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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 4, 2018

Lamont Wade

University Park, Pennsylvania

Q. Lamont, who on the Pitt team are you particularly good friends with? And does that change or affect the way you prepare for a game at all when you know so many guys on the other side?
LAMONT WADE: Aaron Mathews. That's my brother. We played high school together, grew up together, played little league, but no, that doesn't change nothing at all. Same preparation every week, same mentality every week.

Q. First, your initial thoughts on Miles being on the Sports Illustrated cover.
LAMONT WADE: That's amazing. I've been cool with Miles since high school, and just to see how patient he's been for these two years, controlling what he could control, and now it's finally his time. That's amazing to see.

Q. He told us that you guys are roommates. Do you think that magazine is going to find somewhere on the wall in your room?
LAMONT WADE: Yeah, I hope so. K.J. is one of our roommates, too.

Q. For you personally how far do you think you've come in your development as a safety since switching over to the position?
LAMONT WADE: I switched in spring ball, and since then it's been -- it's not really a lot on the physical standpoint or running around or anything, but the most important thing is is the mental standpoint. At cornerback you're kind of like isolated, just doing your job, worrying about you. But at safety you gotta know what the cornerback is doing, gotta know what the safety is doing, the linebacker is doing. So I'm ready to just trying to take strides on the mental aspect of the game, and that's just something I've been working on a lot.

Q. You were a recruit last time Penn State played at Pitt. What is it going to mean to you to be able to be on Heinz Field on Saturday night?
LAMONT WADE: I grew up playing on Heinz Field, championship games on Heinz Field. So I'm familiar with the environment. So it's just going to be real good to get back out there and play the game.

Q. I'm just kind of curious, looking ahead to the game -- I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought here.
LAMONT WADE: Happens to me all the time.

Q. A lot of people, I know you guys take it every game at a time, but for fans, obviously this is a little bit bigger. I'm just curious how aware are you and the rest of this team is how big other people look at this game and if you have any friendly trash talk with any people back home.
LAMONT WADE: We really don't see it how other people see it. It's hard for us to see it how other people see it. We see it as week by week. We take the same preparation, like I said, the same mentality, the same focus as if this game was the championship game because every game is a championship game. And that's just how we see it. That's just how it is for us.

Q. There are a lot of eyes on Micah going into that game. From a player perspective, what was it like watching him? Was he amped up? Can you just take us through what he was like on the sideline and then when he finally got out there?
LAMONT WADE: Seeing Micah kind of reminded me of me last year, just being a big recruit and finally going through the process, going through winter workouts, going through summer workouts and just finally getting out there and being able to play. It was real good to see him out there. He's an athlete. He's a freak, and he's only going to continue to get better throughout the season.

Q. When you first sat down to watch film this week, what were your first impressions when you put on the film and you saw Pitt's quarterback?
LAMONT WADE: He's real elusive. He's a little bit more elusive than their past few quarterbacks, and that's something that really stood out. And he has really good arm strength. So we just plan on looking at his strengths and just trying to prepare on what he has so we can be better as the secondary.

Q. You were pretty socially outspoken this off season, and I saw that you saw the Kaepernick news yesterday with Nike. What does that mean to you to know that a business like Nike is going to stand behind athletes that have those sorts of opinions and thoughts and social stances?
LAMONT WADE: That's huge. That's real good on Nike's side. That just shows that they're open. They're open minded, and they know what they're doing. So it's real good to see that.

Q. Jason was a guy last year and throughout his entire career that wasn't shy about saying what he thought. Did he help you kind of feel comfortable of having a voice, because it can be difficult to be an athlete and have opinions and have people come back to you with their own opinions. I mean where did you kind of get that strength really from?
LAMONT WADE: Yeah, I've known Jason is one of those people on the team as well. We've had our talks. But that's just kind of the person I am. That's just kind of who I grew up to be.

Q. Years ago when Penn State played at Pitt, like I said before, you were a recruit; you weren't committed to Penn State at the time, I don't think.
LAMONT WADE: No.

Q. Were you at the game, and if so, what were your feelings kind of just watching it?
LAMONT WADE: Yeah. I was at the game sitting in the front row in the recruit tickets for Pitt. But it was a real good environment, it was a real loud environment. So it's good to actually be playing in it now.

Q. At that point were you feeling any way each way because you weren't committed and you were with the Pitt recruits. Were you feeling any way at that point?
LAMONT WADE: Not really. I mean at the time I was, oh, gosh, Pitt won this game. But that's not the end-all be-all for me. It's a process. So I realized that, and you see where I'm at today.

Q. Miles was kind of instrumental in your recruitment and kind of Penn State as a whole getting more so into Western PA. What stood out to you about meeting Miles and how far back does your relationship with him go?
LAMONT WADE: I've known Miles since his sophomore, my freshman year of high school. So we've been pretty good, traveling on 707s and doing all these, when Clairton played Woodland Hills for 707 ands stuff like that. So we go back for a minute.

Q. And also, way back with, Justin King was big-time prospect, Western PA, of course. What did you know about Justin when you got here and was he somebody that you can kind of go to or anything like that?
LAMONT WADE: I didn't know a whole lot about Justin, but as Coach Smith started recruiting me, I learned more and more about him, about how good he actually was. And Justin is also a very good resource I could go to, I can talk to whenever I need him. So yeah.

Q. Growing up in Western PA, did you have much of an understanding of Pitt-Penn State? Miles was in here and said he really didn't. So did you?
LAMONT WADE: I had more of an understanding probably about the Pitt-West Virginia thing more growing up and less of the Pitt-Penn State theme. It's good to see they brought it back.

Q. Franklin said Sunday was a good correction day for you guys. Defensively, after you give up four touchdowns in a fourth quarter, what is that day of corrections like, and were fingers fiction being pointed? Or how did you guys kind of handle obviously an adverse moment?
LAMONT WADE: Yeah, we never point fingers. This is a team sport. It's some good things we got from that game and there's also some corrections, like he said. Up until the fourth quarter I think they had like three points, scored three points on our defense of like 75 yards or 125 yards or something like that. And that's the good thing we got. And fourth quarter, we just gotta stand strong, play football all four quarters, and we seen some adjustments we gotta make and corrections we gotta make. And we already handled that, so now we're looking forward to improve from that.

Q. Do you think the guys across the board, especially younger guys, grew up from that experience and kind of getting knocked down a little bit?
LAMONT WADE: Yeah, for sure, because I remember my first game last year, there's some stuff that you gotta kind of go through to learn, and just them getting out on the field, running around and making the mistakes they made, doing the good stuff they made. It's all a part of the game. So it just helps the development.

Q. On the on-side kick that you guys had, was that planned? What was the story behind that?
LAMONT WADE: That definitely was not planned at all. It was supposed to be a squib kick and Jacob just had a real good kick, and we actually got it back.

Q. So it caught you by surprise then?
LAMONT WADE: Yeah. It definitely wasn't supposed to be like that.

Q. Just looking at the front line for you, being without Givens, not having Shane Simmons available, obviously so much starts up front, and Franklin said that. Where do you think the evaluation is with the defensive line right now for you guys?
LAMONT WADE: Our defensive line is one of our strongest units on our defense. Those guys are real strong up front. We have a lot of elusive, strong defensive ends. Then we got guys who could stuff the run at D tackle. So I feel like we're real good. And like I said, game by game we'll just continue to get better.

Q. K.J. is your other roommate. How do you think he did on Saturday? What was it like for you to kind of just watch him blow up like that?
LAMONT WADE: Man, K.J. did phenomenal. Same thing with him. He came here off of his injury when he came back, and just seeing him being patient, just seeing him grinding, going out in the field in the summer, working out with him, trying to help him get his balance back and his strength back and everything, it was amazing to see what he was able to do on Saturday.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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