	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 23, 2008

Joe Tiller

THE MODERATOR: We have Purdue's all-time winningest head coach Joe Tiller. We'll start with questions for Coach Tiller.

Q. What was it in Frank Duong's personality that allowed him to go from an obscure walk-on four years ago to a starter now?
COACH TILLER: I think just his determination. You know, he's a competitive young guy. He's determined to see something through, which is a very good quality in life for anyone.

Q. What is it specifically this year you saw in fall camp that convinced you that he's ready to be a starter?
COACH TILLER: Well, he was healthy. That was first and foremost. He's been a guy that we put on the field sparingly in the past, but he's been hurt a lot in the past. Actually he rolled an ankle a couple weeks ago and there was some doubt whether he would play in the Oregon game. But he's been relatively healthy. As time has passed, he's become more experienced and more comfortable with the secondary calls, et cetera.
Frank is a very smart young man. He doesn't make a mistake very often. That's a good quality for anyone. I always tell players every year the three things you need to do to get on the field at Purdue. First and foremost you must be healthy so you can get out there and practice and we can get to learn things about you. Two, you have to learn your assignments because if we can't trust you when we put you on the field, we're not going to put you on the field. Number three, you have to answer the question, Can you help us win now, not in the future. Certainly all three of those would be accurate in describing Frank this year.

Q. About Curtis in the last game, I read you gave him a sense of urgency on one series towards the end. What did you see differently in that series that you hadn't seen previously?
COACH TILLER: Well, number one, I think that's being blown way out of proportion. But he just hit his rhythm I think finally late in the game. We got into rhythm. He got into a good throwing rhythm. Just as a team, we got into a good rhythm. He threw some really good balls. Really I thought his touch pass to Tardy was an excellent throw. And I thought the throw to Valentin for the big gain was an excellent throw. And I thought his throw on the two-point conversion was a heck of a throw, too.
Really I think it was more being in or not being in rhythm. That's what transpired.

Q. You've been involved in a lot of these Purdue/Notre Dame games over the years. What is the significance of this game on your program, the Purdue program, players, coaches and fans?
COACH TILLER: Well, every game is important. I've said that multiple times. But I think you just would reverse the order. You said yourself, Purdue players and Purdue fans. It's perhaps most important to Purdue fans, then next Purdue players, then Purdue coaches. I say that because we treat this game like all of the games we play in that they're all important. The difference is, let's not kid ourselves, we're playing on a different stage. So that's the significance in the game, I guess the stage you play on versus the actual game itself.

Q. When you took over the Purdue program, one of the things I remember you saying in your initial press conference was you wanted to make the Purdue/Notre Dame series competitive again. Saturday you'll have a chance to win your career 6-6 against Notre Dame with a win. What would that mean to you and how big an accomplishment would that be considering when you inherited the Purdue program it had been quite a long time since Purdue had beaten Notre Dame?
COACH TILLER: Well, I think it signifies that we made some steps, have taken some steps forward. Certainly getting competitive again with Notre Dame was one of our goals when we first came to Purdue just because of the long-standing tradition of Notre Dame and Purdue playing each other.
When you have a game, I suppose we could start the same thing with Central Michigan, we played them every single year. Just because you play a team year in and year out, people just naturally gravitate towards focusing on that game. So it's significant from that point of view.

Q. Will this be a week where you get a little emotional, considering this is your last crack at the Irish, the last time you'll run out of the tunnel at Notre Dame stadium? Will things be a little different for you this week?
COACH TILLER: I don't think so. I think every year we played Notre Dame, our players -- I mean, again, let's not fool ourselves. I can say whatever I want to say up here. Our players are going to be bombarded by their families, their classmates, their friends about playing Notre Dame. There's an awful lot that's said to our team about the opponent. But to me it's not about that so much as it is about playing another football game and trying to pick up another win somehow.

Q. Is it safe to say Curtis won't be on a short leash come Saturday?
COACH TILLER: No, no. He's fine. I expect him to play well. Counting on him playing well. I'd like to see him play well from this point forward.

Q. Can you elaborate on what you meant that things had been blown out of proportion?
COACH TILLER: Yes, it's really being hammered, from our student newspaper to wherever, that Painter in danger of being benched, Painter threatened to being benched is what I meant. Maybe somebody else threatened him, but I didn't. You know, it was a matter of us just stating a fact. If we weren't successful, we were going to give Joey a shot. That's part of the game itself.

Q. Do you think Joe is being pushed enough in practice, by that I mean by some of your reserve quarterbacks, or would you like to see even more competition there?
COACH TILLER: I don't think you can ever have too much competition at a position. I don't know. We've had quarterbacks in the past -- you've heard me say this before. If you have what you consider to be two starting quarterbacks or three potential quarterbacks, it probably means you don't have any. I've always been a coach that's always been in favor of having a clear-cut number one quarterback. So this idea of competition, practice, et cetera, makes you better, I don't subscribe to that so much as I want us to have a designated number one. I think that's how your team functions the best.

Q. You talk about trying to get better each week. Do you really feel the team maybe took a step forward against Central Michigan and if so in what way?
COACH TILLER: Well, I thought we hung in there and found a way to come up with a game-winning drive twice really because we went ahead and scored, took the lead, actually got the ball back and were in position to put it away, and we turned the ball over, they got it back and scored, so we had to go score again. We went and did that. I think you learn from those situations and you're better in the future for having experienced it.
The real significance of protecting the football in the four-minute, we call it the four-minute drill, actually there was about 5:30 something left on the clock at the time, but we really went into our four-minute drill, which means be very selective but very intense with regards to knocking people off the ball, securing the ball, sustaining the drive and keeping the clock running.
I think our team benefited from the situation in the sense that they once again learned the significance of the four-minute drill.

Q. Notre Dame tends to blitz quite a bit, give you some different looks. Talk about the challenge of that, what they bring defensively in terms of pressure.
COACH TILLER: Yeah, they bring a lot of pressure. About the only thing I can say is having played the teams that we've gone against to date, it's helped us prepare for a team like Notre Dame, although we've seen pressure in all three games, a multiplicity of different looks. We'll probably see all three gamed wrapped into one in this game in terms of different looks.
It's not uncommon for Notre Dame to run a particular blitz maybe twice in the game. You don't see that blitz, but you continue to see pressure. I think they're a football team that wants to bring five-man pressure all the time. That means they're bringing somebody other than a front guy. Could be a linebacker or could be a secondary defender. You're never quite sure who that extra rusher is going to be.
It's truly a pressure defense. Like I said, you're going to see five guys coming all the time. They might have a lineman dropping into a zone pressure look and bring in two extra defenders, maybe a secondary guy and a linebacker. But is it going to come up your left side, right side, up the middle, where is it going to come. They like to confuse you with their style of play in terms of numbers of looks that you're going to see. Like I said, we'll probably see as many in this game as we've seen in the first three games combined.

Q. Statistically Notre Dame is not rushing for a lot of yardage. What could you say about their running game? Are they running into some tough teams? Are they struggling?
COACH TILLER: I think there's two things about the rush. I think, number one, certainly it has to do with your own ability to run the football, but it also has to do oftentimes with style of defense that you play against. If you play against a defense that's crowding the line of scrimmage, basically what they're doing is setting their defense to stop the run, unless you're just so superior in talent to your opponent, you know, that makes it difficult because the numbers tilt in the defense's favor. They've had some of those things happen to them.
The other thing is you have to remember, if you take a sack, it goes against your rush yardage. Although I think Clausen has done a better job and has improved dramatically in a year, they still get sacked occasionally. That's negative yardage in the rushing game.
I think there's some reasons they're not rushing the football, statistically speaking, perhaps to the level. I don't know, maybe they're rushing it right where they want to be. I don't know. I'm not at Notre Dame. But just from a balance point of view, et cetera, there's different reasons why a team can't or struggles sometimes in the run game.

Q. Your receiving corps, how do you feel they're rounding into shape after three games?
COACH TILLER: I think they're getting better. I made the comment to our coaches during training camp that after about a month we've got a chance to have a pretty good football team. This will be the fourth week this week. Those guys are getting better each week out. We're just planning on that continuing.

Q. Are we starting to see the Torri Williams that you've been enthusiastic about the last couple years?
COACH TILLER: Yeah, but I don't think Torri is running as good as he did when he was a younger. Of course, he's improving. He's an experienced player. We don't see some of the mistakes he made as a youngster. Overall, yeah, he's getting closer to being where we thought he would be.

Q. He's had a pretty big impact in a couple of these games. He's having quite an impact for a safety, isn't he?
COACH TILLER: Yeah. And we're moving him around, if you noticed. We're playing him some at corner, too. I really think if you were to ask me what his biggest contribution to date would be, really his flexibility, his ability for us to put him out on a corner or play him inside. That's extremely valuable when you can do something like that with a player.

Q. He's obviously old chronologically. Is he playing like an experienced player?
COACH TILLER: You're right, he hasn't played that much for his age. But he's doing a good job handling checks, doing the right things mentally.

Q. For all he's been through in his career, has his mentality changed? Is he more enjoying each day as it comes?
COACH TILLER: He's going to be up here shortly. You can ask him that. He hasn't come in to tell me that he's been enjoying himself more. I have a feeling whenever you're healthy, particularly with what he's dealt with, he has to feel pretty good right now.

Q. Your plan here on out for Nickcaro Golding? Are you going to play him in both positions?
COACH TILLER: Yeah, last week he only played six snaps. This week we'd like to double it, have him play 12 or 15, whatever, eventually see if we can get him on the field as a full-time starter.

Q. Do you ever sit down and talk to Torri, say that you've been through a lot in your career, but don't focus on the past, just worry about each day as it comes, whatever happens happens?
COACH TILLER: No, not really. I haven't because I think that's pretty obvious to him based on what you just said, what he's been through. He understands the opportunity and also the risk.

Q. Can you talk a little bit more about Clausen, where you see him, how he's improved from last year.
COACH TILLER: I think he's throwing the ball deep with a very good touch. They have some young receivers that they really like. He's been getting the ball to them, particularly up over the top. I think he's one of the better deep throwers that I've seen in a while. He's probably going to just get better as he moves along. He's doing a better job with his decisions. He's just an improved player. He's a year older. I think that sometimes, due to the success that some true freshmen have, the notoriety that surrounded Jimmy Clausen when he first came to Notre Dame, everybody thought he was the next Joe Montana. He may leave there being that, but that's an awful huge burden to put on someone's shoulders as a true freshman. I think you can see that the game is beginning to slow down. You hear that term a lot, but it is very true. The game is beginning to slow down for him.

Q. They have a receiver, Golden Tate, who has been their big-play receiver, averaging over 20 yards a reception. Talk about the concerns you have with him.
COACH TILLER: Well, he's a good receiver and he can run. I think any time you see a receiver with speed out on the edge, out on the corner, you know, there's reasons for concern.

Q. We're doing that defining moments thing still. Can you talk about the 2000 game against Michigan, missing the first field goal before hitting the second one?
COACH TILLER: I thought, I'm really glad he hit that field goal.
Actually, you know, it's very rare for me in a ballgame to get negative. I try really hard not to. And oftentimes if a guy misses a field goal or a guy drops a pass or a back fumbles a ball, when you talk to him on the sideline, you know, I'll talk to him about securing the ball or looking the ball into your hands or stay in rhythm when you're kicking. The last thing I always say to him is, All right, you're on to the next kick, you're on to the next play. The most important play in football is the next play, and you'll make the next one. That's what I said to Travis.

Q. Zwilling was dressed. Do you expect him to play?
COACH TILLER: We were talking about that this morning. We'll see how he does at practice this week. He actually was cleared to go and practice with us last week. Jared is really a tough guy. That just goes to show you, you just never know. But when you compare his ankle injury to Ryan Kerrigan's injury, you would think that Kerrigan's was more serious with a high ankle symptom. Obviously it turned out to not be a high ankle sprain, or he might just now be coming back. With Zwilling's ankle, it ended up being more serious than initially thought.
That brings us to today. Right now we just went through our travel roster, and we put him on the travel roster. Our thoughts are we'll wait and see how he practices this week.

Q. I assume Kyle Adams is off that travel roster for another week?
COACH TILLER: No, he's on it, too. But he has further to go than Jared Zwilling does. But Kyle Adams, you also study the history of the player. Kyle Adams traditionally has been a quick healer over time. I don't know why, but some guys are that way.

Q. He would be a pretty big benefit.
COACH TILLER: Yeah, we could use him.

Q. The front four got some pretty good pressure for you last week. Talk about their performance, how you hope that obviously continues against Clausen.
COACH TILLER: Obviously, if you can get pressure out of your front, it helps you coverage-wise two ways. Number one, you've got more defenders to defend with. If they do a better job of hanging around the receiver, you've got more time for your front to get there. So it benefits both the front and the secondary if you're able to get some pressure out of your front guys.
Our front I think is starting, sort of like our team, to get better each week, and hopefully that will continue.

Q. You mentioned all the blitzes Notre Dame is going to throw at you. Is Kory Sheets underrated in the fact he picks up blitzes pretty well? Talk about that part of his game.
COACH TILLER: It's probably the part of his game that's improved the most. The best change in Kory Sheets, it's not in his running, it's in his blocking.

Q. Do you kind of have a favorite Notre Dame moment? You talk a lot about the '97 game.
COACH TILLER: Well, yeah, I like that one. I like the one in 1984 I think when we opened the Hoosiers Dome. That was a very memorable game for me because I was coaching at that time the defensive front. I can remember rolling the front. We just had an automatic rotation where every third series the twos went in. Didn't matter what the situation was. I can remember Coach Burnett in the Notre Dame game, they were driving on us. He come running down the sideline, took the headset off my ears and said, What in the heck are those guys doing in there now? I said, It's their turn.
Anyway, they held up. We stopped them. That was just kind of a gratifying feeling. But that was a very emotional game. We were, as usual, big underdogs in the game.

Q. If memory serves, you mentioned your first victory here as a head coach over Notre Dame, that game being the most important game, most important victory. If so, is it? Could you elaborate as to why.
COACH TILLER: Well, I think it is because I use the term "kick started" our program. I think it gave us credibility with our players, with our folks sitting in the seats, et cetera. But really more so with the players than anybody else. I thought that, particularly coming out of Toledo, had a loss coming out of Toledo, there was just a different attitude that permeated throughout our locker room after that win in '97. It hung around all year.

Q. A semi-loaded question. I've heard you and some other coaches talk about -- Doug talked about the importance of a Notre Dame game. The thought has been voiced about how you beat Notre Dame, it's kind of like a national measuring stick, you get a lot of extra attention. Is that still the case with some of the slippage that the Notre Dame program has gone through?
COACH TILLER: I don't know. I'm ill equipped to answer that. You could answer that better than I can. I don't pay that much attention to that stuff. To me it's a moot point. We're playing Notre Dame. They're a good football program. I said the difference is it's a different stage that you play on. So I suppose the answer to your question is yes because of the venue, et cetera.
But to me personally or to us, it's a football game that is important to us because in the football season we're involved in a season-long playoff.

Q. Can you put in perspective for us not so much how he's playing but just the importance of the way Joe Holland has been able to step in and perform.
COACH TILLER: Yeah, I don't know where we'd be without Joe. Maybe we'd play a one-linebacker defense. I don't know. But, you know, he's been a real pleasant addition for us. Obviously we'd like him to be bigger, more physical, not necessarily faster because he runs good. But his intelligence shows up on the field. He's a guy, I don't want to jinx him, but he's yet to get anything other than an A at Purdue in a premed program. That's reflected on the field because he doesn't make mistakes.

Q. This is Notre Dame week. Could you take us back to the recruitment of Ryan Baker, your thoughts of his indecision. A lot of recruits have gone through that. Sometimes they might be playing games or whatever. Was your thinking with Ryan that he was just a young man who was legitimately torn trying to make a tough decision?
COACH TILLER: I can't go through that. We don't have enough time.

Q. I don't mean step by step.
COACH TILLER: You may have asked too many questions with that one today. I don't know. Obviously he waited till after the signing date. There was a lot of cloak and dagger, et cetera. Bake's been a really good guy for our program. He, quite frankly, hasn't been the player that maybe the recruiting hype would have suggested he should be. But he's stayed the course. He's playing his best football right now. But he's always been good for our football program, always from day one.

Q. You already talked a little bit about Golden Tate. From what you've seen of him, does he remind you of any receivers you've coached?
COACH TILLER: No.

Q. Can you talk about the importance of your special teams, especially on kickoffs?
COACH TILLER: I think it's been significant. Our goal in the kicking game is always to get -- in a punt we want to get one first down, and in a kickoff return we want to get at least one first down. So that means we have to at least bring the ball back to the 30. Our guys have performed well. Makes a heck of a difference when they do that.

Q. With that Notre Dame hasn't allowed anyone past 25 yards, obviously it's a stat, but is it something that you're looking to want to make the field shorter?
COACH TILLER: No. It's about us and our ability to improve. It doesn't have anything to do with our opponent.

Q. You talked about '97. Talk about the games at Notre Dame. '98 and 2000 very close. Talk about some of the games that happened at Notre Dame.
COACH TILLER: Yeah, you know, we've had a really good series with Notre Dame. Been a couple of games up there I thought that we should have won that we didn't. I shouldn't say we should have won. As soon as you say that, then people make an assumption that you did something wrong to not win the game instead of giving the opponent credit for making plays.
We've had a couple of tough games up there where their guys found a way to come up and make some big plays and turn the game around to their credit. With the exception of out here, what, three years ago now when they really, really shellacked us, kind of like shellacking with the shalaley, but outside of that our games have been very close and very competitive. We'd like to continue that because we think if we're close we certainly have a chance to win it.

Q. In 2004 I guess you shalaleyed them up at Notre Dame. The only win for Purdue in Notre Dame stadium since '74. Can you talk about that game.
COACH TILLER: Well, we won it, so I don't have to answer that question any more (laughter).
I thought that game, the thing I remember about that game, really that season, is it's really unfortunate that Kyle was injured. One week he got a hip pointer, the next week he tore a muscle on the opposite side. I think if it weren't for those injuries, I think he would have legitimately had as good a chance as any Purdue player has ever had of winning the Heisman. The reason I bring that up is because he played Notre Dame before he was injured and he was simply red hot when they played them. I don't care if it's Notre Dame or whoever the opponent may be, if your quarterback is on fire, good things are gonna happen, and he was on fire that day.

Q. You touched on the venue, playing there. What does it mean to play at Notre Dame stadium for you?
COACH TILLER: Well, it's a lot of fun. I enjoy it. I enjoy it. There's a good half dozen stadiums that I really enjoy playing in. Notre Dame is one of them. Ohio State is one. Wisconsin is one. I enjoy the excitement of the crowd and the idea that you've got thousands and thousands of people cheering against you. And if you can be successful in that environment, I think it's actually more rewarding than winning at home.
So to me I look forward to these road games. I'm not sure our players always do. That's a concern. That's something that you usually address during the week.

Q. Getting to this particular game, obviously they've had success against the spread this year. How important is Kory Sheets, in particular this week, when you look at the way Michigan State was able to run the ball last week and be successful?
COACH TILLER: I think it's important every week, but we'll have to get into the game and see what we're doing best, not what Michigan State did the best. We're not Michigan State. We're not going to change our offense between this week and next week. I think we need to get into the game and see what we can do and how we function, et cetera, then play off of that.

Q. Can you put in perspective Frank's story of walking on as a second-semester sophomore, to get to where he has gotten to?
COACH TILLER: I think it's a real tribute to Frank. He's not the only guy that's ever done that here at Purdue. Nick Hardwick walked on here after his sophomore year and played in the Pro Bowl last year. Frank isn't the first guy at Purdue to ever do that. But I do think it tells you something about the individual, the quality of the character traits, strong character traits, that he has.

Q. Anything else you might want to say about him that's nice, since the cameraman (indiscernible)?
COACH TILLER: He's not as good looking as I am, but he goes to a different barber, so one might suspect that would be true.

Q. You answered about a couple guys on the traveling squad. Is Jaycen Taylor going to be on the traveling squad?
COACH TILLER: No.

Q. After you got a chance to watch Kory's touchdown run on film, how impressive was that move?
COACH TILLER: I taught him that move Friday night up in the ballroom (laughter).
That was pretty impressive. I think he said he fooled himself or whatever. But certainly we needed a big play at that time, and he was able to deliver.

Q. Have you ever seen him do anything close to that in a practice, or scrimmage?
COACH TILLER: I have, on the practice field. Haven't seen him do it in a game. It's not uncommon for him to do that in practice. A lot of times in practice, you're doing it against a number two defender. As a coach, you don't put quite as much stock in it. Like, was it really that good or was it the defender. He's done that on the practice field a number of times.

Q. That run at that point in time, does that make it one of the best runs you've seen in a long time?
COACH TILLER: Yeah, it does, because of the circumstances and also the results. I made the comment on the TV show because they showed the play multiple times, I had to point out that Desmond Tardy was a couple yards past the line of scrimmage. Once he put the move on the safety and broke to the left, there was actually a defender from Central that was closing him on the right, and Des accelerated and got in front of that defender. You know, I think it was a great run by Kory, but he might have gotten tackled if it weren't for Tardy.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, coach.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297