| Head Coach Joe Paterno speaks with the media during the first day of spring practice. For more photos, click here. |
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How's the health of the team?
??I think the team??s pretty good. We??ve got one or two kids, like (Brennan) Coakley, but eventually he??ll be okay.??
How much of spring practice is going to be dedicated to grooming (Anthony) Morelli and maybe changing some of the things you do offensively?
??I don??t think we??re going to do a lot of things differently offensively. We??ll emphasize some things obviously. I don??t think Morelli would be the guy you??d want to count on running the ball as much as Michael Robinson. He??s not that kind of player but he can still run. We won??t change that much. We??re going into spring practice just like you guys. You guys all want to know what we??re going to do. I??ve got to watch. I??ve got to see some people. I??ve got to get a feel for some different guys at different positions. I think Morelli??s got a chance to be a really good quarterback. Spring practice is a fun time for us because we don??t have to get ready for somebody next week. ??
You??ve lost a lot of players on defense. Can you talk about some of the younger players who are trying to win positions?
??We lost some down guys and the secondary, but most of the (returning) secondary guys have been in games -- (Tony) Davis, and we all know about Justin King and (Anthony) Scirrotto, even though he was a freshman last year, played some??Donnie Johnson. I think we have a pretty good idea where we??re going with the defensive personnel. Whether they can get to be good enough??I??m always telling the coaches, ??make sure they can play smarter. If they play smarter, they??ll play faster.?? We??ve got (Jay) Alford back. Eddie Johnson??s back. Eddie??s was a good player before he got himself in a jam. I think we??ll be okay.??
How much will Derrick Williams be a factor in spring ball?
??He??s fine. He was fit enough to play in the Orange Bowl but I wouldn??t let him. Derrick will be okay.??
How about Paul (Posluszny)?
??I??m not going to play Paul (during spring practice). Paul wants to do some things, but I??m not going to play him.??
Looking at the roster, most of the fifth-year guys are back. Are you still trying to figure out how to get to the 85 scholarship limit or are you okay?
??We??re in great shape.??
Is there one unit that concerns you more than another heading into spring?
??Heading into spring I think everything concerns me. I??m anxious to see whether we have the leadership and if we have the kinds of things it takes to be a good football team. I think we have it. I think it??s a question of we have to go to work and make some people better at their positions. We have to get people to work with each other, anticipate what the other guy is going to do, and those kinds of things. I have no real concerns. ??
Are you thinking about using the 3-4 defense or experimenting with it?
??We??ll probably experiment with a lot of things. That??s what??s fun about spring practice??go in there all half-cocked in the morning and say, ??Let??s try this.?? You don??t have to worry about it if I??m all screwed up, that it??s going to affect us two days from now. We??ll horse around a little??
Can you talk about the others at quarterback?
??I mentioned (Paul) Cianciolo and I think Suhey??s got a shot.??
How about Daryll Clark?
??He??s a partial qualifier and he??s not allowed to practice.??
Talk about the challenges with the offensive line.
??Obviously, we lost a couple of kids who played a lot of football. There again, it??s a challenge and that??s why you get paid. You get paid to go out there and take a look at what we??ve got and see if you can win a couple of games.??
You lost some captains. How do you replace that leadership?
??Of course, one of them is back in Paul (Posluszny). We lost (Alan) Zemaitis and Michael Robinson??I think Michael Robinson was a big loss because Michael was a guy that kind of carried the football team with him, doing some things in the clutch. There again, the job in the spring is to get some people to step to the front.
Do you try to set the tone in the spring, to build off last year and to not backslide?
??I don??t know??I just want to go to work. I just want to go out there and start coaching and see what happens. The time may come where I have to say to them, ??you guys better wake up. You can??t win on what you did last year.?? But, I don??t sense that. We??ve had a good winter program. The kids have worked hard in the winter program. I think they??re excited about spring practice. I know the coaches are and we??ll go from there.??
Will (Navorro) Bowman be practicing this spring?
??No, not yet.??