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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEApril 13, 2011Derek MoyeJoe PaternoTHE MODERATOR: We're joined by Coach Paterno. Coach, thanks for joining us. COACH PATERNO: It's good to be with you. THE MODERATOR: Would you like to go straight to questions? COACH PATERNO: Yes. THE MODERATOR: Let's take questions from the media. Q. A lot of attention to college football this off-season in a negative light surrounding some of the off-field extracurricular activities with recruiting, agents, prompting Urban Meyer to say it's out of control. Do you feel the college football landscape is out of control? If so, what needs to be done to get it back on track? COACH PATERNO: Well, I don't know whether it's out of control. To be frank with you, obviously we have some problems. But I'm not the kind of guy that likes to throw rocks at the other guy because there's so many little things that can happen to you without you having control of them. I'll beg off that one. But I do think obviously we've got some problems. I think how many or whether they've been made to appear worse than they are because of the media exposure, I don't know. You're always going to have some problems. Whether we got more, whether the whole foundation of college football is deteriorating, that's for a much longer discussion and a give-and-take that I'd have to hear before I make a comment. Q. On the field, how important is this spring to your development up front, especially on the offensive line? COACH PATERNO: Well, it's vital. We lost our entire offensive line. Well, not entire, but most of it. One of the projects we had this spring was to get a group of kids together who could play together and keep them healthy. Overall I think we made some progress. We still have a long way to go. We're not a domineering bunch of kids up front. We have troubles with some people that are stronger, maybe a little quicker. But technique-wise we're getting better. The camaraderie that you get, that you have to have with an offensive line, we don't have that yet, but we're working on it. Q. I was wondering if you could update us on the progress of your quarterbacks? Do you still expect to name a starter in the fall? COACH PATERNO: Hadn't thought about who to name as starter, but I've been very pleased with the quarterback situation. I don't think there's any doubt that we have at least two kids that are ready to go and play, can do a good job for us, McGloin and Bolden. I don't know which one of those would start if we were going to start the season this week. Both of them are ready to go, will be ready to go. Then there's a couple of kids that have a lot of ability but they're not quite that comfortable with the type of offense we're using or a couple things. The two kids, McGloin and Bolden, especially Bolden, has a tremendous amount of ability, can really throw the football. May not move around quite as well as McGloin, but he's close. So I feel pretty good about our quarterback situation. Q. I was talking to Jay about the seven-on-seven influence in some of these traveling teams. Do you have any feeling about that, having to deal with the high school coaches? COACH PATERNO: We talked about that this morning because I knew we were going to be on a telephone call and I thought something might come up about it. There's at least concern on our staff that there are people getting involved in it ala AAU basketball where they're handling things in the summer, and there are in-between people getting involved in this business of starting them out in seven-on-seven camps, literally putting them up on auction blocks so people can get a look at them and so forth. To what degree, what extent, I don't know. There are a lot of high school teams that go to different places to get the kind of competition. But they go with their normal high school coach. They go as a group of people from the same program. It isn't a question that the agent picks them or there's outside influences on them, it's just a learning process that they can come together, get a couple of extra days of practice. But some of the guys on our staff are concerned that we are getting a third guy in here, an in-between guy, a guy that's kind of soliciting kids to go to a camp and who is getting paid to bring certain kids to camps, some things that you really don't want those kinds of people involved in our game. There's some of it going on. How much, I don't know. Whether the NCAA has to do something to eliminate it because it's gone too far, I don't know, I really don't. I know there's some people concerned about it. If what I hear is correct, I'd be concerned about it, too. As of now, I've not seen enough of that business about taking two kids from this squad, two kids from that squad, two from this one, taking them someplace where they can compete and people can evaluate them, put tapes together or whatever they do. I'm against that. How much of that's going on, I don't know. Q. Jay said that you don't allow the seven-on-seven tournaments at Penn State. Is that accurate? COACH PATERNO: Well, yeah. I think it's accurate. Q. You talked a little bit about the seven-on-seven, saying you're not up to date on everything. There do seem to be more problems and issues facing college football right now than most people can remember. You as the all-time winningest coach, what is your level of concern? What would you like to see the leadership of college football try to do about it? COACH PATERNO: Well, I've been around the game for 60 years, a lot more than that as a player. I've been in it about 65 years. I've seen the good, the bad. I've seen the reaction to different situations. I don't really get to be where I think that it's the end of the world for college football. I'm not quite as familiar as to some of the things that you hear about, that supposedly are going on. But I think we've had problems. We've got problems now. We'll have problems next year. If you change the rule to eliminate one thing, there's always some smart guy out there that takes advantage of it, so then you've got to have another new rule. You change that rule, so forth. That can go on. I don't want to start pointing fingers. I think the game of college football right now is as good as it's ever been as far as the caliber of play, the interest of the fans. A lot of it is because of the media, television, the press. Unfortunately, some of the problems that get blown up because the press is competing against television and vice versa so that they have a tendency to make some things look worse than they are. That's my gut feeling without really being able to tell you that this is what I mean, this is an example here or that. I don't know. But I do think in all the years I've been in college football, there's always been problems. I could not honestly tell you whether we've got more problems today than we had 30 years ago. I don't know. I don't know. I think we've always had them. We have some now. How bad they are right now compared to what they were 30 years ago, I don't know. But we will always have some problems. There will always be some guy that some people will want to circumvent the rules, get an advantage on the other guy. That's going to happen. How do you handle it? That's debatable. Q. A couple of players have said that you're a little more active on the practice field during spring ball. Is this more of a conscious effort? Is it a result of some of the disappointments of last year? COACH PATERNO: I don't think I did particularly a good job last year, to be frank with you. Part of it was that I didn't want to push some of the younger kids too far. We were a very, very young football team last year, probably the youngest team I've had. We had a lot of kids bumped up. I have not knowingly gone out and said, I'm going to do more than I've done. But I have been aware of the fact that I think we've got to do one heck of a coaching job starting with the head coach. We got to do a better job than we did last year. Again, that starts with the head coach. I've enjoyed this team. I still enjoy coaching. Thank God the good Lord has kept me healthy, I can run around a little bit out there and get involved in it, drills and different things. If it appears to the kids that I'm working harder at it, good. I'm glad to hear that. I don't know whether I'm really working any harder at it. I hope I'm doing a better job than I did last year, let's put it that way. Q. I know you've had a long history playing Nebraska. You go a long way back with Tom Osborne, too. Can you talk a little bit more about Nebraska joining the league and playing them again every year now. COACH PATERNO: Well, I think the addition of Nebraska to the Big Ten, 12 teams now, is a great asset, a great addition. Nebraska is a great place to play, great people to compete against. Go back to 1954, '55, when we played Nebraska when they were not quite the recognizable program that they are now, they had a great back by the name of Reynolds. A Pitt guy was coaching out there. Going way back. But they've got great fans. They've got a great program. Tommy Osborne will be a tremendous athletic director. I think this is really a good thing for everybody, plus the fact it will give the Big Ten a chance to have a championship game, which has been something that has bothered me in the sense that we went to the Rose Bowl one year, played a team that had played two or three games after we had been through playing. To sit home and watch some of these other teams play when the Big Ten is sitting around watching, our season was over, has bothered me a little bit. I'd hate to see us take a backseat to anybody. I think this move with Nebraska into our group has really created a big plus for Big Ten football. A class operation. I think it's a good thing and I'm happy about it. THE MODERATOR: Coach, appreciate the time. COACH PATERNO: See you soon. THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Derek Moye. Derek, thanks for joining us. DEREK MOYE: No problem. THE MODERATOR: If you could talk a little bit about how spring football is going, then we'll take a few questions. DEREK MOYE: I think as a team we're progressing pretty well, especially the receiver group. I was out a little bit with a concussion. I think a lot of the young guys have stepped up and showed coach they want to play this year and have an impact on the offense. THE MODERATOR: Let's go to questions. Q. Can you update us on your health status. Any chance we'll see you on Saturday or are you out for the rest of the spring? DEREK MOYE: I'm going to be non-contact practice today, see how that goes. There's a chance I actually could play on Saturday. Q. How difficult has it been with all of the injuries that the team has suffered throughout the spring? DEREK MOYE: I mean, it's definitely been difficult. I think this is one of the years we have the most injuries in. But at the same time it's giving a lot of younger guys a chance to I guess get some reps where they may have not gotten them before. Q. Can you tell us how did the concussion happen and have you had one before. Can you talk about the progress of Justin Brown and the other receivers. DEREK MOYE: The concussion happened, I was running a post. Drew hit me pretty good. Couldn't go through the rest of practice. Justin and the rest of the receives have been progressing really well. I think one thing with Justin, he's a great worker. He loves football. Every time he's out there and gets a chance to play, he makes the best of it. I think he's going to be a really good player this year and in the future. Q. How is it going with the four quarterbacks, how the reps are being divided up, and who looks good in your eyes? DEREK MOYE: Well, Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin have been splitting the reps with one, and (indiscernible) and Kevin Newsome have been splitting them, too. The most workout I was getting was with Rob and Matt. They both look really good. You could tell they both want to have the quarterback position to be theirs. I mean, it's going to be a tight battle again this year. I think as a team we'll be in great hands with whoever coach decides to pick. Q. I understand Rob is being a little more vocal in practice now. Is that what you're seeing as well? DEREK MOYE: Yeah. I mean, he's not stepping too much out of his personality, but he's definitely showing a little more confidence and has been a little more vocal about a few things. Q. Your gut feeling now, is Rob Bolden going to come back in the fall or not? DEREK MOYE: My gut feeling now, I would say yeah. Q. Why do you say that? DEREK MOYE: He's performing really well. I think he's giving himself a good opportunity to compete for the job and start this year. I don't really see I guess any reason for him to actually leave. He's kept his mind on being the quarterback for Penn State. Q. Obviously with the Big Ten entering a new era with division play, what is the mindset like for you guys as players going into the division play and play for the Big Ten championship game? DEREK MOYE: I think it's exciting for us as players. We're used to watching other conferences championship games such as the Big 12, SEC championship game. I think it's great. As a senior, this is my only chance to play in a game like that. It makes me want to work that much harder just to get to that game. Q. Which day did you have the concussion and which day did the symptoms disappear? DEREK MOYE: I think it was two Saturdays ago. The symptoms disappeared right around I'd say this past Saturday and this past Sunday. THE MODERATOR: Derek, appreciate the time. Best of luck. Talk to you soon. DEREK MOYE: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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