CHICK-FIL-A PEACH BOWL: OLE MISS VS PENN STATE

December 27, 2023

Ja'Juan Seider

Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Penn State Nittany Lions

Quick Quotes

Q. How did that end up? Did you recruit him to come run with you, or did he just see it? What happened?

JA'JUAN SEIDER: He kind of joined it when he got in. Also, it's good to take care of our health a little bit. You stand around, and I think Ty would say the same thing, it's a mental break. It gets you a chance to get you away from everybody.

I like putting my headphones in sometimes, whatever music I like of the day, and get away from everybody.

Q. Has it benefited you that he played at Penn State? Because obviously not a lot of coaches have that experience, being a Letterman. Have you learned anything from that?

JA'JUAN SEIDER: No, I wouldn't say that. I've been here six years. I'm pretty much a Letterman at this point if you want to calculate it that way. So that had nothing to do with it.

Ty, he earned everything he got. That's a testament to his work ethic, his commitment, late nights. You spend any time around this guy in the film room, you understand he's knows the ball. He's a coach's kid. He's been around the game his whole life. Those are the things we have in common. Both coach's kid, both been around this game our whole life, so you just know.

You get the feeling when you talk with him, you watch our players interact with him, any time you see players around a coach, you know what kind of coach he is. They can relate to him. And they believe in him. If the players don't relate to the coach, they probably don't believe in him and he probably won't be here that long. So you just look at those keys.

Q. What was your initial reaction when Coach Franklin told you that you're going to coach together, and how fun has that been?

JA'JUAN SEIDER: I mean, everybody is shocked because, first of all, you don't want to see nobody lose their job because it impacts everybody. Mike had a family. He got kids. So in this profession, I know we get paid to win games, but at the end of the day, you're still a human being, right? That's somebody's job. That's somebody's livelihood.

So from that standpoint, you're in a shock moment. We're still a good offense. We had to point our season. But at that point, you can't blink. You've just got to dive in headfirst, and you've got to go to work because, at the end of the day, whether Mike's still here or me and Ty, nobody cares. All they care about is the results.

That's why we're here. We're all good coaches. I think everybody in that room can be a coordinator if they had to be put in that position. You don't just come here and say you're a pro at coaching running backs or you're a pro at coaching tight ends. You forget Ty was an O-line. He had to make all the calls.

I was a quarterback. I had to make all the calls. A lot of systems, I had to call plays. My last year in college, I called all the plays. This is not our first time doing it. This is our first time on paper doing it.

Q. Can you tell us about the two kids you signed as running backs? How do you keep stacking these running back classes when they know what is ahead of them, who recruited ahead of them?

JA'JUAN SEIDER: I think it's the results. Every kid out of high school has an aspiration to go in the NFL. We do a pretty good job here at Penn State, but also I think they know, if you're talented enough, you'll play.

Kaytron and Nick was a prime example coming to a loaded room. I always say cream rises to the top. I think from day one they got here, they continue to rise. You look at them, let's be honest, we've all got to be worried next year in a way because this could probably be their last year next year.

This is the world we live in, especially at that position.

If I'm a young running back, I probably want to come in and learn and play with those guys knowing that we have played three guys, we have played four guys. You talk about the first six games, whatever, those guys are out there four quarters, so there's a lot of reps. I think, if you've got a kid with a different skill set, you can take advantage of that early.