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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 23, 2010

Joe Paterno

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to our weekly teleconference with Coach Paterno. We'll start with questions.

Q. Joe, do you plan to return as coach next season?
COACH PATERNO: Plan to retire?

Q. No, do you plan to return as coach next season?
COACH PATERNO: I thought you said retire. Yeah, why you got something I don't know? No, I am looking forward to it. I think we've struggled a little bit this year, with the youth and with the injuries and the whole bit.
I think we're not where I would like us to be yet. But I think with a good spring and a preseason practice, we could be a pretty good football team next year, and I'd like to be part of it.
Couple things before we get into this, one of the reasons I feel good about the football team is Jeff just handed me something with "Penn State Again Leads the Nation with Three First-Team ESPN Academic All-Americans," which I think is great.
And part of the goals we set out for these kids when they come in is to do a good job academically, and it's always good to have a couple of kids stand out as these three kids are, Wisniewski and Massaro and Colasanti, all of whom are good, solid people. And the other thing is the cooperation we get from the university.
We were concerned with the fact that the dormitories would be closed Friday of this week, which would obviously make it tough for some kids to come back and go to the game.
And when we brought it up to the university, the university was cooperative, and they're going to open up the dorms. So if the kids want to come back and want to stay in their dormitory and want to come to the game on Saturday, they can.
So it's been a good situation. And I don't see any reason to leave it right now.

Q. Joe, two questions about your offensive line. How is Doug Lopez and his ankle? And could you evaluate the play of John Urschel and Mike Farrell against Indiana?
COACH PATERNO: I think both Urschel and Farrell did really well. Concerning you need a kid who played more than five, six plays all year in games, I think both of them did very well. I'm not so sure about Urschel, whether he will make it or not. We'll know if he can do some practicing tomorrow and we'll be able to better judge it.
I would doubt very much that he's going to play, but he's a tough kid, and he wants to play. And the doctor said let's see what he can do tomorrow.

Q. Has Michael Mauti returned to practice yet, and do you expect him to play this weekend?
COACH PATERNO: Mike is going to be in what we call a green cross. I think most of you are familiar with that. You get a red cross you can't do anything. Green cross, you can do some things. And they have him in a green cross for today. I think after we watch him do some things today, we'll have a better idea how much he can do on Saturday, if any at all.

Q. Stefen Wisniewski, one of those academic All-Americans. On the field can you assess the way he played this season, and will he be at center if Doug can't play?
COACH PATERNO: He'll be a center as we did Saturday. When the other kid got hurt, we moved Steve in to center and moved Urschel over to guard. And then we had that little problem with kids being late, so we couldn't play Pannell. I mean we could have played Pannell, but we thought it would be in the best interests of the team and some things if we didn't.
So Steve would go to center. And who would play at guard, I don't know. We talked about that this morning. Urschel and Pannell will kind of compete for the guard spot that Wisniewski would leave. You're always wishful thinking, maybe we'll have Klopacz back, but we have to be realistic. So they're the plans we're making if the regular center can't come back.

Q. Coach, what your are plans, you and your family, for Thanksgiving day, and is there anything special going on for the team on that day?
COACH PATERNO: It's hard to do anything special for the team because of the fact it's a big game for us and against a very tough football team. I think Michigan State is one of the 10 best teams in the country.
I think they've proven that by some of the wins they've had, the way they've handled a couple of situations where they had tremendous adversity and came back.
I think they've only lost -- I know they've only lost one Bowl game. So we're playing a really good football team. And I'd like to see our kids go out there and play 60 minutes and walk away from it feeling that, hey, we can compete.
But I don't know how you do that and give them a complete day off. So what we will try to do Thursday, we'll encourage them if their families want to come up. We'll open up the training table.
Probably all the coaches and their families in there. I intend to take our family over to the training table and have dinner with the squad.
But that's about it. We'll have practice, we'll have our breakdown meetings, we'll do everything that you would do, except hopefully we're aware of the fact that it is Thanksgiving and that we do have a lot of things to be thankful for.
But hopefully we can have as many families together as can make the arrangements. And have kind of a family night on the training table.

Q. Another question about Stefen Wisniewski, this is his third time being named All-American, can you talk about his contributions to the team on and off the field?
COACH PATERNO: He's played a lot of football. He's a good football player. He's never quite -- I wouldn't say never quite -- he's never allowed what he wants to do academically interfere with practice. He never misses practice. He's not late. On time.
His leadership qualities, although I think because he's so tied up into what he's doing academically, that at times he's not been around the squad as much as he might like. And Brackett's kind of filled in in that spot. But he's been a tremendous kid to have.
And I think he's the third Wisniewski we've had play for us. They've all been great kids, great students, outstanding football players. His dad was a tremendous player. And his uncle was an old pro for years and played pro ball for a long time. And both those two guys were great students. Probably in the same class as Steve is academically.

Q. Could you talk about the importance of this team getting a chance to play another ranked team and the importance of beating a ranked team, finally, if you can?
COACH PATERNO: I think it is important. I think I've alluded to that. Just the fact when we asked about the Thanksgiving Day arrangements, I think it's important. It's important to go out and be able to play a full game against the opponent, make things happen for ourselves and start to develop in different ways, maturity, handle adversity, anticipate certain things that may come up in a football game that you know are going to come up.
You never know sometimes when they're going to come up, but you've got to be ready for them. I think all those things are things that we need to experience. Playing a ranked team such as Michigan State, plays a very aggressive game, very intelligent football team, very disciplined, very well coached.
At this time of the year I think is, for a young team that's had to battle a lot of different problems on the field with the injuries and the youth in key spots, I think this is a very important experience for them.

Q. Joe, how do you think this year ranks in terms of the quality of the Big Ten from top to bottom during your time in the Big Ten?
COACH PATERNO: I think this has been one of the better years. Your memory plays tricks on you. But there are a couple years there we had some really good football teams. Didn't get quite the recognition they should have gotten.
I think the good teams in the league are getting recognition. Ohio State and obviously Wisconsin. We're not playing Wisconsin this year, so I'm not quite as familiar with them as I am with Iowa and Ohio State and now Michigan State.
But I think the quality of the league has been excellent. I think we've got three or four teams that could play with anybody in the country.

Q. In what way do you think Mark Dantonio has changed the Michigan State program since he took over?
COACH PATERNO: I'm not quite sure I got that. I think I indicated that. Disciplined. He's had to make some tough decisions, eliminated a couple of kids for a period of time from his team in order to establish the values that he believes are important.
They're an older team. They get four or five fifth-year kids on defense, and they've got three or four fifth-year kids on offense, because of the fact that Mark decided at that time he'd take his lumps; he was going to build a program that went along with the things he believed in, as I said earlier.
So I think he's done an excellent job. And he's really a good person. And I've said this 20 times, if I said it once -- said it to this group and other people -- I think there's so many good, young coaches in this league right now, and Mark would be one of them. They're not kids, they're not 28, 30, anything like that, but they're young and maybe the kind of head coaching experience and the kind of competition that was just prevalent in the Big Ten this year.
And Mark certainly is one of the guys that I've admired the way he's handled it. I think the kid at Wisconsin has done an excellent job as a new coach, second, third year, fourth year as a head coach. I think he's done a good job.
Couple of the other guys -- the kid at Northwestern has done a really good job. And I'll forget somebody. So I probably ought to quit at that.
But I think Mark is certainly one of the better coaches around.

Q. I don't know if it would be accurate to say that Michigan State snuck up on anybody, but that was a team that was like predicted preseason in the middle of the pack of the Big Ten. And here they're standing at 10-1, one of their best seasons in years. To what do you attribute the fact that they -- I don't know if they played better than anticipated --
COACH PATERNO: I don't know how I can say it, how many different ways I can say it. They have a coach and a coaching staff that made up their minds that they were going to be willing to take their lumps early, even if it meant eliminating certain people who could help them on the field that particular year. They postponed those kids from participating until they became believers and now they're reaping the benefit of those tough decisions that they had to make.
Number two, they have an outstanding quarterback. Cousins is overall probably as good a quarterback as we're going to play. He's smart. He's accurate. He doesn't give you easy passes. And they've got two or three receivers that are outstanding.
And that's on the offensive side of the football. And defensively, they've become very, very aggressive. They know what they're doing. And they don't do stupid things and you've got to block them. You've got to block them every play. And sometimes that's not the easiest thing in the world to do.
So I think it starts -- I think you've got to start with Mark. And I think he's had a concept of what it will take. And he had enough guts to stick with it. And right now he's reaping the benefits.

Q. You mentioned earlier you hope to be back and everything. Do you believe it's --
COACH PATERNO: I didn't say hope.

Q. Do you believe it's entirely your decision? Would there be any thought from the university at all, or is it entirely your call?
COACH PATERNO: I don't think it's entirely my call. I'm not running the university. But I would hope that what I want to do would be taken into consideration and go from there.

Q. Joe, the kids don't have class this week. Are you worried about all the downtime they may have?
COACH PATERNO: I am. I'm trying to figure out the better way to do the practice. We have some kids that are having some academic problems. We've set up a study hall for them, some of the younger kids, because they have study hall during the year and a couple of them have fell behind, so that's -- we've tried to work around that. So the off week has helped us do that. But I am concerned with it. But there again, hopefully we've become mature enough that we can handle some of that.
I mean, these kids have got to understand what a tough game they have ahead of them. They've got to be -- they can't be walking around all over the place. They've got to get their sleep. They've gotta do some homework as far as recognizing what Michigan State can do, when they're going to do it and how they're going to do it. And that takes -- taking some videotapes home and looking at them and those kinds of things.
And so we've tried to work around it. Whether you're successful or not, I don't know. We won't know until Saturday.

Q. Is this among some of the best group of running backs that you have faced this year, with Baker, Bell and also Caper, the three running backs that Michigan State has, and kind of preparing for them and that sort of stuff?
COACH PATERNO: I don't know what your point is, that's all. I wouldn't know whether the kid on the other side's from Philadelphia or where he's from. What's that got to do with it? Why do you bring that up?

Q. I brought it up because they've got three guys that are very, very good and kind of just getting ready for the running game this weekend.
COACH PATERNO: I think it's a combination of a lot of things with the running game. I mentioned I think they've got a very experienced quarterback. They've got some skilled people that are outstanding.
I couldn't tell you where their squad's from, geographically, I couldn't tell you. And I don't really care. When I look at a tape of a kid, I don't say, "Well, hey, this kid is from here or there." I say, "I like the way that kid makes that move." Maybe he's too aggressive, maybe we can fool him, things like that. But I don't really -- I couldn't answer that question intelligently.

Q. How do you think your senior class, especially your captains, Bracketts and Ogbu, how did they handle their leadership responsibilities this year?
COACH PATERNO: There weren't a lot of them. We have about eight kids on defense that won't be back, I mean eight complete offense/defense, that won't be back, but the rest of the squad will be back.
As I've said, again -- and I'm repeating myself -- but in response to the makeup of this squad, we have 59 kids that are freshmen and sophomores. When we travel, we travel with about 40 of them. So the seniors have not been the dominant people.
Couple of them are good, solid kids but they're not great players.
You've got Brackett. You've got Wisniewski and a couple of other kids. But so many of the good kids that do things in practice, sometimes don't get them done in a game are young kids.
So it's been tough for the seniors to go out there and be the gung ho kind of guys. We're going to miss them all, because they've been solid kids. But it just hasn't been enough of them for me to tell you that they've dominated the squad or they were the guys that led everybody.

Q. Michigan State hasn't won at Beaver Stadium since '65, the year before you became the head coach. Why have you been so successful against them at home?
COACH PATERNO: I don't know. I was the head coach against Michigan State when they won the national championship. I think it was '66, was it, when they played BC? We lost to UCLA up here and we lost to Michigan State up here, when they had Peezer and all those guys.
They had four kids that were First Round Draft picks. They played in the Rose Bowl. They played UCLA during the year and then they played them again in the Rose Bowl.
I was assistant coach when we played them the first time they won them all, and they had a kid from Johnstown. Tommy Cusick was the quarterback. And William Beck Wislonic was a kid from the Johnstown area, because he was a Johnstown area guy. He was a tough guy to recruit against.
He's from a big town of Barnesboro. In fact, if you ever go into Barnesboro High School, you walk in the front door, they have a big picture of Duffy right over the front as you get in, the minute you walk in, there's Duffy smiling with that impish Irish green of his and underneath, it says "Knowledge Is Power".
So that's where they come from. But Michigan State has had some great football teams, great football teams. I don't mean good. I mean great.

Q. Michigan State was getting beat pretty late in the game by Purdue the other day. Were you aware that Purdue was beating them, or did you just find out the final score?
COACH PATERNO: Coming back on the plane I asked, they said Purdue -- Michigan State beat them in the last four, five minutes, whatever it was.

Q. Nothing against Purdue, but were you glad that Michigan State, this creates a bigger game for you for your team, bigger opportunity?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I haven't -- I don't mean to be evasive. Again, I keep qualifying so many of my answers because I really don't think -- I don't know. I just want to know who won the game and I want to know how Purdue did certain things.
First thing I want to do is try to get -- because we didn't have the tape made yet -- is to see whether the game might have been on the replay on ESPN. But I couldn't find it. So that would have given me -- because it was an early game, and we were back at our homes at 6:30, quarter to 7:00, after we got back.
Anyway, Purdue is right on the verge of being good. And they do some things really well and they run a very good team. Northwestern was on the verge of beating Iowa. Kid catches the football in the end zone and they beat Iowa.

Q. In response to earlier questions about your future, does that mean you've been in touch with Tennessee Williams?
COACH PATERNO: Have I finished with what?

Q. Have you been in touch with Tennessee Williams? Aren't you the guy that talked about Tennessee Williams a lot these last few years?
COACH PATERNO: I've talked about Tennessee Williams?

Q. Yeah. Haven't you?
COACH PATERNO: Who is Tennessee Williams?

Q. Isn't he the guy that said that nobody's ever lived or coached forever but you might be the exception? Isn't that the guy?
COACH PATERNO: Have I said that?

Q. I thought you did.
COACH PATERNO: I'm never quite sure what kind of stuff I tell you guys anyway. (Laughter)
You're talking about the author. Tennessee said -- he said: "Nobody's immortal, but somehow I thought I was the exception." Why don't you get the darn thing straight. This isn't one of your columns. We're talking about being accurate. (Laughter)

Q. Andrew Dailey and Kevion Latham were listed as playing their last home game --
COACH PATERNO: Andy and I talked this morning. Andrew and I talked this morning. He came over. He's a good student. He wants to go on and get a Masters in hospitality in the business school. It's tough to get in graduate school in business.
And I told him, "Just wait, no hurry." And he's been banged up so much. He's had shoulders and neck. I said, "We're going to take care of your scholarship until the end of the spring semester. And let's just play it by ear right now."
He's a good kid, and I'd like to keep him if I can. But whatever is best for him we'll try to help him if we can. Good kid.

Q. Ogbu still and Pannell, are they going to be available Saturday? Are they back in your good graces?
COACH PATERNO: They're still a little bit on trial, when you say back in good graces. I think they -- I think they've got the word. I think the squad got the word. You have responsibilities not only to yourself, but you've got responsibility to the other group.
You've got 60, 70, 80 guys sitting around waiting while you decide to sashay over late. That's inconsiderate; you're not concerned about your teammates. I think we got the message across. And that's all I care about. They're both good kids. They've been good football players, and we'll go from there.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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