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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 24, 2019Tariq Castro-FieldsUniversity Park, Pennsylvania Q. Going way back, we were sitting in here when you committed to Penn State and the coaching staff was up top going crazy. What do you remember about that day and how down to the wire did it come to you? They were telling us that you made them wait it out a little bit. TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: Yeah, I know it was a stressful day. A lot of things went into it. So I think I didn't make the decision until about, I don't know, 2:30. I went back and talked to my coach about it, and I finally knew and I decided when I picked up the hat. Q. So you had a pretty good poker face throughout the whole thing? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: Yeah, I think my coach kind of made me have that poker face, so yeah. Q. What does it mean to you to go back to your home state, and how many tickets are you giving out to friends and family? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: Yeah, it means a whole lot. I remember going back as a freshman when my role wasn't that big and how much meant to me. Now being a starter and being out there with my brothers, in a state where I grew up and I have the most family at means the world to me. I have a lot of tickets; I have a lot of family coming, coming from Canada, coming from everywhere trying to see me play. Q. Who has more friends and family? Is it you and Rasheed trying to get all the tickets? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: Me, Rasheed, Cam Brown, Cam Sullivan-Brown, you name it. We've got a lot of Maryland guys on the team. Q. How much familiarity do you have with these Maryland guys? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: A whole lot. The whole 2017 class, I know all of them boys, Isaiah, Hazell, I knew him as a young pup so I'm familiar with a lot of them guys. Q. Any contact with them this week? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: Not a lot. Isaiah called me. That's about it. Q. Did you talk football? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: Just see how he was doing. I don't really like talking football during this week. I just see him on the field. Q. It's been the mission for them to keep Maryland kids home. You have a few good ones here at Penn State. Conversely, what's your sales pitch to a kid on why you should leave home and take a chance on somewhere new? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: I would just tell them, go with your heart and go with your gut. I chose this place because it was the best fit for me, academically, the coaches, the players, I fit in here the best. I would just tell them, go through the process, really understand what schools have to offer you, what schools will do for you after football. So them would be the main things that I would tell them. Q. Some heat involved, whether social media or family, friends, when you do leave home and you're not the only guy to do it, do you get some kind of feedback that still sticks with you when you go back down for a game like this? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: I would say no, just because I played high school there and I'm familiar. I think you can't really overlook you leaving a state. I mean, when I go back, there's a lot of love from everyone, even the Maryland players show love, as well. Q. What's the key to becoming consistent? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: To what? Q. Becoming consistent. TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: I would say doing all the little things correctly. Not overlooking any small detail, whether that be scoop and scoring, running to the ball. Just always giving 100 percent. I think once you do those things, being consistent actually just comes with that. Q. Do you mean it's harder for younger players to learn how to be that way? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: Yeah, because practice is kind of different. In high school, you kind of just do whatever, but here, every minute is kind of structured and you're always running around. So you kind of get tired from running from the offensive field to the defensive field, and so you really have to learn how to practice and once you learn how to practice you can become way more consistent. Q. Is it better for them to learn on their own or do you try to help them in ways that accelerates that process? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: It's something that you have to go through. Obviously I'm there, we're over here for daily skill or we're over here for team one, but it's just something that you have to get used to. Q. How long did it take you to figure out how to practice? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: Probably like two weeks maybe just getting used to everything of the flow of practice and the timing of everything and just never being able to just walk around probably. You're always running around. Q. James was mentioning how difficult it is for you guys to stay busy waiting for a Friday night game, as opposed to a Saturday night game where there's games throughout the day. How difficult is it for you guys to stay active and not lay around all day doing nothing? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: The coaches and people that do the schedule do a great job of giving us rest but also having us in meetings, and they just take care of it and we just show up where we need to be. Q. I'm not sure how many opportunities you get to go against KJ Hamler in practice, but when you guys are repping and things like that, what kind of challenge does he pose that's maybe a little bit different than other receivers you've faced this season, and what makes him a little bit special for you guys? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: He's definitely a special dude. His quickness put together with his speed is dangerous. You know, if you don't get hands on him, he'll just run by you. You have to do a good job of staying patient, using your hands when you need to and taking all the proper cutoff angles and stuff like that. What he does presents a real problem. Q. It was made a big deal, like a year ago, maybe two years ago about his nickname being the human joystick. Do you still playfully call him that? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: I think some people jokingly call him but I call him K.J. I don't call him nothing special. Q. How much do you feel like you've changed as a football player just from a confidence standpoint? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: Yeah, I've grown up a lot from going back there just my freshman year, period. I'm more mature. I attack practice differently. I'm excited to go back. Q. Where in your game from a year ago have you seen the most growth and development? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: I think two things. My confidence; Coach T just does a great job of building confidence in his players. And then my tackling. Each year I've improved and this year I'm doing a great job of tackling. Q. Has it been an adjustment in terms of leadership? How have you stepped up in that regard and become a leader of other corners? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: I think last year I tried to do a good job of trying to be a leader to the freshmen but now it's just trying to be a leader for everyone in that room, whether it be a freshman -- I hope John Reid and John Reid helps me. So no matter if you're a fifth-year guy, you're trying to get coached up and things like that. Q. You're tackling, you see a guy one-on-one, is there no doubt at this point that you're going to be able to make that play? It seems like that is rare for people on the perimeter -- in the NFL, a lot of guys can't tackle on the outside. How much is that a point of pride for you? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: Yeah, it's definitely a point of pride. Coach T says if he touch him, you have to get to the ground. Then we do new drills in practice. I'm super proud of how all the corners have been tackling. Hope we keep it up. Q. James mentioned after the Pitt game how much he was pleased with you and John as a duo on the outside. Is there another duo in the country that you think is more confident, playing better than you guys are right now? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: I don't think I can name any other duos in the country. But I think me and John's been playing well. I think we feed off each other. He works hard. I try to emulate how he works hard and approaches practice. I think he's been still helping me along the way, too. Q. When you watch film, how much of it, when you go on the to field, is trying to identify what you think the play is, how much of it is just sort of -- I want to be in the right place to react to what they are going to do. What are you doing when you watch film and then take it on the field? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: Looking at down and distances, whether I should press, play, things like that. Just putting myself in the shoes of if I had that route combination come to me, what would I do in this coverage versus this coverage. I think that's a lot of the process through my mind as I watch film. Q. The Kobe documentary where he breaks down one of his game and he says that by the time you get through most of whatever season, there's so much film on you that really it's about execution, it's not about trying to fool anyone. Do you feel like football is the same way; that really, it's not so much I'm trying to trick you -- that will happen -- but really, it's just a matter of out-executing the other guy? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: As far as film study, it's just a matter of finding like tendencies and as a receiver, looking at the splits, where he runs this route versus another route. I think it's a lot of anticipation, and once you watch the film and you're out there, that's how John Reid was able to get a Pick-Six on the out route because we saw it a lot of times. Q. Going up against a guy like Jackson, how important is it to you as corners to have that ability to recognize when a guy like Jackson moves outside the pocket, takes off and runs and your ability to get back and tackle? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: I think that's very important, just to be able to get off blocks. Also stay on your man for scramble rules because he is going to scramble. You just have to make sure your eyes are always at the right spot. Q. You say you're pretty confident now. Going back a year or two years, when did you find that confidence because I'm sure you probably always had it, but when guys get to college, it's a little different. TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: I don't remember the exact moment, but I think kind of just kept building and building. And then now we're here. I don't think it was one particular game but each year I just started trusting, trusting, trusting it, and me lifting weights and knowing that I'm capable of keeping up with these guys. Q. Coach Franklin mentioned stopping screens and getting off the field was a big point of emphasis within the past week. How did you emphasize it and what are maybe some of the things you think you'll be able to do better after focusing on that? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: I think we just went over how you fit the screen. We just repped that a lot of times and recognizing when the screen is coming, what down and distance it's going to come. I think that's some of the things we worked on. Q. What's maybe some of the -- one of the hardest things about that? Because I think people sit at home and everybody -- that's what they think, third-and-long but obviously you've got a million other things that you're thinking through in those instances. TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: The screens or the third-and-long? The screens? I would say a person being hesitant when they approach a screen, that's how it kind of gets started. The first person who kind of is responsible to force it has to go, and then everybody else has to make them right. Q. Coach Franklin spent some time talking about the redshirt rule. Your class was the last class that doesn't have that. You played with LaMont and Yetur. How do you see it helping with the development of last year's class and this year's class, something that you didn't have the chance to do? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: I'm just glad I played early, and Yetur, I think we were ready. I'm glad how Coach Franklin handled that whole thing and put me in when I was ready and then just threw me in the fire but kind of eased me along. But I do think the four games helped a whole lot because you can kind of get your feet wet and see what it's like and then if you're ready, you're going to play and if you're not, you're just going to have to wait till the next year and keep building your body and things like that. It's how you approach it, if you redshirt, if you attack it or not. And you do get the four-game experience for the next year which I think is really good versus not playing at all and just redshirting. Q. C.J. homes made his first appearance on the depth chart. How have you seen the transition go from him? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: I think he's a great athlete. He's done everything that Coach has asked him on the field, whether it be special teams, defense or whatever, you name it. I think he's given 100 percent with whatever they asked him. I'm proud of him. Q. How have you seen Porter develop as one of those young guys? TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: He's developed a whole lot. He has 34-inch arms. I'm trying to teach him how to practice still. That's one of my favorite freshman. He's blossoming. Q. 34-inch arms? Have you ever been around -- TARIQ CASTRO-FIELDS: No. It just looks so easy for him honestly. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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