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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 4, 2016

Joe Moorhead

University Park, Pennsylvania

JOE MOORHEAD: My opening statement is I'm not much for opening statements. Hope everyone's enjoying their summer. Great to see everyone, and excited for camp. Questions?

Q. (Indiscernible) the differences that you've noticed?
JOE MOORHEAD: Between coaching? I think our philosophical beliefs in offensive football that we're definitely on the same page. Throughout the interview process Coach talked to me a lot about his vision of where he wanted the offense to go and it was compatible with what we did before in my prior stops, so I think it's gone very well throughout spring and during the summer in our installation meetings prior to camp and heading into practice today. So I think we're a hundred percent on the same page.

Q. You're obviously going to be asked a lot about your starting quarterback competition. But if you were to build a quarterback and say the ideal mold for your quarterback, where does it start for you? Is it an athlete who can throw or is it a quarterback with mobility?
JOE MOORHEAD: I think you're looking for a guy who can beat you with his brains, beat you with his arm and beat you with his legs. When you have a quarterback who is a threat to run the football successfully, either by design or when the play breaks down, I think it makes it that much more difficult to defend your offense. But if you're asking or leaning one way or the other, we're looking for someone who can do both.

But you want a passer who can run rather than a runner who can pass. Simply because what we ask our quarterback to do in our passing game from a dropback perspective. But it becomes a point where if a guy's not athletic enough, it really doesn't matter how good of a passer he is, and if he can't function some of the things we're asking him to do in the run game, then it's just not a guy who would be a great fit for our system.

Q. What do you see as the strengths of both of the candidates we have? McSorley and Stevens?
JOE MOORHEAD: I think quite honestly they're both very similar in their skillset. Both smart guys. Both understand the game and have a great foundation of offensive football. Both guys with strong arms who can make all the necessary throws, and both guys who are a threat to run the ball. Like I said, either by design or when the play breaks down and can make a play when it's not there. So I would say really the qualities and similarities of them are very equal, so to speak.

Obviously Tommy's a little bit taller, Trace is a little bit faster. But from a skillset perspective, they're incredibly similar.

Q. Saquon Barkley, what have you seen from him since he arrived here? How do his skills fit the offense you'll be running?
JOE MOORHEAD: I think you see a guy that has all the tools necessary to be a superstar. He has small back skills in a big back body. He can run by you, he can make you miss, he can run over you. He can hurdle you. He's good in pass protection. I think the thing we've seen from Saquon in the spring and heading into camp is a maturity and an ability to handle the leadership role that is incumbent upon guys that are as good as him. So I think he's a great fit for what we're going to do offensively and has all the tools to be a special, special player.

Q. Thinking back to when you got here this winter, what would you say has been the most difficult challenge of getting this offense together and getting it installed from December, January until now?
JOE MOORHEAD: I have to say time more than anything. There are a ton of things we want to get done in the 15 opportunities we had in the spring and the meetings and things like that where a great opportunity to install the offense, the foundation, and get repetitions of it through practice and the spring game.

You're not around the guys a ton of time in the summer and you're doing different things. Travel camps and vacation time, so you've got a lot, some of the time as an offensive staff to get prepared for camp in the season. So I'd say the big thing is you're always looking for more time.

So I wouldn't say from an installation perspective or anything it's been a hindrance. It's just been making sure we have ample time to do the things necessary to be successful.

Q. Sort of building on that, what are some of the benchmarks you look for in a first camp after installing an offense? Do you say, okay, after the second week we should be around this point or something similar to that?
JOE MOORHEAD: I think the things that we're looking for throughout camp are to build off of the foundation that was established in spring ball. We talked to the guys about it. We want to come out with the opportunities that we have in camp and prior to the Kent State game, we just want to see incremental improvements. Come out every day, pick something and get a little bit better at it.

So I don't think there is a hard and fast guideline or we say, hey, we're at this practice and camp and we're not here yet. We're just looking for steady games throughout camp. And if we continue to make those games like we did in spring ball and heading into the first game, we just can't take a step back. I think that's going to be the big focus throughout camp.

Q. It seems like you have a lot of options at receiver with this group. How do you feel about that group? What are you looking for from those guys? And specifically Saeed Blacknall who has shown some real flashes in the past, what can he add to the mix this year?
JOE MOORHEAD: I think Coach Gattis does a tremendous job with the receiving core. We don't just have talent, but we have depth and talent. Not just looking at the guys who are penciled in to be starters but their back-ups as well. That's part of the thing, as Jordan mentioned earlier, when coach hired me in to come in for the position that where he wanted to go with the offense and what we have run, it's a good match.

So we have outside receivers with Saeed and Chris, and then our slot receivers with DaeSean and some of the other guys. They're just prototypes for the system, so certainly with their athletic ability, playmaking skill, we're looking for big things from the receiving corps this year.

Q. We've heard a lot about Trace and Tommy's similarities on the field. But what can you say about their personalities off the field? Are they as similar there or even what is their relationship like because we've heard they're pretty good friends?
JOE MOORHEAD: That's a good question. We talked about it actually this morning in a meeting that having been a quarterback and been embroiled in a quarterback competition and having seen them throughout my years as coaches, there are two ways it can go. It can be a healthy competition that the guys are working and know what they're fighting for and they make each other better and understand ultimately a decision has to be made on who is a starter. And sometimes it's a situation where the guys don't get along and they're fighting to win the job and it's not healthy for the team.

And I think that's the thing with Tommy and Trace and a credit to those guys is that they've been able to have a healthy competition and know what's at stake and remain amicable and know that what they're doing is in the best interest of the team.

Q. Could you get Saquon and another back on the field at the same time? Would that fit in without tweaking your system much and what would that look like?
JOE MOORHEAD: Without tweaking the system? Absolutely. We have the ability to run our scheme because we don't create a new offense by personnel groupings, so essentially you take out the tight end, you put in another running back and we have a similar set of plays that we're able to run from either of those personnel groupings.

Ultimately aside from the quarterback you look at who your next best five skill players are and who gives you a chance to move the ball and be success of. So certainly a two-running back, three-wide receiver set is something that we can do without -- do we want to do it? It's something we've done in the past. Really I think that's what part of -- we did a little bit of it in the spring, and I think that's part of what fall camp is about, not just the implementation and improvement of the offense, but a little experimentation where you get some groupings in there and really see what you're good at and what you're best at. But certainly if we are a team who can move the ball successfully and score points out of that personnel grouping, it's certainly something that we'll implement.

Q. What are your expectations for Mark Allen this season and how do you think he complements Barkley?
JOE MOORHEAD: I think Mark has a different style. More of a scatback kind of guy. But Mark, although he is a little smaller in stature, one thing that struck me is how good of a pass protector he is and how good he runs behind his pads. Some of those guys who are little guys kind of get knocked back in pass protection or aren't guys that fall forward. But Mark is a guy that's very physical, very tough guy. Kind of complements Saquon and some of the other guys that we have. Different style running back, but certainly not one because of his stature that can't run everything we have in our package.

Q. If I could follow up on that a little further. Having a back like Saquon, do you look at it as giving him a certain number of carries per game or per season? How do you go about balancing when you have some talented backs behind him as well?
JOE MOORHEAD: That's a good question. Looking back, our starting tailback the past four years has been in the 250 to 300 carry per season, and that's not certainly something that we said, hey, we're going to get him this many carries. It just happened organically so to speak.

But certainly when you have a talent of Saquon's caliber, you want to give him the opportunities to touch the ball as many times as possible, but not as the expense of wearing him down throughout the course of the season. So when we have as many options as we have at tailback with the returning guys and miles coming in, I think that can benefit Saquon where it's taking some of those carries off of him, but we're not losing any production with the other guys that you could put in there and be successful.

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