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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 31, 2010

Joe Paterno

COACH PATERNO: Sorry I'm a little late, guys. I scheduled a little bit earlier because I thought we were going to go over to the other side. Anyway, I'm here. Unfortunately, so are you.

Q. Joe, can you talk about what you'll be looking for in the spring from the kids who are at quarterback and sort of what your time table is, if there is one, to determine who will be the starter?
COACH PATERNO: There's no timetable. You just go day by day. We want to just get them comfortable, find out what they can do, try not try to do more than they can handle.
Every year is a little different year. If we have to modify some things offensively in order to adjust to what their ability is, we will. But we don't know that. We'll go into the season with the idea that, you know, we have had some good, really good prospects. We'll see what happens from there. But there's no agenda, really.

Q. Joe, will Chaz Powell be given any look at defense this spring?
COACH PATERNO: Yes, we're looking at him at defense.

Q. Do you think Dan Lynn will play any safety?
COACH PATERNO: Well, Dan Lynn is a good defensive back. Whether he's going to play safety or corner, I don't know yet. We've only had three days of practice, so it's hard for me to evaluate. You're not allowed to do much with them in the winter program as far as actual football. You can get them in shape and you can do different things like that.
But Dan Lynn is a guy with a lot of athletic ability, and he can probably play corner or he can play safety. But right now we're just trying to get a feel for the football team and where he would fit in.

Q. At quarterback is McGloin in the picture? And you also mentioned, I think, after the bowl game about the possibility of Brackett.
COACH PATERNO: We haven't had anything with Brackett. But McGloin, he's definitely in the picture. McGloin is a good solid kid. Smart kid. And handles it well. As I said, I'm not sure where we're going with the quarterback situation right now. Obviously we don't have an established kid who has played a lot of football. I don't think any of those kids have played much football. But we're going to try to go step by step. Today is the fourth day. Then we're going to take it off over the Easter holidays and go back to work on Monday in the fifth day.
We'll have a couple of days of staff to evaluate the tapes and things of that sort and we can maybe get a little better feel as to where we're going to go. But right now we're not -- that's why I said it's practice. Can't you play golf or do something?

Q. Joe, besides Chaz Powell going over to cornerback, are you contemplating any other position changes, looking at some guys in some new positions in spring?
COACH PATERNO: We'll probably change 15 guys over a period of time. But -- and I'm not sure Powell is going to be a corner. I'm not sure what's going to happen yet. Again, spring practice is a great time to take some kids who are one step away from being good, come out of their stance a little bit high and do things, fundamentals, and to get a feel for what their potential is.
And you have to be careful. You don't go to spring practice with preconceived ideas as to who is going to go do what and what have you. You end up neglecting somebody who is maybe a late bloomer or a kid that's out of a great winter program. Obviously Powell is a good athlete. He can play both sides. He can play offense and he can play defense. We're going to take a look at him on defense.

Q. Paul Jones has been in the school since January. What do you think so far as Paul Jones?
COACH PATERNO: I don't know. I couldn't tell you. I've seen Paul Jones -- we have a whole bunch of people practicing out there. I walk around and I try to watch the offensive line, the defensive line, watch the wideouts, watch the quarterbacks, watch the running backs. I probably have seen Paul Jones eight times in three days.
He's obviously a good athlete. I mean, he can run around and move a lot easier -- -- it's a tough situation when you walk into a quarterback playing in a league we're playing in and having to play some of the teams we have to play, particularly on the road when you have to play an Alabama, an Ohio State on the road. Probably the number one and two teams pre-season in the country. And then you have to play an Iowa team that plays such great defense on the road. So you have to be very, very careful as to what you can expect from a kid who just comes in.

Q. Joe, are there any guys you are holding out in spring practice for contact drills?
COACH PATERNO: Astorino is banged up. We'll keep him out. There's a couple of other kids that are banged up. But they will not be people that had played a lot of football. Young Mauti, they're letting him do some drills, but no contact or anything like that. I would think Astorino is the one guy that really has not done anything. He won't do anything in the spring.

Q. Who are some of the players who are in the running for the spots at offensive tackle?
COACH PATERNO: You have a big pencil? And a big sheet? There again, you know, I know it sounds like I'm being evasive. I can't tell you. We're moving guys around. We argue every morning, if you want to call it an argument or discussion, so and so, can he handle the pass protection? Will somebody else be better? Let's take a look at him. Let's move this guy around. To me to make any kind of a statement as to where people are going to play is ridiculous right now. We just don't know.
We have had one day in pads. First two days we didn't do anything in helmets. We've had one day in pads. I just -- we're going to move a lot of guys around. We're going to try to get the five best offensive linemen on the first team. Then we're going to try to get the second best five offensive linemen on the second team. And we'll go from there.
But right now, I honestly couldn't tell you. I had a staff meeting -- we go through this every day. I always challenge them. How about this guy? How about that guy? I like the way he came out of his stance. He's not that tough. This guy, he can't recover. He's not strong enough yet. He's a year away. I mean, those are the kind of conversations that you have when you are trying to organize a new football team.

Q. Joe, you lost your top three linebackers. Plus you said Mauti is limited. Who are some of the guys, if you know, in the linebacker mix who are getting a lot of work now?
COACH PATERNO: There again, we've got -- we have Colasanti is and Gbadyu and Stupar all are kids who have played. I'm probably missing somebody else. That's a position that I don't study as much because I think we're in pretty good shape there.
I think we have some people that can play over there at linebacker. So those three -- Stupar has played, Yancich should be ready to be a good football player, Colasanti, I mentioned, Gbadyu, Stupar. And Mauti is not in the mix right now because he's not doing much. But I think we're going to be all right at linebacker.

Q. Joe, have you guys made any decisions on the fifth year guys, trying to get another scholarship right now?
COACH PATERNO: Fifth year guys -- who are you mentioning?

Q. Carter and Lopez.
COACH PATERNO: Carter is not -- Carter is giving it up. He's going to graduate. Who was the next one?

Q. Lopez.
COACH PATERNO: Lopez is still in it. He's behind Wisniewski at center right now. Whether that's the best position for him, I don't know. Whether it's the best position for the team -- I'm not so sure Lopez is -- maybe we ought to be looking at him an offensive guard or something like that.

Q. How about McKuhn?
COACH PATERNO: McKuhn is gone. He's graduating.

Q. Joe, last year you were less than thrilled with Brandon Ware for conditioning and academic reasons. Has anything changed with him? Have you met with him?
COACH PATERNO: Well, we'll see. He's going to prove to me he's going to do the job academically first. In all fairness to the kid, I think he's getting a little better control of his weight. He's still a little bit too heavy. But he's got a long road to go academically before I'm going to be thinking about him playing.

Q. Joe --
COACH PATERNO: I can hardly wait to look at you.

Q. That was my question. How are you adjusting to the new glasses?
COACH PATERNO: You know, unfortunately I can still see you. The glasses -- I don't need the glasses. It's amazing. People down there at the Eye Institute in Penn did a fantastic job. I don't really need the glasses. But they want me to wear them anytime I'm not -- I'm outside because -- to protect them. But I can read, the whole bit. I can read my notes without any glasses. And it says here "keep your patience with these guys."

Q. Can you talk about the kicking game and special teams?
COACH PATERNO: I think Wagner -- we have a good place kicker. We obviously have to replace a fine punter. There again, you guys act like we have had a rot of time to practice. You can't do anything with them in the winter program. We have had three days. That's why I think this press conference is ridiculous, to be frank with you. I can't tell you. We've obviously got to find a punter. I think we'll have a snapper, long snapper. We had a kid work at it last year and a couple of other kids are working at it. But as far as who is going to punt, I couldn't tell you beans who is going to punt. But I can tell you that we have Wagner. I think Wagner is a darn good field goal kicker.

Q. How much do you expect Evan Royster to practice this spring? And then behind him with the running backs Brandon Beachum because of the knee?
COACH PATERNO: Beachum won't do anything this spring except maybe run around. We may wait and see a little bit on Beachum. I don't want to work Royster too much. I think we've got -- Royster doesn't have a lot to prove to us. He's a darn good football player, all around football player. I think he's -- I certainly don't want to get him out there and get him knocked around until we're sure what we're doing. So I wouldn't expect him to get a lot of work. We will try to get the other kids some work.

Q. You are spending any -- putting any extra emphasis on special teams this spring?
COACH PATERNO: You know, obviously we've got to do a little better job of punt coverage. I think that hurt us last year, two tough football games. Yeah, we're spending -- trying to find out some guys that might do a little better job on coverage and that kind of thing. Yeah, that's been one of our -- somebody asked me about priorities, and I probably messed up on that one. I think that's a high priority for us, to do a better job with our punt game.

Q. Coach, what do you see conference-wise from the freshmen and what are you looking for this spring?
COACH PATERNO: Freshmen? I don't even know they exist? You can't count on -- you want to go down to Tuscaloosa with freshmen?

Q. Joe, with Carter going and Beachum out for the spring practice, who are some of the guys you are looking to bring some depth behind Royster this spring at the tailback position?
COACH PATERNO: We have Green and we have a kid by the name of Thompson, who was a walk-on and we gave a grant to. And there's a walk-on by the name of Day who I like very much. He's not the biggest kid in the world, but I think he's okay. And we'll go from there.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
COACH PATERNO: Dukes has got a shot. Dukes has a long way to go as far as adjusting to the pass protection and things like that. I'm assuming without really knowing, I may not be fair to him on that. But he's got a chance.

Q. Can you first talk about maybe the philosophy -- you've only got 15 practice sessions. And then, is it frustrating that you can't work with guys on a limited basis during the winter months and things along those lines?
COACH PATERNO: That's the way it is. Everybody else has the same problems. Unless they're breaking the rules. I mean, you can go out there and you run them and you give them agility drills and your conditioning drills and things like that. But you can't put a football out there. And you can't do some things -- particularly in the skill positions, I think you would like to have a little more time.
But that's the way it is. You have to live with it. It's been that way for 15 years now. Maybe longer. But we'll get it there. It's just -- the fact -- if I seem a little bit frustrated or evasive, it's just that we've not had enough time. We're going to practice today. And then we're going to -- I don't like to work over the Easter holidays. And it's Passover and the whole bit.
I think we back away and take a good look at what we've done so far and if we can evaluate some kids, we'll evaluate them. If some kids we get in the staff meeting and somebody says I haven't seen enough of him, I can't tell you where he's going to play, how good he is, what he likes, then you have to wait a while. When we come back, we go to work on Monday, we have 11 days. Then we have to zero in on the things we have to make sure we can make decisions on.
We're going to make a decision on this guy, we're going to make a decision who plays tackle, who plays guard. We are going to make a decision on whether a kid is a corner or a safety. There are things that you know -- sometimes -- you understand the hardest job of coaching -- I read a book one time called "Slink," and it gave the difference between checkers and chess. And checkers everybody did the same thing. And with chess, the pawn can to this, this guy -- that guy can do that, that guy can do that. You have to place them in the right place.
That's pretty much what the challenge is when you're coaching. Don't go into it with a preconceived idea what's -- make sure you go in with an open mind. So you can take the pawn and him here and take the other guy and put him here and put him here and put them together so you get what can be the best team that you have. Right now I really can't tell you. But I think -- we spend more time talking personnel than you guys can imagine when we're at staff meetings.

Q. Are you satisfied with the progress that Kevin Newsome has made since he got here a year ago?
COACH PATERNO: Yeah, I think -- that's one thing I probably -- I've watched Kevin quite a bit just to see how he's handling the huddle and different things. I think he's made good progress. He's got a ways to go, but he's made good progress.

Q. With such young quarterbacks, and also replacing all your starting linebackers, are you curious, concerned where your leadership is going to come from?
COACH PATERNO: Quarterbacks and linebackers?

Q. Having young quarterbacks and starting linebackers, are you concerned about --
COACH PATERNO: Absolutely. Absolutely. That won't come until some of these guys get comfortable. There's a couple of kids that potentially have a chance to be the leaders, replace the leaders we lost, such as guys like Sean Lee and Daryll Clark. But right now they're -- since we're not sure about them and they sense that, they know they are fighting for their lives, mostly, to play. So they're not ready to go out there and assert themselves as much as I hope we will be able to get done before it's over with.

Q. Do you actually play chess?
COACH PATERNO: I used to play chess when I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn. I used to drive my bike down to Brighton Beach. You guys ever hear of Brighton Beach? Neal Simon? A lot of Russian Jews down there. And I used to go down there. That's where I started to play handball. Three-wall court. Play handball and then we would play chess. I don't think I ever won a chess game. But I won a couple of handball games.

Q. Joe, you've talked about discussing personnel decisions and that. Any thought -- will you keep Wisniewski at center or any thought of moving him back to guard?
COACH PATERNO: We haven't talked about that. I think that might come up. It depends on if we have a guy that can get the ball up at center. Nowadays the center is a tough job. It's not just a question of getting the ball up, there's so many of these defenses where the center is really going to handle a guy that's an off shoulder. It isn't like the old days where you stuck him right out in front.
Some people are coming back. Then he has to be able to make the long snap back on the shotgun. So right now Wisniewski is our center. Whether that changes or not, we're trying a couple of other kids there because Wisniewski could be a good guard or he could be a center. But we really have not done anything about that.
THE MODERATOR: Any further questions? Thank you.
COACH PATERNO: Thanks, guys. I don't mean to be -- as I said, it's difficult for me to answer some of your questions and know what I'm talking about right now.

End of FastScripts

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