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.

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.