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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 3, 2019Joe LorigUniversity Park, Pennsylvania Q. Last we spoke to you in June, you were awaiting Stout and now he's here. What has he brought to various competitions? We know he can contribute at place kicker, kickoff duties, how is he shaking up the room and what is your timeline on when you will feel comfortable declaring some starters at those spots? COACH JOE LORIG: Obviously really, really early, only being one day in, I think the No. 1 thing that he's brought is character. We've done all the background work or we wouldn't have brought him here to know what kind of person he is. But first of all, he brings good character to that room, so that's the No. 1 thing that's important to me. But also the competition. He's a very good kickoff guy, as was established as Virginia Tech, 88 percent touchbacks which was I believe fourth in the country but he's also a really viable guy at field goals. He was in a head-to-head competition there and he's also a really good punter. With only one day being in we haven't done all that much of that stuff yet so it's a little bit early to say but it's pushed and motivated the other guys. Just like it's competition, everybody gets better. What I've been proud of is how the other guys have, No. 1, embraced him and brought him into our family and it's not always like that when you get transfers. You know, sometimes there can be some tension in the room because somebody could potentially lose their job. No one has handled it that way and they have actually risen to the occasion. And I thought Rafael Checa and Jake Pinegar, we had a little competition yesterday at the end of practice and we had a little kickoff competition, and they both about the best kickoffs they have had since I've been here by far. So they have really stepped up and embraced the challenge, and I think that says a lot about their character and that room's character and it also helped that Jordan is really good friends with Blake, and Blake is very well respected on our football team. So that made it a much more seamless transition, which is to be quite honest, something that we took into account when we decided whether or not to bring -- any time we are going to bring someone into the program, there's a lot of different factors that you have to look at and one of them was how we felt it would affect that room, and we felt like it would affect it positively and so far, we are right. Timeline wise, honestly, we are one day in. Coach frankly and I have not even had that discussion. There will be a whole bunch of things charted between now and then and you'll see a trend of who is leading in this area and who is falling behind and put them in different situations and there's really not much of a hurry at that position. Not to speak for the offense, but if you're a quarterback or something, it might be to lead that group or something. But this, even though it's for the team it's more of an individualized thing. So you can usually, in my experience, make that decision a little bit later. Q. What did you change regarding special teams about how the guys do everything, how they meet and practice and how they approach special teams in general? COACH JOE LORIG: What did I change, meaning since I got here? Well, I can't speak to what I've changed because I don't know what it was like before. You know, when you come somewhere new, you don't really -- I don't mind to sound rude but you don't really care what it was like before -- because you're going to do it the way you're going to do it; that's why you were brought somewhere. What we do is very unique from anything I've ever seen and that's that we have a lot of individualized meetings, and that probably sounds pretty basic to most people. I've never seen it anywhere. We were at the Eagles a couple months ago and they did it a little bit. I've never seen it done in any way, shape or form before but what that means is, for instance, if we are going to meet on punt, to give you an example, usually the special teams coordinator will have the whole punt unit in there and he will talk through everybody and the position coaches will be in the back and listening and taking notes and those kind of things, how we do it is we break it up by position, just like you do offense and defense. So if we have a defensive meeting there are times Coach Pry will meet when the whole defense, but it's not the majority of the time Coach Pry and I are with the linebackers and so on and so forth because each position needs to hear different things and so how we break up a majority of the meetings is positional on special teams just like you do on offenses are defense. So back to the punt, our left guard and tackle, they have a position coach and they meet separately and only watch the film that pertains to them, right guard, right tackle, same thing, snapper and punter, same thing and so it's all broken up, which I know it's different because the players told me. And it creates a lot of buy-in. It creates buy-in from assistant coaches as well because they are in there coaching the position, rather than listening the to special teams coordinator run the position. In my experience, when special teams are valued and when they are productive is when it's a group thing, and everybody doesn't just look to the special teams guy. Obviously I'm responsible for it. I'm accountable for it. But it's a group process. It's not about me. It's about us. Q. Your return game, obviously KJ was the top kickoff returner for the team last year. Are you planning to use him in that role again and how is the group of players for punt return? Could you talk about that competition? COACH JOE LORIG: Well, KJ is a really dynamic returner in all phases. I think he will be a great punt returner, also. John Reid is a guy that's been back there. Mac Hippenhammer is a guy that's been back there. And then we have a variety of kickoff returners. Micah Parsons has helped us there, all the running backs know, Ricky Slate, all those guys, Journey Brown. It will really depends on -- I like to keep track of numbers. I want it make sure we're not over-utilizing or under-utilizing guys. Obviously KJ will be a major weapon on offense, too. So I kind of liken it to like a pitcher in baseball. They have a pitch count. To me, players have rep counts, so I will keep track of how many times a guy is on kickoff make sure we are over-utilizing or under-utilizing a guy. Long answer to your question. But I think KJ is really, really good. Want to make sure we don't over-utilizing him and make sure we don't under utilize him, as well. And we will roll guys. It won't be just a one-person thing on kickoff return. And then the return game -- we have two goals on special teams, No. 1 is to own the football and No. 2 is to have no penalties, so to make sure that we are putting guys on the field and I'm saying this for punt return specifically that are going to make great decisions. That's more important than a dynamic returner in that phase of the game because the No. 1 thing we want to do is get the ball back to our offense. We haven't had that much time to work live punts in those kinds of situations, so as Cam progresses, I think I'll know more of what the punt return role is going to be. Q. I saw that Blake came into camp yesterday with a new haircut, still rocking the mullet and Jordan has some, as well -- between those two guys, who would you say has the better hair? COACH JOE LORIG: I don't know if I'm a guy that should really be judging someone else's hair. I try to stay away from hair conversations. My hair game is not the strongest. I would say I'm jealous of both of them. Q. So outside of KJ and the other guys you mentioned, is there anybody else that's stood out in the return game? COACH JOE LORIG: I wouldn't say in the return game. Those are the primary guys. Our stable of running backs and Micah in the kickoff return stuff I think have stood out. We've got a bunch of different guys that have a lot of good speed and are explosive. The biggest thing that goes along with that is being great decision-makers, so continuing to put them in situations with practice to evaluate that decision -- those decision-making processes. Q. The situation that Brent Pry has is pretty enviable. He has two five-star signees, Smith and Dixon, waiting in the wings at this point. Are you salivating on having that kind of talent to use on your units and have you ever been around a program whereas a special teams coordinator, the roster from top to bottom was this accessible with top tier talent that you could use? COACH JOE LORIG: I'm excited about the guys that you mentioned. I'm excited about all of our different guys. Are you saying, have I been around a place where you could utilize the players like that? Q. Well, a lot of programs and defenses would feel forced to put a five-star signee at linebacker on the field at defense extensively. This program right now is not in a position where it needs to do that. I know you want to maximize the talent but not over use the talent. When you see guys like that that are two, three-deep on the roster, does that encourage you to kind of tap into that talent more? COACH JOE LORIG: Absolutely. I think one of the things I've talked about before is that one of the differences with special teams is sometimes people think you can put -- well, put maybe a little bit lesser player because they don't have to do different things. The difference in special teams is there's less thinking, right. I don't have an extensive kickoff cover playbook; if I do, I'm a bad coach, right. It's real simple: Go kick the ball and go tackle the guy with the ball. Obviously there's little nuances, but there's not as many moving parts in special teams, so guys that are younger, who may be aren't ready to play on offense or defense, they can play faster on special teams because they are really, really talented players and sometimes what slows players down is all the nuances of college football. That's why you usually see guys with more experience play better than generally speaking with guys with lesser experience. If you're a linebacker, for instance, you can get shifts, motions and there's all kind of formations and you mix those with our calls, so it can be quite paralyzing for young guys, where special teams isn't that way. That being said, I don't care is a guy is five-star, one-star, first team, fifth team, I really don't. We are going to play the very, very best guys. That's what a good special teams culture does. So whether that's Micah Parsons or Brandon Smith or any of the other guys I could name, the best guys will play. Our policy here is that starters won't start on more than two. So if Micah Parsons is the starting linebacker, he won't be on more than two special teams, unless it's approved by obviously Coach Franklin and then the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator. But to have the right culture, the right guys have to play and they have to see that whoever it is, whoever that guy; you'll play him and it shows that it is important and it's just as important as offense or defense. Because when you break it all down, the impact on a game, it is. Q. Coach talked about how in Chicago, Micah, being the No. 2 he always thought he was getting the ball no matter what -- he had a hard time not knowing it was not his ball to go and get. How are the discussions with him, because he wants to do so much? How did those things go that you're trying to teach him, he is not the primary returner? COACH JOE LORIG: I think it pretty obvious by where you line him up. For me with kickoff return, he's going to do it the way we want him to do it or he just don't be on it -- (Laughter) -- I think a lot of that is him joking around. He knows his role, and I've shown him -- one of the things we did at the last place I was at is we would move guys around and stack our returners a lot. We had a dynamic returner that no one wanted to kick to, so we had ways to move him around to get him the ball. I've shown the guys that on film. I think he knows that he can be a great blocker and be a great returner and have added equal value on both sides of it and I think he buys into that. I think sometimes he's just messing with us. Just joking around. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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