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.