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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 4, 2018

Phil Galiano

University Park, Pennsylvania

Q. Given the fact I counted five kickers on the roster, how do you line up the competition for those guys and pick out the best man at the end of preseason?
COACH PHIL GALIANO: Well, I think it's super exciting we have those guys here right now and get a chance to evaluate them, and we have a rotation set up that we have them split of certain guys are on on one day and other guys are on on the next day.

Just like every position, we're going to compete in everything we do and put them in challenging situations and give them an opportunity for those guys to go compete and win the job.

Q. Nick Scott has been a core special teams guy for you for the last few years. Does his role change now that it looks like he'll be getting more snaps at safety, and who are some of the younger players who may be that dynamic leader on the special teams that Nick has been for you?
COACH PHIL GALIANO: Nick has been. He's been phenomenal, and he still will be and how many special teams he will start on will be determined depending, on what his role is on defense is like you said.

But he's still going to be a guy that's very, very involved.

In everything we do, even from a meeting and leadership standpoint. But we do have a lot of young guys that we're super excited about. You take a look back at last year and guys we are expecting bigger things from, like Garrett Taylor, Zech McPhearson, Tariq Castro-Fields, we're excited about those guys from a back end point.

And then some of the linebackers that we have: Jarvis, Miller, doing a phenomenal job for us. Johnathan Thomas coming over and he's going to be a very big part of things that we're doing. I'm sure I'm leaving some guys out because there's about -- we counted about 13 to 15 guys right now that we feel we can go in with that are going to be major contributors on special teams for us.

Q. With the new kickoff rules, does this change what you would like to see, qualities? For example, somebody who is more safe or cautious with the kickoff or somebody who is aggressive and going to want to return every single one of them now that you have the option to not?
COACH PHIL GALIANO: You know, I don't think it changes what we are looking for to be honest with you, because the guy back there had to be a great decision-maker anyway.

There's a lot of things that go into being a kick returner, even before where the ball was landing at. Sometimes you have a certain return on; if the ball was caught in the end zone, it's going away in the opposite direction of the return -- the return, you would still like him to take a knee in that situation.

I don't think it's changing what we're looking for. What we want is a guy that every time he touches the ball can score, and a guy that we can trust that's going to make great decisions and take care of the football because that's the most important thing.

Q. Blake Gillikin is listed as a punter and kicker. Can he effectively fill both roles?
COACH PHIL GALIANO: Could he do it? Yes, he could. He's that talented and he's very capable to get that done.

Going into it right now, we talked about the kickers that we have on our roster, we are really excited about the young men that we have now and we are going allow those guys to go and compete and take those roles, but Blake is talented enough that if we needed we could move him over and ask him to do other things for us.

Q. How has Carson Landis come along since the spring, and how is he handling the new competition?
COACH PHIL GALIANO: You know, it's hard for me to say how he's come along since the spring because I'm not allowed to be with him and see him kick during the summer.

So that part is hard to say how he's come along, but he's like any one of our guys. He understands that there's competition in everything that we do and he embraces that competition and he's looking forward to it.

Q. Vlad Hilling, what are some strengths that you see from him and what kinds of things we have to do to get the job?
COACH PHIL GALIANO: Well, one of his strengths is he has a very strong leg, which was evident in seeing him kick the field goals and the field goal he made in the big 33 game.

One of his other strengths is Vlad is a phenomenal young man, and he is a guy that's very comfortable and pressure doesn't get to him.

What I need to see from him is exactly what I need to see from the other guys, when they get an opportunity to go perform, make the most of your opportunity and those guys are going to decide who becomes the starters.

It will be very clear because somebody is going to separate themselves and win the job.

Q. Curious, you mentioned the setup with certain guys kicking certain days and that sort of thing. That process, is it something you've done other places or is it specifically because it's such an open competition, and what are some of the things or maybe the key statistics that obviously are a little under the radar that go into making this decision?
COACH PHIL GALIANO: Well, it is something that I have done before and Coach Franklin and I spoke about it, and we thought that it would be great way for the first week or maybe two weeks of camp, we are going to play it out and see how it goes.

But being able to have -- when you get special teams periods -- so we get a field goal period, for example, it may only be five minutes so we are going to do our best to get as many kicks as we can but in that five-minute period we may only get six kicks. Well, if you have multiple kickers kicking each day; if you have four guys or five guys trying to go, each guy is only getting one kick in that team environment.

Whereas, if we kind if set a schedule where two guys are going, and so they are getting that period; and then one of the things we do at the end of practice is a competition, a field goal or kickoff competition. It's able to isolate and get those guys a little bit more reps each day in a team setting, as opposed to when they are off on their own kicking and that sort of deal.

Q. You mentioned there were 13 to 15 players who could be solid contributors on special teams. What is it you see in a player and you turn and you're like, that's someone who is going to contribute a lot on special teams. What are the characteristics you look for and is there one guy especially during your career that kind of really represented what you were looking for in that?
COACH PHIL GALIANO: Well, I think -- and when I say 13 to 15, I'm kind of talking 13 to 15 guys that we call as part of our core unit that can play on all four special teams.

We may have other guys that only play on one special teams and will dominate on that one special teams. So it's more numbers than 13 to 15, but what I'm talking about, guys that I can see being on all four of them.

What we are looking for there is we are looking for very athletic guys who can run and play physical and who can go out there and take the training that they are given on the practice field and carry it over into the game field and go make the plays.

It's like at any position, we're looking for guys that we can trust that we know we're going to go do the right thing and handle their business the right way on and off the field for us.

When I look at, there's been a bunch of different special teams guys throughout my career, but when I look at what Nick Scott has done for this program, to me, right away, even though I wasn't the coordinator last year, he's one of my favorite guys and most productive guys I've ever seen play on special teams.

Q. Is DeAndre, do you still plan to have DeAndre play return punts, and are you looking at anybody else there? And as for returning kicks, who are you looking at right now there?
COACH PHIL GALIANO: We are still playing for DeAndre to return punts. I think what he did last year is really good, and I think as I've said before, he's able to score whenever he touches the ball.

That's one of the things we're looking for. He's also a veteran guy who makes great decisions, and we know we can go out there and trust him. He's going to take care of the football and go make the fair catch when he needs to or run up and catch it so the ball doesn't hit the ground and we lose yardage. We're extremely excited about DeAndre. But it's like any position on our team. There's competition.

Before I got here John Reid was a punt returner who can done a really good job early in the season. We have a couple other guys, Mark Allen is very capable of doing it. We have a younger guy in KJ Hamler that we are really excited about. So we have a lot of options.

Mac Hippenhammer is a guy that's very sure-handed that can do it. I hope I'm not leaving guys out. We've a lot of options and like everything, we're going to compete.

Q. What about kick returner?
COACH PHIL GALIANO: Kick returner for us, obviously it's an open competition right now.

We have guys on our roster who have done it before: Miles has done it; Polk has done it; Nick Scott has done it; Journey Brown, see what he can do there.

So we have a bunch of guys and that's going to be the same thing. Those guys are catching kicks every day and they are charted, every catch: Was it clean; was it a good decision; and everything was charted and tracked. And not only are our coaches who coach them and give evaluations and opinions day after day after day, but we also have statistical value that we are able to go back and see, as well.

Q. You just mentioned Journey Brown. What excites you about him? The track background comes to mind.
COACH PHIL GALIANO: Sure. His speed, No. 1. He hits a crease, he's gone. There's no one that's going to catch him, so that excites me. And how physical and how strong he is. One of the things you're looking for in a kick returner that you're look is a guy that's able to hit a hole and break tackles, and he's a big, physical, strong, fast runner, which excites you.

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