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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 20, 2009Joe PaternoTHE MODERATOR: Go ahead. Q. Joe, you and your staff recruited Tate Forcier. Can you talk about the adjustment he's made from high school to college football? COACH PATERNO: You said our staff recruited him? Is that right? Q. Yes. COACH PATERNO: We knew about him; we didn't really recruit him. He really didn't have a lot of interest in us, I don't think. But anyway he's -- he's a kid that has three, four, five now, started school in Jan, what we call a "gray shirt" and they get spring practice in and obviously playing very, very well, as he is, as a freshman. And I think it's a tribute to not only the people at Michigan, the kind of job they've done with him, but also to the high school coaches and his background where he came from, the kind of football he played. I don't know for sure, but I think he comes from a family that has played a lot of football so I think he's grown up with a lot of, things that makes it easier, but he sure has done a great job for them. Q. How serious is Stephfon Green's injury, and will you go with Poti at right tackle this week? COACH PATERNO: We will go with Poti this week. McCormack is not 100%; we'll see how that goes this week. Green has a chronic ankle that gets loose on him once in a while. We're going to see if he can do something, but he would be a "maybe" situation, and obviously that would be a big loss for us if he can't go next Saturday. Q. Joe, Michigan revamped their defense. What stands out to you about their defense? COACH PATERNO: They're very aggressive and they're tackling much better than they did a year ago and they just seem to have a lot more enthusiasm. They go to the ball well, they lineup well and sometimes they're so aggressive that they get themselves in a jam and some people have made some big plays on 'em. But I tell you, when you make big plays on 'em you got to be awfully precise because they're coming, they're coming. And we know they're going to be coming after us, and we've got a tough week ahead of us, because there are a lot of different things they do, a lot of change-ups, a lot of blitzing by corners, by strong safety, the whole bit, so we'll have our hands full. Q. Joe, against Michigan's offense, what do you do with your defensive players to build them into the idea of playing disciplined, staying in their lanes and not letting -- getting beat to back, things like that? COACH PATERNO: You do what you do every week, you tell 'em you got to line up properly, you've got to react, know where you are, take a good look at the formation, understand what they can do from different formations, you got to try to play smart. And obviously you don't get down to where you expect to stop anybody cold. We're going to have our hands full with these guys and we know that, and we know it's going to be a 60-minute football game, and hopefully we can just keep our poise and don't have a lot of silly penalties as we've had and -- or turnovers. I think we have to play a good, solid football game and try not to give up too many big plays, but it's tough. They're tough. That kid at quarterback moves around a lot, and then against Iowa they stuck the other kid in there, the kid from Florida who took 'em on a -- the last drive and made the one mistake when he overthrew the kid -- when they only needed a field goal to win the game. So it's going to be tough, it's going to be tough, but nobody said it was always going to be easy. We've been fortunate, the only tough game we've been in we've lost. Q. Joe, I wanted to ask you about Brent Carter's status and if for some reason he and Stephfon Green would not be able to play Saturday would you consider taking the freshman Dukes with you as your tail back? COACH PATERNO: No, Dukes, that wouldn't be fair to him. I think Carter will probably be okay, as I said earlier. I'm not so sure about the other kid, Green, but Beachum is a capable football player, as is Suhey, and both of them are kids that learn quick and they've got a good feel for the game. We would probably play Beachum at tail back if we didn't have Carter and we didn't have Green, if we had to -- if we had to give Royster a blow, and if we had to we could go with Suhey at tail back, as well as Beachum. Q. Joe, you've had some bitter memories, recent games in the Michigan stadium over the last ten years, is it harder to put those kind of games behind you? Has what happened provided extra motivation for players and coaches this week? COACH PATERNO: I think you've got to be awfully careful when you start with "extra motivation." If we need extra motivation to go out and play a game as important as this one is against a team with the tradition and the character and the coaching, you know, Rich Rodriguez, I know, got a lot of flack last year but they're doing a heck of a job this year. Those kids are playing well, been in every ball game, so I don't think this takes any extra motivation, nor do we think about what's happened there before. That's happened there before, we can't do anything about that, we just got to go out and have a good week of practice, try to get a little better, be alert about anything we may get from them and go out there and play hard. Q. Joe, a lot of penalty problems last week, especially offensively. Is there anything you can put your finger on that caused that, or is it just one of those things? COACH PATERNO: Who? Q. Penalties. COACH PATERNO: Oh, penalties? Yeah, a couple of them were bang-bang plays, and, you know, got to try to avoid 'em. We preach it all the time, two or three of those major penalties, they're probably with justifiable cause, but I tell you, they were close. Q. Can you give us an idea of how much Collin Wagner has progressed as a kicker since he came in first year up to where he is now? COACH PATERNO: I don't know what he's talking about. I think he's doing fine. You guys see him as well as -- I mean, I don't see any different game than you guys see. Two out of three, missed a 49 yarder, I think he was right on target. Again, I don't know sometimes whether you appreciate the weather factor, ball is slippery, turf gets a little bit slippery, kids got to be more careful in his steps, the snapper has to be, you know, a little bit maybe more concerned with not letting that ball go too soon because it might slip on him and the whole bit, so it's a little bit tougher and we've had five games in a row we haven't had a good -- Iowa it rained, last Saturday was a lousy day, and we've had some games where it just hasn't been easy. So I think Wagner under the conditions has done very well. Q. I know a lot of coaches tell their players to be safe and stay out of trouble the night after a big win. Is what happened at UConn, the death of a player, is that the ultimate nightmare scenario for a college coach? COACH PATERNO: I would think it's the ultimate nightmare for anybody that's concerned about his fellow man, to have a 20 year old kid lose his life in that fashion is obviously, you know -- but that's -- we had a kid on our campus five, six weeks ago, fell off a balcony and died. These things are going on, and the football players are no different than anybody else. Sometimes they put themselves in situations they shouldn't put themselves in. I don't know this young man, I don't know the facts about what happened, I do know that he was stabbed. You know, campus life is a little different than maybe it was when I was in school, because I don't remember knives. I remember guys making jack-asses out of themselves, and the extreme, but the things we read about now is obviously disturbing. I always think about it as a parent. The kids are away at college, what they dreamed about, and all of the sudden it's cut off. To me that's a tragedy and I don't care whether it's a football player or whomever it may be. Q. Joe, when Rich Rodriguez came in last year he had a bunch of players that he inherited from the previous regime and he tried to put in his own system. This year those guys are in their second year in the system and he's recruited players specifically for that system, and you mentioned the quarterback. How much does that help to be in the second year where everybody is more comfortable in the adjustment? COACH PATERNO: My first year people wanted to get rid of me; I lost five games first year I coached. Next year we only lost two. I think it takes a while sometimes for kids to get adjusted to a different style, different interpretation of certain situations that arrive in a game or in practice and so forth. But I think if you look at Rich's record -- and I'm not sure I'm correct on this, but I think he's had a history of maybe the first year hasn't been the one that everybody would like to have, but his second year he's had football teams, he has football teams. I'm not sure exactly where you're comin' from with your question, but they're playing obviously playing better than they played last year, getting better each week, playing with a lot of enthusiasm. They are tough. They tackle well, do a lot of things. It may take a bit of time to get across to kids who may not have been driven to do those kinds of things the year before, I don't know. It's hard for me to remember. When I say "my first year" that's 40-some years ago and I don't remember every incident that went on, I do know that we lost to some pretty good football teams. Q. With seven games in seven weeks and some bad weather, how are you holding up physically? COACH PATERNO: Now that you mention it -- what was that question? (Laughter.) I'm kidin' ya! I think pretty good, really. I haven't missed a minute of practice, I feel good at practice, and all, but, you know, you come home at night after a game like that where you -- you're cold and you're tired but other than that I think I've been doing well. I don't feel -- I feel pretty good. Q. Joe, what's made Michigan stadium such a tough place to play in and win for you guys? COACH PATERNO: I don't think Michigan stadium is a tough place to play. They tell me they've restructured it a little bit so that the crowd is a little bit more involved in it. The way it used to be it was -- the crowd was kinda out from you. I don't think it was a particularly difficult place to play and we have had some -- you know, some situations that -- Tony Johnson was called out-of-bounds, or maybe he was inbounds, when he caught a ball; the kid from western Pennsylvania runs that kickoff back when we probably shouldn't have kicked the ball to him. I blame myself on that. But I think we've played good, competitive football the times we've been there; they were just better than we were. I don't think it's particularly a tough place to play if you're ready to go and you got some kids that look forward to playing in places where there is 100,000 people there to watch you. Ohio State is a tough place to play, Iowa is a tough place to play, Wisconsin is tough, Michigan is tough, they're all tough as far as -- I don't see -- and I would imagine people would say we're tough to play at, but I think the kids enjoy coming and playing. Couple of Eastern Illinois kids said to me at the game, I said "You guys are going to be okay ," and they said "Hey, thanks for having us. It was fun." So I think Michigan is a great place to play, they have great tradition. As a kid growing up, you know, Tommy Harmon and the whole bit. I would be surprised if our kids weren't looking forward to it. Q. Coach, Michigan's quarterback, Forcier has a knack for playing well late in games. Is that something you notice, and how rare is that for a freshman? COACH PATERNO: Well, I think he's a kid that just got a little bit of something about him. Reminds me a little bit of the kid that -- when he started playing at Florida, the big quarterback at Florida, Tebow. He's got a little bit of that, but he has a little more finesse; he's not just a power player. He has that confidence, that leadership quality. I think he's probably been a guy that's, as I said, I think he comes from a family of football players and he is -- he goes to bed at night he's thinking about, hey, I want to be in this situation and plays the game before, maybe on Thursday night and Friday night. But he's really -- you know, he's a coach's player, he's really a good player. Q. Coach, does the team have a different mind-set this season rather than others having their second road game this late in the season? COACH PATERNO: I haven't even thought about it. We play this week and next week, so I hadn't thought of it like that. I think we've had a decent progress. I think we've gotten a little bit better each week, and I think we ought to be able to be competitive with the last five games we're going to play, whether they're home or away. So I really have not given it that kind of -- I think where you're coming from, I haven't given it that kind of thought. Q. Coach, Jared Odrick, you said a couple of weeks ago you thought he was one of the best defensive tackles in the country. How has he developed in his career here? He played a lot early and how has he -- COACH PATERNO: He's got ability. He's a big man, he plays close to 300, he can run, he's tough, he wants to be good, practices hard. He does all the things a good football player does; he loves to play. I mean, you can see that out there! He's -- he's a football player. We have football players who are football players but don't have the kind of physical ability he has. He's got a lot of ability. He's a very, very good football player. Q. Coach, Brandon Graham, what makes him such a tough football player to play against? COACH PATERNO: Yeah, he's tough to play against! You got a way we can tell him not to show up? Got to play him, got to pass protect him, he comes! Our tackles are going to have one tough job, not only with him but with the linebackers plugging and the corners come and get strong safety comin', we got our hands full and he's one of the people that will be a problem for us. Q. Joe, with losing Butler, Norwood and Williams, how important was it getting Wallace and Shuler and the tight ends involved in the offense? COACH PATERNO: Well, I think we've got to -- you go into a ball game and I know I repeat myself, but I don't know how to answer some of these questions without repeating myself. Already you go into a football game you better be ready to throw to the tight end. You better be ready to do that, you better be ready to that because you don't know what you're going to get. Today is a little different than it was what I started to coach. There wasn't as much variation in the offensive sets or in the defensive schemes. It's amazing how many different looks we have received in the games we've played defensive looks. And that is what you have to get ready for. We hardly used to do anything on a Monday. Now Monday we try to expose the kids, both the offense and the defense, to something different a particular team may do. So when you do that you've got to have everything you've got available. Obviously we could get by last year maybe a little more with some of the wide-outs. We couldn't, at least early this year, with these guys yet so the tight end becomes a factor. We were having troubles running the football because of some inexperienced offensive linemen, so until they started to come along, you're looking for other things you can plug in in third down and 5 or third down and 3, so it's a question of trying to get the most out of what you have as it relates to what you're going to have to play against. I think the tight ends will be a factor for us. We don't go into the ball game saying we're going to throw to the tight ends four times, five times, six times, we don't even go into the game saying we're going to play the wide-out. We are going to spend enough time on the whole system if we have to go to the tight ends, we go to the tight ends, we have to go to the split end, we go to the split end, we have to run the ball we'll run the ball. That doesn't mean we can, but that's what we have to be able to do. Q. Coach, your reaction to Ohio State losing to Purdue and Pryor, his performance with four turnovers and is a guy that you remember looking into back in 2008. What are your thoughts of Purdue pulling off that big upset? COACH PATERNO: Can't tell ya, haven't seen the game. I don't think that's fair for me to comment on that. Q. Coach, you've always put emphasis on special teams and yet your kickoff is last in the league -- COACH PATERNO: Kickoff returns? Q. Yes. Do you need more from the return game? COACH PATERNO: Well, I guess, you know, I -- we haven't had a lot of kickoff returns. I don't know how many times people have kicked off to us, how many did we have last week, last Saturday, one? Two? So we haven't had a lot of opportunities, that's number one. And a lot of kids we played against, they kick the ball out of the end zone so there is no opportunity to return the kick. We work hard on the kickoff returns. Last year we had a couple of good ones, same guy coaching them, same kind of practice routine. I think it's a combination of we've not had the -- people have not scored a lot on us so we have not had a lot of chances to return kicks, that's number one and number two is the guys kicking off have done a pretty it darn good job. Q. Didn't you have a chance to take the Michigan job in the late 60s? Did you talk to them and -- COACH PATERNO: Don and I met in -- I think it was after the '68 season in Pittsburgh and we talked and he offered me the job when they hired Bo Schembechler, and once a year Don used to write me a letter and say, "Thanks!" (Laughter.) Q. Do you think you would still be there? COACH PATERNO: You guys! Well, depends. If I could have gotten rid of some of the guys out there, I might have -- in the press I might -- I thought they were pretty tough on Rich last year, but that's beside the point. Q. Coach, can you talk about early enrollees and do you prefer to see a kid go through his senior year or would you like to have him on campus as soon as possible. COACH PATERNO: I have mixed feelings about that. I personally think maybe we ought to outlaw the fact that the kid can start in January. I hate to see a kid miss out on his senior year in high school, the associations, you know, some of my best friends -- of course a lot of them aren't with us now but were guys that I was with in high school, things we did together, and I think we've taken some of that away from them, I don't know. But having said that, obviously, you know, if you get a kid that's good enough with a spring practice and he can make a contribution to your football team in the fall, you know, we're all -- none of us are that strong, that we're not tempted to bring 'em in. We've brought kids in. I don't think it's the greatest thing in the world, but I don't know how to change it and I do think it's been helpful to some programs. Q. Coach, with Chaz Powell, can you talk about his ability to stretch the field as a wide receiver and secondly, has his transition having played defensive back has that helped his transition at all to wide receiver? COACH PATERNO: Well, I'm not sure the second part of that question would be valid. He had a little bit of a problem going from defense to offense, I don't think he was really sold that that was his future, but he has done a good job on that. His ability to stretch the field, there is no question he can run really well and he gives us a guy we can put in the slot and run a reverse with once in a while, and he can go deep, but the other kid, Moye is -- again, you can't do everything in any particular ball game. Now we practice all those guys running the deep practices, doing this, doing that, the whole bit, and Powell is a versatile athlete, in fact, he could be a tail back. We talked about if we got in a jam this week we could put him in at tail back, but Beachum is good there and we could do all right with Beachum if we have to. Q. Will you keep A.J. Wallace in there or are you going to bring Timmons back this week? COACH PATERNO: It will depend on how practice goes. I think if -- we try to keep that position wide open, they're both good football players and Wallace had a really good game Saturday. He played very, very well. He made some big plays and we gave him a tough job. Wallace was ahead of Timmons last week because of his height. We were afraid of the big kid, and most of the time Wallace went with the big kid. Now this week we're not sure yet what we're going to do, we're still in the process of evaluating personnel. We've had a long meeting this morning talking about personnel and the guys are looking at that now trying to figure out exactly what we want to do as to where we want to play some people on defense. I think it depends on what we come down to as to whether Timmons will play more or less than he did last week, but Wallace played really well. I mean, I think he made some really big plays. Q. Rodriguez said a little earlier that he expects both of his quarterbacks to play. Already when you go into a game like that is there a little more of a challenge, maybe not knowing which guy will be in there, preparing for both? COACH PATERNO: Well, that's a fact of life, you know they're both going to play and you try to have a package ready for both of them. One does some things a little better than the other, although the kid from -- No. 16, the kid from down in Florida, you know, when he gets in there they have more shotgun, Wildcat, whatever you want to call it, and he can run. The other kid can run but he's basically going to throw the football first, then he will scramble. He's a really good scrambler, clever, very, very clever. So you have to adjust maybe what defenses you're going to call and what coverages you're going to call when one is in and the other is in there, but not a lot, not a lot because, you know, the other kid can throw, too. I mean, you know, he's done some things that have been really good, as well as Forcier. Q. Coach, do you admire what Elijah Robinson has done not packing it in and trying to stay involved with football even though he can't play? COACH PATERNO: Well he wants to be a coach, and he's a graduate student, he's a G.A. You're allowed two G.A.'s that can be on the field coaching, and he's one of 'em. He works with Larry Johnson and the defense, and the other is Bill Cavanaugh who works with the offense. I think it's a good situation. I think he's going to be a really good coach, too. He has a nice way with kids, works at the job, good student. He goes to class, as I said he's a graduate student, as is Cavanaugh. I think that -- I don't think it's a big deal for him. I think it was something that, you know, we ought to be saying, it's nice for the program that we want to provide an opportunity for those guys, because you know how many G.A.'s were in this program that became full-time coaches, going down from Bradley to Gannon to Boggs to Bill Kinney, Dick Anderson, they were all G.A.'s for me at one time or another, I could probably go through 20 guys who ended up -- Paul Pascaloni who ended up head coach, Shanau, all those guys were G.A.'s for us, Pat Flarrety was -- so I think it's a good move for Elijah. I'm glad we tried to bring guys along. I'm disappointed, because years ago when the NCAA cut out -- in the old days you could have as many G.A.'s as you wanted, and then they cut it to two and at that time we had an open convention, and I was allowed to go to the convention and I had speaking rights, and I argued don't go to two but three and the third has to be a minority, because at that time we didn't have a lot of minorities, I'm talking 25, 30 years ago, we didn't have a lot of guys in there. Now the G.A. is a great opportunity for a kid who wants to coach, who is maybe -- as in the case with Elijah is not going to be a pro player he can start out as a G.A. on it. Gus Felder, who left here to coach, he was a G.A. here. So I think it's good and Elijah is a heck of a kid, he's going to be a heck of a coach. Okay, guys, we'll see you now. End of FastScripts |
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