice. He's a great kid.
His kid brother (Ethan), we had had hopes for working him in. But he's got a bad knee. We haven't been able to clear him to practice yet. But it's a good family and he adjusted. Those are the kind of stories that you like to be associated with.
Q. The offensive line has been playing great the last year or so. It's also one of the smaller offensive lines in the country with average height and width. How hard do you guys have to work to keep the weight down on these guys? And how athletic do you think it makes them on the field?
Well, there's a natural body weight. We take their body fat all the time. You can be 275 pounds and have a body fat percentage of 28, 29 percent, and, you know, you're just carrying dead weight. That's not going to help you.
So the people in the training room, J.T. Thomas and Jeremy (Scott) and the doctors, they'll periodically just weigh them and test their body fat.
We have a certain percentage of body fat that we think is acceptable for different positions. If you're over 22 percent let's say and I'm throwing that figure out there without being sure I've got the figures correctly if you're over 22 percent, I don't care if you weigh 400 pounds, you've got to get down. You've got to get down where your body weight, the percentage of your body fat, would be under 22 percent.
If you're a wideout and you're over 8, 9, 10 percent body fat, you're too heavy. I mean weight is not the answer. It's strength and the power that you can generate, the shot, the quickness, all those kinds of things. And excess weight does not help you. It does not help you.
We have two really fine freshmen kids and one is about 32 percent body fat. Until he gets down, he's not going to play. But he's a heck of a prospect. The other one's about 29 percent, and he's in the same boat.
So we work hard to make sure they're at their optimum weight, whatever that is. It depends on their body structure and all the things that all of us would like. If we all had our body fat taken today, all right, where would we go? We're going to go to the Mayo Clinic.
Q. I was wondering if you had a chance to talk to Mike Mauti at all, and if his family's okay or if he's discussed anything with the hurricane down there with you this week?
Well, actually we went out to practice yesterday. Monday's kind of a "let's get organized" kind of thing. And I had in the back of my mind to ask him how things are going. Rich, his dad and mom (Nancy), were up at the game this past weekend, and there was no mention of the hurricane.
But this morning, Sue watches television early in the morning. I know you guys don't believe me, but I very rarely watch television. She said that New Orleans missed it. Now I'm not quite sure exactly where in Louisiana the Mautis would be relative to where the hurricane hit.
I'll talk to him today about it, but I would think I would have probably gotten a telephone call from somebody saying the Mautis had to move or something like that. But Rich, the dad, and his wife were up here this past weekend and we spent a little time together.
Q. Are you worried about things like motivation and focus when a really good player, like a Pat Devlin, has to deal with the disappointment of not starting?
Well, I think the biggest problem we have are you guys, to be frank with you. I think the kids go out there, practice hard, and they play well. (Daryll) Clark played; played well. (Paul) Cianciolo didn't play much, but he did good job when he was in there. They practice well. I don't see any difference in it. I think when you come into a program such as this one, you've got to figure there's going to be some competition. You know, Devlin's only a sophomore eligibility wise; he's got two more years after this. I think he's got a great future.
I think Clark's got two years, they'll be battling each other for another couple of years. I think that's pretty good. It will make them both better. So I have not seen anything different. I pat them on the back after the game and said, "hey, nice going. You had a good day. Keep concentrating."
Said the same thing to Clark. "Now you got that one behind you. Maybe you can relax a little bit more, but stay focused and let it go at that."
I would hope that both those kids are mature enough and smart enough to understand the situation. They're working hard to be the best they can be.
Q. You talked about the improvement between week one and week two. Why is that the case? Why is that most important compared to any other week?
Well, that's a good question, and I'm not sure why it is. In most of the really good football teams we've had, when you get that first one under your belt, particularly when you have a lot of young players, they're a little bit nervous going in there. Not quite sure of themselves. They haven't quite bonded together. They don't know what it is to be in a huddle in a game.
Now you may not get as big an improvement in the first game and second game when the first one everything went so well for us early, as opposed to maybe a pretty tough first game. Then you go to the second game.
I think it's just get it over with. Some of these kids haven't played before in front of 105,000, 106,000 people. Then you can build on some game mistakes. You can say, "well, we told you, you shouldn't do this." It could be an "I told you so" kind of deal.
But my experience has been that's not always true. My experience has been we come out of a football game after the first one, if you've got a good football team, it seems to kind of be a lot better the second game, and you start to build on it.
We're fortunate in this game that we're going into a game against a very good football team. Most of our guys stayed up and watched that Oregon State Stanford game. We were talking yesterday a little bit, and they were very aware of how good Oregon State is. The score, if we had not seen that game on television, the score might be misleading. So it's hard for me to pinpoint why, but I do think it's my fact is right.
Q. Stefen Wisniewski and Gerald Cadogan said this morning they felt like the line was better because they've got more experience playing with each other. Is it tough to have a really good line more than every once every two or three years, because once they get experience, they have to graduate?
I think it's easier if you get a line. I think Oregon State's going through that right now with their offensive line. They started that game Oregon State's going to be a lot better football team this week than they were against Stanford, particularly with their running game because of exactly what you said. That's a new offensive line. Well, not the offensive line, but defensive. I've got myself turned around a little bit.
I think that's a good observation. But, these guys play a lot of football. Now if we're fortunate enough that we don't have to use a lot of kids before they're ready and we can keep some of the kids behind them healthy, we can put them in practice. We can do a lot of things so that we really have a back up. And maybe next year when we lose 4 or 5 of the first stringers, we won't be in a situation you're referring to.
It depends on kids. It depends on attitudes, mentalities, competitive confidence, those kind of things. There's no one there's just no way to say this is what's going to happen every year. It doesn't work out that way.
Q. The two conferences obviously have a long history playing each other. Would you like to see like a Big Ten Pac 10 type of challenge like they do in basketball with different conferences especially now that you're playing 12 games?
I haven't thought about it. That's the first time anybody really brought that up. I have felt that the Big Ten ought to have a Big Ten championship game as they do with the Texas and Oklahoma people, and the Southeastern Conference.
But I hadn't thought about we play UCLA, let's say, in a conference challenge kind of thing. It's a little tougher than it is in basketball, because in basketball you get so many more games.
I don't know. I'd have to think about that. I'm not so sure I would want to take a team across the country every year and vice versa. If I was on the (west) coast whether I'd want to take a team east every other year. I don't know. But I won't have a say about it. Television will tell us what we're going to do.
Q. Brett Brackett is 6' 6", significantly taller than your other three receivers. What kind of advantage does that give him in the passing game?
Well, he's 6' 6", but he's a good athlete. Now if he was 6'6", a big gangly kid there was a kid at Notre Dame a couple of years ago, he was a baseball player, and he was 6'5". Brackett's a good athlete, he just happens to be 6' 6". I don't know if he's quite 6' 6", he might be 6' 5". But he's a good athlete.
Being taller helps when you're a wideout, because he can get them out there on the corner, and when you get really good with your passing game, we're not that good right now, not yet. You put the ball up for grabs and he can grab it. He can jump. He's a good basketball player.
He's going to be a really good wideout. He's working his way into it right now.
Q. So Oregon State gets the sweep with the wide receivers and they've had success getting about 10 yards a clip with it. What makes that so successful, and what can you do to try to stop it?
You've got to practice against it. But, yeah, that's a series they have. The kid goes out there, and they either give it to him, pitch it to him or they hand it to the guy coming up on the inside zone play. It's a good solid series. You have to be able to handle it.
I we were going to play a wishbone with the option, we'd have to handle that. If they were running to play some people with the shotgun or running the handoff and the keep, and the quarterback option with the trail guy, those are all little things you've just got to go out there and coach it. Try to get them a little bit out of character. It's a clever series. It's a clever series of plays. We're working on it.
Q. Did you run that same theory back in Brooklyn?
No, we didn't run that one. We'd didn't have a quarterback that could run. All he could do was dunk the ball on it (laughter).
Q. There is the potential of bad weather this weekend with the hurricane. Are you planning to prepare for that? How would that affect you?
Not yet. Right now we're just trying to get organized. We spent most of the morning just trying to put together the plays we want to run versus what we think we're going to get, and the defenses that we have to make sure we're lined up properly to handle some of the formations and some of the things that Oregon State does. And then once we get comfortable that we've acquainted our squad with what they're going to see or we think they're going to see, then I think we'll start maybe one night we'll wet the ball. That kind of thing.
It's pretty tough to prepare for the kind of weather that we may get. Except for the fact that you've got to get the people that handle the ball, they have to have a wet ball. Ordinarily we do that every Thursday night, anyway. We get some buckets out there and put the footballs in a bucket of water. If we have a prediction of weather, the snappers and punters and all that stuff, get used to handling a wet ball, try to be prepared.
If the weather forecast still looks as if it's going to be a tough day on Saturday, we'll do a couple of things on Thursday a little differently. But I'm not going to change up the routine until I find out for sure.
Q. Joe Tiller at Purdue, Bobby Bowden at Florida State have succession plans for what happens when they leave. What kinds of conversations have you had about that and what kind of conversation would you like to have when you're done coaching here?
I talked to Joe and I told him he's nuts. Oh, we haven't had any. Sorry, you're not going to get much response. I've answered that question 68 times already. I'm sorry to be rude. But, no, we haven't even talked about that. I'm trying to concentrate on Oregon State.
Q. You say you don't like to coach other teams, but the way Oregon State lost that game with that fumble, I'm sure you've had situations in the past where a guy's had a play at the end and the game's not going your way. How would you handle that and try to keep his spirits up?
I don't know. If a couple kids from Oregon State walked in this room, I wouldn't know who they were. If it were one of the kids that I know and know their personality and know some things, that's one thing. All right?
I mean, I haven't got the slightest idea how Mike should handle it. He knows his team. I don't know the kid who let the ball get out of his hands. I don't know him. I don't know whether he's a sensitive kid that needs a pat on the back. I don't know whether he's a cocky kid that maybe had been messing around with the football during preseason, and needed a kick in the rear end. I don't know.
You treat everybody differently. I mean they're not a bunch of puppets out there. They're not robots. You're talking about people with different problems, different reasons things happen.
So I think that that would be up to Coach Riley to make that decision. I couldn't. I wouldn't have the slightest idea what I would do until it happened. Then when it happened, hopefully I always call on Mark Twain. You know, he was a riverboat captain. He was talking about you've got to do things by the seat of your pants. He says every day a captain has to learn more than anybody should ever have to learn. Then the next day he's got to learn it again in a different way. All right? That's what coaching is. Everybody is, what happened last week with this group. It may be entirely different if the same thing happened with this group. So I can't answer that.
Q. Did you get out of the Coastal Carolina game injury free?
Yes, we were fortunate.
Q. Do you expect to learn more about your team this week against Oregon State? If so, are you looking forward to that?
I don't think there's any question we should know a lot more about ourselves this week. Yeah, you'd like to get excited about the fact that you're winning a game; I don't care against whom.
I think we've got to be realistic that that was a tough assignment for the Coastal Carolina kids to come up here with that kind of crowd and the whole bit. But, they've got some good athletes, and I was pleased we came away from it, playing with no turnovers and minimum (number of) penalties. A couple of stupid penalties, and playing fairly disciplined football game and some kids played, for their first time in a football game, played well.
But, that's a long shot from playing against a team as good as Oregon State. Oregon State's a good football team. So I think what we have to do is just see if we can get a little better. As most of you have heard me say before, if you've got a good football team, it probably gets better from the first game to the second game at any time in the season. We'll know a lot more about our football team this Saturday.
Q. Oregon State passed for more than 400 yards against Stanford in their opener. Is their offense comparable to anything you've seen in the Big Ten or is it a lot different?
I think Oregon State got behind a little bit. I don't think that was necessarily their game. I don't know Mike Riley really well. I haven't coached against him. Except I know him by reputation and we've been on some Nike trips together. I think he's a really nice person, and obviously an outstanding coach.
But I don't think I'd go by the fact that they threw the ball as much as they did against Stanford. I think they got behind a little bit and a couple of things happened there.
We've got to be ready to handle the running game. So I don't know whether I would overreact to the amount of throwing they did last Thursday night. I think we've got to be ready for a more balanced attack. I think everybody saw it.
Q. You were talking the other day about your defensive line. I know Josh Gaines moved inside for a few plays. I wonder how much that gives you versatility, and how well Aaron Maybin played on Saturday?
He played all right. Maybin's got a long way to go. We've got better players than he playing right now. Maybin some day will be good. But Gaines and (Maurice) Evans, (Jerome) Hayes, I thought those kids played really well. And I think Maybin eventually will be a good football player.
But, he's got to be a little more disciplined. Not make as many mistakes and those kinds of things. But he hasn't played a lot. He's still young. I thought overall we did all right.
I think Coastal Carolina, when they decided to do a couple things inside, they did it well. The kids ran hard. A couple of those kids are quick. Obviously, they don't have the kind of depth and the size and maybe the power that a team like Oregon State has. But I think overall we did a decent job.
We've got to be better. Because, as I said, I don't think Oregon State's going to come up and throw the ball 50 times. I would be surprised. I think we've got to be ready to stop a couple running plays.
Q. If you would reverse roles with Oregon State, you'd been away last week, now this week you're facing having to go across country. How would that impact the way you prepare your team and how hard you can push them in practice?
Well, I don't like to coach somebody else's team. I've got enough troubles coaching my own team. I think the one thing that I would think that Mike Riley has going for him is the fact that he did coach at San Diego, the pro team, and would have had to take a team across the country to play in the NFL. And he's got he would have a good feel for the problems that he faced the clock changing on you and all those kinds of things.
So I think they'll come here prepared and they'll be ready to go. Mike will have them ready to play. And I don't think there will be any...we can't hope that something's going to happen in the way of their preparation that's going to make it easier for us. I don't believe that at all.
I think he knows what he's doing. He's had the experience of taking a team across the country, and I think we just have to understand it. Forget about where they're coming from. Take a look at their personnel, take a look at the way they're coached and take a look at what we have to do better in order to win.
Q. How concerned are you with the ability of Oregon State's wide receivers being quick across the board?
I think they're very good. I am concerned about them. In fact, we had a long talk Sunday night about it.
Numbers are the guys I look at when I look at the tapes. And I stayed up until quarter to 1:00 eastern time on Thursday night to watch the game with Stanford. And I was very impressed with them, and I'm very impressed with their quarterback.
I think the quarterback is a very poised kid. He had to make some tough plays to keep them in the ballgame. You know, Oregon State, (if) the kid doesn't fumble it in the end zone, they might be in an overtime game. They gave Stanford a lot, and they really beat themselves. Oregon State beat themselves. So I go into that game thinking we're going to have our hands full, and nothing's changed.
Q. How did you assess the linebacker play you got against Coastal Carolina on Saturday?
I think it was good. It wasn't great. It was good. I think (Josh) Hull had a lot of pressure on him to play, and really run the show up front. I think he did well. I think maybe (Bani) Gbadyu and (Navorro) Bowman played well. (Tyrell) Sales at times played well. A couple of the younger kids we stuck in there played a little hesitantly. But, overall, I thought it was a good first outing for them.
Q. What kind of memories do you have about Irv Pankey? His son is one of the starting linebackers on Oregon State.
Pankey was a great kid. I can still remember Irv in the locker room after we played Maryland. Irv was at the game. He came in. He was a great big kid, big smile. He was a heck of a player. As a matter of fact, one time I was trying to talk him into being a coach, and I might have hired him as an offensive line coach.
You know, if the kid's anything like his old man, it will be a fun game for Irv. Irv was a great guy to coach, and I enjoyed coaching him. It's funny, last week (Wally) Richardson's brother's playing against us. This week we've got Pankey's kid playing against us. I don't know...I must be getting old (laughter).
Q. What did a kid like Josh Hull, a former walk on, what did he do to go from a walk on to now the starting middle linebacker at Linebacker U?
Well, he came here as a walk on. We encouraged him. He's a great student. H wanted to come to Penn State. He's down the road (Penns Valley HS), in fact, I think his folks work at the university. So he started out with a little break on his tuition and some things.
We took a look at the situation, thought he could play, and he went to work. You know, each year he's gotten better, and Ron Vanderlinden has done a great job with him. He's smart, tough, and very, very committed to being good. That's a pretty good combination.
He's strong. He's about 230, 235 (pounds). He, as I said, he's an engineer and a great student. He handles the engineering classes as well as coming out to practice. He's a great kid.
His kid brother (Ethan), we had had hopes for working him in. But he's got a bad knee. We haven't been able to clear him to practice yet. But it's a good family and he adjusted. Those are the kind of stories that you like to be associated with.
Q. The offensive line has been playing great the last year or so. It's also one of the smaller offensive lines in the country with average height and width. How hard do you guys have to work to keep the weight down on these guys? And how athletic do you think it makes them on the field?
Well, there's a natural body weight. We take their body fat all the time. You can be 275 pounds and have a body fat percentage of 28, 29 percent, and, you know, you're just carrying dead weight. That's not going to help you.
So the people in the training room, J.T. Thomas and Jeremy (Scott) and the doctors, they'll periodically just weigh them and test their body fat.
We have a certain percentage of body fat that we think is acceptable for different positions. If you're over 22 percent let's say and I'm throwing that figure out there without being sure I've got the figures correctly if you're over 22 percent, I don't care if you weigh 400 pounds, you've got to get down. You've got to get down where your body weight, the percentage of your body fat, would be under 22 percent.
If you're a wideout and you're over 8, 9, 10 percent body fat, you're too heavy. I mean weight is not the answer. It's strength and the power that you can generate, the shot, the quickness, all those kinds of things. And excess weight does not help you. It does not help you.
We have two really fine freshmen kids and one is about 32 percent body fat. Until he gets down, he's not going to play. But he's a heck of a prospect. The other one's about 29 percent, and he's in the same boat.
So we work hard to make sure they're at their optimum weight, whatever that is. It depends on their body structure and all the things that all of us would like. If we all had our body fat taken today, all right, where would we go? We're going to go to the Mayo Clinic.
Q. I was wondering if you had a chance to talk to Mike Mauti at all, and if his family's okay or if he's discussed anything with the hurricane down there with you this week?
Well, actually we went out to practice yesterday. Monday's kind of a "let's get organized" kind of thing. And I had in the back of my mind to ask him how things are going. Rich, his dad and mom (Nancy), were up at the game this past weekend, and there was no mention of the hurricane.
But this morning, Sue watches television early in the morning. I know you guys don't believe me, but I very rarely watch television. She said that New Orleans missed it. Now I'm not quite sure exactly where in Louisiana the Mautis would be relative to where the hurricane hit.
I'll talk to him today about it, but I would think I would have probably gotten a telephone call from somebody saying the Mautis had to move or something like that. But Rich, the dad, and his wife were up here this past weekend and we spent a little time together.
Q. Are you worried about things like motivation and focus when a really good player, like a Pat Devlin, has to deal with the disappointment of not starting?
Well, I think the biggest problem we have are you guys, to be frank with you. I think the kids go out there, practice hard, and they play well. (Daryll) Clark played; played well. (Paul) Cianciolo didn't play much, but he did good job when he was in there. They practice well. I don't see any difference in it. I think when you come into a program such as this one, you've got to figure there's going to be some competition. You know, Devlin's only a sophomore eligibility wise; he's got two more years after this. I think he's got a great future.
I think Clark's got two years, they'll be battling each other for another couple of years. I think that's pretty good. It will make them both better. So I have not seen anything different. I pat them on the back after the game and said, "hey, nice going. You had a good day. Keep concentrating."
Said the same thing to Clark. "Now you got that one behind you. Maybe you can relax a little bit more, but stay focused and let it go at that."
I would hope that both those kids are mature enough and smart enough to understand the situation. They're working hard to be the best they can be.
Q. You talked about the improvement between week one and week two. Why is that the case? Why is that most important compared to any other week?
Well, that's a good question, and I'm not sure why it is. In most of the really good football teams we've had, when you get that first one under your belt, particularly when you have a lot of young players, they're a little bit nervous going in there. Not quite sure of themselves. They haven't quite bonded together. They don't know what it is to be in a huddle in a game.
Now you may not get as big an improvement in the first game and second game when the first one everything went so well for us early, as opposed to maybe a pretty tough first game. Then you go to the second game.
I think it's just get it over with. Some of these kids haven't played before in front of 105,000, 106,000 people. Then you can build on some game mistakes. You can say, "well, we told you, you shouldn't do this." It could be an "I told you so" kind of deal.
But my experience has been that's not always true. My experience has been we come out of a football game after the first one, if you've got a good football team, it seems to kind of be a lot better the second game, and you start to build on it.
We're fortunate in this game that we're going into a game against a very good football team. Most of our guys stayed up and watched that Oregon State Stanford game. We were talking yesterday a little bit, and they were very aware of how good Oregon State is. The score, if we had not seen that game on television, the score might be misleading. So it's hard for me to pinpoint why, but I do think it's my fact is right.
Q. Stefen Wisniewski and Gerald Cadogan said this morning they felt like the line was better because they've got more experience playing with each other. Is it tough to have a really good line more than every once every two or three years, because once they get experience, they have to graduate?
I think it's easier if you get a line. I think Oregon State's going through that right now with their offensive line. They started that game Oregon State's going to be a lot better football team this week than they were against Stanford, particularly with their running game because of exactly what you said. That's a new offensive line. Well, not the offensive line, but defensive. I've got myself turned around a little bit.
I think that's a good observation. But, these guys play a lot of football. Now if we're fortunate enough that we don't have to use a lot of kids before they're ready and we can keep some of the kids behind them healthy, we can put them in practice. We can do a lot of things so that we really have a back up. And maybe next year when we lose 4 or 5 of the first stringers, we won't be in a situation you're referring to.
It depends on kids. It depends on attitudes, mentalities, competitive confidence, those kind of things. There's no one there's just no way to say this is what's going to happen every year. It doesn't work out that way.
Q. The two conferences obviously have a long history playing each other. Would you like to see like a Big Ten Pac 10 type of challenge like they do in basketball with different conferences especially now that you're playing 12 games?
I haven't thought about it. That's the first time anybody really brought that up. I have felt that the Big Ten ought to have a Big Ten championship game as they do with the Texas and Oklahoma people, and the Southeastern Conference.
But I hadn't thought about we play UCLA, let's say, in a conference challenge kind of thing. It's a little tougher than it is in basketball, because in basketball you get so many more games.
I don't know. I'd have to think about that. I'm not so sure I would want to take a team across the country every year and vice versa. If I was on the (west) coast whether I'd want to take a team east every other year. I don't know. But I won't have a say about it. Television will tell us what we're going to do.
Q. Brett Brackett is 6' 6", significantly taller than your other three receivers. What kind of advantage does that give him in the passing game?
Well, he's 6' 6", but he's a good athlete. Now if he was 6'6", a big gangly kid there was a kid at Notre Dame a couple of years ago, he was a baseball player, and he was 6'5". Brackett's a good athlete, he just happens to be 6' 6". I don't know if he's quite 6' 6", he might be 6' 5". But he's a good athlete.
Being taller helps when you're a wideout, because he can get them out there on the corner, and when you get really good with your passing game, we're not that good right now, not yet. You put the ball up for grabs and he can grab it. He can jump. He's a good basketball player.
He's going to be a really good wideout. He's working his way into it right now.
Q. So Oregon State gets the sweep with the wide receivers and they've had success getting about 10 yards a clip with it. What makes that so successful, and what can you do to try to stop it?
You've got to practice against it. But, yeah, that's a series they have. The kid goes out there, and they either give it to him, pitch it to him or they hand it to the guy coming up on the inside zone play. It's a good solid series. You have to be able to handle it.
I we were going to play a wishbone with the option, we'd have to handle that. If they were running to play some people with the shotgun or running the handoff and the keep, and the quarterback option with the trail guy, those are all little things you've just got to go out there and coach it. Try to get them a little bit out of character. It's a clever series. It's a clever series of plays. We're working on it.
Q. Did you run that same theory back in Brooklyn?
No, we didn't run that one. We'd didn't have a quarterback that could run. All he could do was dunk the ball on it (laughter).
Q. There is the potential of bad weather this weekend with the hurricane. Are you planning to prepare for that? How would that affect you?
Not yet. Right now we're just trying to get organized. We spent most of the morning just trying to put together the plays we want to run versus what we think we're going to get, and the defenses that we have to make sure we're lined up properly to handle some of the formations and some of the things that Oregon State does. And then once we get comfortable that we've acquainted our squad with what they're going to see or we think they're going to see, then I think we'll start maybe one night we'll wet the ball. That kind of thing.
It's pretty tough to prepare for the kind of weather that we may get. Except for the fact that you've got to get the people that handle the ball, they have to have a wet ball. Ordinarily we do that every Thursday night, anyway. We get some buckets out there and put the footballs in a bucket of water. If we have a prediction of weather, the snappers and punters and all that stuff, get used to handling a wet ball, try to be prepared.
If the weather forecast still looks as if it's going to be a tough day on Saturday, we'll do a couple of things on Thursday a little differently. But I'm not going to change up the routine until I find out for sure.
Q. Joe Tiller at Purdue, Bobby Bowden at Florida State have succession plans for what happens when they leave. What kinds of conversations have you had about that and what kind of conversation would you like to have when you're done coaching here?
I talked to Joe and I told him he's nuts. Oh, we haven't had any. Sorry, you're not going to get much response. I've answered that question 68 times already. I'm sorry to be rude. But, no, we haven't even talked about that. I'm trying to concentrate on Oregon State.
Q. You say you don't like to coach other teams, but the way Oregon State lost that game with that fumble, I'm sure you've had situations in the past where a guy's had a play at the end and the game's not going your way. How would you handle that and try to keep his spirits up?
I don't know. If a couple kids from Oregon State walked in this room, I wouldn't know who they were. If it were one of the kids that I know and know their personality and know some things, that's one thing. All right?
I mean, I haven't got the slightest idea how Mike should handle it. He knows his team. I don't know the kid who let the ball get out of his hands. I don't know him. I don't know whether he's a sensitive kid that needs a pat on the back. I don't know whether he's a cocky kid that maybe had been messing around with the football during preseason, and needed a kick in the rear end. I don't know.
You treat everybody differently. I mean they're not a bunch of puppets out there. They're not robots. You're talking about people with different problems, different reasons things happen.
So I think that that would be up to Coach Riley to make that decision. I couldn't. I wouldn't have the slightest idea what I would do until it happened. Then when it happened, hopefully I always call on Mark Twain. You know, he was a riverboat captain. He was talking about you've got to do things by the seat of your pants. He says every day a captain has to learn more than anybody should ever have to learn. Then the next day he's got to learn it again in a different way. All right? That's what coaching is. Everybody is, what happened last week with this group. It may be entirely different if the same thing happened with this group. So I can't answer that.
Q. Did you get out of the Coastal Carolina game injury free?
Yes, we were fortunate.
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