Dec. 7, 2008
THE MODERATOR: On behalf of the Tournament of Roses, welcome to the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi BCS conference call. For tonight's call, well introduce each of our participating head coaches. Following their statements we will turn it over for questions. At this time I'd like to introduce president of the Tournament of Roses Corky Conzonire.
CORKY CONZONIRE: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, of the press. It is certainly a pleasure to be with you tonight. On behalf of the Tournament of Roses, we are really delighted to welcome the Penn State Nittany Lions and the University of Southern California Trojans for the 95th Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi. We are looking forward to a terrific New Year's Day game and wish both Coach Paterno and Coach Carroll the very best in their preparation and planning for their trip to Pasadena. Thank you and congratulations once again.
THE MODERATOR: At this time I'd like to introduce head coach for the Nittany Lions, Joe Paterno. Coach, if you could make a brief opening comment.
COACH PATERNO: We're delighted to have an opportunity to go out there to Pasadena and play against a team with the caliber and tradition of Southern Cal. We're excited. All of our fans are excited. My team is excited. We realize we have a very formidable challenge in playing a team of the quality of Southern Cal, a team I think is one of the two or three best teams in the country. But we're looking forward to it, just getting back at it out there, being part of something that's one of the great traditions in college football.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. Next up I'd like to introduce head coach for the Trojans, Pete Carroll.
COACH CARROLL: We're likewise thrilled to be part of the Rose Bowl once again. We've loved our association with the Rose Bowl in years past and consider it a great honor to play in this game. It's wonderful for our university and for our fans to have a chance to celebrate this whole thing with us out here. We think the world of this opportunity. To put Penn State as a matchup is extraordinary for us. I think it will be of great interest across the country, a great program for years and years. Matching up with the history of our program I think makes it just a great game for us on New Year's Day. To have a chance to work against and coach against Coach Paterno is a great honor. We're going to give him everything we got, but we know we're up against the best of all time. So we look forward to it. We're going to make it a great event and fun for our kids as we prepare for it once again. We expect nothing but a great matchup and a great ballgame. We look forward to it and can't wait to get started on it.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions now.
Q. Pete, there's been some sentiment out there, I don't know how true it is, that a fifth Rose Bowl in six years, another Big 10 team, is maybe not what your players would want to do, that they're a little bored with this. Are you going to address that? If so, how?
COACH CARROLL: First off, that's absolutely media driven. Our writers have thrown that out a couple times. Watch the interviews from our players and coaches. We're pumped about this opportunity, excited, feel honored that we have this matchup. Everything else you hear to the contrary is written by people from the media side of it. That's not our guys talking. It's never what we've been about. The goal of our program year in and year out since we've been here the last eight years has been to get to the Rose Bowl and win that thing. That's all we've ever shot for. We never set our sights on the BCS process. If we ever get that opportunity and they ask us to play in the championship game, we'll do it. Being that's out of our control, we know that the Rose Bowl is within our control and that's what we shoot for around here. Every single day we walk off the practice field, we see the Rose Bowl at the end of the tunnel, everybody knows that's what we're shooting for. There's no doubt about it. We're all pumped up about this. Everything you hear contrary, you can go ahead and know that's coming from somewhere else.
Q. Coach Paterno, how excited are you, given the legacy of your great coaching career, to have an opportunity to play a great team like USC, do it on national TV, in the BCS system, and do it with a team that's really made a ton of progress the last couple of years?
COACH PATERNO: Well, obviously I'm very excited. I think any time you've gone as long as I've gone and have an opportunity to do what we're going to have in a few weeks, I'm excited. I know my team's excited. I just hope we can do a good job and make it a great game. As I said earlier, I think we're going to play one of the two or three best football teams in the country. But it's kind of nice, kind of exciting, something 45 years ago I wouldn't have dreamed of happening.
Q. Can you tell us how your team has grown the last year or two?
COACH PATERNO: Well, we've been pretty good over the last four years. In '05 we had a shot at it. Lost on the last play of the ballgame to a good Michigan football team. But, yeah, they've grown. They've gotten a little better. Our quarterback (Daryll Clark) has really come along, and that's made a big difference for us. They're good kids and they work hard and they enjoy playing. I've enjoyed being around them. You know, it's been a plus situation for us. They've made progress because they work hard. Now, whether they've made enough progress, that's what we're going to find out.
Q. Obviously being one loss teams, I assume both you feel as though you deserve to be in the national championship game. Are you both looking at the Rose Bowl as your opportunity to maybe lay claim to that national title after the Bowl season is completed?
COACH PATERNO: I'm only looking forward to playing Southern Cal, that's all I'm looking forward to.
COACH CARROLL: Yeah, we're not in this process to know how this thing works. I know I've heard coach talk about it, too. The BCS does what it does. We play the games. This is the opportunity that we're afforded. I think we're both pumped up, fired up to do it. I think we're in similar situations, though, as I look at it. We played a game during the year that we didn't get, and it weighed heavily on the voting. These are two teams that have accomplished a lot, championship teams that have done a bunch of good things. We match up so unbelievably close statistically, it should be a great game. Maybe this is the best game in the country. I know we're going to go about it in that manner. I'm sure coach and his guys are, too. But here there's no room to talk about what could have been. I think this is such a great game, such a great opportunity, we're going to go for it and make the most of it.
Q. Joe, have you watched USC very closely over the last four or five years and can you talk about the matchup against Pete Carroll?
COACH PATERNO: I certainly have because they've done so many things so well. We're all copycats in the coaching business. When somebody is doing some things as innovative as Pete has done there at Southern Cal, the way he's moved people around, personnel and everything else, a lot of different things he's done, not only on the offense, which gets all the publicity, but they're playing so well defensively. I've watched them. In fact, I've been watching them the last two weeks, to be frank with you. I have some TV tapes that we had taken. I've looked at them, watched them, try to get a feel for their personnel, try to get a feel for the things that we may have to we know we have to do. But, Pete has done a terrific job. He has two or three coaches out there that really changed the whole game of football. Pete certainly has been right there at the top of it.
Q. Coach Paterno, how is your recovery from surgery going? Do you expect to be on the sidelines for the Bowl game?
COACH PATERNO: It's going really well. We had practice Friday and Saturday, not very long, because we had recruits up over the weekend we were entertaining. I got out of the cart for a little bit. I'm walking around pretty good. I think I'm going to be able to be on the sideline. I hope so. I think to miss that experience of being there in the Rose Bowl, looking across the field, seeing those Trojans, Pete, the whole bit, I may regret it, but I'm looking forward to it (laughter).
Q. Pete, can you talk us through how things are going to work in terms of recruiting now that Sark has the Washington job.
COACH CARROLL: He's going to recruit for Washington and he's going to coach with us. We're kind of broken up through finals here and the Christmas break and all. But the recruiting goes dead here over the holidays. He'll jump in with us and stay with the game planning and all that. We'll count on him to battle with us, just like he has forever, then he'll be working in the recruiting area for them. I know he can't move very far ahead with his team at this point, obviously other than recruiting. We made an agreement to do that. He deserves to be with us. We loved having him battle with us. He also deserves to get his program started. He's got to do all that at the same time. It will wear him out, but that's okay, he'll do his part.
Q. Pete, have you had an opportunity to see Penn State play much this year? What are your thoughts on them if you have?
COACH CARROLL: Basically caught them early on against Oregon State when they just rolled right through that game. Was very impressed with everything they did. I mean, it was just a dynamic game for them. Then I've just seen the highlights and stuff through the course of the season. I've not caught them on film since then.
Q. Pete, can you talk about Joe? He's been making news in this sport pretty much your whole life. Other than all the wins he's had, what has stood out in your mind to last so long and be so successful?
COACH CARROLL: Other than the fact he rolls his pants up so you can see his socks (laughter). Everything. He's stood for college football and for football in general as a true icon in every sense of the word. He's brought a tremendous energy and spirit to football and to the game, love of the game that will last forever. I've had a chance, we've been in a couple functions together, I see how feisty he is, how tough he is. I know how he's been able to maintain it. I can't even imagine, coach, how you've done this. Look at what we're up against. I just marvel at all of the years and the excellence and standards that you've always upheld for this game. So with all that, you know, it just makes it it's a great thrill to go against you. I heard that in 1923, SC played Penn State. I don't think you were there, but there was a fight between the coaches in the pregame. I know that you're a little under the weather recovering, but I'm sure you still got a good left hand.
COACH PATERNO: If you got to worry about my left hand, you're in real trouble (laughter).
COACH CARROLL: Anyway, it's going to be a great thrill. We're going to have all the fun with it we can. Coach, I wish you the very best in all this. It's going to be great going against you.
COACH PATERNO: Thanks, Pete. That was nice of you.
Q. Coach Paterno, Pete Carroll was talking about how he thinks this might be one of the best Bowl matchups in the country. These are clearly two storied programs. Have you given that any thought, the enormous national interest this game will have?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I haven't yet. As far as a national interest, I haven't had a chance to think about that. I just know that our fans, the excitement when we were going to go to the Rose Bowl. At that time we weren't quite sure who we were going to play because Southern Cal, with the BCS, all that stuff. But after last night I've had four or five telephone calls from different people saying, "I need three tickets, four tickets." I said, "Yeah, go get 'em" (laughter). There really is a lot of excitement. You know, I think we're going to have a heck of a football game. I hope we can go out there and be competitive with them. I'm a little bit nervous. This is a very, very impressive football team, Southern Cal. They do everything well. It's going to be one of those things. We're just going to go out there and enjoy it, as Pete said earlier, have some fun. That's what I think. I think our fans and everybody will. As far as your question about the national interest, I really haven't had a chance to get into that. I try not to read the newspapers much. The media sometimes has a little axe to grind, they've got to create some interest in something, so I try to stay away from that. I would assume there will be a lot of interest in it. It's the first of the BCS games. I think Southern Cal has every right to think they could play anybody and do as well. I don't know whether we can do that kind of bragging, but we're pretty good, and we'll see.
Q. Coach Paterno, you have had a lot of great linebackers during your career. Can you talk about USC's linebacking crew.
COACH PATERNO: I think they're terrific. That (Brian) Cushing kid, I'm still mad at Carroll for coming into Jersey and taking him out from under our nose, Bergen Catholic. They run well, they're smart. They time blitz well. They're big time. They're big time, they really are. The two outside guys get maybe a little bit more action, but the third guy is pretty good, too. They're all good. It's a heck of a defensive team. I mean, they got a couple guys in that secondary that will knock your head off.
Q. How did you spend your last two weeks of recovery? What was it like getting back to practice for you last week?
COACH PATERNO: Well, I'm not incapacitated. I've tried to get caught up on some paperwork. I'm still way, way behind. I have so many people dropping me notes, sending me cards, telephone calls, things like that. But I tried to look at some of our season's tapes. Always in the back of my mind, a chance to play Southern Cal might be there, so I've looked at tapes of Southern Cal. I put a couple of practice schedules together, things like that. I walk around. I do everything. They operated Sunday (Nov. 23) and I was home Tuesday. It's not one of those things where I've had to be on my back.
THE MODERATOR: Coach Paterno and Coach Carroll, we appreciate you taking time out of I'm sure what is a busy schedule. On behalf of the tournament president Corky Conzonire and our CEO Mitch Dorger and the entire Tournament of Roses staff and volunteers, we congratulate you both and look forward to a matchup on January 1st.
COACH PATERNO: See you soon, kid. Looking forward to it.
COACH CARROLL: All right, coach. Anything we can do to help you out this way, give me a holler.
COACH PATERNO: All right, Pete. We'll talk a little later.