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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 4, 2008

Joe Paterno

Q. What was your reaction to Texas Tech moving ahead of you in the BCS and what do you do or what can you do to tell your players to keep it from being a distraction?
COACH PATERNO: We've got to play Iowa. Iowa is a good football team. In fact, year-in and year-out, I think Iowa is as well coached and has as tough kids as anybody that we play against.
So I haven't even thought about the other part of it. I can't do anything about the other part. The only thing my team and I can do anything about is Iowa.

Q. Just a follow-up, you have three games left and a lot of teams have four; do you think it's too early for the BCS rankings to be out for people to be talking about them?
COACH PATERNO: I haven't got the slightest idea what the BCS -- is it the BCS or the VSC? I don't know. They are going to do what they are going to do and won't make any difference what I say or comment on.
I'm telling you what I'm concerned about. I'm concerned about Iowa, period. I mean, you guys ask me 58 questions about something else, but I haven't got any opinion about what's going on.
I watched the Texas Tech game. It was a great football game. It was a great football game and the Texas Tech kids did a great job, and I think they ought to be celebrating down there.
Now, how that affects Penn State, you know, we've got to take care of our own.

Q. How is Daryll Clark? You said you were going to keep him out last week; is he going to be able to play this week?
COACH PATERNO: Yeah. He worked yesterday. Well, you know, we have a red cross, which means you can't do anything and a green cross which means you can do some things. And we put the jersey on him with the red cross -- or the green cross's emblem, so that people recognize in the green cross don't hit him.
Daryll worked yesterday in the green cross. And the doctors are very, very -- and they should be, very, very conscientious about whether he gets hit or not. Today I think he'll be able to do everything. No more examinations or anything like that. I think he'll be fine Saturday.

Q. It looked like Daryll was pretty anxious to get back on the field at the end of that Ohio State game; how has his move been in the past week and what have you said to him since that last game?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I think his move is fine. He's anxious obviously to get back in there. He's been having a great year. He's been one of the leaders on this team.
He could be sitting on a sideline, when he feels he can do something, maybe to help your football team, and I think that's what he would feel. I've not spent a lot of time talking to him, because I knew he was going to be ready; at least I felt according to what everybody told me, he would be ready this weekend, this upcoming game against Iowa. So I've not spent a lot of time talking with him. He was out there yesterday and having a good day practicing. Practiced well.

Q. How well did your team practice yesterday after the weekend off, and how was their mood returning from the weekend off?
COACH PATERNO: I thought, good. They came out, had a lot of bounce. They were feeling pretty good about themselves, which I like, up to a point. I always get nervous if you feel too good about yourself because Iowa -- my problem is Iowa, and not -- our team I think will be okay. I just think that we don't -- sometimes people don't realize how good Iowa is, because they started so slow, and we're not a particularly good football team early, and they weren't good when we played them last year. They made a lot of mistakes last year when we played them.
But having played through the years and knowing Kirk, the football coach, since I've known him since he was a kid. He was a Pennsylvania kid. He's married to a daughter of one of my teammates in high school.
Yeah, it's going to be a tough football game for us. I think that today, we'll put the pads on and we'll go out there and we'll have a little tougher practice than we did yesterday. And then I'll have a better feel after today.

Q. What exactly were doctors able to tell you about your legs or hips when you examined last week and do you have a time able tore getting it fixed?
COACH PATERNO: We spent most of the time figuring out how I was going to handle the press, to be frank with you.
I've got a problem with the league. They know how to fix it. As soon as I give them enough time to take a good look at it, we'll get that done, you know, as soon as the season is over we'll get done what's got to be done. I don't think it's any concern that it's something that can't be fixed up.
You know, we'll just -- I'm hobbling around a little bit. That bothers me, because I'm a guy that's been fortunate enough in his life to have good health and able to walk when I wanted to walk and so forth. But I don't think there's anybody who's really got a deep concern about where I am.

Q. At one point during the season, you lost about half a dozen players along the defensive front, and you lost your best defensive player in Shaun Lee, and you also lost a cornerback in Justin to the draft. Has this been one of the best jobs that Tom Bradley has done as defensive coordinator?
COACH PATERNO: I think Tom's always done a good job. But you know, I hate to say Tom alone, because I think Larry Johnson has done a tremendous job with the up-front guys, and Ron Vanderlinden has done a great job with the linebackers, and Kermit Buggs had to come in there and replace a really fine secondary coach when we lost Brian. So I think they have done a great job.
But you have to give Tom credit for the leadership and for the decisions that had to be made, and I think he's done a great job.

Q. I'm not sure if you get a chance to see the Big 12 or SEC football during the season, but do you think the Big Ten is as competitive a conference and if so, what are people in the national media just not seeing or appreciating about the Big Ten?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I don't -- obviously I don't see as many games or am I as smart as the media when they watch games.
I don't know, I think there's a lot of good football teams in this league. I think the minute Ohio State had their problems with Southern Cal and Michigan has not been able to dominate some things, the Big Ten has been kind of a two-conference -- a two-team conference, and I think that kind of gave a lot of people in the Midwest some doubts as to how good they are.
But I think we are playing pretty good football in the Big Ten. I don't know what games outside of the Ohio State/Southern Cal game you would say that we have not been competitive. I know, you can say, well, Michigan lost to this club, Utah or something like that, earlier in the year, but Michigan obviously earlier in the year was trying to find out who was going to be their quarterback and so forth.
So I know the athletes that are in our league, and I think it's a tough league. Now, is it tougher than X-League or tougher than Y-League? I don't know. I don't know.
You know, we've played three Bowl games. We've played a Big 12 team last year in Texas A&M. We played a Southeastern Conference team two years before that in Tennessee, and we played a good Florida State team three years ago. We beat all three of them.
I mean, so for you -- when I look at them and I look at what the people that we are playing against week-in and week-out, you know, who knows? I can't tell you. All I know is when we do go outside the league, we play fairly well. I think everybody in the league plays fairly well.

Q. How important is having senior leadership along the offensive line, particularly when the season gets later?
COACH PATERNO: Well, it's important earlier than it is later. I don't think I would argue with you about whether important later in the year. I think it's more important earlier in the year to get a couple of guys who have been around the block and understand what it takes to get it done both on the practice field and in the game.
I think it's more important to have those guys assert their leadership early. But I think, you've got to have it. I mean, offensive lines have got a tough job. You know, today people are doing a lot of things on defense. They are clever on defense. They do a lot of different things that because of the kinds of coaching that we see so that you've got to have a couple of guys that have poise and can come out of a series of downs and get on the sideline and say, oh, yeah, he did this and he's backing off the ball when he's going to make a twist, or he's going to do this when we get in this formation, we get in this kind of a slant.
Those kind of things obviously help. But I think they help even more nearly in the year than they do later in the year. It's important. Your question is accurate and it's important. But I don't think -- I think it's more important that we react to it with leadership earlier in the year than later in the year.

Q. In the Ohio State game you had much more trouble throwing the ball down the field successfully than in any of the other games and obviously Ohio State had a lot to do with that. But what did you learn from that, and what do you think maybe Iowa's coaches can learn from looking at that film?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I don't know, you guys look at a different game than I look at. You have to remember field position. The situation with Iowa -- with Ohio State as far as throwing the ball down the field was, we had good field position; when they had the ball, they had a long way to go. And when we had the ball, we had field position and the score was such that it didn't necessitate that we take any dumb chances.
So we didn't throw the ball down the field that much. And having said that, the Ohio State, it's a very, very sound defensive football team. They get hurt with Southern Cal because of turnovers and things that they didn't -- you know, they didn't have. Those the other game they lost. You guys seem to forget that.
So I don't know. We are going to play our game. We are going to play our game. Field position has a lot to do with our game. Ohio State has a great kicking team, and so does Iowa. And a lot of the things that they will do, no turnovers, Ohio State had one turnover and we had no turnovers. That dictates a style of play that you're involved in.
So I don't have any -- I really don't have any kind of an observation, or whatever you want to call it, as to whether or not we learned anything from Ohio State except that it was a good football game and I felt good that our kids hung on to the ball and didn't make any mistakes and had poise and stayed in there and with a crowd that was very obviously emotional for Ohio State, period.
Now, we're going to play our game against Iowa. We are not going to go out there and start horsing around playing somebody else's game against them, and Iowa will play their game and they will play a tough football game. We will have to be alert. We will have to be smart. We can't make too many mistakes if we want to win.

Q. Is there any concern that the low-scoring game of Ohio State followed by a bye week can have an adverse effect on the steady momentum you have been building as an offense?
COACH PATERNO: You know, we won the game. Unless I was at the wrong game. I had a pretty good seat for this one.
I don't have any -- I really don't even know what you guys are talking about. I know that sounds maybe not being fair to you. I just don't know what you're talking about. We played a good, tough football game against Ohio State and that's the kind of game we are going to have to play against Iowa. Whether it takes 13 points, 20 points, 27 points, that's neither here nor there.
But I think we are solid, steady played good defense, kicked the ball well. We didn't panic when we had to come out deep in our own territory and all those kind of things. I think that overall, it was a good football game.
Now, how the Iowa game is going to turn out, I don't know, but if you think I'm looking back and saying, well, gee , holy smokes, we didn't score 50 points; you're nuts.

Q. You're the product of an Ivy League education, and I've heard that you can read the Iliad and the Odyssey in the native Greek. That said, you have five undefeated teams that for whatever reason, by human voters and the wire services; President Nixon once declared in Texas the national champion. Now with this BCS stuff, can you even understand that, and how disappointed would it be that if you were on the table and once again denied the opportunity to play the National Championship?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I really haven't thought about it. You know, obviously if we can win next three games and have a chance to play a good team in the Bowl game and we win that one, I would be disappointed our kids haven't gotten in as I was in '94.
In '94, the problem was not me personally, but the question of a bunch of kids who do everything you ask them to do and at the end, they don't get what you think they deserve.
So, yeah, I would be disappointed, but you know, there's nothing I can do. You know, there are -- I don't have -- you mentioned the Odyssey and the Iliad. I don't have an Achilles heel. And I can't hang myself, so I'm not about to have somebody come along and shoot me. It's that kind of thing.
We are going to play football as well as we know how to play it, and hopefully things will turn out well for us.

Q. Talking about being disappointed in '94, there's a possibility that you could go undefeated and a one-loss team playing the National Championship Game ahead of you. How would you feel about that, a one-loss team bumping an undefeated Penn State team?
COACH PATERNO: Honest to goodness, you guys are asking me a lot of things I haven't even thought about.
You know, I know you're -- if there's anything I've been able to do in my life, it's been able to stay focused on what I've got to do, all right, and not get up in the morning and worry about that stuff. And you know what I said, I don't read the newspapers and I don't pay attention to this or that. You guys all -- okay, I don't. I can't. I don't have that kind of time.
So I'm not -- how am I going to react? Ask me that question if it happens. Don't ask me that. Don't ask me something, did I really -- I just haven't really given any thought to. I want to try to beat Iowa. That's what I want to do right now. I want to try to get my team as ready as they can be, and everybody coming into practice today and the rest of the week with the idea, hey, we've got a tough football game. That's what we are going to do, all right and go from there.
Now, three weeks from now, who knows? Three weeks from now, who knows?

Q. The Iowa running back Shonn Green, can you talk about him a little bit and what you've seen out of him, and does he remind you of anyone?
COACH PATERNO: Say that again.

Q. The Iowa running back, Shonn Green.
COACH PATERNO: He's a good back. He reminds me a little bit of Lydell Mitchell that we had. He's one of those guys that takes a real good tackle and doesn't get knocked down. He's always going this way; he's always going down the field. And he seems to know where the second guy is.
Obviously I haven't coached him and I haven't been around him in practice. That's the way Lydell was always. Lydell would take on this guy, but knew when the other guy coming, and this guy reminds me very much of Lydell Mitchell. I think he's a heck of a football player.
And the other guy that nobody is really paying much attention to has come on like -- really come on strong is the quarterback. Quarterback made some plays that showed tremendous athletic ability, so I mean -- but that's what he reminds me of, Lydell Mitchell. That's a long answer to a simple question.

Q. This doesn't have anything to do with football, but this is an historic day for this country. What does the presidential election mean for you, and what do you think when you see maybe 200 million people going to the poles today to participate in the political process?
COACH PATERNO: Well, No. 1, I'm delighted that there would be that many people interested in voting. It would bother me that we didn't have that kind of enthusiasm for selecting a new president.
I've mixed emotions. I think both men are good men and I'm not going to get up here and say, I'm going to vote for this guy or that guy or what have you. I've got five kids and I've brought them up to that dinner table to argue about everything.
And I suppose out of the five, we'll probably have three votes for Democrats, two votes for Republicans. Ran for Congress Republican and I have another guy who sponsored -- that helped sponsor a rally for a Democrat.
I don't know. I just think it's great that we have that kind of enthusiasm right now, because it is a very important part of our history. Where we are going to go from here on in, to what kind of government we are going to have, how we are going to respond to tremendous challenges we have, you know, it's not like before 9/11 kind of changed so many things for us.
So I think it's great to see that there will be. You say 200 million people are going to vote? Well, that's fine. I think that's great. Because it's our country. It not just your country, it's not 100 million people's country; it's not the rich cats who spend a lot of money to have some impact on the economy. It's our country.
I read something three or four weeks ago that in 50 years from now, we'll have -- there will be more Hispanic and African Americans than there will be white Americans in the sense of whatever a white American is; that we will have more people who have a different background than this country had when we fought the Revolution.
We are very dynamic and we are a very, very exciting place to be, and it's a very challenging thing for leadership, because you've got such diverse groups.
Now, can 200 million people make a better decision than 100 million? Well, if you believe that, you don't believe in democracy. And so somebody got on the phone and said something about the Greeks; you know, the city saves the Greeks, the Greeks were all a democracy. I think we are going through a very, very moving time, and I think it's going to be a very telling time as to where we are going to go as a country. And so I mean, what else can I tell you? That's how I feel.

Q. Are you pleased with the job the secondary has done this year with Justin King leaving early and a lot of guys fighting injuries back there?
COACH PATERNO: I think our kids have played well. I've said from day one, and to you guys, I have been very happy with the kinds of kids we have. They have been a lot of fun to coach and to play with, and we've got, you know, we were fortunate to take a kid who was a safety man and move him over to corner to replace Justin King, and we had a couple of kids, freshman kids, D'Antonn and Rubin. We've got good kids who are coachable, and they have been -- they have done a good job. It's been fun to be around them.

Q. You've seen some movement in the coaching ranks around the country, midseason type of decisions, are you troubled by the climate, and do you have any reaction to some of the things that have gone on?
COACH PATERNO: I'm troubled, not so sure what my feelings are. I know Phil Fulmer, coached against him twice in two Bowl games, and I've been around him and his wife, Vicky and I like both of them. You hate to see a guy that's done as much as he's done for Tennessee, whether he was forced out or whatever happened.
Those things bother me a little bit. We as coaches sometimes have to be careful. We are getting paid so much money, and you have to understand that we don't get anything for nothing.
I don't know what happened with Phil down in Tennessee. I think Tennessee is a heck -- he's a heck of a football coach; I know that. I've been around some of his kids in different situations and they really respect him a great deal, and I think if he's out of coaching, it's a loss to our profession.
If you said something to me about Joe Tiller or Tommy Bowden, I feel the same way. I'm talking about a bunch of guys that they are not superior people; they are not superior people. They are great people, and they have done a great job with the people they have had some influence on. So yeah, in that sense, it bothers me.
You guys, you've got me talking about the history of the world. (Laughter) holy smokes.

Q. You had said that some of the doctors said you might have to get fixed up or examined a little about the after the season. I just wanted to clarify, do you think that means some sort of surgery or operation after the season?
COACH PATERNO: I don't know. I'm not sure. I think probably they want to do something. Two days in the hospital, three days in the hospital, I don't know.

Q. Can you say what sort of procedure it might be?
COACH PATERNO: No, I'm -- you know, we talk about it every once in awhile. In fact, the reason I'm late today is because Dr. Sebastianelli, who is a great surgeon and a great friend, and so forth, said, hey, you know, that car you're driving is too low. You ought to have a high car; it's easier for you. So I gave him my Saab. I used to have a Saab. I gave it to one of my kids. So when I came to come over here, I couldn't find my BMW; the Saab was out there.
Everybody is trying to take care of me. I'm beginning to feel like I'm -- so I don't ask too many questions, I really don't. You guys think I have all the answers. When it comes time, they will stick me in the hospital and Dr. Sebastianelli will say: Stick this in your mouth and put a thermometer in my mouth and they will say, open up your leg and we'll go from there. That's what's going to happen, and whatever they do, they do. But they are not going to keep me in their long, a couple of days.

Q. That will be after the season, you think?
COACH PATERNO: Oh, yeah. I'm not going to do anything during the season. I won't let them near me. I've said that 50 times. I'm not going to let anybody with a knife near me until after the season is over.

Q. Iowa's defensive line, how good is it.
COACH PATERNO: Really good. That kid, King is a really good football player. Maybe as good of a defensive lineman as we've played against.
No, we've got our hands full this week. Don't look at Iowa's first three games. Look at the last couple of ballgames what they have done. Iowa is a good football team. That's what I'm trying to keep focused on that because if we don't, we'll get licked. Simple as that.
And I know Kirk. Kirk is a kid from western Pennsylvania that went to West Virginia, was a GA at West Virginia. One time I was thinking about hiring him. He's just a good football coach, solid guy, nothing fancy, and so it should be, you know, going out to Iowa, none of our kids have ever played at Iowa before. It's a long trip, tough trip, and we've got to handle it.
And you can't handle it thinking about what else is going on around the world. You have to handle it looking at Iowa right in the eye, and saying, hey, we know you're tough, I hope we're tough enough to play with you. That's the way I feel.

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