Dec. 7, 2014
Q: You go into a season not even thinking you probably don't have a chance to go to a bowl and now this opportunity presents itself. I wonder what your kind of emotions are now that you are going to a bowl.
A: Well, I would say it's excitement, because I know how important these practices are on a lot of different levels. Obviously getting prepared to play Boston College, a tough opponent, [and] also to continue to just get better as a team and a program. And then the amount of work that we're getting with the young guys already has been big. I just think from a program perspective, it's invaluable.
Q: James, what do you know about this year's BC team or Steve Addazio?
A: I've known coach [Steve] Addazio for a long time. Don Brown, the defensive coordinator there, we worked together at the University of Maryland. I think very highly of him. Frank Leonard, their tight ends coach, we worked together at Kansas State. I think very highly of Frank and one of my good friends. They've done a great job there. Tough, hard nose, blue collar. [They've] been there a couple years now. BC's always had a history of having a hard-nose, blue collar team, really good on the offensive line. I haven't studied them enough yet at this point. Once we found out the news, we were already on the road. All of the coaches already have all the film downloaded onto their iPads. We've got that done already, so coaches that are on the road recruiting are starting to look at that, the [graduate assistants] are starting to break it down. But we'll get more familiar with them over the next couple of days.
Q: What kind of "bowl schedule" practice do you have set up? What do you hope to accomplish with those practices and even going beyond Boston College?
A: I think that's really how we are kind of looking at it, as a big picture. Obviously short term, it allows us to keep our family together a little bit longer and continue this season that we've had. And obviously, big picture, moving forward the extra reps in practice and things like that are very, very important. We've practiced already on Saturday and Sunday. We'll practice most of the weekends. We'll also have some practices during the week, which will be coordinator practices. So it will by myself, the offense, the defense and the special teams coordinators. The rest of the coaches will all be on the road recruiting. Obviously, the closer we get to game time, we'll get into our normal routine.
Q: Do you know when you will be heading to New York, when you guys will be going there and will any practices be there or most of them be here?
A: Yeah, we have all the entire schedule already all mapped out, we've had that for months for all the bowls. We do those things ahead of time, your travel days, your practices, practice dates, practice location, they're all set. I would say 80 percent of the practices will happen here. But then you will have some practices at the bowl site as well. I don't have the calendar. I just checked into a hotel in Pittsburgh after getting done a home visit and I don't have the calendar in front of me right now, but it's all mapped out and ready to go.
Q: You get to go to New York, which has a pretty strong Penn State alumni base, what are your feelings on that?
A: First of all, how cool is this, you're 18, 19, 20, 21 year old young man, and you get to spend a week in Ireland and a week in New York City in the same year, pretty cool. Obviously being in a region and a country that Penn State has real strong ties is awesome. I know our Alumni Association is excited about some of the things that they are able to put on. The state of New York and New York City are very, very important to Penn State and always will be. I think it's a lot of unique opportunities that go with this as well. We are looking forward to taking advantage of all those but more importantly making sure our guys have a great experience and an opportunity to play well.
Q: James, I was just curious, from a person perspective, you have about three weeks to kind of get ready for BC. What kind of advantage do you think it is for your staff to have the extra time?
A: Well, it's really not an advantage because they're getting the same amount of time. It's not like you're getting a different amount of time than they are. Obviously being able to spend the time for us, I think is important getting healthy, the fundamentals and technique. You have to be careful because if you have too much time, you try to get too cute and kind of get away from who you are. So I think you have to be careful. Time actually can be a negative. That's why we don't really spend the entire time working just on BC. The first half of our bowl practices will be basically what we call program development practices, which will be like spring ball. We'll go against each other; we'll get a chance to work the [third string] in and practices, which haven't been getting reps the rest of the season. Then as we get closer to the game, we'll get into our normal game week with a few extra bonus practices. We normally have Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday walk through. We'll add maybe two extra practices to get ready on BC. Obviously we'll be watching film and talking about them. We want to use this time to develop the young guys, to sharpen up the old guys and continue to build the foundation that we are trying to lay here.
Q: What advantage do you think there is for not only for the players but for the fans to play a game so close to home, especially after starting the season so far away?
A: I think in a lot of ways, this worked out well. The way that the Big Ten works out you're going to have to rotate through all the bowls, all the different bowl locations. I think that we're going to be able to play in a bowl that we should be able to have a really, really strong presence. So what I'm saying is that Alumni and former players, getting back as many as we possibly can for the game is really important. For a lot of the families that really sacrificed to save their money to go to Ireland and support this team, this is a bowl, from a location stand point, from a travel standpoint that they can continue to support their team, The Nittany Lions, the Blue and White. I think there are a lot of real positives for that. I just saw, and it was pretty cool, on Twitter that Donovan Smith, who's originally from New York, his grandfather has never seen him play a college game and now that the games going to be in New York, there's a chance his grandfather will be able to see to see him play for the first time in his college career. There are some benefits to it, I don't think there's any doubt. Obviously it's a big recruiting area for us, New York, New Jersey, so were excited.
Q: Starting to ask about Yankee Stadium itself, this is the Pinstripe Bowl. They've probably only played a handful of games in Yankee Stadium. Just wondering what you thought about playing in a structure such as that.
A: You know, I have a buddy named Mike Santella, who is an o-line coach and was my college roommate at East Stroudsburg and he is the biggest Yankee fan that there is. He has invited me to go there a number of times. I've never been there. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to, obviously, play another game and be together as a family. It is cool that you're going to play in Yankee Stadium. I'll be interested to just see the layout and how they will make it work. I'm just excited that we get an opportunity to play again and continue building on what we are doing here.
Q: James, just from a health standpoint, you got a lot of guys banged up by the end of the year. How important are these couple of weeks to get guys sort of rest and recharged?
A: Really important. As you guys know, I think our number we were at 65 scholarships. If you take the guys that we are red-shirting out of that equation, I think the numbers are somewhere around 47. At the end of the season, we had, I think, another nine scholarship guys that [inaudible]. The time off is really important. It comes at a good time with exams so they can finish strong academically. But yeah, the time off and trying to get as many guys back as healthy as we possibly can. It's not just the injuries that the guys that are out, it's the nagging ankles, the nagging strains that they aren't applying at 100 percent. All those things are really, really important, accepting the situation that we are in.
Q: Yeah, I was going to ask about the time off to heal guys up, James. But Christian Hackenberg specifically this time off to get him through some of the things that he's been through or all the hits that he's taken all year.
A: I think the injuries of the guys that are out and know you have a chance in the next couple of weeks to get them back, that's huge. Guys that have had nagging hamstrings or ankles the idea that you can get them back as close to 100% as possible is huge. And then like you are saying, guys that have just been getting banged on and their bodies are sore, to be able to get a week or so off and be able to get in there and get in the cold tubs and the hot tubs, massages things like that. Just to get their legs back and get their bodies back to the way that they should feel. Now all those things are really valuable. We've got a lot of wear and tear on our guys this year.
Q: You practiced yesterday and what is the mood of the guys? Are they excited? I guess they didn't know exactly where they were going, but they knew they were going somewhere. What's the moral of the troops right now?
A: I think it's good, but I think it's always different when you find out where you are playing. I saw a lot of tweets and things go out from our guys and I think it changes things. It's one thing to be practicing because you know you are bowl eligible and it's another thing to find out where you're going and find out the details. I know our guys are excited. It does help that our fans and alumni are able to come to the game. This is also a game where a lot of our regional players and regional guys their families are going to be able to come. There's a lot of benefits to this, but the moral is good. Once we got down to where we are going, that will help as well.
Q: Basically, how have you been balancing everything the last week? Because you said you kind of have a preliminary schedule sketched out here. But you've kind of been all over the map.
A: We've got a great administrative staff and they do a really good job. So having all these things planned out, they all have to work together. We get our practices set as quickly as we possibly can, because then we schedule all the recruiting trips around that. This isn't our first rodeo doing this as a staff we've done it every year now, balancing bowl games and recruiting together. I think we've got a good idea of being able to do that, a pretty good plan on how to do that. It's running in a bunch of different directions. And the other thing that I was with my daughters this morning, I haven't had a chance to see my wife and daughters very much, and they are getting to an age where that's starting to kind of be an issue. Spending some time with my daughters this morning, being able to go to practice and then come back for an hour, pack and get out of there and get on the road, just trying to balance it all. It's a challenge but it's part of the deal. I actually enjoy it. I enjoy the change of pace of the job. It's not about go to the office and sit at your desk, 365 days a year. You've got times of the year where you go recruiting and you are on the road. There's time of the year where you're in the office watching films; there's times of the year where you are out on the field practicing. It's a bunch of different hats that you wear in this job. And I actually like that. I like the diversity of the profession.
Q: Boston College is a team that runs the ball a lot, that's basically their bread and butter. Does it help at all from the preparing standpoint that this bowl game plays tone of your strengths.
A: Yeah, but they do a great job. Everybody knows that they're going to run the ball and they've been able to do it all year long. I think part of that is quarterback's running game, he's a young man that transferred in there and is extremely athletic. He's been a playmaker for him. They're basically playing wildcat offense all the time with a really mobile quarterback. It will be a challenge. We've been pretty good all year long with stopping the run, but we haven't really faced this type of offense where, like I said, they're playing wildcat quarterback, basically all the time.
Q: Will there be maybe a few more twists maybe in a game, maybe help the players to do something different?
A: Yeah, I actually made a comment earlier on this call that I think you have to be careful the extra time you end up being too creative and trying to be too cute and you have too much times on your hand. I think you have to be careful with that, that's why a lot of our practices are only on what's best for us here at Penn State. Not necessarily about our opponent. Obviously you've got plenty of time that you should be able to know them but they have plenty of time to know you as well.
Q: I'm not sure if you saw a lot of what was out there last week, but Jordan Lucas tweeted out about how he would like to where the pink and black jersey for Penn State. Do you see anything like that happening in the future?
A: I saw the tweets that went out and I saw the uniforms that people had created online and they look really cool. I think the basketball team has done it and had some success so hopefully that opens up the possibility of those things. But I don't know, people feel pretty strongly about the Penn State football uniforms, so you've got to be careful there. The other thing is typically with uniforms going and you are working with Nike on, that's something that usually takes about a year and a half to two years to get done. I think it's an interesting idea, especially if you can match it up with breast cancer awareness and things like that. It was pretty cool. We've got a great uniform that's very identifiable and iconic and people love it. So, I know the recruits love it, our alumni and fans love it as well. I do know that our players were jabbing me making comments about it the other day.
Q: So James, how did you find out today that you guys would be going to the Pinstripe Bowl. I know you guys are on the road, but how, when you find out. What kind of discussions, if any, are out there about the bowl do you have about landing this bowl destination?
A: All along, you kind of have an idea that you know what kind of bowls are kind of that you have an opportunity to be a part of. Myself, obviously Sandy Barbour, Rick Kaluza, the administration, were having discussions. A lot of different people are involved in it and have their opinions. But in the end your record is going to dictate a lot of those things and the Big Ten is going to have really the control of how it's going to play itself out. There's discussion ongoing. And then you find out and obviously it was being speculated on Twitter. I found out, officially, from Sandy.