Below is the transcript of Joe Paterno's weekly press conference, discussing the 22-13 victory over Temple and this week's contest at Iowa.
Q. Joe, why has Iowa been so successful, especially lately? And are there similarities between the way you run your program and Kirk runs his?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I don't know about the similarities. I can tell you, Iowa has been a good, solid football team that's played extremely well against us. And I think Kirk's done a great job. They're recruiting well.
He's been able to keep his coaching staff together. That defensive coordinator does a great job for them. Been with them a long time. And I think when he plays Penn State there's a little bit something there because he is a Pennsylvania kid and his father-in-law and I were high school teammates together Jerry Hart.
But they just do a good job. They recruit well. The kids play hard. They're disciplined. You gotta beat them. They don't beat themselves.
Last year we thought we had them licked and we made one or two mistakes and they took advantage of it. They blocked the punt at midfield, scored, and then they came back and intercepted a pass, took it to the 24-yard line; and the year before that, out there they scored on a field goal the last play of the ball game. Great job on the last drive.
They're a good football team, well coached, that's what it's all about, I suppose.
Q. What went into your decision to move team Okoli from defensive line to offensive line, and what do you expect from him Saturday against those defensive ends?
COACH PATERNO: Tough job against those defensive ends. They're good. Especially that one kid, he's about as good as any there is. He's going to have troubles. Everybody else in the country who has played against them have had troubles, and he hasn't had that kind of experience over there on offense. Hasn't played a lot of football in a tough game as an offensive lineman.
But we felt that he's more suited to being an offensive lineman. He's a tall rangy kid. He's not the kind of kid that can stay low and get underneath blocks and things like that.
And we are in pretty good shape in the defensive line. And we knew we were going to need some help offensively, on the line especially. And immature -- not immature, but inexperienced kids. I think it made sense. And thank goodness he's there.
Q. You just mentioned Iowa's defensive line, what impresses you most about that unit and what challenges are they going to present to your offense?
COACH PATERNO: Well, they're solid. They come off blocks. They line up properly. They read well. They tackle very well. They're just a good, solid, well coached defensive team with some kids that are strong. They do a great job with their weight room.
Big-time football team. And we gotta play better than we've played all year to even stay with them.
Q. You mentioned the punt block from last year. Did that prompt changes in your punt formation from this year and can you gauge overall through four games your special teams play?
COACH PATERNO: The latter part of your question, yeah, I think that we've done a good job. I think our specialty teams are much improved. I think there's a lot of reasons for that, obviously.
We put a lot more emphasis on it, because I felt we lost two ball games last year because we didn't do as good a job as we could have in a specialty team area. We did change the punt formation, because of the fact personnel, timing it takes. Sometimes if you've got a fast kicker you don't worry quite as much as you do being spread out, with a new punter, we thought we could make it easier for the punter if we could put him in a spread where he didn't have to kick the ball quite as fast, put a little more pressure on the people covering.
So there were a lot of little things that went into that. You know, one's as good as the other depending on the people that are going to do it. And you guys have heard me make that statement a thousand times. But I think it's worked out for us.
I think spread punters has helped us, particularly with this group of people.
Q. Chaz Powell at least seems not to have made a big impact in the last couple of weeks. Is there any thought you could still move him back to defense and that could actually be the best spot for him?
COACH PATERNO: Not really. Hadn't really talked about it. If it makes sense something down the road we may decide that Chaz could be more help to the team on the defensive side of the football. But I think Chaz is -- you know, you move kids from one side to the other and in the old days, going back 20, 20 -- a long time ago, it was a little easier because we didn't do as many things.
When you put a kid on offense now, you're in spreads. You're in shotgun. You're doing a lot of different things. And the timing is somewhat more intricate than it used to be that it takes a while to where they're comfortable.
I think Chaz has a chance of being an outstanding football player on either side of the football. Right now I think he's better offensively for the good of this team and I think for the long run the good of Chaz.
Defensively, it's pretty much the same thing, you've got to make so many adjustments. You play against the shotgun. You play against empty backs, where there's nobody there. You've got to make adjustments on the line as they come out of the huddle.
People are going out quick. People are changing plays. Even Temple, not just even Temple but watch Temple see how many times the team looked, turned to the sideline that the offensive coaches were changing the play after they took a look at what we were doing defensively. Then we tried to change after all after they had changed.
So there's a lot more cat and mouse than it used to be when we lined up from here to the wall, everybody, and one spread across the field. So it's -- I think Chaz is doing okay. Obviously he hasn't burst on the Nashville scene or anything like that, but I think he's doing okay.
Q. Just wondering, is there anything you can do to improve the team's performance in the red zone?
COACH PATERNO: I kind of missed that. The team's performance? Oh, I think we can. There again, you know, I'm reluctant to be critical of our team when the other guys are playing as well and doing as well as they have. Temple was a good red zone football team against the three teams that we had seen them against this year.
They were a good take-away team. And they were careful with the football. We got down in the red zone, we may have made -- maybe one or two mistakes that would have helped us. But, yeah, obviously you can always do a little better. And I think maybe the point you were trying to make is an adequate one or is a legitimate one, and that we can do it better. Maybe the play selection has to be a little better, throw a little earlier in some downs and things of that sort.
But overall, I don't want to go berserk. I think we gotta be solid when we get down there.
Q. There are six Big Ten teams ranked in the top 25. Five teams are 4-0. Is this going to be one of the tougher seasons in the conference that you've seen in a while?
COACH PATERNO: Oh, absolutely. I don't think there's any question. I thought before we started this, the season, that Ohio State and Iowa would be the toughest teams to beat for everybody in the league. I think they're both well coached. They've both got fine personnel.
And they've got a sense of how good they are. I mean, they're playing with an awful lot of poise, both teams. They don't lick themselves.
The only game that I've seen Iowa really lick themselves in the last few years would have been that game at Arizona, when they kicked the ball around. Gave up the punt, the kickoff return and did a couple of things that were so unlike them.
And obviously they'll make the adjustments necessary, because they know how to coach -- they know how to coach and they know how to get kids to learn from mistakes. And I think they made a few mistakes out there.
But that's not like them. That's not like them. Most of the time when you gotta beat them -- and I thought that both they and Ohio State would be two of the best teams in the league. But now Wisconsin, we don't play Wisconsin.
Wisconsin's a fine football team. Michigan State, too. I think the whole conference has moved up. And that's where we are. This week we've got Iowa. Iowa is right now and that's going to be a tough ball game for us. I can't worried about anything down the road.
But to answer your question, yeah, I think when I was before the season started, I thought that Iowa would be one of the better teams in the country.
Q. Talking about Robert Bolden, his high school coach has said that one of the things that he worried about with him starting right away as a freshman was that he would be too hard on himself and put a lot of pressure on himself. You said a couple things on Saturday that I thought maybe suggested that you had those same kind of concerns. Could you talk about Bolden a little bit in terms of his personality and his temperament and why he's able to handle all the pressure and all the attention that comes with his position?
COACH PATERNO: How long do we have? You got a three-hour meeting today or what? He's a kid that's had success in things he does. He's a good athlete.
He's got a lot of ability in that particular position. He's obviously -- what made him a tailback, not only a great tailback, but he knows what's going on. He's a smart kid. He studies the game. In his own quiet way, he's a strong leader. So all the things that you're looking for in a quarterback, except he's gotta get some more experience.
And if he gets down on himself a little bit, I think it really doesn't show that much. Once in a while he may give some indication he's a little annoyed and maybe even a little late throwing the football, something like that. But I think overall he's done anything we've asked him to do. He really has.
Q. Playing time for your two back-up quarterbacks, Newsome and McGloin in the first four weeks, and are you confident they would be ready to step in and do a good job if they had to? Were you hoping to get more playing time for the two back-up quarterbacks, Newsome and McGloin, in the first four weeks, and do you assume if they had to step in they could do a good job if they had to?
COACH PATERNO: Talking about the two backup quarterbacks. I'm repeating myself all the time. We went into the season saying we were going to play this thing by ear, that we had to start a guy. We felt Bolden was the guy to start at. There might be situations where we would have to think about using one or two of the other kids. And that hasn't changed. That hasn't changed.
We used Kevin in a couple of games where I thought he could do a little bit more with the run game, change the pace for us. He may play more this week than he's played. I don't know. It will depend on how the game goes, how we handle some people, how we handle some of their defensive people, and try to adjust as the game goes on.
So we may play a couple, two quarterbacks, may play three, may play one. If you had told me we were only going to play one quarterback against Temple I would have been surprised. That's all we did. We played one quarterback against Temple.
Q. How much does it mean to the development of Rob and -- Rob Alden, and how much does it do for the team when you guys were up 15-13 in the fourth quarter, you had the ball on your own four-yard line, they had to get it out of there, he hit those big two third down passes, the key to that touchdown march?
COACH PATERNO: There's an old saying there's nothing that succeeds like success. I think the fact he is able to do that should be good experience for him. It will help him in other situations. I thought it was good that we could do that. I think that is offset by the fact the question that was asked earlier: Can we improve in the red zone?
I was disappointed that we didn't do a little bit more in the red zone, but I was pleased we were able to take the football, and we didn't have great field position all day. We had some. I shouldn't say none. But we had some. And I think we moved the ball pretty good. And, again, I think there was a tendency to underestimate just how good a football team Temple is. Good football team. Big, lean, I didn't see any fat kids out there. They ran. They were good tacklers. So when we made that drive, I think that was important to some of those kids.
But there again, we were home. Now we're on the road. Now we're playing against one of the, probably one of the four, five best teams in the country out there. And a team that we're certainly not going to intimidate. They've kicked our ears in a couple of times.
Q. Wonder if you could talk about Iowa quarterback. He's had some good success against you over the last two years, Stanzi, the quarterback. The Iowa quarterback, Stanzi, could you talk about his performance the last couple of years against you guys?
COACH PATERNO: As I said, two years ago he took them down the field in a clutch. I think he's turned out to be one of the better quarterbacks in the country. Very accurate with the football. Doesn't scramble a lot. But when he scrambles he's very effective.
He doesn't give up a lot of yardage. And he's a good leader. And he's got guts. He takes a lot of chances. I like the kid. I think he's a heck of a player.
Q. Shawney Kersey, there were some reports out there that he wasn't at practice last week but he returned yesterday. Can you give us an update on what his status is?
COACH PATERNO: You just gave it.
Q. Can you describe maybe some of the circumstances that led to him --
COACH PATERNO: He was at practice yesterday.
Q. Was he at practice last week?
COACH PATERNO: He practiced yesterday. Some days sometimes kids will miss a practice.
Q. (Question off microphone).
COACH PATERNO: No, I think they're playing better because of the fact that they've had, they're getting some experience. I think the linebackers are the guys that -- the down guys played some football. There's some kids that haven't played a lot of football, linebacker, kid like Marty hasn't played a lot. And I just think it's a question of playing.
I thought we were playing pretty well the first half defensively. I came in and I said, "Look we have to stay after this thing and score some points."
But when coaches moan about people being inexperienced and teams being inexperienced and the lack of some leadership in different areas because of the lack of experience in key spots, you guys think whistling in the dark, no. That is a problem when you're playing teams that give you as many things as I mentioned earlier.
You go out there and the kids now -- never saw an empty back field. Never saw a quarterback that can do certain things. Never saw -- never had to make that many adjustments in a game. So until he's had exposure to it, he's a little bit reluctant. And sometimes one kid is a little bit more natural and he jumps up and moves ahead of the way you would think he could be at that stage.
But most of the time it takes a while. They've got to get comfortable. And you gotta be careful you don't be critical of them. I was critical of the football team at halftime at Alabama because we didn't tackle. Not because we didn't line up and do things.
We were in pretty good position a couple times against Alabama. We didn't tackle well. And that was maybe because we were a little bit hesitant as to whether we could tackle, I don't know. Afraid of missing them, I don't know.
But I wasn't happy with that. But other than that I think we played fairly well.
Q. It doesn't seem your defense has started real quickly a couple times this year, going on the road now in the first Big Ten, is that something you're looking for?
COACH PATERNO: No. I think that the fact that it may appear that they have started slow or slowly is the fact that a lot of times you go in a game, you get something you hadn't really expected. We spent an awful lot of time practicing against Temple, an empty back field, because we thought we would get that.
Didn't have one. All right. We didn't have one. But temple had used an empty back field to a pretty good percentage of their offense in the first three games but they didn't do it against us. But you gotta be ready for it.
So you start out expecting this and that and then all of a sudden you've got to start changing things around a little bit. And I think that's a credit to the coaching staff, that as soon as they get the feel for things, they get -- they start changing a couple of things around, putting an emphasis on certain things so that we can do a better job of anticipating what may happen.
But I think outside of the one ball game, I think we were pretty -- we've been pretty good defensively, really. Just that first half.
Q. You talked about the secondary, taking more risks, Nick Sukay, can you talk about his performance?
COACH PATERNO: Nick has been a little bit hesitant to jump on some passes. He played the man sometimes when he should have gone after the football. And we talked about that. In fact, I talked to him before the game. I said, "Look, Temple hasn't thrown an interception the first three games, hadn't thrown an interception.
We got a couple. I think Nick got two, didn't he? And I told him -- I said, "I think you can get one or two if you just believe what you see."
And as Nick does, he smiled at me, said, "Yeah, Coach, go see the next guy." But that's, again, a question and answer, but they're playing and we'll see what happens this weekend because this guy's playing -- someone asked me about the quarterback. The Iowa quarterback, he's tough. He's really tough. And they have great whiteouts. I mean, they have great -- not good whiteouts, they have great whiteouts.
Q. Your lack of success in the last ten meetings against Iowa, for you personally, is that frustrating when you, given the record against Iowa, for you personally is that frustrating?
COACH PATERNO: Frustrating because Iowa's beating us?
Q. Correct.
COACH PATERNO: No, I think they've beaten us fair and square. I think we've had chances to win. Obviously we had a chance a couple of years ago when they beat us on the field goal at the end of the game out there.
And I think we were ahead 10-0 when we went in the fourth quarter. I think they do -- these things go this way. No, that doesn't even come into what happened, except to learn from the fact that we might get this and this situation, because they've had some success doing that in a particular situation. We want to be ready for it.
But the fact that Iowa beat us the last couple of years or even -- I don't know, maybe they beat us three, four, I don't know. I know the last two, obviously.
I don't think that way. I mean I don't mean to be all the time putting you guys off on being specific, but I don't think that way. We're playing Iowa whether they beat us last year or we beat them, it won't make any difference. I mean, we better play well, because this is the 19 -- the 2011 team. It's not the 2010 or 2009. It's the 2011 Iowa team. And they're the team we've got to play and they're the team we've got to try to beat.
Q. This is your second night game. Does it help in terms of preparation for what the kids do all day since you've already had one of those this year and maybe them kind of feeling at ease?
COACH PATERNO: You mean a trip?
Q. Right. Being on the road with a game at night, the guys at the hotel, that kind of thing.
COACH PATERNO: I think it probably helps a little. Not much. But it probably helps. The Alabama trip was a tough one. We had an-hour-and-15-minute bus ride from the hotel to the field for the game, because we had to stay in Birmingham, because you couldn't get a place in Tuscaloosa. But it will probably help. Again, when they blow the whistle and you get started, I don't know half the time you don't know where you are.
You know who the guy is, he's the guy with the different colored jersey over there, but I don't think it -- it never meant anything to me when I played. Whether it means something to these kids now because there's so much more hoopla that goes around than when I played -- when I played go down to Yale Bowl. What's the Yale Bowl. Somebody said to me, "Hey you're going to play in the Yale Bowl." I said, "Where do you flush it?" Being a smart aleck from Brooklyn.
Q. The Iowa quarterback, you talked about him before, Stanzi, pretty turnover prone last year. Through three games only one interception this year. Have you seen a major difference from this year to last year looking at film?
COACH PATERNO: No, we've got to play our game. You can't every time you get into a situation -- we've got to be ready to handle certain things he does well. I mentioned the fact, I think his whiteouts are outstanding. And they're big kids. They lost a great back, but the other kid really played well for them last week.
And the quarterback is a guy that's going to carry them. I mean, offensively he'll make some plays. We're not going to stop calling -- he's going to make some plays. I just hope we can keep him where he's not making that many plays. So we can stay in the ball game and be a little bit more, be competitive.
But I keep saying you're talking about a really big time football player. Big league leader and a kid who knows how to play that position and he knows how to use his personnel, and they know how to coach him. It's a tough combination.
Q. You mentioned Okoli a little earlier, Chimaeze Okoli. Is that definitely his job? Are you guys working out other guys at right tackle with Lou being done for the year?
COACH PATERNO: There again, I don't know. I think Okoli deserves an opportunity to go in there as starting right tackle. He's certainly going to have some problems. And we can't overreact. He's playing against some -- I mean, this may be as good a down of guys we're going to play against. The two wins may be the best combination of -- I don't know. I haven't seen everybody else we're going to play.
But our tackles are going to have their hands full with pass protection. And we're not -- we've got to throw the football some, because obviously we're not going to take the football and jam it down their throat. Nobody's done that.
Even game they lost. I mean, the game they lost, they didn't -- they didn't take the ball and jam it down their throat. They fumbled it. Kickoff return and the whole bit. So I think the kid will do a good job. But I'd have to define what I think is good, you guys on Sunday may say well so and so missed a block. Yeah, he's going to miss that block. He's going to miss a block. You guys every once in a while you ought to check your grammar, every once in a while, there's a couple of things in there I say, didn't this guy ever take English? (Laughter)
Unfortunately my wife, she's the grammar teacher. All right. Guys.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Bolden Era Begins Earlier Than Expected
Wally Richardson has company.
In a surprising announcement despite the avalanche of evidence pointing to Robert Bolden's jaw-dropping athleticism and rapidly improving marksmanship, Joe Paterno named the highly-touted true freshman the starting quarterback for the Nittany Lions season opener on Saturday versus Youngstown State.
Murmurs from the mountains became roars in the Valley over the past few weeks when discussing Bolden's ascension up the Penn State depth chart. Onlookers marveled at his skill set and make-up and spoke in near unison with the belief that he, a true freshman, should be the starting quarterback on merits.
Yet, we all know Paterno's modus operandi in these situations, especially with kids who have not yet been molded into men. He vacillates on the edge, speaking in generalities (as he did at his Tuesday press conference) and normally goes with the safer option until his hand is forced by an opponent that starkly points out Choice A's fatal flaws.
That's not to say Bolden will incur nary a growing pain, but this decision -- the right decision made by Paterno for the program's ascension back to national prominence -- speaks volumes of the coach's football intellect, but also speaks loudly of Kevin Newsome, the presumed starter who never took the bull by the horns and claimed the job during spring practice into the fall season.
Newsome is a freakish athlete and offensive coordinators Galen Hall and Jay Paterno must design packages to get him on the field (think Michael Robinson) but by all indications he struggled with his reads, his accuracy and his overall ability to lead a still maturing offense.
In a way Paterno had no choice, which may have been a good thing. He was diplomatic with his public statements explaining his decision, yet the undertone was clear. Joe Paterno would never start a TRUE freshman quarterback if he didn't have a strong inclination that Bolden gave him the best chance to win...not Saturday because that is very much a foregone conclusion, and not the week after at Alabama, a waxing waiting to happen no matter the man under center.
This move is about a new era. This move is about the future of Penn State football. This move speaks volumes for the man who made it--an iconic coach entering his 45th season at the helm and passing over the safe choice for a young Lion and a bright future.
In a surprising announcement despite the avalanche of evidence pointing to Robert Bolden's jaw-dropping athleticism and rapidly improving marksmanship, Joe Paterno named the highly-touted true freshman the starting quarterback for the Nittany Lions season opener on Saturday versus Youngstown State.
Murmurs from the mountains became roars in the Valley over the past few weeks when discussing Bolden's ascension up the Penn State depth chart. Onlookers marveled at his skill set and make-up and spoke in near unison with the belief that he, a true freshman, should be the starting quarterback on merits.
Yet, we all know Paterno's modus operandi in these situations, especially with kids who have not yet been molded into men. He vacillates on the edge, speaking in generalities (as he did at his Tuesday press conference) and normally goes with the safer option until his hand is forced by an opponent that starkly points out Choice A's fatal flaws.
That's not to say Bolden will incur nary a growing pain, but this decision -- the right decision made by Paterno for the program's ascension back to national prominence -- speaks volumes of the coach's football intellect, but also speaks loudly of Kevin Newsome, the presumed starter who never took the bull by the horns and claimed the job during spring practice into the fall season.
Newsome is a freakish athlete and offensive coordinators Galen Hall and Jay Paterno must design packages to get him on the field (think Michael Robinson) but by all indications he struggled with his reads, his accuracy and his overall ability to lead a still maturing offense.
In a way Paterno had no choice, which may have been a good thing. He was diplomatic with his public statements explaining his decision, yet the undertone was clear. Joe Paterno would never start a TRUE freshman quarterback if he didn't have a strong inclination that Bolden gave him the best chance to win...not Saturday because that is very much a foregone conclusion, and not the week after at Alabama, a waxing waiting to happen no matter the man under center.
This move is about a new era. This move is about the future of Penn State football. This move speaks volumes for the man who made it--an iconic coach entering his 45th season at the helm and passing over the safe choice for a young Lion and a bright future.
Confirmed: Bolden to Start Opener
Here is the official release from Penn State athletics.
Penn State coach Joe Paterno has named true-freshman Robert Bolden (Orchard Lake, Mich.) as the Nittany Lions' game one starter Saturday when Penn State takes on Youngstown State in a 12:00 p.m. kickoff at Beaver Stadium. Paterno expects multiple quarterbacks to see action in the game that will air live on the Big Ten Network.
"Based on what we have seen to this point, Bolden has a slight edge right now, but we are confident all three quarterbacks are ready to go and hope to give them an opportunity to play until we settle on the one that gives us the best chance to win," Paterno said.
Paterno said his three young quarterbacks: Bolden, sophomore Matt McGloin (Scranton, Pa.) and sophomore Kevin Newsome (Portsmouth, Va.), would be listed 1A, 1B and 1C on the depth chart at this point and all still have the opportunity to earn the starting nod on a regular basis.
Bolden, who will be the first true-freshman quarterback to start a game at Penn State since Wally Richardson took the field against Cincinnati in 1992, was a four-star recruit out of St. Mary's Prep and was ranked the fourth best quarterback in the nation by ESPN.com and the second-best dual-threat quarterback by Rivals.com. The 6-3, 221-pounder completed 72-of-152 passes for 1,013 yards and seven touchdowns while running for 535 yards and nine scores in a senior campaign in which he led St. Mary's to the state finals.
He totaled more than 2,000 yards passing and 14 touchdowns while rushing for over 1,000 yards and 16 scores in his final two high school seasons.
Penn State coach Joe Paterno has named true-freshman Robert Bolden (Orchard Lake, Mich.) as the Nittany Lions' game one starter Saturday when Penn State takes on Youngstown State in a 12:00 p.m. kickoff at Beaver Stadium. Paterno expects multiple quarterbacks to see action in the game that will air live on the Big Ten Network.
"Based on what we have seen to this point, Bolden has a slight edge right now, but we are confident all three quarterbacks are ready to go and hope to give them an opportunity to play until we settle on the one that gives us the best chance to win," Paterno said.
Paterno said his three young quarterbacks: Bolden, sophomore Matt McGloin (Scranton, Pa.) and sophomore Kevin Newsome (Portsmouth, Va.), would be listed 1A, 1B and 1C on the depth chart at this point and all still have the opportunity to earn the starting nod on a regular basis.
Bolden, who will be the first true-freshman quarterback to start a game at Penn State since Wally Richardson took the field against Cincinnati in 1992, was a four-star recruit out of St. Mary's Prep and was ranked the fourth best quarterback in the nation by ESPN.com and the second-best dual-threat quarterback by Rivals.com. The 6-3, 221-pounder completed 72-of-152 passes for 1,013 yards and seven touchdowns while running for 535 yards and nine scores in a senior campaign in which he led St. Mary's to the state finals.
He totaled more than 2,000 yards passing and 14 touchdowns while rushing for over 1,000 yards and 16 scores in his final two high school seasons.
Source: Bolden to QB Nits in Opener
A source with direct knowledge of the situation told me on Wednesday that Robert Bolden, a TRUE (yes for those who can't believe that word) true freshman, will be the starting quarterback for Saturday's game versus Youngstown State.
The source backed up an earlier report in the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
More to come when an official release is handed down.
The source backed up an earlier report in the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
More to come when an official release is handed down.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Penn State Football Depth Chart
Below is the official Penn State football depth chart as of August 29th. Stay tuned for a complete position-by-position breakdown this week right here!
CLICK HERE to read the official depth chart courtesy of Penn State athletics.
CLICK HERE to read the official depth chart courtesy of Penn State athletics.
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Saturday, August 14, 2010
Joe Paterno Football Media Day News Conference
Here is the transcript of Joe Paterno's session with the press during Football Media Day at Penn State.
COACH PATERNO: I have one request -- Please don't ask me if I'm going to die tomorrow. (Laughter) Believe me, I've got a few more days left. (Laughter) Okay, let's talk football.
Q. I know you have some high expectations for Devon Still this year. Could you kind of tell me how he's coming along and your thoughts of what he'll be able to--
COACH PATERNO: Still is a good football player. He's worked hard. He's got a lot of ability. He's a big, rangy kid. He's probably 6-5, about 300 pounds. But I like him. He's a hard worker. When he first got here he was a little lazy, but he's really gotten to where he's a leader. So he's done very, very well.
Q. With Curtis Drake out now with a broken leg, what do you do to replace him and is there any thought of putting (Chaz) Powell back on offense?
COACH PATERNO: That's tough. Drake is one of the better football players we have. He's very versatile. I mean, he can do a lot of things. He can throw the ball; he was a heck of a high school quarterback. He's a really good receiver, good runner. It's a big loss for us, really is a big loss. But that's the way it goes. We've got to go without him. He'll be at least...they're talking six, eight weeks, so it'll be at least that.
Q. Any thought of putting Powell back on offense?
COACH PATERNO: Powell? Not really. Powell is doing very well on defense and likes it over there. Powell's biggest problem has been he's been you know, he's a kid that he's not been consistent in doing some things, but all of a sudden he's he looks like he's having some fun out there on defense, and he's really doing well. So I think I doubt it very much, unless there would be a disaster, we would not we'd keep Powell right where he is.
Q. You have several quarterback candidates with different attributes and different liabilities, and it's a little bit of a unique season because the offensive line has some question marks in it. So without naming names, do you have any templates you want to follow on what you want most out of the candidate who's ultimately the winning candidate?
COACH PATERNO: Well, it's a little too early. One thing that's changed, and I don't know whether you folks have been alert to it, but they changed the amount of time you have. They (NCAA) gave us an extra five days, (with) no more practices. You still can only get 29 practices, but you get four more days to get it in. So we've used the four days in order to get a little better feel for some of these kids.
So I told the coaches when we started, whatever you want to call it, preseason practice, but whenever we started practice, I said, since we've got the extra days we've never practiced for 29 days. I've always gone 26, 27, but we're going to take the 29, and we're using the extra days I'm using those to evaluate people. So we've spent more time trying to get to find out what some kids can do, who the leaders might be, whether we can come up with a couple of offensive linemen, because we've got troubles there, and to give all the quarterbacks a shot at it to see what they can do.
And now we took two days off. We took today off and tomorrow off, and I'll take two more days off down the road because I think we're going to work really hard now since we're as far as the class work. Right now we're taking finals tomorrow.
So once we get that over and once we get over the so called tryout period, then we'll go to work, and we'll work hard the next week, take a couple days off, and again, hopefully we don't get banged up too much, and then get back in there where we start to get ready to play a football game.
Q. Considering what you have, though, is mobility more important than it has been, a grasp of the offense? Where do you think the winner is going to --
COACH PATERNO: I don't know. You know, I think it's a combination of things. It's not that easy to say, "this kid is going to play here." I always go back every once in a while I tell the staff, years and years ago (Vince) Lombardi grew up in the same neighborhood I did in Brooklyn, and I used to go down when he was assistant coach with the (New York) Giants, used to be up in St. Michael's I think it was up in New Hampshire, I'd go up and spend some time. (Tom) Landry was in the secondary, was the defensive coach. Lombardi used to say all the time, the part of coaching you have to do is you have to get the right guy in the right spot doing the right thing at the right time.
Now, what combination that is, you don't know. I could not tell you what the makeup of this team is going to be because of the fact of what I just said. We've been trying people out. And we're trying to get the best combination of people to react to each other. A couple guys that may not be as good football players, there's a couple guys that we're not playing but who are good leaders and people that can do some things in the clutch, make some things happen when we got to make them happen.
So we're right in the process right now of we're trying to learn from them, really.
Q. Can you talk a little bit more about the quarterback competition? Has anyone stood out and any possibility that you might play a freshman?
COACH PATERNO: Well, there isn't anybody with any experience out there, so when you say you're going to play a freshman or what have you, we may be forced into playing a freshman. I think we have really the (Kevin) Newsome kid is really a freshman. He started in January a year ago.
I know you think I'm bagging the question maybe on this one, but I really don't know who's going to be the quarterback. I don't know right now. We're trying to put them in positions, situations I should say, not positions. We try to put them in situations where they have to make something happen. They have to be able to do some things in the clutch, get a little confidence, get the football team to get some confidence in them so that they can get in the huddle and say to their team, hey, come on, let's go. Let's show these guys we're a pretty good football team and go from there.
I think we're going to we'll probably, before it's all over, not right away, but before it's all over we'll probably have a decent quarterback. Whether we're going to have a great one this year, you know, that's maybe a long shot.
Q. Pete Massaro sat out last year with a knee problem. How is he doing so far in the practice and do you expect him to be in the rotation at defensive end?
COACH PATERNO: So far okay. Now, again, we've only had the pads on once. Yesterday is the only day we've put the pads on, so it's tough to evaluate how he's going to handle maybe being in there 15, 16 plays where we're scrimmaging and he's got a play tired and things like that. We have not tested that thing that way.
But we'll get around to doing it.
He looks as if he's okay. He looks as if he's going to be all right. He's a good athlete, he's a hard worker, he did a great job with his rehabilitation. The doctors were very and trainers were very pleased with how hard he worked to get himself to where he could play, so we're optimistic about it.
But for me to get up here and tell you he's ready to go, I don't think I'm in a position to say yes to that yet.
Q. With all the talent you lost at linebacker, what are you looking for in the competition there this summer?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I'm glad we've got a competition. I don't know what you know, I'm looking for solid play. Hopefully they'll play up to their potential, that a couple guys will come to the front. But I don't have any, "this guy has got to make X number of tackles, this guy has got to make three interceptions," that kind of stuff. Hopefully we have a couple of kids that are going to make some plays in the clutch because of their ability. But we do have four or five pretty good linebackers. You know who they are, so there's no sense me getting into their names.
Q. How has (Doug) Klopacz looked at center so far? What will the evaluation process be to see if he can handle that and maybe if you have to move (Stefen) Wisniewski back?
COACH PATERNO: Well, he's got ability. If he doesn't...he's got to get a little bit more consistent. He has a tendency every once in a while to take a blow, but if he gets a little bit more consistent, he'll be fine. But Wisniewski right now is the second center, and last year he was our first center. So obviously we think Klopacz is pretty good, otherwise we wouldn't move Wisniewski over to guard.
I like Klopacz. He's all business, keeps his mouth shut, works hard, been around. He's a senior. So I think he's going to be okay. Now, whether he's we'll see. But there's three or four kids on that offensive line that are pretty good, and he's one of them. Right now I think we could play with him and do all right.
Then there's a couple other guys that will have to come through.
Q. Continuing on the offensive line, just in general, how do you feel about it, and is there a chance that any of the younger guys like (Eric) Shrive could see action at some point this year?
COACH PATERNO: I doubt if Shrive can. I think a couple kids have to. Shrive one of these days is going to be a pretty good football player, but right now he's he's just inconsistent. He guesses a little bit. He's not quite the disciplined kid you've got to be in this league right now. The kind of people we have to play against. He's not a take charge guy. We're looking for a couple guys that can go out there and dominate some people. He's not there yet. He's a big, strong kid and he's got a chance to be good, but right now he's probably a year away.
But he works hard. He's a good kid, a bright kid, and I think eventually he's going to be pretty good.
Q. During the summer when you were a little bit under the weather, were you relying on your assistant coaches maybe more, and are you delegating more to them at this stage of the game?
COACH PATERNO: I'm not sure whether they would agree that I'm delegating. I don't know. We go into staff meeting, and there are some things that I don't particularly like that I see on the practice field, and I make it known that I think we want to change this or we want to do this or something like that. But on the field, I don't coach on the field as much as I used to. They're doing most of the coaching on the field.
In the old days I used to grab a couple kids and shove them around a little bit. There's two things wrong with that these days: Number one, the first one and the more important one is I don't want to get like the guy at Texas Tech, if you know what I mean. And the second thing is I prefer to wait until I get them in a meeting and say, "hey, I don't like what we're doing there and I didn't like the way he handled that kid or do something like that." But I try to stick my two cents in.
Q. Can you talk about Evan Royster? We didn't get to see him in the spring game. Can you talk about how he's been preparing to get ready to handle the load and how will you use some of the other talented running backs you have to get them in the game with Royster, as well?
COACH PATERNO: Yeah, we were in practice. I don't know whether there's a point that you're making. I apologize for not being able to go along with what you're trying to get.
I think, as I tried to say earlier, spring practice has got to give way to preseason right now. I think the thing I have to do, and that's one of the advantages I have, I've coached so long and I've been around a lot of football players, a lot of football teams, is that I think I can sum up I don't think maybe I'm answering your question. I can sum up where are we this week, "where are we, does this kid have it, how long can we wait, let's put him in a situation where we test him."
I mean, there's a lot of things you've got to do in the putting of a group together. You know, just remember this: We have to put together a group that has to play most of the time before massive crowds, 100,000 people. A kid makes one, two, three mistakes and he's cost you a football game, and you're always trying to in the back of your mind you're trying to get across to your guys that are going to have to make the plays and the guys that are going to be in that, hey, don't be stupid, don't put the ball on the ground.
You take the (2009) Iowa game; we let them block that punt. We fell asleep. I mean, you would have thought we never practiced punting the ball. So I don't know. That doesn't answer your question, I know that.
Q. Brandon Ware is listed at 337. Did he come in the in the kind of shape that you've wanted? I know he's been sort of a little bit in the doghouse in the past because of weight issues, and you've got 13 players over 300. Is there anyone else that when we reported maybe was a little heavy, too heavy?
COACH PATERNO: We had a couple of kids that were too heavy and I wouldn't let them practice until they lost some weight. I won't get into who they are because I don't think that's fair because they've lost the weight. Ware has got other problems. Ware's problems are academic. Ware has been a goof off academically. But he's straightening himself out a little bit. He's not home free yet. Ware is not home free yet. Ware is a guy that can be a really good player. He's about 330 but probably ought to be about 320.
But he knows what he's got to do, but he hasn't done it yet. And it's not necessarily the physical part of it, it's really his he's got to do a better job in the classroom.
Q. Have you found a punter yet?
COACH PATERNO: We've got three kids out there punting, and I think we're going to have a punter, but there again, you never know until he goes out there and punts the ball before a lot of people. It's like the kid taking the foul shot; some guys go out here and can't do it. But I think we're going to have a punter. I think we'll be all right. I'm not sure, but they have potential. The three kids all have good leg...a little erratic right now. We'll get them settled down a little bit and a little bit more consistent, and I think we'll probably end up with a decent punter, maybe not a great one but a decent one.
Q. Your Thursday night radio show, I think you said in Chicago you were cutting back on appearing on that. Just curious, what was the reason behind that, and are you cutting back on any other similar responsibilities?
COACH PATERNO: Well, the Thursday night show is a tough show for me because of the fact I've got to come right off the field and go into that radio show. That's always been a problem for me because of the fact that I go in there and you know, well, you guys have seen me. If we have a lousy practice and somebody wants to ask me, I feel like telling them, "go jump in the lake." It's making the adjustment all the time.
And it's a pain in the rear end. I want to get home. I want to start doodling. I want to figure out what we didn't get done so that maybe I can figure out a couple things for the game on Saturday.
So it's really annoying is probably not the best way to put it, but it's something that I would really when I was in a situation where we had to build up the program a little bit, I figured it was something I had to do. I don't really feel as if I have to do it right now, and I may not be I may be overstating that case, but I just don't it's not a it's a tough thing to come off the practice field on a Thursday and hustle over there and get on the radio, and I didn't like it. You know, and I don't get paid a lot of money. (Laughter.)
You know, I do that; I do the Quarterback Club on Wednesdays; I do a pregame (radio) show. There aren't a lot of coaches that do all those things. I do a show with Steve Jones before the game; I go to Quarterback Club every week and get up and answer questions and the whole bit. So I mean, it wears on you a little bit.
I'm anxious to just concentrate on trying to make sure we put everybody get the best arrangement we can in order to have the best football team we can have.
Q. Earlier you talked about the linebackers. I know you've only had one practice, but what are you expecting? Is there any way to know what to expect from Michael Mauti this year, and would you expect him to lead the linebacker corps pretty much?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I think Michael Mauti has a chance to be really good. Now, whether he comes off that knee operation, there again, you don't know. He's like Massaro. He had a tough knee operation, and I've got my fingers crossed that he's going to be fine because he is a very, very fine athlete, as is Massaro. You keep your fingers crossed and hope he's going to be okay, because if he's okay, he's pretty darned good.
Q. Without looking past the opener, can you talk about what it's going to be like to take your team to Alabama and walk on that field down there?
COACH PATERNO: You know, I'd be dishonest if I told you I have not looked at tapes of Alabama; I have. It's pretty tough these days not to turn on the television set and see three, four football games every night almost. So I've seen a lot, and I've looked at a lot of Alabama tapes. But I can't rewind it, I can't do some of the things I will do once we get to the week before we play Alabama.
But right now, if you said to me, "how good is the right offensive tackle of Alabama?" I couldn't tell you, not right now.
Q. Talk about going to Alabama and being involved in an Alabama game.
COACH PATERNO: I'm not quite sure what you mean, but I Alabama is obviously a very gifted football team, and Nick has done a really good job coaching it. When we get around to it, it's going to be a tough football game.
But you mentioned the fact that we open up with Youngstown. A couple years ago Michigan opened up with who did they open up with? (Appalachian State) And they got they blocked a punt and got licked I mean, blocked a field goal and got licked. So I'm really not I'm trying not to get that involved in that. The time will come when I it'll be 14, 15 hours a day looking at them, but I have really not given them a lot.
I'm sure the assistant coaches have looked at more than I have.
Q. What's the latest with Stephon Morris? I heard he got shaken up in practice? Is he practicing? Is he out?
COACH PATERNO: Morris wasn't hurt that badly, but we've had some tough injuries. I don't know why. We've got four or five concussions. We are going to keep some people out, and I'm talking about two or three really good players, and I'm not sure we're trying the medical people and I have spent some time trying to figure out, you know, whether it's the helmet, whether it's some type of blocking. I don't know.
But Morris is going to be all right.
Q. Earlier you were asked about the radio show. You talked about the Quarterback Club and the Saturday pregame show. Do you still plan to do those, the Quarterback Club and the Saturday pregame show?
COACH PATERNO: Well, very few people have the let me put it a different way. You know, I've been through it when we didn't have a fan call, but when you go to the Quarterback Club, and I don't know if any of you ever go, more than half of them are women. Really, there's an awful lot of people who have an interest in it, and I feel a little obligated to respond to that. Whether I want to do it every week, I'm not sure anymore.
Q. There's a lot of guys on this team who haven't proved themselves or haven't had a chance to prove themselves yet. As a coach, do you relish those seasons where it's more you're teaching and you might not know what you have, or is it more frustrating than when you have a team come back that has eight or nine seniors starting?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I like the team. And obviously I'm confident in our coaching staff. I think we've got a really big league coaching staff, and they've done a great job. Somebody had asked me earlier about are they carrying me; yeah, they probably are carrying me. So I'm looking forward to it. I really am. I think we've got a long way to go. I think we've got a tough schedule obviously. We've got to play some good people on the road. And we've got to play some good people, period.
So I think it's you know, you like the competition. If you didn't like it, you ought to get out of it. I mean, that's the way I've always felt about it. I've always felt, hey when I recruit kids, I tell them, "hey, don't be afraid of competition. If you're afraid of competition, don't even look at us because you'll never get good if you don't play against good people and you'll never get good if you don't practice against good people." Until somebody knocks you on your rear end, and pardon me ladies, but unless somebody knocks you on your rear end, you're never going to learn. You get knocked on your rear end, you get back up and you figure out, "how did he knock me down?"
So I like the competition; it doesn't bother me. Now whether we're going to be good enough, you know, that's what it's all about. But it certainly doesn't bother me, competition.
Q. What are your concerns with the offensive line?
COACH PATERNO: Well, we're not very good right now, our offensive line. We've got two or three guys that three anyway, that are that I think can play right now. The others we're going to have to work hard with, and they're going to have to work hard in order to be good enough to handle some of the people we have to play.
Whether they get good enough, that's what we so we've got to coach. We've got to go to work and we've got to get a bunch of guys that kind of we can get them to come together and feel good about themselves and look forward to being a tough bunch of kids. Right now we're not really tough. I think we've got to get tougher, and I think we will. I don't think it's I don't think they know right now how to be tough.
COACH PATERNO: I have one request -- Please don't ask me if I'm going to die tomorrow. (Laughter) Believe me, I've got a few more days left. (Laughter) Okay, let's talk football.
Q. I know you have some high expectations for Devon Still this year. Could you kind of tell me how he's coming along and your thoughts of what he'll be able to--
COACH PATERNO: Still is a good football player. He's worked hard. He's got a lot of ability. He's a big, rangy kid. He's probably 6-5, about 300 pounds. But I like him. He's a hard worker. When he first got here he was a little lazy, but he's really gotten to where he's a leader. So he's done very, very well.
Q. With Curtis Drake out now with a broken leg, what do you do to replace him and is there any thought of putting (Chaz) Powell back on offense?
COACH PATERNO: That's tough. Drake is one of the better football players we have. He's very versatile. I mean, he can do a lot of things. He can throw the ball; he was a heck of a high school quarterback. He's a really good receiver, good runner. It's a big loss for us, really is a big loss. But that's the way it goes. We've got to go without him. He'll be at least...they're talking six, eight weeks, so it'll be at least that.
Q. Any thought of putting Powell back on offense?
COACH PATERNO: Powell? Not really. Powell is doing very well on defense and likes it over there. Powell's biggest problem has been he's been you know, he's a kid that he's not been consistent in doing some things, but all of a sudden he's he looks like he's having some fun out there on defense, and he's really doing well. So I think I doubt it very much, unless there would be a disaster, we would not we'd keep Powell right where he is.
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Q. You have several quarterback candidates with different attributes and different liabilities, and it's a little bit of a unique season because the offensive line has some question marks in it. So without naming names, do you have any templates you want to follow on what you want most out of the candidate who's ultimately the winning candidate?
COACH PATERNO: Well, it's a little too early. One thing that's changed, and I don't know whether you folks have been alert to it, but they changed the amount of time you have. They (NCAA) gave us an extra five days, (with) no more practices. You still can only get 29 practices, but you get four more days to get it in. So we've used the four days in order to get a little better feel for some of these kids.
So I told the coaches when we started, whatever you want to call it, preseason practice, but whenever we started practice, I said, since we've got the extra days we've never practiced for 29 days. I've always gone 26, 27, but we're going to take the 29, and we're using the extra days I'm using those to evaluate people. So we've spent more time trying to get to find out what some kids can do, who the leaders might be, whether we can come up with a couple of offensive linemen, because we've got troubles there, and to give all the quarterbacks a shot at it to see what they can do.
And now we took two days off. We took today off and tomorrow off, and I'll take two more days off down the road because I think we're going to work really hard now since we're as far as the class work. Right now we're taking finals tomorrow.
So once we get that over and once we get over the so called tryout period, then we'll go to work, and we'll work hard the next week, take a couple days off, and again, hopefully we don't get banged up too much, and then get back in there where we start to get ready to play a football game.
Q. Considering what you have, though, is mobility more important than it has been, a grasp of the offense? Where do you think the winner is going to --
COACH PATERNO: I don't know. You know, I think it's a combination of things. It's not that easy to say, "this kid is going to play here." I always go back every once in a while I tell the staff, years and years ago (Vince) Lombardi grew up in the same neighborhood I did in Brooklyn, and I used to go down when he was assistant coach with the (New York) Giants, used to be up in St. Michael's I think it was up in New Hampshire, I'd go up and spend some time. (Tom) Landry was in the secondary, was the defensive coach. Lombardi used to say all the time, the part of coaching you have to do is you have to get the right guy in the right spot doing the right thing at the right time.
Now, what combination that is, you don't know. I could not tell you what the makeup of this team is going to be because of the fact of what I just said. We've been trying people out. And we're trying to get the best combination of people to react to each other. A couple guys that may not be as good football players, there's a couple guys that we're not playing but who are good leaders and people that can do some things in the clutch, make some things happen when we got to make them happen.
So we're right in the process right now of we're trying to learn from them, really.
Q. Can you talk a little bit more about the quarterback competition? Has anyone stood out and any possibility that you might play a freshman?
COACH PATERNO: Well, there isn't anybody with any experience out there, so when you say you're going to play a freshman or what have you, we may be forced into playing a freshman. I think we have really the (Kevin) Newsome kid is really a freshman. He started in January a year ago.
I know you think I'm bagging the question maybe on this one, but I really don't know who's going to be the quarterback. I don't know right now. We're trying to put them in positions, situations I should say, not positions. We try to put them in situations where they have to make something happen. They have to be able to do some things in the clutch, get a little confidence, get the football team to get some confidence in them so that they can get in the huddle and say to their team, hey, come on, let's go. Let's show these guys we're a pretty good football team and go from there.
I think we're going to we'll probably, before it's all over, not right away, but before it's all over we'll probably have a decent quarterback. Whether we're going to have a great one this year, you know, that's maybe a long shot.
Q. Pete Massaro sat out last year with a knee problem. How is he doing so far in the practice and do you expect him to be in the rotation at defensive end?
COACH PATERNO: So far okay. Now, again, we've only had the pads on once. Yesterday is the only day we've put the pads on, so it's tough to evaluate how he's going to handle maybe being in there 15, 16 plays where we're scrimmaging and he's got a play tired and things like that. We have not tested that thing that way.
But we'll get around to doing it.
He looks as if he's okay. He looks as if he's going to be all right. He's a good athlete, he's a hard worker, he did a great job with his rehabilitation. The doctors were very and trainers were very pleased with how hard he worked to get himself to where he could play, so we're optimistic about it.
But for me to get up here and tell you he's ready to go, I don't think I'm in a position to say yes to that yet.
Q. With all the talent you lost at linebacker, what are you looking for in the competition there this summer?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I'm glad we've got a competition. I don't know what you know, I'm looking for solid play. Hopefully they'll play up to their potential, that a couple guys will come to the front. But I don't have any, "this guy has got to make X number of tackles, this guy has got to make three interceptions," that kind of stuff. Hopefully we have a couple of kids that are going to make some plays in the clutch because of their ability. But we do have four or five pretty good linebackers. You know who they are, so there's no sense me getting into their names.
Q. How has (Doug) Klopacz looked at center so far? What will the evaluation process be to see if he can handle that and maybe if you have to move (Stefen) Wisniewski back?
COACH PATERNO: Well, he's got ability. If he doesn't...he's got to get a little bit more consistent. He has a tendency every once in a while to take a blow, but if he gets a little bit more consistent, he'll be fine. But Wisniewski right now is the second center, and last year he was our first center. So obviously we think Klopacz is pretty good, otherwise we wouldn't move Wisniewski over to guard.
I like Klopacz. He's all business, keeps his mouth shut, works hard, been around. He's a senior. So I think he's going to be okay. Now, whether he's we'll see. But there's three or four kids on that offensive line that are pretty good, and he's one of them. Right now I think we could play with him and do all right.
Then there's a couple other guys that will have to come through.
Q. Continuing on the offensive line, just in general, how do you feel about it, and is there a chance that any of the younger guys like (Eric) Shrive could see action at some point this year?
COACH PATERNO: I doubt if Shrive can. I think a couple kids have to. Shrive one of these days is going to be a pretty good football player, but right now he's he's just inconsistent. He guesses a little bit. He's not quite the disciplined kid you've got to be in this league right now. The kind of people we have to play against. He's not a take charge guy. We're looking for a couple guys that can go out there and dominate some people. He's not there yet. He's a big, strong kid and he's got a chance to be good, but right now he's probably a year away.
But he works hard. He's a good kid, a bright kid, and I think eventually he's going to be pretty good.
Q. During the summer when you were a little bit under the weather, were you relying on your assistant coaches maybe more, and are you delegating more to them at this stage of the game?
COACH PATERNO: I'm not sure whether they would agree that I'm delegating. I don't know. We go into staff meeting, and there are some things that I don't particularly like that I see on the practice field, and I make it known that I think we want to change this or we want to do this or something like that. But on the field, I don't coach on the field as much as I used to. They're doing most of the coaching on the field.
In the old days I used to grab a couple kids and shove them around a little bit. There's two things wrong with that these days: Number one, the first one and the more important one is I don't want to get like the guy at Texas Tech, if you know what I mean. And the second thing is I prefer to wait until I get them in a meeting and say, "hey, I don't like what we're doing there and I didn't like the way he handled that kid or do something like that." But I try to stick my two cents in.
Q. Can you talk about Evan Royster? We didn't get to see him in the spring game. Can you talk about how he's been preparing to get ready to handle the load and how will you use some of the other talented running backs you have to get them in the game with Royster, as well?
COACH PATERNO: Yeah, we were in practice. I don't know whether there's a point that you're making. I apologize for not being able to go along with what you're trying to get.
I think, as I tried to say earlier, spring practice has got to give way to preseason right now. I think the thing I have to do, and that's one of the advantages I have, I've coached so long and I've been around a lot of football players, a lot of football teams, is that I think I can sum up I don't think maybe I'm answering your question. I can sum up where are we this week, "where are we, does this kid have it, how long can we wait, let's put him in a situation where we test him."
I mean, there's a lot of things you've got to do in the putting of a group together. You know, just remember this: We have to put together a group that has to play most of the time before massive crowds, 100,000 people. A kid makes one, two, three mistakes and he's cost you a football game, and you're always trying to in the back of your mind you're trying to get across to your guys that are going to have to make the plays and the guys that are going to be in that, hey, don't be stupid, don't put the ball on the ground.
You take the (2009) Iowa game; we let them block that punt. We fell asleep. I mean, you would have thought we never practiced punting the ball. So I don't know. That doesn't answer your question, I know that.
Q. Brandon Ware is listed at 337. Did he come in the in the kind of shape that you've wanted? I know he's been sort of a little bit in the doghouse in the past because of weight issues, and you've got 13 players over 300. Is there anyone else that when we reported maybe was a little heavy, too heavy?
COACH PATERNO: We had a couple of kids that were too heavy and I wouldn't let them practice until they lost some weight. I won't get into who they are because I don't think that's fair because they've lost the weight. Ware has got other problems. Ware's problems are academic. Ware has been a goof off academically. But he's straightening himself out a little bit. He's not home free yet. Ware is not home free yet. Ware is a guy that can be a really good player. He's about 330 but probably ought to be about 320.
But he knows what he's got to do, but he hasn't done it yet. And it's not necessarily the physical part of it, it's really his he's got to do a better job in the classroom.
Q. Have you found a punter yet?
COACH PATERNO: We've got three kids out there punting, and I think we're going to have a punter, but there again, you never know until he goes out there and punts the ball before a lot of people. It's like the kid taking the foul shot; some guys go out here and can't do it. But I think we're going to have a punter. I think we'll be all right. I'm not sure, but they have potential. The three kids all have good leg...a little erratic right now. We'll get them settled down a little bit and a little bit more consistent, and I think we'll probably end up with a decent punter, maybe not a great one but a decent one.
Q. Your Thursday night radio show, I think you said in Chicago you were cutting back on appearing on that. Just curious, what was the reason behind that, and are you cutting back on any other similar responsibilities?
COACH PATERNO: Well, the Thursday night show is a tough show for me because of the fact I've got to come right off the field and go into that radio show. That's always been a problem for me because of the fact that I go in there and you know, well, you guys have seen me. If we have a lousy practice and somebody wants to ask me, I feel like telling them, "go jump in the lake." It's making the adjustment all the time.
And it's a pain in the rear end. I want to get home. I want to start doodling. I want to figure out what we didn't get done so that maybe I can figure out a couple things for the game on Saturday.
So it's really annoying is probably not the best way to put it, but it's something that I would really when I was in a situation where we had to build up the program a little bit, I figured it was something I had to do. I don't really feel as if I have to do it right now, and I may not be I may be overstating that case, but I just don't it's not a it's a tough thing to come off the practice field on a Thursday and hustle over there and get on the radio, and I didn't like it. You know, and I don't get paid a lot of money. (Laughter.)
You know, I do that; I do the Quarterback Club on Wednesdays; I do a pregame (radio) show. There aren't a lot of coaches that do all those things. I do a show with Steve Jones before the game; I go to Quarterback Club every week and get up and answer questions and the whole bit. So I mean, it wears on you a little bit.
I'm anxious to just concentrate on trying to make sure we put everybody get the best arrangement we can in order to have the best football team we can have.
Q. Earlier you talked about the linebackers. I know you've only had one practice, but what are you expecting? Is there any way to know what to expect from Michael Mauti this year, and would you expect him to lead the linebacker corps pretty much?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I think Michael Mauti has a chance to be really good. Now, whether he comes off that knee operation, there again, you don't know. He's like Massaro. He had a tough knee operation, and I've got my fingers crossed that he's going to be fine because he is a very, very fine athlete, as is Massaro. You keep your fingers crossed and hope he's going to be okay, because if he's okay, he's pretty darned good.
Q. Without looking past the opener, can you talk about what it's going to be like to take your team to Alabama and walk on that field down there?
COACH PATERNO: You know, I'd be dishonest if I told you I have not looked at tapes of Alabama; I have. It's pretty tough these days not to turn on the television set and see three, four football games every night almost. So I've seen a lot, and I've looked at a lot of Alabama tapes. But I can't rewind it, I can't do some of the things I will do once we get to the week before we play Alabama.
But right now, if you said to me, "how good is the right offensive tackle of Alabama?" I couldn't tell you, not right now.
Q. Talk about going to Alabama and being involved in an Alabama game.
COACH PATERNO: I'm not quite sure what you mean, but I Alabama is obviously a very gifted football team, and Nick has done a really good job coaching it. When we get around to it, it's going to be a tough football game.
But you mentioned the fact that we open up with Youngstown. A couple years ago Michigan opened up with who did they open up with? (Appalachian State) And they got they blocked a punt and got licked I mean, blocked a field goal and got licked. So I'm really not I'm trying not to get that involved in that. The time will come when I it'll be 14, 15 hours a day looking at them, but I have really not given them a lot.
I'm sure the assistant coaches have looked at more than I have.
Q. What's the latest with Stephon Morris? I heard he got shaken up in practice? Is he practicing? Is he out?
COACH PATERNO: Morris wasn't hurt that badly, but we've had some tough injuries. I don't know why. We've got four or five concussions. We are going to keep some people out, and I'm talking about two or three really good players, and I'm not sure we're trying the medical people and I have spent some time trying to figure out, you know, whether it's the helmet, whether it's some type of blocking. I don't know.
But Morris is going to be all right.
Q. Earlier you were asked about the radio show. You talked about the Quarterback Club and the Saturday pregame show. Do you still plan to do those, the Quarterback Club and the Saturday pregame show?
COACH PATERNO: Well, very few people have the let me put it a different way. You know, I've been through it when we didn't have a fan call, but when you go to the Quarterback Club, and I don't know if any of you ever go, more than half of them are women. Really, there's an awful lot of people who have an interest in it, and I feel a little obligated to respond to that. Whether I want to do it every week, I'm not sure anymore.
Q. There's a lot of guys on this team who haven't proved themselves or haven't had a chance to prove themselves yet. As a coach, do you relish those seasons where it's more you're teaching and you might not know what you have, or is it more frustrating than when you have a team come back that has eight or nine seniors starting?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I like the team. And obviously I'm confident in our coaching staff. I think we've got a really big league coaching staff, and they've done a great job. Somebody had asked me earlier about are they carrying me; yeah, they probably are carrying me. So I'm looking forward to it. I really am. I think we've got a long way to go. I think we've got a tough schedule obviously. We've got to play some good people on the road. And we've got to play some good people, period.
So I think it's you know, you like the competition. If you didn't like it, you ought to get out of it. I mean, that's the way I've always felt about it. I've always felt, hey when I recruit kids, I tell them, "hey, don't be afraid of competition. If you're afraid of competition, don't even look at us because you'll never get good if you don't play against good people and you'll never get good if you don't practice against good people." Until somebody knocks you on your rear end, and pardon me ladies, but unless somebody knocks you on your rear end, you're never going to learn. You get knocked on your rear end, you get back up and you figure out, "how did he knock me down?"
So I like the competition; it doesn't bother me. Now whether we're going to be good enough, you know, that's what it's all about. But it certainly doesn't bother me, competition.
Q. What are your concerns with the offensive line?
COACH PATERNO: Well, we're not very good right now, our offensive line. We've got two or three guys that three anyway, that are that I think can play right now. The others we're going to have to work hard with, and they're going to have to work hard in order to be good enough to handle some of the people we have to play.
Whether they get good enough, that's what we so we've got to coach. We've got to go to work and we've got to get a bunch of guys that kind of we can get them to come together and feel good about themselves and look forward to being a tough bunch of kids. Right now we're not really tough. I think we've got to get tougher, and I think we will. I don't think it's I don't think they know right now how to be tough.
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