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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 24, 2017

Ryan Bates

University Park, Pennsylvania

Q. So I would like to compare and contrast the attitude and the confidence in your locker room leading up to last year's Ohio State game compared to where you are right now, the self belief, the inner confidence, how would you kind of compare the two time frames.
RYAN BATES: I feel like this YEAR we have a whole lot more confidence than we do going into the game. If I remember correctly last year, I'm trying to think, what games we played before Ohio State. Coming off the bye week, last year we lost twice, we lost, devastating loss to Pitt and devastating loss to Michigan. I feel like last year we wanted, we needed a game to, we needed to turn around our season and I feel like that was the game to make a statement. This year we're doing really well and going into the game I feel like we're on top of the world but we have to do the same thing we do each week, watch film, practice, prepare as we prepare every game, we're preparing for the Super Bowl.

Q. Follow-up question about confidence. How does that manifest itself on the field? How, what's different out there when you're believing in yourselves the way you guys are now?
RYAN BATES: Playing football confidence is the biggest thing you can have really. If you're not confident in your self, then who is going to believe in you if you don't believe in yourself really.

Q. What do you expect Ohio State's defensive approach to be?
RYAN BATES: I feel like personally I feel like they're going to be aggressive. I feel like every defense we played this year we have got a whole lot of blitzes and I feel like they try to disrupt our option, our RPO's and I feel like every game we played so far we have got a lot of pressure and I feel like that's what I'm expecting from them.

Q. What did you see from Will Fries when you reviewed the game, he's obviously on the opposite side from you, but it seemed like he grew up a lot last week.
RYAN BATES: Absolutely. I feel like he played a really good game last week. He's really progressing into a good player. I think he's going to be a good player here.

Q. What do you remember from last year when they put four defensive ends on the field and really come after the quarterback the way they do on third and longs?
RYAN BATES: That's what they do on third and longs they run that outlaw look -- what outlaw is they put two three tech's two fives and they put four defensive ends in and it's kind of like their pass rush package. And they put Bosa in there, they put Tyquan Lewis in there, Sam Hubbard in there, they're all four very good defensive linemen and, yeah, it's hard to block, but I feel like we're going to do really good against them this year.

Q. How do you guys go through film when you have four different defensive ends like that that are going probably going to be picked pretty early in the NFL draft and they all have contrasting styles to an extent?
RYAN BATES: We prepare the same way. The same way we would do any defensive linemen. Last week we played Winovich, I always pronounce his name wrong, Rashan Gary and Hearst, I mean he's probably the best defensive lineman we're going to play this year, he's an unbelievable player. But same, we got to do the same thing we do every week, prepare the same way we would.

Q. You had offers from Ohio State and Michigan, right?
RYAN BATES: I did, yeah.

Q. Did you meet Urban and Harbaugh and what are your memories of those two guys?
RYAN BATES: I did not meet any of the two. I committed here before I could even get a chance to take a visit to either school.

Q. What's your impression from a far of an Urban Meyer?
RYAN BATES: I mean, I don't know the guy, I can't tell you, I mean I don't know him. I can't tell you my impression. He's a football coach, I know that. He coaches for Ohio State. That's what I know about him.

Q. That's it?
RYAN BATES: Yeah.

Q. What if I told you that he was 21-1 after bye weeks.
RYAN BATES: I couldn't careless. Honestly. I mean we're going to play how we play and I'm confident in our team and how we play versus how they play.

Q. Do you feel that the offensive line right now did they play the best game of the year you guys last week?
RYAN BATES: Best game of the year for the offensive line? I'm not sure. I know last week we played really well. I'm not sure if it's the best one we played all year. There are always corrections we have to make. After the game you watch film and you see the mistakes you made on technique and the mental errors you made of you blocked the wrong guy, there's always places to grow.

Q. Also, the pendulum swings pretty wide versus home and road performance when you go back, you guys clocked Iowa here last year, ended up in a really tough game, the next week they beat Michigan out there. I mean there's a bunch of different examples. How do you guys adjust for the level of emotion on the road versus maybe what you have built-in at home?
RYAN BATES: Every practice we have these giant speakers outside on the practice fields and we blast music with them to help us prepare for away games. I think that us playing Iowa this year at Iowa they had the stripeout and it was a night game and it was loud. I couldn't hear myself think let alone hear Trace make some calls. Honestly, I think that if we could play the way we played versus Iowa in that environment, I think we can play anywhere.

Q. Where did the bye week help you guys most from allowing 13 tackles for loss at Northwestern and then just seven on Saturday?
RYAN BATES: When you have two weeks to prepare for one team and you have all that time to prepare for one team, you have time to watch film every day and it helps. Especially playing a team like Michigan.

Q. Did the preparation help from the bye week versus physical reps or rest or?
RYAN BATES: The bye week also it helps with rest a lot. A bye week is a good opportunity for young guys to get a lot of reps and to progress in the players that they're going to be. But also mentally you take some time, take a lot of time to watch film, see what they do, schematic-wise, and it's a good opportunity to learn the team. You have two weeks to do it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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