September 30, 2008
Josh Gaines, Sr., Defensive End
How important is it to get to Curtis Painter quickly and not give him a lot of time in the pocket to throw the ball?
Curtis Painter is a great quarterback and as a quarterback you can't give him a lot of time. He's a lethal guy and he has a lot of threats to run that spread offense. He's able to look guys off and find open receivers. It actually helps him a lot looking off guys and moving our secondary to one direction and he'll find the open guy on the backside. He's a good quarterback and we have to get to him fast.
With Maurice (Evans) back, has your role changed at all and how has it changed?
It hasn't changed at all having him back, just knowing a guy can come off the bench and play. He's not in the starting line-up but it really doesn't matter because he is still going to get a lot of snaps and actually with him back it opens more for us. Now I can go back inside, play a little there on passing situations; try to get an advantage with my speed, so it really helps having him back.
Ft. Wayne is pretty close to West Lafayette. How many members of the Gaines family and friends will be there?
Last year at Indiana, which is about three and a half hours away and I had 81. Purdue is actually closer, so I don't know, we'll see what happens.
So, have you been scrambling to get the other guys' tickets?
Yeah, I've been doing that since last week.
Is Jared Odrick a guy that likes to bust chops of the other defensive lineman and do you guys all get on each other?
Oh, yeah, definitely, we get on each other a lot and we have fun. We joke around a lot and you know some guys you can't joke around with; a little sensitive. Jared's a guy - he jokes around all the time. He can get serious, but he's never really serious a lot. He loves to have fun and just be himself. It's just who he is. He's a clown.
How many family members did you have at Indiana last year?
81.
Is that going to go up this year?
Hopefully. I guess the total tickets they give out to football players are about 270 (4 per player), so I'm looking at (trying to get) 100.
Derrick Williams was talking today about his intensity on the field. Can you talk about his personality?
Derrick, on the field, is pretty serious. He's pretty intense, doesn't really talk a lot. He speaks up before and after practice, but Derrick usually keeps to himself. I'm not on the offensive field though, but when I do see him, he's pretty into what he's doing. Off the field, he's a jokester, he jokes around all the time. He's always joking around, actually. People probably don't know that about him, but he's a clown as well.
How does your preparation for someone like Curtis Painter, who runs the spread offense, different from other offenses you might see in the Big Ten?
We focus a lot on pass rushing. Just getting up field, getting around people, working on moves, certain techniques and working on stunts. We have to be persistent; you have to be on point, you can't mess up. You can't let a guy come on the field and not be ready to go. So we rotate a lot, but when we rotate you have to be ready to play and know what's going on.
Coach Paterno said earlier that you probably don't get enough recognition because you're not getting the sacks, but you are doing more of a job and you should get more recognition. What does that mean to you?
That means a lot, seeing that I feel like I've increased my play a lot since last year. I feel like I'm an all-around better player since last year, that's me, personally. I plan on getting better and hearing that from Coach really means a lot. I haven't really heard a lot. I haven't really seen anything, but coming from Coach that means a lot.
What's your personal relationship with John Thomas and Jeremy Scott? Have you seen one player or a couple players that have really improved by working with those to guys in your time here?
To be honest, with J.T. and Jeremy, I've seen everybody improve. Those guys, they treat everybody the same, it doesn't matter who it is. If fellas go back there at the end of the day and go get a work out, they'll bust his chops. That's just how they are. They are really upfront guys, always being honest. To tell you the truth, from the first day, some guys will come in with facial hair, they'll be the first one to get on them, no matter what. They don't mess around.
Coming off the White Out game, Purdue is going to have a Blackout this weekend. What's it going to be like switching roles and playing in that environment?
I think it'll be pretty sweet. I've never played in a Blackout before, it's always been White Outs. Going there, it's probably going to be intense. Their fans are right on you, they're rowdy, so I think it'll be fun. I like going to other places and seeing how they're fans act and comparing to our fans, so it'll be fun. It'll be a fun game.
Not only on the road, but it's an early game too. So what kind of problems intangibly will a road game in the morning will have?
Well, whether it's home or away, the first thing for me personally, I try to focus on is that they like to stuff us with food and I try to watch what I eat at night because you have to wake up and play right away and you don't want to play with a full stomach. Especially on the D-line, you've got guys that like to eat, so that's a change. Not only that, but actually, I like to get up and play. I'm the type of guy that likes to go right at it. I love the 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock games. Waiting around all day, that's terrible. Sitting in the hotel room not doing anything, just sitting there waiting to play. I like to go play right away. That's usually when I have my best games, actually.
Gerald Cadogan, Senior, Tackle
Purdue has had some trouble stopping the run this year. How does that make you prepare for this game?
Probably, we might run the ball more. For me, that's exciting. Offensive lineman love running the ball, so I look forward to it.
I've seen you pulling to help spring some big gains. How much do you like pulling to get out there and be able to do that?
Anytime I have a chance to pull around and smack a linebacker, it's fun. So, we're out there having fun. We're willing to work everyday, weekly in practice and that's shown on the field. That's one of the plays we practice over and over again, different looks and stuff. During the game it's a fun time.
You've had a lot of success when you pull from your left tackle spot, leading (Evan) Royster up through the middle on that isolation (play). It seemed that in the Illinois game on Saturday, you took over that play, you pulled over and you countered back. Is that the way it was and is that because of the success you had doing it the way you did?
That play is meant be, like you said, kind of an isolation, counter type play and it's a good change of pace play, so we run the ball against a lot of zone left and right and that was a good change of pace. It worked successfully that day so we went back to it a couple of times. Like I said, it's something we practice a lot and they gave us some different looks this past weekend and we were able to pick it up and it was successful.
Joe (Paterno) even said that he's been a little surprised by Royster, averaging 103 yards per game. Did you expect this type of success with Evan?
I definitely knew he was capable of that, but you never know what your team is capable of until put in the fire. I've always believed that our running backs and our receivers were able to make big plays and able to get their stats up, but until you actually get into a game, you don't know. I definitely knew they had the ability.
How does the leadership work this year with five captains compared with other years?
I would say our leadership, even though we have five designated captains, is coming from the entire senior class. Everybody is pulling their weight. Everybody is buying into what we have to do, weekly throughout practice and really having our heads on straight and having the goal in mind that we want to win it all this year.
How do the players react to websites like Beat.net or any other sites? Do you guys pay any amount of attention to that?
To the message boards and what the fans say? The fans and message boards can say one thing one week and say something totally opposite the next week so, we're concerned with what's consistent and that's what the coaches are saying. What things do we have to improve on? That's really the only opinion that matters to me is do my coaches think I'm doing a good job, am I picking up the stunts, am I doing what the play is supposed to do and if the coach says "yes," then it's good. So, the coaches are basically the only main opinion I listen to.
You said how the senior leadership keeps your guys' heads on straight. What exactly are you guys doing to not get maybe too hyped about where you guys are in the rankings, maybe have someone sneak up on you?
The coaches are doing a great job of that. When we sat in our meeting room yesterday, Coach (Bill) Kenney came in and said right now our record is 0-0. We have to go out this week and win. So we're taking it weekly. We're not thinking about who's down the road, who's this and who's that. It's each week, who do we have this week, what do we have to do to win and let's go out and do the job. Everybody has bought into that program and that's the goal of the team I would say.
Not only is Saturday your first road Big Ten game, it's also a morning game at Purdue. How is that different from other games?
With the morning games, basically you have to wake up ready to go. This past week we were in a hotel most of the day so you had time to watch the games and really think about it, but you have to go to bed knowing what you have to do and the mindset that you have to come out, wake up early, get ready, strap up and go to work.
Is that harder?
Not necessarily. It's just basically just the mindset, waking up there isn't a lot of down time to watch other people and other games on TV and get ready. You have to be ready the night before and wake up with the mindset to go to work.
Coming from high school, was it difficult to get used to a different regimen of lifting weights and staying in shape with John Thomas and Jeremy Scott?
Yeah, they definitely take you from being a boy to a man. They break you down, they build you back up. The change, it's tremendous. In high school, I was a big fish in a small pond and here I was a small fish in an ocean, basically. Like I said, they change you from being a boy to a man. The mental discipline, the work ethic, those are the two big things that I've learned from those two.
Is it tough to buy in to the system?
No, it's not tough at all to buy into the system. Either you buy into the system or you don't make it, you don't survive. The weak ones are weeded out immediately. So you have to buy into the program early in order to have a fighting chance to play.
You mentioned the week-to-week mindset. Can you talk about what that week-to-week is about and in the bigger picture where you guys are at?
For me, this is my senior year. I only have an `x' amount of games to play. If I don't take it weekly and I over ook a team, as Coach Paterno would say, get licked by them. I would have a regret. So, this season we don't want to have any regrets so we have to take it by a week-by-week mentality otherwise, we will get licked.