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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 12, 2013Bill O'BrienBILL O'BRIEN: Just start an update on the injury list here. Ben Kline will be out for the season. Ben tore a chest muscle, so tore his peck, and he'll have surgery on that and he'll be out. Just a little note on Ben Kline, tremendous kid, he tore his peck on the second play of the game, and he played the rest of the game, and at the end, he was taking on a pulling guard, they were running power and he was doing a nice job. So I can't say enough about him, and he's a 4.0 student. Just going to miss him. Allen Robinson, somebody asked me after the game, and I didn't know that, I hadn't got the update right after the game, but he did, he's got a little bit of a shoulder issue, but we expect him to play in the game on Saturday. Other than that, it looks like everybody‑‑ you've got some bumps and bruises, but got one case of tonsillitis, but other than that it seems like everybody is doing okay, so should be expected to play on Saturday. Q. Mike Hull said this morning that he feels like the team's back is against the wall. Do you feel the same way? BILL O'BRIEN: Do I feel like the team's back is against the wall? You know, that's Mike's opinion. Obviously he's entitled to his opinion. I think if I had to say what he means by that is that we're coming off a loss, and so we need to come out and play well. We've talked about that yesterday a lot. We've had an up‑and‑down year. We obviously haven't always coached the best, haven't always played the best. But we've done some good things, too. We've played in the four losses, the four teams that we've played have a 30‑8 record. One team is undefeated, one team has one loss, one team has two losses, one team has five losses. When we play a schedule like that, we don't have a lot of margin for error, whether it's coaching or playing, and so we've got to do that this week. We have got to come out ready to go and try to play mistake‑free football and play as good as we can. So I think what Mike means there is, hey, we've got to regroup and come back ready to go against Purdue. Q. I wanted to ask you about the development of two of your younger players, Eugene Lewis and Nyeem Wartman. Could you evaluate their years so far? BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, Geno has practiced hard, and he does, he has a lot of ability. Again, he's only a red‑shirt freshman, so he's got a lot of time left here. He's got three years left here. I think everybody expects red‑shirt freshmen to jump in and start and play right away, and in some cases it's hard to do that. You have to learn your plays, you have to perform well in practice, and I would expect Geno to play more on Saturday. Geno is a great kid. He practices hard, and he's improved. He certainly has in my opinion a really good future here at Penn State. The other one that you asked about was Nyeem Wartman. Nyeem has played good at times this year and other times hasn't played so good. He's made plays for us, and other times he's missed plays, just like any young player would do. Again, he's a guy that played against Ohio last year and then was hurt. We were able to get a red shirt on him, so he's a red‑shirt freshman, so he's a guy that's only going to get better. We have a lot of confidence in both those players that they will get better and they'll work hard at it, and again, Nyeem will continue to play for us and he'll continue to get better. Q. Adam Breneman got a good number of snaps for you yesterday. How far has he come since the start of the season and how challenging is it for a freshman tight end to come right in and learn the offense? BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, he's definitely improved. I thought he played very well against Minnesota, I really did. I thought he blocked well and I thought he caught the ball when it was thrown to him. He made some big plays for us in the game. So he's a guy that I think‑‑ another guy along the lines of the last two guys who's a young player who's got a really bright future here. He's a great kid, practices hard, practices hurt. He's had some ankle issues and foot issues this year, and he's practiced with it and done a nice job. Hopefully he'll keep contributing over the last three games here, and we can continue to try to get him the ball and help him in that area, too. But I've got a lot of confidence that he's only going to get better. Q. How are your true freshmen, in particular Christian, handling this part of the season where it's November and it's 12 weeks and you've mentioned a lot of guys who are practicing hurt, particularly for true freshmen who haven't really played at this time of year, how are they handling it? What do you want them to get out of the last couple of weeks? BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, I think that's a good question. I think that every true freshman definitely hits that wall. Everyone does. And I think that the ones that are able to, so to speak, climb that wall, what does that mean? That means that maybe you come out and you don't have such a great practice or you don't feel very well, or maybe you had a tough exam schedule that day. Are you able to go out there and focus on football. I think when you look at some of our guys like Hackenberg, I thought he had one of his best practices yesterday. Here's a guy who's 18 years old, who like I've always said, everything he sees in college football he's seeing for the first time, and I just thought that yesterday in practice there were things that started to click for him, so let's see what happens today. It's a little bit colder today, and today won't be an easy practice, so hopefully it continues to click for him. I would say in some regard it's the same for all the freshmen. We feel really good about our freshman class, our 2013 class. We had a great developmental scrimmage last night, some guys really stood out in that scrimmage, so we feel good about the young players in our program. Q. Last year's team won eight of their final 10 games, seemed to improve as you head through November. How do you view this team in that light with the just overall improvement? Are you satisfied? Are you disappointed? What do you think? BILL O'BRIEN: Well, I think, again, I don't think you can compare one team to the next. Every team is different. Every year is different. You know, I think this football team has improved in some areas, and other areas it hasn't improved, and I think a lot of that we have to do a better job of coaching. I think it comes down to can you coach it better, can you figure out a different way to do it? I think there's been times where we've showed tremendous improvement. I think our kickoff coverage team has been better and better every week this year. I think that we've run the ball lately pretty well on offense. I think that in the second half of the Minnesota game, defensively we showed a lot of improvement, stopping the run, and on 3rd down. It's just a little bit up and down, so we've got to try to smooth it out over the next few weeks here starting with Purdue and try to get it to where it's on more of an uphill slant as far as improvement goes and not as much up and down. Q. You've said all along that Christian came in as an intelligent quarterback and that's one of the big things you liked about him. What are the primary lessons that you taught him once you got a chance to coach him, like what he's watching on film or taking command of a huddle, and how has he responded to those lessons that you've tried to teach him? BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, we've spent a lot of time together, obviously, since August. There's been times when it's been tough because we haven't made the plays or maybe made the play call that we wanted to make, and I think there's been other times that have been some great times as far as Michigan and the overtime win over Illinois, I think he made a really great throw there at the end. Again, it's an ever‑evolving process, and I think one of the things that's great about this kid is he's very resilient, he's smart, he's got a tremendous work ethic, and he's 18 years old. That's not an excuse for anything, it's just‑‑ it's not. It is what it is. Like they say you are what your record says you are. You're 5‑4, that's what your record says you are, that's what you are. But I do think that this guy over the next three weeks, I believe you'll see improvement, and I think you'll see him get better and better here in his years at Penn State. Q. One of the things that just about everybody said going into the season was that the linebackers was the one area where you really had to stay healthy, and with this news of Ben Kline, you've been almost unbelievably unlucky in that area. In that sense do you feel like the defense has really done a pretty good job considering the physical situation that you've been in? BILL O'BRIEN: I think that injuries are a part of the game. I think we all‑‑ every team out there has to deal with injuries, and that's just the way it goes, especially this time of the year. Give the players a lot of credit for stepping in and trying to fulfill their role, whether it's Stephen Obeng or maybe this week even Brandon Bell, who's going to maybe get some playing time this week if he practices well. So injuries happen. Injuries happen, and we're expected to go out there and play well, and that's what we need to do. Q. You kind of touched on this earlier with the kickoff return unit, but how have you seen them develop this year? How close are those kids considering so many of them are run‑ons and how encouraged are you by the job they've done the last couple of weeks? BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, the kickoff team and the kickoff return team I think have improved. I think the kickoff team has improved more than the kickoff return team. I think when you look at the kickoff return team, I think we've still got a ways to go there, but I do think it's better. Against Minnesota we had a bunch of touchbacks. So I think we had one return. We just have to continue to work at it. I've said from day one I think Charles London is doing a very good job. He has a lot to do with the improvement of those two units. We've got a lot of great kids playing hard on those units, and hopefully one of these times on the return team, hopefully one of these times we'll pop one. Q. Turnovers continue to be a problem. How do you assess that not only in practice from drills but the mental aspect behind that, as well? BILL O'BRIEN: No, turnovers have been an issue this year, and last game we fumbled the first play of the game, we fumbled the last play of the game for offense, so that's not very good. We address it, we emphasize it, we find different ways to drill it. You know, again, there's a fine line between over‑coaching it, too. It's just what we tell them. When you're a ball carrier on our team, you're carrying the hopes and dreams of this football team, and that's what you try to relate to the guys, and the guys don't mean to fumble, it's just something that happened, and we've got to try to correct it and we've got to stop doing it. Q. I just wanted to ask about another one of your young players, a young tight end Jesse James. What's your evaluation of him on film? The production hasn't been there, but is he doing all the other things? BILL O'BRIEN: I really enjoy coaching Jesse.  I see tremendous potential with Jesse. I think as long as Jesse continues to work and sees that potential in himself, he's got a chance‑‑ his potential is limitless. It's a dangerous word, though, so I think Jesse did some really good things against Minnesota, but I think there's other areas he needs to improve in, and I think he came out yesterday and had one of his best practices. Jesse, again, is another example of a young player. I know he played a lot last year, but he got here when I got here.  He got here when I got here. So he's a guy that's only going to get better. And again, he's got, in my opinion, a bright future in football, and he'll continue to work at it. Q. Can you put your finger on why you think you've been more successful at home than on the road, or is that something you maybe have to get away from the season to get perspective? BILL O'BRIEN: I think we've probably got to look at that when we get out of the season. It's hard to put a finger on that. It's hard. In the Minnesota game I felt like we did some pretty good things. We had some good drives that we didn't finish in the first half on defense. We couldn't stop them on 3rd down, but in the second half we did. We just didn't put together the game, obviously. So whether that had to do with being on the road or not, I don't know. I don't see our guys acting any differently on the road. I just think that, again, we've got to continue to coach it better and figure out a better way to do it in the off‑season, and that's what we're going to try to do. Q. You talked earlier about that question about the turnovers about not over‑coaching, but when you guys as coaches are constantly talking about consistency and not turning the ball over on game day, and it's not happening, what can you guys as coaches do? What's the fine line? Where does it rest with the player? Where does it rest with you guys? What's that fine‑line balance as to what more you guys can stress to these players about those mistakes? BILL O'BRIEN:  I think it's a good question. I think one of the things is some of them we look at and we say, you know, there was a couple times where the defense made a good play, and maybe the guy caught a pass and turned and the ball was stripped right away and it was difficult for that guy to secure the football. But there's other times that it's just, to me, a complete lack of focus. It's not that we don't‑‑ it's not like we love the kid any less for fumbling. We just try to stress, look, we can't go into playing a 7‑2 Minnesota team and fumble the first play of the game. That doesn't bode well for the game. I know it's just the first play, but we've got to take care of the ball. It's not yelling and screaming. What we did yesterday is we come in and just like I do every Monday, come in and have the good, the bad, the ugly of the game on Saturday and show it to them, and we don't yell and scream at them. We teach them. We love teaching them. We really enjoy coaching these kids, so we just continue to teach them, find better ways to coach them, and that's what we'll always do here at Penn State. Q. (Inaudible.) BILL O'BRIEN: In certain instances, yeah, I would say that we have‑‑ like Zach is wearing gloves now, so that's one‑‑ that was something he asked me what do you think about that? I said, yeah, if it makes you feel more confident in holding onto the ball. I think one of the things with Zach, a lot of it, the ball has been in his left hand, so we've looked at that. With Billy, Billy is taking care of the ball better than he has in the past, and we fumbled that first one on Saturday, that's not good. Now, on the fumbled center‑quarterback exchange, again, Christian and I talk about this all the time, when you're on the goal line, when you're on the 1‑yard line and the center has to make a hard reach block to the left or to the right, it's like the golden rule of quarterbacking, you always have to stay with the center a little bit longer. That's the first thing you learn when you coach quarterbacks or you play quarterback. He pulled out a little bit early and that's why the ball was on the ground. To me we just have to execute better and emphasize that in coaching, but there are technical aspects to it like you're saying and that's what we try to do. Q. Allen has had a tremendous year. How would you evaluate the progress of the other receivers? Have they made the kind of strides to make things as easy as they can for Christian? BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, I think there's been improvement, I really do. I think Brandon has had some chances to make plays and probably wishes he made some plays, but he works extremely hard. He's a good route runner, and he came out to practice yesterday and made some plays. Richy and Geno, you know, those guys are young receivers, and it's not the easiest thing in the world to come in here and just play receiver right away in any offense, not just the offenses that we run. And they've improved every week. They work extremely hard. I think for Richy, when you're a true freshman, it's hard. You've got to get your classes straight, you've got a lot of things going on, and it's hard to always focus on improving on the field. You've got to get your outside stuff straight, too. So I think you'll see a lot of improvement in the off‑season with those guys. Geno is a guy that will play more against Purdue, and I think he's a guy that we need to continue to try to get the ball to, and he's got to continue to be a better route runner and really work on that, and I know he'll do that. Q. I think after the second or third game you said Christian, you evaluated his play like a B or something like that. Through nine games how would you evaluate his play for the season and do you judge him differently after nine games than after the first couple? Do you have to grade on a curve at all? BILL O'BRIEN: No, I don't really know if I gave him‑‑ I don't want to letter grade him. I understand the question and I'll answer it. But that's just‑‑ I don't even think that makes sense, putting letter grades on players. Christian has, in many, many ways improved every week. I'll give you an example: Minnesota, we're driving the ball, I think we had a 3rd down in their territory. We called a play that required a check. It required a check where he had to use the tools in his toolbox to get the defense to show a little bit, and I've had guys at other places that I've been that could never do that. He did it, so he checked the play, got us into the right play, but we didn't complete the pass. So we've got to‑‑ okay, so we got that step done. It's all part of teaching. We got that step done. We got that step accomplished. Now we've got to execute all the way through. And then there's other times where he made some really good throws, some really‑‑ I mean, the curl route he threw to Zanellato on the two‑minute drive was a great throw. Some of his deep balls that we didn't come down with were really good throws. Other throws where we run some of our little bunch stuff, he's got to understand there's a little touch on that pass. That's all part of being a young quarterback. To me, I look at that and say he got better at that last night. He's going to be better at that against Purdue and maybe even better against Nebraska and then better against Wisconsin. I just believe that. I really believe in this kid. I've got a lot of belief in this kid, and I think he's going to be better and better. We need him to be better against Purdue. Again, like I've said, there's been a lot of good and then there's been some things that we just need to take from this stage to that stage and now get it all the way to the next level, and that's what we're trying to do. Q. Where is Zach Zwinak's confidence at after last week? BILL O'BRIEN: Well, it's pretty good. He ran for 150 yards. I thought he ran the ball really hard. I thought he really ran the ball well against Minnesota. Give him credit, he really did. There was some good blocking. I think he's confident. He and I talk every day, and I think he feels pretty good about where he's at. Now, we'll continue to rotate him and Delton in there, and Akeel Lynch came back to practice yesterday, so we'll see how he's doing yesterday, too. Q. Allen Robinson this season has drawn a bunch of pass interference penalties. How does that kind of impact his overall ability to affect a defense as they try to plan for him, and do you coach up a young quarterback like Christian to let him know that's a scenario that can happen, as well, that we can get that flag? BILL O'BRIEN: No doubt about it, that's a great question. When Allen gets doubled, that really helped us in the running game against Minnesota because they had a high safety over the top of him to one side, and so now we're able to have one less guy to deal with in the running game to that side, so it helps there. And then you always have to coach the quarterback on, hey, look, if they take Allen away, here's your other options, and then when those guys are throwing the ball, they've got to make plays on it if it's a good throw. So that's part of the process of teaching and getting the offense to improve, and that's what we're trying to do. But yeah, when Allen gets doubled, it's not a‑‑ it hurts Allen because he's getting doubled, but it can help the rest of the offense. Q. Purdue has been struggling. Going back to October 5th they've scored three touchdowns. How do you make sure the team has the same focus going into this week as if they're playing a team with a winning record? BILL O'BRIEN: No, we don't have any problem focusing on Purdue. We respect Purdue, Coach Hazell I think is an excellent football coach, just his first year there. He's putting in his offense, defense, special teams. He's working hard in recruiting and got a lot of respect for Darrell. So our guys are very focused on this game. With our guys it's never a matter of focusing on who the opponent is. It's not‑‑ it has nothing to do with records or anything else. It's about playing the best football we can play and trying to get better from the mistakes that we made last week. Q. I know earlier in the year I think maybe before the season started you had mentioned how at some of the earlier practices you managed the roster, especially veteran guys, you might give them a lesser load or some days off. Now that we are just a couple weeks left, do you see those type of guys having the energy level you want and has that been a successful strategy, and how have you seen it if they are more energetic? BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, I see‑‑ the way that we've practiced I think has been good. I think, again, that's another off‑season study to give you a better, more specific answer on that. But I do see a lot of juice still with DaQuan Jones or John Urschel. I see these guys that have played a ton of snaps for us, and there's other guys. I still see a lot of energy. As it goes into November here, we're going to shorten practice a little bit and do some things at a faster pace and not have them out there until 6:30 at night, maybe have them out there until 6:00, get them back there, get them something to eat and get them studying again. That's something we're going to continue to look at and strategize about. Q. You have four State College High grads on your roster. That might make sense given the proximity, but can you talk about the relationship Penn State has with State High? BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, we have a really good relationship with State High. We recruit there every time we can have a period in recruiting where we can go by and visit schools, we make sure that State High is on our list of visits. I've been to the school personally I think twice. So we have a great relationship with them, and we always want to make sure that State College High knows that there will be spots on our team for State College High football players, no doubt about it. Q. With Ben Kline, I believe you said a week or two ago that he would also require off‑season shoulder surgery again. Does he also need surgery on the peck, too? BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, so he'll have the peck surgery this coming week and then he'll have the shoulder surgery down the road. Q. He still has two seasons left. He's got to overcome a lot. What do you expect out of him and can you just kind of talk about the type of career he has left that you think he's capable of? BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, well, I think with the surgical procedures that will take place, I think, number one, he can definitely come back from those, I really do. I think a lot of it has to do with the rehab and things. But I think knowing Ben Kline, I know he's going to rehab, and I actually brought him in yesterday and had this exact conversation with him about, hey, we're looking forward to you coming back here and being one of our leaders next year, and I still want you around the program right now, so he's in the meetings, he's out at practice last night. I look at Ben Kline as just a tough kid, kind of like in the two years I've been here, kind of like in that Mike Yancich categories, tough dudes that love football, love Penn State, and I would expect him to come back and play well for us. Q. In this day and age big time recruits get a lot of exposure, but Adam and Christian were kind of the faces of the 2013 class for you guys, and they got asked so many questions after the sanctions last year. How do you think that helped the maturation process of them? BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, I think any time you have to do this, deal with the media at a young age, I think the more you do it, the better you get at it, right, you guys have noticed that with me, right. I'm kidding. Holy smokes. It's a joke. But I do think that that helps. I think the one thing, too, to make clear, though, about that, and I think the question is a good one, we've got a lot of other kids in that '13 class that we think are pretty good. Let's just talk about two positions. If you look at the offensive line, okay, last night we had a developmental scrimmage, we ran about 35 plays, Andrew Nelson, Brendan Mahon and Tanner Hartman, they came roaring off the ball and they were blocking on Garrett Sickels, Parker Cothren and Curtis Cothran and they were coming roaring off the ball. It was a very physical scrimmage. We have a lot of fun, the kids love it, we love it, we crank the music. So there's a lot of faces of that '13 recruiting class that I think you guys will get to know over the next four or five years, whatever it is. Q. You seem particularly frustrated, maybe more, after this game than we've seen you. I just wonder with everything that you guys have had to overcome, is some of it catching up to you? Do you sense any demoralization on the part of the team? BILL O'BRIEN: No, I don't. I think I was just frustrated because I was frustrated with how that game went. I just felt like our defense came out and played well, and we drove the ball, and I'm just very frustrated when we don't score touchdowns. So that was my frustration. As far as the team and the morale of the team, I'm telling you, at 2:40 yesterday afternoon, they are filing in that team meeting room and they are ready to go. We talk a lot about it. It's just the way these kids are built, how they were brought up. It's Penn State. People question what is there to play for. There's a lot to play for. There's the respect of your opponent, there's your teammates, there's the tradition of Penn State football. I don't think‑‑ at Penn State there will never be a question of what is there to play for, let me put it to you that way. Q. And also the defense has also had some bumps in the road this year. Do you feel that what you guys turned out in the second half will be something that can carry over? BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, I think there were a lot of positives in the second half. I think we stopped the run well. I think that we challenged receivers more. I think we need to just‑‑ we need to challenge some receivers a little bit more, you know what I mean, and I think that we play good run defense, I really do. I know some teams have run the ball on us in different schemes, but I think the core of our defense plays good run defense. So I think that it will carry over, and I hope it does. It's a different scheme that we'll go against this week, but I think our defense will continue to improve, and I believe it will carry over. Q. You've given Allen a lot of opportunities in the screen game. Normally you see a smaller, quicker receiver in that role. What does he bring to that that's gives you confidence to put him in that position? BILL O'BRIEN: Well, he's pretty quick. He's not small, but he's pretty quick. Any time you've got a guy like that, you're trying to get the ball in his hands and he's got good playing strength. The one that we ran to him on Saturday in the beginning there, we were in a NASCAR drive, he did a nice job of catching it and following his blockers, Donovan Smith did a great job of knocking out two guys, and I think Allen got 14 yards on that. A lot of it was his quickness. We just‑‑ we throw the slip screens to other guys, it's just we've thrown a lot of them to Allen this year. Q. You kind of touched on it a little bit earlier with Neal's question, but as far as the media relationship and answering the questions and that kind of thing, how do you, or not yourself particularly but the staff kind of train these guys? I know you talked about it before to get used to the cameras and questions and that kind of thing. Is there maybe a sense of protection from Saturday that you didn't bring them out? BILL O'BRIEN: Oh, no. First of all, on the training, we talk to them a lot about being honest. We talk to them a lot about making sure that you talk about your teammates‑‑ not talk about your teammates but when we win, praising your teammates, don't talk about yourself a lot. Things like that. Talk about teamwork. But we let them go. I think on Saturday, I didn't see what the big deal with that was. We lost the game. I wanted to have a good long talk with them in the locker room after the game, and I think that. I've let them talk to players, so I think after the game on Saturday, I just felt like we had a bunch of guys that were not happy with the outcome of that game, and I felt like I wanted to talk to them more than I wanted you to talk to them. So that's why we did that on Saturday. Q. I wanted to ask about Alex Butterworth because early in the season he was struggling to get it going. Last three games he's hit some pretty solid punts. Where have you seen him turn it around and maybe in practice have you seen him kind of adjust the way he kind of approaches it? BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, he's a very improved kicker, a punter. He's done a really good job. Larry Johnson has been working with him a lot, does a good job with him. I think the snapper has helped, Zach Ladonis. A lot of it is about operation where you get a good snap and you're right in line with the punt, and then his own confidence has grown. He's kicked some big punts for us this year, and that's been important. He put that one inside the 5‑yard line. That was an unbelievable punt, and just continued to work on consistency, but he's one of the most improved guys on our team. Q. Can Larry punt? Is he a good punter? BILL O'BRIEN: Come on, man. Q. Do you think he could maybe? I have no idea, that's why I'm asking. BILL O'BRIEN: I mean, what do you think? Q. It's kind of a joke. BILL O'BRIEN: Yeah, I'm laughing inside. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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