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FEDEX ORANGE BOWL: FLORIDA STATE v PENN STATE

January 3, 2006

COACH JOE PATERNO: It was a great football game, two teams that played as hard as they know how to play and it came right down to one play. Could have gone the other way, but I was proud of our kids. They hung in there, I think Bobby's proud of his kids. I thought it was a heck of a football game.
Q. I'm sorry this has to be the first question, but could you give us an update on Paul, if you know how Paul is doing.
COACH JOE PATERNO: Well, they think he has got some ligament problems, but they are going to wait and do an MRI on him as soon as they can and find out just how serious it may be. It's a tough break for him.
I shouldn't speak. The doctors will probably have something out tomorrow.
Q. You've been part of a lot of big games, but after all you've been through in recent years, where does this one rank?
COACH JOE PATERNO: Well, obviously this year has been one of the most rewarding, and I think to win it, to win this one this way at the end of the year is a great tribute to these kids and to a great coaching staff. I think these guys know how I feel about our coaching staff.
Yeah, it's a great feeling, but not really personally, I'm just so pleased for these guys. They came off a couple of lousy years, got together and made up their mind that was enough. They really went to work and they fought hard. This guy has made some plays in the clutch (indicating Michael Robinson). We have had some tough games and the other guys here have done a great job.
So it's been a great experience and great to cap it off with a win like this.
Q. Imagine in your wildest imagination that you would not expect that your two touchdowns would be scored by the players that did it, would you comment on that?
COACH JOE PATERNO: I'm not quite sure I got the drift of your question, two players that scored the touchdowns?
Q. I imagine those were not the people that you expected to score them going in.
COACH JOE PATERNO: I don't really expect, you know, we just -- I don't know whether I expected them or not. Hate to be evasive, but I really don't know.
You go and you play and there's some plays you call, sometimes it gives a kid an opportunity to score and that's fine. But you don't really know who is going to score what. If I had known Tony Hunt was going to be banged up, you would not expect the other kid to get the touchdown. That's one of the great things about football, there's 22 guys involved in it on every down, and it doesn't change.
Great answer, isn't it? (Laughter).
Q. This question is for both Michael and Coach. The last drive, you brought Kevin out, brought him back out. Michael what was your input? And Coach, what were you thinking and how close do you want to get Kevin for that last field goal?
MICHAEL ROBINSON: You want to go first?
COACH JOE PATERNO: That second down was supposed to be a fake.
MICHAEL ROBINSON: Yeah, I didn't like it.
COACH JOE PATERNO: He was griping to me about the fact that it was supposed to be a fake. But we don't get the lineup we thought we were going to get. Mike was griping over there, and it's a good thing that the kid put it through, because he had to kick it. He had to kick it. We would have called a time-out. (Laughing).
Tell him what you were saying, go ahead.
MICHAEL ROBINSON: You answered it perfect. Once I heard it was a fake, you know, me and Coach kind of had it out a little bit. You know, Jason Ganter the holder did a good job. He caught it to kick it and Kelly did a great job under pressure. Like I told him before, he kicked it the first time, whether you make it or miss it, man, you made this senior year a great one, and he definitely came through in the clutch.
Q. You've been in a lot of wild games in your career, but from about midnight until one a.m., can you describe what the emotion was like, thinking you were going to win and lose, a different outcome every five minutes or so?
COACH JOE PATERNO: I kept saying to myself, "When are we going to get this thing over?" I kept looking at my watch, 12:30, a quarter to 1:00, I'm usually asleep three hours at that time. (Laughter) That's the longest game I've ever been in. That game was five hours long almost. Maybe it was five hours.
Q. Michael, how physical was tonight's game?
MICHAEL ROBINSON: It was very physical. But we expected that. Florida State is a great team with a great defense. Those guys were definitely pumped up. Their defensive coaches did a great job disguising their blitzes. They did some things that maybe I had never seen before. But we stuck in there and we kept pushing, and I kept on telling the offensive line, just keep pushing and keep sticking with us. I'm not coming out of this game no matter how much I slow, I'm going to get up.
Coach did a great job staying with us and not deviating from the game plan and things ended up going our way.
Q. Could you talk about what you got from your defensive line, those guys, you didn't have a lot of substitution there, and talk about the effort they gave you for this five-hour game.
COACH JOE PATERNO: Well, I thought the whole defense played great. This guy played great (indicating Calvin Lowry) and the old wide receiver there (indicating Ethan Kilmer)
Yeah, you're absolutely right. The one thing we did do was we played some three-man defensive, three-down guys on defense and took one out and Larry Johnson kind of alternated those three guys. So we got a little bit more out of them than we would have than if we had to play a four-man line every down.
But they hung in there. We're obviously in good shape. There were -- we didn't have kids cramping up or anything like that.
And it was interesting, because I was concerned that I had not worked them hard enough the last week or so; that we might not be in great shape. But they must have been behaving and getting a lot of sleep and weren't fooling around, uh-huh.
This guy, he's a lover boy over here (indicating Calvin Lowry) (Laughter).
Why don't you let me go and you can gab with these three guys.
Q. Michael, obviously it's gratifying for you, particularly as a senior to get this win, but what does it mean to you to get a win for Coach as you head out of here in your last Bowl?
MICHAEL ROBINSON: It means a lot. This senior class, we made up our mind in the off-season, Coach Paterno was not getting the respect he deserved, his team was not getting the respect it deserves and we always knew we were a player or two away.
I think the way this game went, it definitely epitomizes what we've been through in our careers here - we were up, we were down and we finished it up with a great win, a dramatic win. I think I feel better about this win than if we would have blew them out.
I think before going into this game, I kept telling the team, you know, what type of team are we? Really, what type of team are we? We're going to go up against a lot of speed, a tough, physical defense, and we have to show up. What type of players do we have, what type of personalities do we have.
I think everybody stayed with it, and guys stayed into the game plan. We didn't panic when things didn't go our way. You know, we pulled through.
Q. Could you see Ethan's touchdown catch from where you were and could you talk about the journey he's taken and how significant his final performance was?
COACH JOE PATERNO: Well, I wish we had him another year. He has not gotten enough credit for the job he's done on special teams, as well. He really has not been playing that much. He has not been getting as many reps as some of the other wide receivers, but he sure came -- he sure played big tonight.
He's got great speed. When he catches that ball in the middle, he's run away from some people.
Q. Can you talk about the contribution you got from Austin Scott. You've pretty much said how much he's worked hard in practice and how does it feel for you to see all of his work pay off tonight?
COACH JOE PATERNO: I'm happy for him. He did a good job, he hung on to the ball and the whole bit.
He's got the makings of a good back. If he just has a little more patience, and once in a while, he'll take to the outside or try to get cute when he ought to just go straight up the field. But he's a good back, he's blocking better and did a good job on his pass protection tonight, because they were coming pretty good. I'm glad for him. He's hung in there with us.
Q. You guys, is there anything that still doesn't surprise you about your coach's tenacity?
MICHAEL ROBINSON: Sometimes I'll be wanting to go tell him to calm down a little bit, man. (Laughter) Seriously, I'm like, "Coach, 79 years old, man, be cool."
I'm glad he does that. Sometimes when we were thinking that maybe we were better than what we really were, he would get on us. We would be thinking we were having a good practice and one dropped ball and he'll let us know that could be the football game. And the overtime, guys were catching the ball, guys were holding on to the ball and one dropped pass, one fumble and that's the football game.
I think guys really understand now what he means in practice. I know guys are always saying, why is coach getting on us? Why does he do that if we are having a good practice? But any play could be the play that wins the game. You know, in the clutch tonight, we made those plays.
Q. Michael, you talked about having it out with Coach before on that play, I wonder how often he let's you have it out with him? And two, what was going through your head after those two missed field goals?
MICHAEL ROBINSON: I guess the older I've gotten, the more he let me say some stuff. That's the good thing about Coach Paterno, he values his players' input. We went over things and there were some things I didn't agree with on certain plays of the game, and certain things he didn't agree with. There's one thing I can say, we came to a common ground and made it happen.
It's been such a pleasure to play for Coach Paterno. He's taught me a lot. I think my experience here at Penn State has definitely gotten me ready for the real world and wherever it may take me, whether it's a job, the NFL or whatever it may be. I definitely think that my experience here has made me a stronger person.
Q. When Bobby was here, he was talking about the thoughts you and he shared after the game, about what a great game it was, do you share his feeling about what a great game this turned out to be?
COACH JOE PATERNO: Yeah, I think it was a great game. The two teams played about as hard as they can play and about as well as they could play. Both came back from some adversity, both of them hung in there. It came down to one play here, one play there.
And I told Bobby that. I said, you know, I feel very fortunate that we made a couple plays that had to be made. That third down and 17, 18 was one of best throws you'll see that Mike made, and it was a real fine catch. But he's been making those kind of plays all year. That fourth and 14 against Northwestern -- yeah, no kidding.
Q. Mike, you were pretty emotional on that podium afterwards talking about Joe Paterno, talking to the crowd. What did that mean to you to be able to address the stadium like that? I don't know if you can say defend him, but to be able to give that speech, what did it mean to you?
MICHAEL ROBINSON: It means a lot. Like I said before, to think that people actually wanted him to give this game up, to call it quits, when we knew what type of team we could have, I mean, I'm at a loss for words. What could these people have been thinking, to be honest with you? Coach wasn't the one out there actually throwing interceptions and fumbling the ball and missing tackles, he can't do that.
So I just think I'm happy for him and so happy that he ended it the way he did, and he's a great coach.
Q. With your 11-1 season, how do you feel if you guys did have a playoff now, how do you feel if you could win the National Championship?
COACH JOE PATERNO: I think if you ask any college football player across the country, their goals will be to play for a National Championship, and you know, maybe if we had a playoff, who knows. Honestly before we knew what Bowl we were going to, we thought Virginia Tech might have been the best team out there, total team.
You know, who knows. I'm excited to watch the game tomorrow because I'm excited to see who will win it. But before we knew what Bowl we were going to, we planned to play either one. I think a playoff, who knows what would have happened, who knows what USC or Florida State or Texas would do in Happy Valley in December.
Q. Could you talk about what happened with the fumble on the goal line and how much you wanted to make up for that mistake.
MICHAEL ROBINSON: It was a very warm game, and before the play, E.Z. Smith, he sweats a lot and he sweats on the ball a lot. He told me, "Man, it slipped, I'm sorry." Whatever it was, maybe it touched my fingertips, I should have got it. The guy made a great play from Florida State. It's one of those things that as long as we came away with the win, I'm glad, whatever happens, happened.
Q. Two things: One, how much energy did you have left at the end, and two, why did you not want to go for the fake field goal?
MICHAEL ROBINSON: Actually, surprisingly, if I had to run the ball, I had a lot of energy to be able to run the ball. I didn't want to run the fake because I thought maybe we were going to be getting too cute with the football.
Actually, it was a lot of times, you know, if you watched the film, I argued with the coaches a lot during that overtime. We wanted to do some things with throwing the ball and things like that when we had the upside. All we needed was a field goal and things like that.
I just kept telling the coaches, "Don't get cute." We do some of the things, we have to do as less ball handling as possible, run a sneak when we're in field goal range. I'm happy that they respected what I said and actually they did exactly what I said. And I'm not here to say I'm no coach or anything, but it's just something I felt real passionate about.

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