Penn State Football Press ConferencePenn State Football Press Conference

Penn State Football Press Conference

Nov. 10, 2009

University Park, Pa; -

Andrew Quarless, Senior, Tight End

Q: How tough was it to shake the Ohio State loss?
A: It was pretty tough to take. The night of, after the game, there were a lot of people who were down. After the game, Coach Paterno spoke to us in the locker room and really just tried to keep spirits up. I think he did a good job of talking and just keeping all the spirits up on the team.

Q: Can you talk about what it is like to be 8-2, with your two losses coming at home in your biggest games?
A: It's not a disaster. Me, I'm personally thinking that 10-2 is not a disaster. That's the way I'm looking at it and the team is looking at it. To finish the season at 10-2 is not a bad record. That's what we're looking forward to.

Q: The fact that you were favored in both of your big games and you didn't win either one of them, does that put a negative on the season?
A: No. We came out in both games and played tough and that's all we could do. We didn't happen to get our big targets but we've got to move past it, we've got Indiana this week. That's what we're looking forward to.

Q: What are you guys seeing in the second halves of these games that you can build on? What would you attribute the second halves against Ohio State and Iowa to - being tired?
A: I wouldn't say tired. From an offensive standpoint, the offense came out a little flat in the second half. But I wouldn't say tired. You just have to keep working hard during every play. That's really what it is.

Q: Andrew, you've had some ups and downs throughout your career. Talk to me about going into the tunnel and coming out for the final time and what that is going to mean for you?
A: It's going to mean a whole lot to me. I feel like it was just yesterday when I started. It's the last game for me and lots of other seniors so, it's going to mean a whole lot. I was talking to Coach (Bill) Kenney yesterday and he was saying that he's never been here and lost on a Senior Day. So that's what we're looking forward to and it's going to mean a whole lot.

Q: What is your impression of Indiana?
A: They are a tough team. The other week when we had a later game, I had a chance to watch them against Iowa and get some early scouting in. They definitely played tough. They've let a couple games slip away from them. We know that coming into this game, so we know we've got to start out fast. We can't come out flat and we have to stick it to them real fast and play tough every play.

Q: Was it tougher to get open in the secondary against Ohio State? What were they doing defensively?
A: I think Ohio State had a good game plan for stopping our passing game. I think they took out a linebacker a couple times and put in another defensive back. That gave them more speed out there. It was just definitely a good game plan.

Josh Hull, Senior, Linebacker

Q: After looking at some of the film, can you reflect on some of the issues with punt coverage and how you can improve on it?
A: Jeremy Boone did a great job in hitting the ball last week against Ohio State. In some cases, I think he may have actually out-kicked the coverage. We struggled at our destroyer position on the edges in getting downfield. Ohio State was extremely physical and they dominated our guys all day in that aspect of the game. With that said, the guys that are on the front line blocking for Jeremy, we need to do a better job getting down the field and executing the tackles. The one punt that they ran back towards the end, I think we had five missed tackles. That's not what Penn State is about and that's not what our punt team is about. Coach (Larry) Johnson does a great job during the week preparing us to go into a game and we just didn't execute, so that's on our shoulders. We didn't take care of business on Saturday.

Q: How much of what you guys do on special teams is more about effort and being in the right position more so than the scheme?
A: It's definitely a lot about effort but, there is not a doubt in my mind that all 11 of those guys were giving effort. Effort is not the question right now. It is executing. We knew what we had to do but we just didn't do it.

Q: What is your team's overall mindset now that you are 8-2 with your two losses being in your biggest games at home?
A: Obviously, coming into this year, myself and the rest of the leaders on this team expected to play in the national championship. We knew we had the athletes on our team, we knew we had the coaching staff. Everything we need to play in a national championship, we have here at Penn State. Obviously, that is out of the question now with two losses. But we still have two games left and if we win out there is a great chance we could play in a BCS bowl. If not a BCS bowl, there is still a great chance we get to play in a January 1st bowl.

Q: What are the challenges of defending Indiana's pistol offense?
A: I think it will be difficult. We haven't really gotten an opportunity to see much of that on offense, just on film. We focused a lot on Ohio State yesterday (Monday), taking some things away from the game and seeing what we need to learn from. Their pistol offense is definitely going to provide some challenges. The quarterback is a precision thrower. If he needs to throw it on the money, he can do it. We haven't really seen much of what their run game is about. I'm sure they're not going to hesitate to run it right between the tackles after they saw what Ohio State did to us last week.

Q: One positive thing on special teams [against Ohio State] was Jeremy Boone's tackle. He saved a touchdown. How much did you guys talk to him about that?
A: Jeremy is a tough kid and he's going to do everything he needs to do to keep the ball out of the end zone. That's exactly what he did. It's a tough play for anyone to make, let alone a punter who doesn't practice tackling. An open-field tackle, that's just a spectacular play on Jeremy's part to keep him out of the end zone.

Q: It's your Senior Day on Saturday. How quickly have the last four or five years gone for you and what are your thoughts on running out of the tunnel for the final time?
A: It has gone way too fast. I can remember running out for the first time (South Florida, 2005) and now all of the sudden, I'm going to be remembering running out for the last time. I know how much effort, hard work and dedication that the rest of my teammates put into this program and into the season this year. It's going to be really special running out of the tunnel for the last time with a bunch of kids who are 100 percent sold into Penn State football.

Q: A lot of the guys came here heavily recruited but you took a different road. Can you talk about that?
A: My road was a little harder than some of the guys at Penn State. But with all that said, I haven't worked any harder than any of my other teammates. Everyone here at Penn State is 100 percent dedicated to getting better and stepping on the field to play. Coming to Penn State, even as a walk-on, I knew that I would be a starter one day. Maybe not for two years but I knew at one point in my career, I was going to start at Penn State. I just did everything in my ability and I took care of everything that I could take care of to put myself in the position I'm in right now.

Q: Did it take a while to close the gap and get used to the speed as compared to high school?
A: It took about a year. The physicality part of the game was not a problem for me. I stepped right in and didn't have any problem with that. The speed was the biggest thing I had to adjust. After my freshman year, I felt like I adapted pretty well to it.