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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCEDecember 13, 2007Joe PaternoTHE MODERATOR: Thank you, welcome to our media day with Coach Paterno. Q. Can you please discuss the contributions that Brian Millwood made to your staff, and why you picked Buggs to replace him? COACH PATERNO: Well, Brian's been a really good asset to my staff and to me. He's been a good recruiter, good coach. His family has been a great addition to the community, and I'm going to miss him. He's a very, very likeable guy, and his family has been great people, and I'm going to miss him. But Kermit Buggs has been a guy that came here as a T.A., and I liked him, and I liked way he worked. I liked the things he did. He's bright. He stayed close to the program even though he was not on the field. And I think Kermit will do an excellent job. So you hate to lose a guy like Brian, but I'm glad we have a guy like Kermit hanging in the wing. Q. Do you know how Jared Odrick Jerome Hayes are progressing in their rehab? Assuming they won't be able to play in the bowl game come spring? COACH PATERNO: You ask me a medical question, I can't answer that. I doubt that either one will be ready in the spring. Obviously, that's two big losses. We've lost a lot of good football players. Eliades and some other kids who aren't going to be ready to play, had operations. Coakley, you all know about Coakley, the young tight end who had to have an operation. So I don't know, really what to say about that. I'm really not good about it. I'm trying to concentrate on what we have right now and that's it. Q. I was wondering will Knowledge Timmons and Chris Baker be able to play in the bowl game. Are they going to make the trip? COACH PATERNO: They won't make the trip. And what I want to do is we'll see. Q. Wondered if you could comment on your decision by the Big Ten to extend the season past Thanksgiving starting with 2009. Also, if you could talk about adding Oregon State, and the way that you managed to get a bye weekend next year, too. COACH PATERNO: We are adding Oregon State. I think that would be a good addition. And the coach, and the whole situation, I think it would be a good addition to our schedule. As far as getting beyond, I think we need it. You sit around and you watch every other conference in the country's defense (no microphone). And ask him to play in a tough conference. He argued that that was not right. He left the game, and (no microphone). How you work the open date in, you've got to figure out how we do that, because after Thanksgiving, that's fine. I like that. I like the idea it brought out things academically as well as physically. Everybody has a chance to have a couple of days off. It is a good move. Q. (No microphone). THE MODERATOR: We are starting to lose the audio. It's coming in and out, Joe. Q. With Dan Connor, it means linebackers from Penn State have gone up three in a row. Who knows, Stephfon Green may be a candidate for a fourth. Can you talk about the evolution of Penn State as linebacker? Way back when when you took over as head coach, was getting good linebackers something that you identified something that the program needed? COACH PATERNO: You know, to be very honest with you, I have no idea why that happened. I think we were fortunate that we have as Jack Hamm. (Indiscernible) and he was as good as any of them. In fact, we played Case, the inside linebacker on the split 6 defense and stuck them down and played him as a nose guard. He was a heck of a football player. (Indiscernible) good athletes attract good athletes. I haven't got the slightest idea. You're right about Stephfon Green. Sean is a heck of a player. Ron Hayes was a heck of a football player. Ron Hayes was not only an outside linebacker on a defensive end, but probably as good a pass rusher as we had. I can't tell you the answer to that. I wish I was that smart. It's just your observation is correct. We've got a lot of good linebackers. Which ones are better than the other ones people ask me sometimes, and I hate to compare. Because I think you give to one, you take away from the other, as many of you have heard me say before. But I think he certainly deserves all that he's getting. He's been an awesome football player for us for three years. Q. Keeping in mind that you're not playing on New Year's day this year, could you talk about managing the time and what your time schedule is going to be? How much you're going to get to practice and all that kind of stuff from now until the bowl? COACH PATERNO: Well, we just had a big long meeting this morning. That's why I'm late. Trying to figure out what is the best way to do. Our problem is the university calendar is strange. We're going to be in the middle of final exams next week. And there is absolutely no space that we can practice next week, except for 6:00 o'clock in the morning. And to do that, the kids would have to run over and take final exams. So it's going to be very difficult. I'm a little uneasy how we're going to do it. We're going to practice tomorrow and Saturday. And we're debating whether we'll go Sunday and maybe one day next week, maybe Tuesday, because a lot of kids don't have final exams. A lot of kids are through after Friday's classes because they don't have exams next week. You hate to keep them around just to practice. So I'm not sure exactly what we're going to do here. We're still debating that. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the exam schedule is. I've talked to our academic advisor this morning. He gave me what we have right now with the idea that maybe some of the professors have changed some of the exam schedules. I'd like to get seven or eight more practices in before we play the game. We're going to go down there and try to get everybody down there by the 23rd, Sunday. Which would be Sunday, a game week. Playing Friday and Saturday, get four or five good days down there. But I'd like to get three or four before we get down there. I'm not sure exactly how we're going to do that. It's been a little bit of a battle for us. Q. Sort of react or respond to what's happened in East Lansing, and do you sense they're very anxious to get back out on the field and erase that memory at the end of the season? COACH PATERNO: We'll find out. I don't know. So far the workouts that we've had, we've had four workouts, I think they've been good. And the coaches have been on on the road recruiting. Thomas our defense coach and Jeremy works with him, and works on the conditioning and the running. Says that the kids are doing a good job. So I think they're anxious to get going, get back out on the field. My job is to make sure they're prepared to do the job. As I said, I'll work on that in the practice room. Q. Have you started watching tapes of Texas A & M, and what are you seeing? COACH PATERNO: Not a lot of tapes. I wish I had looked at more. I don't know if we played anybody with more talent than Texas A & M from what I've seen. I just bounced more questions off the staff. They look like an awfully good athlete, great competitor. They've run really well on defense. I had not really looked at enough tape for me to answer that question as specifically as I'd like to, because I had a busy week last week. We had a lot of recruits up we had almost our entire recruiting class here this past weekend which took up a lot of time. As I look at them I guess you lose to Missouri, you lose to Oklahoma, and you lose to Kansas, they're three of the better teams in the country. Then when you beat Texas with the kind of talent Texas has, certain things jump out at you. As I said, I haven't really gotten in there and studied positions. I've looked to what kind of schemes are they going to use when we start talking about doing some things. I can have some input, though the staff will do most of it. This is going to be a real challenge for me. Q. Given what Michigan's going through in its head coaching search right now, and what Wisconsin has done in the past and Florida State is doing with the succession plans. Is the succession plan the better option in your view in situations where the current head coach has had a longer tenure? COACH PATERNO: I haven't got the slightest idea what you're talking about, to be frank with you. What's Michigan going through? Didn't they hire a coach? Q. Not yet. COACH PATERNO: Oh, I don't know. I think every school is in a situation. I think Barry Alvarez in Wisconsin, I asked that question, Barry and Brian when he went up to the Athletic Director's job. He was comfortable with Brian being the head coach, and that was nice. That was a nice transition. I don't have the slightest idea what would be better for -- what's Florida State doing? Q. (Indiscernible). COACH PATERNO: I ought to call Bobby and see when he's going to roll over (laughing). I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Yeah. I don't mean to be flippant, because I think that's a serious question, but I haven't got the slightest idea what you're talking about. And I mean that, I'm not trying to be -- Q. The last time you played A & M was in the '99 Alamo bowl. That game being so close to A & M's campus, did that change the atmosphere of that game? You won 24-0, but how does that change the way you prepare for the game? COACH PATERNO: Well, not really. We're going to have a good time, I think. I'm hopeful we'll have a good crowd there. I hope they sell the place out, have a lot of fun and have a good football game. But I really haven't felt that about that. We played Texas A & M at their home field and all, it was a great, great football environment and atmosphere. Enthusiastic and the whole bit. I'm assuming that would be what we're going to have at the Alamo. You know, hopefully, we can play on the road, if we consider it a road game. Hopefully, we'll have more people there than at the Alamo Bowl playing Texas A & M down there. But you know, it's a bowl game. And you know, fans are going to have fun, and we're going to go down there and have a good time. San Antonio is a great city. It really is. One of my great favorite cities. I have a son in Austin for a couple of years and I made a couple of speeches in San Antonio and been to a couple bowl games down there. We're looking forward to that part. I think we'll play well. Obviously, we haven't practiced enough for me to say what we have and haven't, but I think we'll play well. I just hope we can stay healthy. Not get carried away and get banged up in practice and that kind of stuff, because we're banged up enough as it is. But, you know, we're treating it as a bowl game. Q. You said (indiscernible) bowl games, any significance to it? Longevity? COACH PATERNO: Yeah. No, really, no. This is playing a game. Bowl games are something that both clubs deserve. We obviously want to go down there and play the winner and fight it out and win it as best we can. But I have not thought about it. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: I don't quite get that question. I think he's been fine. I think he's been fine. Kind of an unsung hero of this football team. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: Oh, I think that's up to him. I have not talked to Justin about it. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: Well, you know, as I told him at quarterback club banquet, I said, I really appreciate the fact that they took a chance on us, you know. And last year wasn't a great year, but they've had three good years. They came within that close playing for all the marbles, and I appreciate that. I really do. I think it's a been a good group. It's been a good group. I hope they can go out with a win. The Michigan State thing was not an easy loss for us. Not to take anything away from Michigan State, but we didn't do the job we could have done. And it would be nice to be down there with the Alamo Bowl and have a good win, you know. And kind of it's been a good feeling. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: I said they would be making the trip. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: Well, you know, I'm trying to figure out the I best way to handle it. I'd like to do both. I'd like to win the game, give ourselves a chance to win for some of the young people. If we can get that, I think that's the best of all worlds when we can do that. It's tough to do that with the schedule, the academic schedule w final exams and all of that, and we're debating how we do that. If we're not careful, we're going to end up making it hard for the young kids and the chance to go out on a limb. I think we've got to balance it. So it's almost a day-by-day thing. Whether we get done, we're going to practice tomorrow, practice Saturday. Practice Saturday and take a look at some things and decide, hey, we can do this? We can. You know, we've got to emphasize one other aspect of it is stronger than the other. It isn't exactly 2 plus 2 equals 4. You've got to carry a little bit by the seat of your pants. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: I don't know. It's up to them whether I coach them three, four, five more years, I don't know. I like to coach. I feel comfortable I can get up in the morning and do a good job. Maybe two, three, four, five, I don't know how many years. Hopefully, I'm not going to be a crotchety old man, and you know, not handle it. When it's time to go, go, right? I don't know. I just feel so good right now. I hate to put a timeframe on when I'm going to get out of here. I think when I start to get the feel, I'll sit down with the people and say hey, maybe we ought to start talking about my getting out of here if it benefits us. But right now that hasn't even come up. Q. Does it play in at all to recruiting. You've told us in the past kids ask how long you're going to be there, and you say I can't tell them. But does it not come up that, gee, your contract's due? COACH PATERNO: I tell them exactly what I just said. The way I answered the last one, I don't know how long I'm going to go. Q. (Indiscernible). COACH PATERNO: You know, I can tell you I don't know. You guys ask me questions that I never think about. I don't know. I just, it's a year-by-year thing. And I try like the dickens to try to make sure we can do a good job. If I've said it once, I've said it 50 times, it's the staff that's important. Q. Do you think it will help your program if (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: I haven't got the slightest idea. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: Well, he's done a great job. We haven't filled the scholarship yet. Still with the numbers and things like that, but he sure has done a great job. Q. Do you have any indication of any other assistant coaches that might be moving on? COACH PATERNO: Oh, Geez, I don't, really. I was surprised that Brian moved on. But I guess I got the call from the head coach, and he and Brian had worked together at Texas Tech and are close friends and their families are close. You know, Brian had been at Texas Tech, so he has some connections there. But nobody's really given me any indication. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: Not yet. No, we've got to in the first place we wouldn't be throwing something around until we know for sure. There are a lot of kids out there that are young kids that we have not played that are going to be really good football players. I keep counting on younger starters. I've played a couple of freshmen. But you've got to give them a chance to play in the position and have some time to really work with them before you start moving them around. I have a plan to do that. It may happen after three days. We've worked with some of those kids at different spots, not at different spots, but we could get a look at them at the position they've been practicing. And that gives us a chance to revise. We'll look at that. We're going to look at that. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: Oh, yeah, no, we practice them. We practice them. We've been trying to work them in right now without stepping back from what we want to do. What I'll eventually do. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: I don't have any email. Okay? I don't have any of that stuff, that's number one. Number two, when you pick up the paper, you can't read it, right? Q. Is Michigan looking for a coach still? COACH PATERNO: No, no, you know let me give you a little of where I come from as far as my attitude about getting up in the morning and going to work. If somebody says to me, Brian is interested in this job, okay? All right. I don't pay any attention to them. Okay? I rarely spend a lot of time upstairs. Most of the time I spend is at home because I've got everything there. I've got the fax machine on, I've got all that stuff going. So in order for them to tell me so and so, and so and so, they've got to call me on the phone. And if they call me on the phone, they don't. I have other things to do, forget about it. Say all that kind of stuff, every once in a while my wife will come home and say she was at the grocery store and so and so said this. She says; is that true? And I say what the heck are you talking about? I'm not protecting myself in that stuff, I'm just not interested in it. Q. Still do the shopping? COACH PATERNO: Once in a while I'll get a case of beer, yeah (laughing). Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: I don't think there's any question. I think I can operate. I'm not naive about my age and my energy, and I don't waste it. I don't waste any energy. I only waste what I've got to get done. I get up in the morning, I know what I've got to get done, and I get that done. There's a lot of things to do, and that's a luxury. But yeah, I think that's part of it. I think that is. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: Well, we were trying to get a 12th game. And Brian's really done most of the scheduling. Our choice is a couple of people. Oregon State said they'd like to come east and play. Any issues about playing Oregon State? And I said well, you know, are they easy (laughing)? But we thought we needed it. A team has had the kind of background that Oregon State has. And it's very encouraging. We thought it would be a good move, and that the fans would like it, so I said fine. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH PATERNO: Not that I know of. They may have sneaked one in on me, but I don't know about it. THE MODERATOR: We have one more. Q. (Indiscernible). COACH PATERNO: Are you talking about Ron Vanderlinden? Q. Yes. COACH PATERNO: I think Ron, the reason I hired Ron was because we played against Northwestern, and I was looking for a guy that could handle linebackers. When we played Northwestern, they beat us. The kid is now the head coach of Northwestern, the former linebackers. They were really well disciplined. They played hard and tough in every play. And I always said to myself, boy, somebody out there is doing a heck of a job with that squad. We had a player on our team, Morrison who was an outside linebacker, his brother played at Northwestern. Two kids from up in the state of Washington. He started down there, and I needed a defensive coach. And I called him up and said how about you and your wife have dinner with me tonight? Ron's a heck of a coach. I've got a lot of good coaches, that's why I'm not ready to get out of here. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. End of FastScripts |
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