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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 26, 2008

Joe Paterno

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, welcome to our weekly teleconference. We have Coach Paterno.

Q. When do you expect to make a decision about who is starting next Saturday?
COACH PATERNO: You mean on our football team or any one position?

Q. No, quarterback.
COACH PATERNO: I wondered when that question would come up. We're going to start with Clark and probably play Devlin for sure some. And the other kid that I really think that we've got to give him a shot some time in there is Cianciolo.
All three kids have played practice really well, and all three can get the job done. Clark's had a little more experience. He's had a good spring practice, and a really good preseason so we're going to go with Clark, start him.
I don't want him looking over the shoulder. I want him to in and play. It isn't a question if he's going to go here, he doesn't do this, he does that. He's going to go in and play and take over the team and we'll go from there.

Q. I was wondering, you had said earlier you might take a couple of games before you really settle in on a starter. And I was just wondering is there anything different about this year as opposed to maybe the first year you broke in Michael Robinson or the first year you broke in Anthony Morelli?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I think there's more competition this year among the three kids. I can't remember exactly who Robinson when we debated using him. I think Robinson was by far the clear choice, as was Anthony Morelli. So we're more fortunate this year that we have three kids that can play.
They all throw the ball. They're all smart, they can run the football. Kids have a lot of confidence in them. So it's a different situation. But I still don't want to go into the season with the idea you get a two quarterback or a three quarterback system.
I think Clark ought to go in there and have a little fun playing. He's worked hard to get in it, and hopefully we're going to be able to give Devlin a chance to go in there and show what he can do.
The guy I'm most concerned about is whether we're going to be able to give Paul an opportunity to show what he has.

Q. I was just wondering how much did Daryll's experience play last year in that Alamo Bowl really help him spring forward into this season, carry over?
COACH PATERNO: I think being No. 2 last year helped him, obviously, and the amount of reps he got in practice. His having to prepare to play with one down. He was the quarterback.
There were some things that we knew he could do. In fact, during the year I've said this a couple of times - David came to me, he said maybe we've ought to stick Clark in there and change the pace on him. And again, I'm repeating myself. But I always felt that Morelli got more criticism than he deserved. And it all wasn't going to pile it on by sticking Clark in there and saying even the coach doesn't like him something like that.
So I expect that kids that have worked hard, had been a good quarterback, maybe didn't have quite the cast of characters around him that was, you know, that he could do some things easier. So I just went that way.
But Clark was a second quarterback last year. Devlin was just -- I think Devlin got maybe one or two snaps on him maybe last year. But they're expecting that. You don't have to be a genius to figure out, you know, Clark was the guy that should have developed into being the guy that would be one. And I think it's Devlin and Cianciolo give them credit that they have really fought him.

Q. When did you give the news to Daryll, and what was his reaction?
COACH PATERNO: I talked to them yesterday. Because I knew this thing would come up. I sat down with the three of them after practice yesterday, and I told them what I was going to do, and they seemed fine.

Q. You're saying you don't want Daryll looking over his shoulder. So is this sort of a week-to-week thing where you'll decide who the starter is, or does Clark have it for the foreseeable future?
COACH PATERNO: Well, you know, we haven't played a game yet. I wish I were clairvoyant where I could tell you exactly what is going to happen.
No, Clark's going to start Saturday. And I told him, and I'll tell him again before he goes on the field and when we meet on Friday. Hey, just go in there and enjoy it. It's your club right now, go get them.
But also at the same time encourage the other two kids, hey, as soon as I get a chance to get you in there and the opportunity comes up, you've got to be ready. It might be the rest of the year, I don't know.

Q. I was wondering if you had the chance to develop in your sense to develop a second team on the offensive line, and specifically behind Gerald at left tackle. Do you know who you'll have backing up in those key spots?
COACH PATERNO: Well, we do have a depth problem on the offensive line, no question about that. And right now our plans would be if something happened to Cadogan, we'd move Landolt over there and move Eliades up to where Landolt was.
So we have three tackles who I think are ready to play, and we've got -- we've been working with some other kids to be a back-up at the left tackle. So we would have two deep, and the same way inside.
You know, if Wisniewski was supposed to play at guard and at center, and started games last year can play either guard, so we've got a two-deep possibility if we have to have it. Then we have a couple of other kid that's we think will eventually be good enough to play.
We've got some good young players backing them up, but you're never quite sure how they're going to handle some things. Particularly when we don't know as much about a team like Coastal Carolina, and it's an opening game. So you can't really pinpoint what you probably will get regardless of who you're playing in your first game.
But we're bringing some new kids along, and before long, we'll have it. But It is a problem, and that's the way we've tried to handle it.

Q. Could you talk about the position changes of Knowledge Timmons and Chaz. Especially Chaz who seemed to be doing quite well moving up the depth chart at safety.
COACH PATERNO: I think Chaz has an awful lot of athletic ability, and we're doing a lot of things with Williams on the offensive side of the football. And if something happened to Derrick, a lot of the preparation that's gone into the season might be lost if we didn't have somebody close to his talent that we could stick in there. Powell is the closest guy.
We do have five or six kids that can play in the secondary. A couple of them are young, so that we thought that we could have the luxury of taking Powell and putting him on offense, because he is an explosive football player.

Q. How about Knowledge moving from cornerback to safety?
COACH PATERNO: Well not at this point, the safety. I don't know about that. He'll probably play at nickel.

Q. No, I mean, he was a corner back before. Now he's playing safety?
COACH PATERNO: He's a defensive back, and we had a couple corners coming back. In fact, three corners coming back. We have Davis over there, we have Davis and Wallace and we have Sargeant. And we took the young kid -- he's not young anymore -- we took the kid and moved him over the corner. Thought that Timmons would be better at safety than Harriott would and thought it would be a good corner and move Timmons to safety.

Q. What is there to on gain with in Penn State playing Coastal Carolina, a team a division lower?
COACH PATERNO: You know, when you go to 12 games and you want to play 7 at home. We really have to have 7 at home. We were fortunate that Oregon State came in, because there was a lot of pressure to have some unknowns with some different people in the east.
We played two for one with Temple. We're going to play Syracuse home and away. So we were trying to find somebody that would come up here one shot.
Koegel was the Athletic Director at Coastal Carolina. Played for us. Was captain of our team in '71. And he had been talking to us for a couple of years to try to get a game with us: I think it's turned out well. It's got some things, too.
Warren Richardson's kid brother is the quarterback down there, and they've got some other Penn State people connected with the operation. So I think it's a good opener for us.
It's an extremely well-coached team. They have played very well in their league. I think they won the championship maybe four or five of the last six years that they played in it. And when you look at the tapes of them, they've got some awfully good athletes. And they've got some, as I said, they're very, very-well coached.
I haven't seen Warren's kid brother because he didn't play that much last year, but it looks like he's going to start. We had looked at him in high school. Thought he was a good prospect, but not quite as good as somebody else we might have wanted.

Q. Could you talk about the competition during the summer between Lydell Sargeant and A.J. Wallace, and who do you think will step up there and start on Saturday?
COACH PATERNO: I got the Wallace, who was the one before Wallace?

Q. Oh, Lydell Sargeant?
COACH PATERNO: I don't think -- well, they compete. They go out there, and they're three good corners. I'm sure there will be times when we'll use one of them in there as a nickel.
Sergeant's a smart kid, if he got in a jam, he'd play inside. But those three kids are good corners. That's a luxury, you know.
When a guy goes down, you start to think about some of the things you're doing on defense. And if you have some people who can do the same thing as the guy in front of him, then you get some problems.

Q. You mentioned William Richardson, does he do anything that reminds you of Wally in the film you've seen?
COACH PATERNO: As I said, I watched some of the younger brother on tapes and Wally was working with us at that time. He was just an academic visor. He left here to become the academic advisor at Georgia.
So we had looked at him. He was a kid that looked like a very poised, good motion. Did some things well. And I had not seen enough of him as a college quarterback to tell you. But a really good one last year. He got banged up a little bit. And I thought he'd still be their starter, but Wally obviously beaten him out.

Q. Hi, Joe, yeah. If you have the three cornerbacks, Sargeant, Wallace, and Davis, in the media day you talked and some of the players talked about Astorino being such a great athlete, and want to go find a way to get him on the field. If one of those three corners is going to be the nickel, how are you going to find a way to get Astorino on the field?
COACH PATERNO: You guys give me a couple of other neighbors on the roster. You got a neighbor or somebody on the roster you want to get in?
Hey, he's a freshman. Give him a chance. He's a fine freshman. He's playing inside. He's not playing a corner. He's one of the inside safeties. There again, we try not to be too deep. And if you can have the luxury of having five kids that can play inside and, the luxury of having an inside safety or five that can play outside then during a tough season long year.
You know Wallace missed almost ten days of preseason practice because of a hamstring pool. When you're good that happens. But we have somebody behind him. Now that doesn't answer your Astorino question, but the same thing can happen inside.
We're just trying to get the most out of the kids we have, and Astorino right now is playing inside. He's a freshman. Got a lot to learn. The inside position is a lot tougher mentally in the corners because they have to make a lot of different coverage changes. And they have to make some adjustment calls. So it's -- he's a good kid. I think it's a good spot for him.

Q. In light of the injury to Sean Lee and the departure of the tackle, how important is it to the defense to have all that veteran experience throughout the secondary?
COACH PATERNO: I think it's vital. I'm not as worried about the. If I had to put a one, two, three my question marks. The first one on the defense would be linebackers. There's a night when we lined up Connor and Lee, we've got a bunch of kids that are really going to be good. But there are a lot of things they're going to have to adjust to.
Powell is probably the only kid that's played much, he and Sales. But, the way the game's played today, it's such a fast level and there's so much going on you'd like to say you're too deep across the board with the three linebackers.
Having kids like Stupar that's going to be really good and the kid from Louisiana. We've got some good young kids. I'm probably going to miss one or two. But they haven't played in a game in front of 110,000 people here.

Q. How is the 85 scholarship limit helped teams compete? How has that closed the gap between the two divisions?
COACH PATERNO: That's probably better answered by somebody that coaches on that level. I don't think there's any question that it's 85. When I first started to coach at Penn State, the Southeastern Conference had 145, and no limit on the incoming ones.
So that is why Bobby Dodds took Georgia Tech out of the Southeastern Conference. When he took his kids, he had 145, but he kept them. What Bryant did at Alabama he'd take five quarterbacks, maybe, so he didn't have to play against a couple of them, and then he'd pick out the best ones.
Then he had coaches at Tennessee, Chattanooga, and coaches different places, and he'd call them up and say you've got a quarterback, you go. So he could take 50, 60 next year. And Dodge couldn't get it done. The Southwest Conference, 145.
So obviously they dominated. If we were playing at Penn State with 95, Pitt, Syracuse, Penn State and West Virginia, we were all in there at 95 at that time. So the 85 is not drastic for us. But I think it opens up a lot of opportunities for some of the schools that were just on the cusp of putting a program.
South Florida, for instance, south Florida, fine football team for 8, 10 years. They've been playing for a national championship. Last year they were No. 2 at one time.
So I think it's made a big difference in the level of competition. If you looked at Appalachian and Michigan, if you studied the tape of it, which we have, I tell you, Appalachian looks like a football team. And, you know, they played like champions.
I said that one of the coaches, I said they've been champions in that conference for two or three years. So there is, I think there's a dramatic effect it's had on them. That's from a different viewpoint than the coach who coaches in that league at that level.

Q. Coach, you mentioned the battle between Clark and Devlin. When you told Daryll, what were his emotions? Because he said since January he really wanted the starting job. So could you describe what his emotions were?
COACH PATERNO: Three guys, sitting around a table, all right? Not telling what was going to be the obvious. He smiles. I said to the other two kids, you guys okay with that? Yeah, let's go in. That was it. We're talking about a three or four-minute meeting.

Q. How close was the competition?
COACH PATERNO: Very close. I think I made that clear. I said, I think we can win with any one of those three kids. It's just right now I think Clark is the guy that should take precedent. And I think he'll do very well.

Q. You said earlier you wanted to give Devlin some playing time for sure. Is that something you want to do from week to week? Does it depend on situation or score?
COACH PATERNO: I haven't the slightest idea. I just can't seem to get that across. We've got a fluid situation. We've got a nice situation. I mean, I don't know exactly -- I haven't looked at anybody yet except way back in the last 8, 9 days except Coastal Carolina. I'm anxious to see them.
I didn't realize it until early summer when I started to look at some Oregon State pictures what a good football team they were last year. So what's going to happen in this game? What's going to happen? Somebody's going to get bumped. You're going to lose a day here.
So you hope you're in position to make those adjustments. And that's what I was trying to point out when we talked about Harriott and Timmons and Astorino, I think we're very fortunate we have three quarterbacks. I think we can make the adjustment. And handle anything that might happen. But right now, Clark's the quarterback.

Q. So Jerome Hayes is coming on off a serious injury?
COACH PATERNO: Who is?

Q. (Indiscernible)?
COACH PATERNO: They're both ready to go.

Q. Can you talk about what went into the decision to have Koroma starting ahead? Is it going to make a big difference? Abe Koroma?
COACH PATERNO: He's been hurt a lot. Hadn't had a lot of practice until last week. And Koroma and Gbadyu both have really gotten better and better and better. I think that they deserve to start.
The game the way it's played today, you can't have two defensive lines. You've got to have back-up guys. If you want to get after that quarterback player if you play, that is the toughest job.
So we've tried, you know, some of the other kids. I mentioned Hayes, and we've got Keisling, and the only kid over on the other side who has Hayes, Gaines can go both sides, Hayes can move in. We've got a young kid freshman I like very much. It's that kind of a mentality. But he can play a lot of football.

Q. Are you involved in a lot of those discussions with different positions as far as explaining to potential back-ups what their role is in a week like this? Or do they usually follow the assistant position coaches?
COACH PATERNO: Well, most of them. I think they know what's going on. We don't make pretense with them. Hey, You've got to do this if you want to beat so and so out.
We made a decision last Friday as a staff. I'm in on all of it. They've got to beat this if they want to go and that sort of thing. But when it comes down, if anybody's got a problem with any one of his kids, I'll talk with them.
And I'll get a call from a parent once in a while. Hey, what's going on with my kid? He's on a demonstration team now. He's a little behind so and so. And we try to keep them encouraged.
But most of the time it's pretty well known the pecking order on. And if we do have one where it's close, we try not to make a final decision for the whole year. Because some kids are a little slower than the others in developing. So you just try to be flexible.

Q. The '68-'69 team coming in here this weekend, how much of a foundation do you attribute to them as far as what they did with the program? Do you get to spend much time with team that's come in like that?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I'm going to try to. They're coming in and having a get together Friday night after the rally. And that's great for me. But I'll try to say hello to some of them, and I'll try to see some of them maybe Saturday afternoon. I want to stick around.
To answer the first part of your question, there is no question I inherited a lot of people. You know, I think maybe I made this statement again before.
I remember asking Daryll Royal did. I remember asking Royal why he had gotten out the year he got out, because he left a great football team and they went away winning the Cotton Bowl. I said how come you left? And he said Texas is really good to me, and I wanted to leave some meat on the bones. And I think Rick wanted to leave some meat on the bones.
Those guys, I'm missing somebody, but they were good football players and they made me a good coach. And in the eyes of people I wasn't that, but they made me a good coach. I mean that sincerely.

Q. Going back to the defensive line, is Devlin still out for the year? Do you think you can get him back in action?
COACH PATERNO: He's out for the year. He's got a broken ankle.

Q. How tough has it been for him having two really serious injuries in two years?
COACH PATERNO: I worry about it. I try to talk to him. He's out there with a big cast on the lower part of his leg. You know, it's tough. It's tough. But you know, you try to just explain that's the way it goes. Sometimes it goes bad for a long time, and then all of a sudden good things will happen to you if you don't lose your focus.
I worry about them getting careless in class and that kind of stuff when they're hurt that much. But he seems to be handling it, as well as you could expect. I don't think anybody, when you're that young, and you've got everybody was -- he's a heck of a prospect. I probably worry more than he does.

Q. Talking about his ankle (Indiscernible)?
COACH PATERNO: He's a heck of a player. I remember recruiting him. He was from Long Island originally, then they moved up to upstate New York. Kid brother was a heck of a football player, but he decided to play baseball. He was a really good baseball player. I think he played with the Yankees one year.
He was a really solid, good football player. In fact, he played and I went to the Bowl and the only time I coached an All-Star Game, I took him and Jack Hamm to play for us out there. He played against Archie Manning out there.
We had a great quarterback by the name of Plunkett and Theismann. And a couple of times we needed a babysitter, we had three kids and Hamm baby sat once or twice. Great guys.
Really a delightful person, and smart he's done a good job down there.

Q. Coach, Florida State is off this week, so you could possibly tie Bowden for the wins record this year. I know you said you don't look at the record, but do you enjoy a friendly competition with Bobby with that in terms of the career wins and all of that?
COACH PATERNO: Bobby's a good friend, oh, who cares. When they bury me they're going to put on my gravestone, you're one win ahead of Bobby Bowden? No. That's good for you guys, you need something to write about, obviously.
No, I really don't know. I couldn't tell you that. I don't know. And I don't think Bobby would feel any differently than I do.
We've sent spent a lot of time together through the years, Bobby and his wife Ann. We've gone on a lot of trips with the Nike coaches. And Terry and the other brother who coaches Auburn for a while. Was Terry at Auburn? I get them kind of twisted around a little. But they were both -- they're good.
Hey, Bobby Bowden's a great credit to the game everywhere he's coached. If he comes out with more wins than I do, then we both have it, I'm glad it's him.

Q. Do you have to do anything different in a way to maybe get the team motivated this week because it's not a Michigan or Ohio State. It's Coastal Carolina, does not quite get the blood pumping?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I worry about that, obviously. Because too many people are on to saying one of the opening questions was. He asked me about playing Coastal Carolina, yeah, I think you have to respect them. I think what Appalachian did to Michigan last year was an eye opener for everybody. And a couple other games like that last year. They thought it was in the bag for some lame team.
I think it will be all right. Preseason is a very difficult time for us here because we're in preseason practice up until a week ago Thursday and in summer school. We were taking finals last Friday.
So we had trouble getting the two-a- days and that in. So we started off this week behind. And you can't work them too hard, otherwise they won't have any legs.
So I think there are some kids out there that are mature enough to know what they've got to do. And hopefully we'll have some people that can make some plays in the clutch. And I think it will be all right.
But it really is a tough game. We're going to play well. We'll put the ball on the ground, make mistakes in the kicking game. We can't get careless, because they're clever. We get careless on defense, and they'll hurt us.

Q. Quarless' status had been up in the air. What did he do to make the team? What kind of things will he have to do?
COACH PATERNO: I waited until his grades came in, he did a good job. So right now he'd be probably behind Shuler. He wouldn't be ahead of Shuler. Shuler's a had a spring and good preseason. And the young kid is not quite as fast as Quarless. Quarless is a pretty good athlete, so is Shuler. Now Quarless is okay.

Q. Anthony said this morning that the secondary wants to make more plays this year, force more turnovers. Was there an emphasis placed on that in the preseason?
COACH PATERNO: I think we always try to emphasize that. I think we were disappointed that we didn't get more turnovers. We didn't really, you know, last year. We've tried to talk about playing a little faster. You know, getting a better jump on the ball, those kinds of things. But we pretty much do it all the time.
Last year, we weren't very good when we had the football as far as turnovers go. I think we turned the ball over more times than anybody we played. And I don't mean each game, but as a total.
I think that is something you're always on their backs. But once in a while they just don't get it done. But I think he had to get the turnovers. I don't care, it's still a game of turnovers.

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