Dec. 31, 2008
GINA CHAPPIN: Alright. I'd like the welcome Coach Paterno. We'll have Coach make a quick opening comment, and then we'll open it up for questions.
COACH Joe Paterno: You know, obviously it's a great thrill to be hear and to play against a team of the caliber of Southern Cal. I don't know what else I can say. We've been here since -- the coaches came here on the 20th. The squad had to be here on the 21st. We were down in Santa Monica. We've had good practices. We ended up yesterday with about 50 minutes making sure everyone knew where they were supposed to line up. I think we're ready to play. We're looking forward to a good football game.
GINA CHAPPIN: Questions for Coach.
Q. Joe, did you have a decision now -- do you have a decision yet about whether you're going to be on the sideline or in the box?
COACH Joe Paterno: What I did yesterday, in fact, the last couple days I tried to just operate without the golf cart that I've been using on and off and I don't think -- I'm going upstairs. I don't think I can handle three and a half hours, four hours on the side line. And about five, six days ago, Pete and I were together, and I said, "Pete" -- he asked me what I was going to do. I said, "I think I'm probably going to go upstairs," I said, "but if you would agree not to throw the ball more than 15, 18 times" (laughter), I said, "we can get that game over in less than three hours, I might be on the sideline" (laughter).
Pete said to me, "If I see you on the sideline, we're going to throw it 50 times" (laughter). I don't think I can win that one. I'm sure -- the doctor is a little concerned. Somebody even becomes you hard with the junk, taking stuff -- my operation is less than six weeks ago. He's afraid they'll get some blood problems. What do they call that, you're -- something. Kind of blood thinner or whatever.
So I'm -- everybody feels -- I think I'd be a distraction on the sideline. Let me put it that way. I think everybody will be worried about somebody bumping me. And the staff has been so good and all those guys know me, and they know how to operate without me. I'll be upstairs.
Q. Coach, Pete Carroll said you were the life of the party last night. Can you elaborate on being with him?
COACH Joe Paterno: You know, sure, everybody wants to build things up, you know, personalities and this guy does that and that guy does that and build up animosities and things that I really resent.
I think college football is such a great experience for the people who play it and the people who coach in it, and I've admired the way -- you know, I don't know Pete really well, but I've admired his enthusiasm. I've admired the way his team plays. Last night we had a chance to spend some time with him and his wife, my wife and I, and with some other people, and we -- it was a good time just to tell stories and enjoy each other. And he talked to me about one of the great guys I ever coached with, Danny Radicovich (phonetic) that he worked with. Danny has retired. Talked about some other things that have happened to him and to me. We had a lot of fun. It was really a fun night.
As I said, it's going to be fun to be out there playing against Southern Cal, and, you know, I hope we play well, and I hope they play well, and I hope it's a heck of a football game for the fans. I think if you go beyond that where it gets to be some bitterness or some resentment, that's not my game.
Q. Joe, will you be able to be on the field before the game? Will you be able to go down in the locker room at halftime? Before you talked about how maybe be in the press box is better for the team and for you coaching. Can you give us a little bit of an idea of how things actually work with you, coaching up in the press box?
COACH Joe Paterno: Well, when I'm upstairs, you know, I have access to everybody. We have about -- the phone system today is a lot different.
You know, all my years as an assistant coach, I never scouted. I spent every game upstairs. So I was 16 years operating upstairs with one, two people.
Now, you've got this elaborate communication system. I can talk to everybody. I can talk to all the guys who have earphones on the sideline, coaches. I can get the kids on the phone, and upstairs I can communicate with the other -- well, eight, nine guys upstairs.
So, -- I try not to interfere. I don't want to get in there where the guys are playing the game and the people who are ready to direct the game. But once in a while, I'll put something down on the piece of paper, "Don't forget this, Don't forget the draw, Why don't we blitz on this situation," things like that as I watched the tempo, or sometimes you're watching things in there you can't see on the sideline.
When you're on the sideline, you can't see across the field. When you're upstairs, you can see little things that you'd miss on the sideline, and once in a while you can make a helpful -- you can do something that's helpful.
So it's not all bad and -- but it's still not like being on the sideline. If I told you I'd rather be upstairs than downstairs, I would -- I wouldn't be honest.
Q. Joe, will you be able to go down to the locker room at halftime?
COACH Joe Paterno: Probably not. We're going over to the Rose Bowl this morning to take a team picture, and then we have the kickoff luncheon there. We're going to take a look at it. If I can get down without having a lot of logistic problems, I probably would like to do that.
Most of the places we go, you can't. It takes you -- you got to get -- reserve the elevator, do this or that. You've got to have a motor cart to get you around. When I see the logistics of it, if I can get down in three, four, five minutes, I probably come down. If it's a question a lot of people have to get involved, then I'll probably stay upstairs.
Q. Joe, when you take the field tomorrow, you will not have played a game for 40 days and SC played a game two weeks more recent, it will be 26 days for them. Is that a big deal for either team?
COACH Joe Paterno: Well, you know, we've done it against some other people, but I think the Big Ten really has got to take a good look at what's going on. You know, we go into limbo for a long time when other people are playing for division championships and conference championships and being competitive, and I think it is a little bit of a disadvantage.
Having said that, that will not be the reason we lose the football game if Southern Cal beats us. I don't think that's fair to Southern Cal. But we have got to adjust. It's not something you can just say "Hey, forget about it."
I think you've got to really take into consideration if you want to call it a competitive edge, I'm not sure it is, particularly if you get people hurt, if you're playing an extra two games and get a couple key guys hurt, then it does not become a competitive advantage. If you stay healthy and been able to have a couple good, tough football games under your belt while we're sitting around there watching, I think we are at a slight disadvantage.
I don't think it should -- we should sit around there saying that's the reason if we get licked, that's why we got licked because we've made adjustments. We practiced some at State College. We came out here early. We were in Santa Monica. The coaches were here on the 20th of December. The kids reported on the 21st. So we practiced on the 21st.
We've been -- we've had enough practice. We'd like to have another game or two prior to coming out, yeah, maybe, yeah. In we won a prefer.
Q. Just to follow-up on your plans for being up in the booth, is there a chance that you could at least bring your team out onto the field tomorrow and then go up? Is that a possibility?
COACH Joe Paterno: Again, I want to take a look at at where I got to go and what I got to do. I wish we'd all get off this fact of where I'm going to be and concentrate -- that's one of the things I've been a little bit conflicted about my appearance with the squad yesterday.
The kids are playing the football game. I'd played in a lot of bowl games. This is a good experience for me, and I'm enjoying it and I'm looking forward to competing and being involved in the game. But these kids, it's a one time in their lifetime for so many of them, and I hate like the dickens for everybody to be worried about where Paterno is going to be when they ought to be saying like the Sargeant Kid, I'd glad some people wrote some things about him, he's a California kid.
It's really the players that we ought to be talking about, not where I'm going to be for crying out loud. Who knows -- but next Saturday -- well, Thursday, but who knows what's going to happen by Thursday for crying out loud. I might decide to take a boat to Italy. (Laughter).
Q. Pete Carroll said that Derrick Williams is kind of an X factor for his defense to guard against. Can you talk about what Derrick provides for you from both a scheme perspective and as an offensive decoy in some spots?
COACH Joe Paterno: I think Derrick Williams is an outstanding athlete. One of the best football players in the country. I don't think there's any question about that. He's not only a good wideout, he can run with the football and he's a good passer. We've used him some at quarterback, and we've got a little bit of a package ready in case we need it with some of the same things we've done with him all year at quarterback. We move him around, try to get him one-on- one, try to get him an opportunity to make some big plays, but he's a heck of a football player, heck of a competitor, and we've got to get him involved in the football game. He can't be a decoy.
So, I think Pete's observation is exactly right. We've got to get him in the football game, whether it's an X factor or what, I'm not sure how you described it. He can do a lot of things, and we've got to try to get him in position where he can best use his talent.
Q. Joe, talked about the layoff. On the other hand, you've had a lot of success in bowl games. Is the layoff and the ability to prepare that much a reason, or, if not, what are the reasons you feel like you've been so successful?
COACH Joe Paterno: Well, there again, I have to go back to the assistant coaches and the type of kids we have. I've always felt comfortable when we've gotten a team that was good enough to come to a bowl as prestigious as this one, there was a little something special about them. We've tried to make it a fun thing to begin with. We didn't have any curfew for I guess until maybe three nights ago, and I made it a midnight curfew. And we're down to 11:00 now, but we didn't have any curfew down in Santa Monica. I told them to go out and have fun and don't get in any trouble. Don't -- take care of each other and be careful where you go and things like that.
I wanted them to have a little fun. Then we just -- when it's time to concentrate on what it takes in the way of the physical exertion to be ready, we've been able to get them to respond to that. Now, having said that, we've been fortunate. I was just talking to some of the people who are going to do the radio and, you know, the lady who worked the sideline was at our game last year at the Alamo Bowl against Texas A&M.
Texas A&M, they're knocking that ball in an the kid fumbles the football. Great coaching on my part (laughter). You know, it's a little luck in this game, believe it or not.
I don't know. I think we try to make sure we don't leave the game on the practice field and try to make sure that they understand that and have a little fun in the bowl game, but when they blow the whistles, let's go and the fun begins -- the real fun begins if you're in there ready to competitive.
Q. Coach, comparative scores are just that, but in saying that, what did you take away when you viewed the film of Southern Cal and Ohio State during the regular season?
COACH Joe Paterno: Well, in all fairness to Ohio State, and again, you always -- what you give to one, you have a tendency to take away from the other. I don't want to take anything away from Southern Cal because they were really well prepared for Ohio State. But I think Ohio State was going through that "who is going to play quarterback" kind of thing. They didn't look like they were quite ready and Pryor come on the scene. Obviously, he's a superior talent.
It was a game that was completely dominated by Southern Cal, and obviously we know that early in the year, we didn't know that much about Southern Cal's personnel as we did about Ohio State's personnel. I was a little bit shocked, to be frank with you, to see how dominant Southern Cal was against Ohio State. It looked as if Ohio State maybe hadn't gotten in the groove, and that proved out later on Jim Tressel got them organized and started to use Pryor a little more here and there, and the at the end of the year they were a good football team. That game was a very dominant win for Southern Cal.
Q. Coach, short of being being in the national championship game, is being here at the Rose Bowl and in Southern California, is this about the best consolation prize that a team could hope for?
COACH Joe Paterno: Well, I wouldn't call it consolation prize. I think it's a prize. I think we're playing in one heck of a bowl game, you know, and I remember listening to Rose Bowl when I was a kid on the radio, you know, house in Brooklyn listening to the game. And I remember the great game at Southern Cal when O.J. Simpson ran that 85-yard touchdown run against the great Ohio State team and so forth.
I don't think it's a consolation. I think it's just a great thing to be here and to play a team the caliber of Southern Cal. I'm not trying to blow smoke. I think Southern Cal is as good as any football team in the country. If you told me they were going to play Florida, Texas, Oklahoma tomorrow and you said, "Which is the best?" I think Southern Cal might be the best team of them all. For us to have an opportunity to play them, I think that's great. Whether we're good enough, that's what we've got to find out.
Q. Joe, your seniors came within three, four seconds of having two undefeated seasons. How much regret do you have that these guys never had a chance to play for a national championship?
COACH Joe Paterno: Well, obviously I have some regrets. I have personal regrets for the Iowa game this year because I don't think I did a very good job getting the team ready for that one. The Michigan game was a little bit, maybe strategy thing, kicking off at the end of the football game and letting the kid from Western Pennsylvania run that ball to midfield which gave them will an opportunity to take it in, and there was a little bit of -- an honest dispute as to the clock that I thought -- I didn't have any control of that game. I kind of got -- I could get out of my craw quicker than I could get the Iowa game out of my craw because I really felt I could have done a couple things and we could have won the Iowa game.
But, you know, to go all the way is tough these days. There's so much parity and so many - - the coaching -- I've been coaching for a long time, and I used to look at the schedule, and I'd see some of the guys we were coaching against. And I'd say he's, you know -- these three, four guys, they're learning.
They weren't quite sharp enough for us -- we could out-coach them. Pete put it that way. There isn't anybody we can outcoach anymore. There's so many good young coaches and good coaches and there's so many kids that want to come into coaching that are bright.
Some of these -- we sat last night with Pete and a young GA, got a Pennsylvania background who works with the quarterbacks, kid went to Penn, and finished up at Pitt. You're talking about some guys that are really -- you smell head coach all over them.
That's the part that's made it really tough to win it all, because the minute you make a mistake, the other guy is ready to pounce on it. And the coach at Iowa, he's a heck of a coach in a tough ballgame.
Q. Joe, earlier Pete Carroll called you the living embodiment of Benjamin Button. Are you aware of what that means?
COACH Joe Paterno: The living example of whom?
Q. Benjamin Button, the guy who ages backward, I suppose. COACH Joe Paterno: You know, last movie -- I've seen two movies in the last 40 years. "ET" (laughter) and "Titanic." And I wonder when I saw the Titanic, it felt like I was in the bath. (Laughter). I said to Sue, "What in God's name" -- I don't go to movies. I'm sure Pete meant it in a very nice way (laughter).
And I'm going write him a note and tell him thanks.
COACH Joe Paterno: The only guy been in his job longer than I have been. Go ahead.
Q. John, do you see any similarities to 1987 Miami an the Fiesta Bowl when Penn State was an underdog? And I have a feeling this is a very similar situation. Do you have that same feeling?
COACH Joe Paterno: Well, I think that's a good analogy. I think that Miami, you know, for all intents and purposes, appeared to be a better team than we were, but I felt that, you know, we had only lost one game the year before. We had lost to Oklahoma for the championship, the national championship. We played for the national championship the year before in '85, and so our guys have been in some games of the magnitude when we played Miami in the Fiesta Bowl in '86.
These guys, this football has not had quite that kind of experience yet, and it will be interesting to see how they handle it, but I think the analogy that Southern Cal is a physically a very superior football team and that we have got to really play a great football game, which we did against the Miami, we had kids that played as good a football team that we ever had played for us, a linebacker. I think it's a good comparison, but I hope the result is the same, but there's no guarantee that's going to happen.
Q. Joe, with Pat Devlin leaving and the limited experience behind Darrell, are you concerned at all about --
COACH Joe Paterno: Who left?
Q. With Pat Devlin leaving?
COACH Joe Paterno: Who is that?
Q. And the limited experience behind Daryll, are you concerned at all about Daryll and what you're doing with Daryll keeping him up or anything?
COACH Joe Paterno: No. I think Paul Cianciolo -- you guys that covered us, how many times did I say we had three good quarterbacks? I kept trying to plug Paul. I think Paul is a good quarterback, and I think if something happened to Daryll, he would do a good job, but we also have had all year.
We've had a little package for Derrick Williams at quarterback. We got in certain situations we could use derrick if it was something that we would like to have done with Daryll Clark and he can't do it because he's hurt, something like that, we can do some things with derrick. I think we're ready. Obviously I'm disappointed that the kid left but he's got to do what's best for him.
GINA CHAPPIN: Two more questions on the right, please.
Q. Joe, lost your players yesterday said they fee feel like underdogs in this game. How do you coach them so that they embrace that and kind turn that feeling to their advantage?
COACH Joe Paterno: You're telling me that some of the kids have told you they feel as if they're underdogs?
Q. Yes.
COACH Joe Paterno: I think we are underdogs. That doesn't mean that that's the end of the world.
I mean, you know, you still got to play the game. I hope we -- I hope we play with the idea we're going out there to try to win it and not go in there and just keep it close or something like that. If there's an implication that we're underdogs and hopefully we can go in there and save face or something like that, I don't believe that's true of this team.