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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 6, 2017

Pat Narduzzi

Greensboro, North Carolina

PAT NARDUZZI: Thank you. Obviously, we're happy to have gotten week one under our belts with a victory. Wasn't an easy one against a great football team, and I think was it a great learning moment for our entire team, which is a young team. Probably had 16 guys that were playing their first game as starters or a bunch of true freshmen. So I think you make your best improvements from game one to game two. That's what we're counting on.

Obviously we played a great football team. Number 14 in the country, going to their house, and it will be a challenge for us.

Q. Just wanted to get a sense from you what challenges Barkley and McSorley pose for your defense this week?
PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, when you talk about stopping the run, that's what you're talking about. Saquon is a great football player, Heisman Trophy candidate. He's illusive, he's strong, he's physical. He's a great pass protector.

McSorley's an unbelievable player, period. You talk about a guy that can run it and throw it. So with all their spread team, practice tempo, they'll speed it up at times as well. They're a two-headed monster in the back field. You've got a quarterback that can flat run and make plays. He does a great job with the zone read game. He does a great job faking it, carrying it out and riding that tailback. So it is a challenge for our linebackers and our ends, depending on who has got the quarterback on zone reads. They put you in a bind at times and they've proven that's been an issue.

Q. Where would you like to see your own team make its biggest improvement from week one to week two?
PAT NARDUZZI: Lot of different things. First thing is just consistency. I thought we went out and really played a great first half. You know how those thoughts start coming in your mind that, oh, this is easy. We have to play for four quarters. This is not going to be a-minute game here at State College, it's going to be 60 minutes or more. And our guys got to play. It's the attention to detail for the entire game.

Q. Pat, we understand that one of our local kids, Jimmy Morrissey got a scholarship last week. I just wanted to ask you what type of player and young man is he? What was the ceremony or ruse you pulled to let him know about his scholarship?
PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, I appreciate you being on today there from Philly. We love everybody in Philly. Jimmy Morrissey's an unbelievable kid, first of all. When you ask what type of kid he is, first thing, he's a guy that's very likeable by our football team. He's on our leadership council. He's a super young man and he's a leader. Besides all those character things, he's a great football player. Since his first day on campus, I think he's really proven that he's got leadership skills, and he's our starting offensive center. He's very smart when it comes to looking at protections and where people are aligned and getting our front lined up properly with all our O-line calls. So he's a super young man.

Again, we kind of set it up in practice the day we knew we were going to give it. We had our starting quarterback Max Brown and our left tackle Brian O'Neill kind of in on it. We kind of pretended like it was a fumbled snap. Max pulled out of there like he broke his pinky on the snap because it was a crappy snap. So we tried to make him feel like what are you doing?

And then after practice we called him up, I pretty much brought him up saying, good practice, but we can't have these bad snaps. Jimmy, you and Max need to practice a little bit. Why don't you come up here and get a few. And we had a ball that was painted up for him special. It said, Jimmy Morrissey, you're now on scholarship.

So it was an exciting time for our kids, and Jimmy, obviously. I know his family was touched by it.

Q. I was just wondering this week if you've seen an increase in focus from your team because you talked about the importance of this game coming up were they more focused this week than they have been in other weeks?
PAT NARDUZZI: Great question. They were. I think we had two of the best practices, and that doesn't always equal a win, I can promise you that. But we had some great practice yesterday. The indoor facility was rocking with noise. We're practicing with the time. It's almost like the noise in the indoor made you have to really focus even more.

We didn't have one illegal procedure problem on offense with all the double and triple indicators we're having just to make sure the blitzes aren't timed up properly. So all those things were executed almost like they'd done it for three days already. So we had a great practice yesterday. We had just gotten off practice. I thought the intensity and attitude was good. From talking to the coaches briefly afterwards, I have not watched the tape yet. I believe from what we saw on the field today that it was another good one.

Q. You talked last week before Youngstown about how you and Bo Pelini sort of go way back. Lot of familiarity there. What is your relationship like with James Franklin up at Penn State?
PAT NARDUZZI: I talked to Bo this week as well again, growing up with Bo, it's obviously a different relationship. I've talked -- Bo is a defensive guy. I guess us defensive guys hang out together more. But James is an offensive-minded head football coach. We've never cliniced together because offense and defensive guys don't do that.

But I've had extra time with Bo. I went out to Nebraska and spend time with him. We've seen each other at the NPR Club in the past. Mooney Establishment in Youngstown, that is a place that people hang out there and talk ball. But when it comes to James, we haven't had that relationship. I've had opportunities to hang out with him and his wife on a couple of other trips, and we've got a great relationship.

Q. From watching the tape, what were your impressions of Kam Carter? I know he didn't play a lot of snaps, but have you seen the progression there?
PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, Kam didn't start, and we're seeing a little bit more every day, I think. He's a work in progress. He's still, in my opinion, he's a freshman. I don't care where he came from. He's still trying to learn what we do and do it with the motive we want him to.

So you saw it there a little bit. He did some things that he needs to fix, and he's no different than most of them. But right now he's probably our fourth or fifth defensive tackle and he's still a work in progress.

Q. What were your impressions of Bryce when you went back and looked?
PAT NARDUZZI: His last play was unbelievable. That's the one I really liked, the game winner. But he played a game like we thought he would. Bryce is a kid that ever since he came to camp we've been impressed with him as far as the little things he does. Footwork wise, coverage-wise, he's got great football knowledge. He's been obviously well coached out of high school here at Central Catholic here in Pittsburgh, so he's only going to get better as the days go on.

Q. You talked about you haven't spend too much time with James Franklin. But from a player's personnel perspective, you guys obviously probably recruited a lot of the guys on the Penn State side as well. How much does the familiarity add to the excitement of playing this game every year?
PAT NARDUZZI: It does. I think there is familiarity on both sides. Us as coaches and players. Our players know all their players over there, whether it's from Virginia DC or PA guys. That's what the rivals are, really. It's not about anything else. It's how much the players know each other. They're from the same state. It's really a pride factor, I think, as far as the rivalry goes. I think that's all part of the rivalry.

Guys know each other and they get to go face each other just like they did maybe in a Whitfield Championship or in the third game of their high school season.

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