Nov. 10, 2015
Q: Can you evaluate the overall performance this season of Christian Hackenberg in general, and in particular, in the areas of accuracy and consistency?
JF: I think the last six weeks he's played really well. You look at his touchdown-to-interception ratio; really done a great job of protecting the ball. Making big plays down the field. I think all of things have improved. We're making more plays for him as well and we're protecting him better. We gave up a couple of critical sacks on Saturday, but it was two and I think we had four sacks against Northwestern and gave up two. So, we can still improve there. Overall, he's doing a great job. He checked to the first down run on the third and long. He checked to that run just like we want him to do in that situation. He's improving every single week; getting more comfortable and confident. I think more than anything like I've talked about since I've here, the improvement of the guys around him to allow him focus on his job.
Q: How about his accuracy and consistency?
JF: I think it's been improved. I think like all quarterbacks, you want to throw for a higher percentage all of the time. That's part of the consistency. The touchdown-to-interception ratio speaks volumes about the accuracy and consistency. I think all quarterbacks are looking to be more accurate and be more consistent, you're going to feel that way even if you throw for 90 percent. That's an area that he's still looking to improve and we're still looking to improve as an offense and as a team.
Q: What are your recruiting goals and objectives for this week (bye week)?
JF: We're going to have our normal Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday practices. When I say normal, we're going to practice, it will be a modified version of those practices with a little bit more of an emphasis on the young guys. We're able to hold out some of the guys who have had nagging injuries all year long that we haven't really been able to get over. Thursday, we're going to have a practice for just the non-travel guys, the guys that haven't played, most of the redshirt guys. Have practice for just those guys with the GA's, working on fundamentals and doing some tempo team and skelly stuff. The coaches will obviously be out recruiting Friday; get a little bit of down time on Saturday, some guys will still be recruiting. Sunday, get back to work. Sunday will be a little different. Instead of splitting time between the previous game and the upcoming game, you're able to spend all of your time on the upcoming game as well as this week we're obviously spending time on getting ready for Michigan. We're taking an hour or two a day this week and watching some recruiting film as offensive and defensive staffs that we wouldn't normally do on a normal week. It's a combination of all those things we're trying to accomplish.
The other thing is, everybody finds out it's a bye week. So, there's 35 different meetings on our schedule and on my schedule. Because people see it as a week off, a lot of things like that. I just got back from a meeting across campus about the master plan with athletics. You'd think it would be a slower week but in some ways it may busier.
Q: Some of your players had a chance to do some community service (on Monday). Can you talk about what it means to have your players get involved?
JF: We think it's part of their educational process. It's about learning to be a man and making a positive impact in your community. It's about embracing the tradition of service that we have at Penn State with THON and all the great things we do. We hired a guy on our staff that's completely his job is community service; supporting our players off the field --academically, resumes, internships and post-grad opportunities. We take a lot of pride in that. Being able to take some time and try to instill those values of service in our players as freshmen. A lot of times they do it and they have such a positive experience that they catch the service bug. And now it's with them not only the rest of their college career, but the rest of their life. We work hard at those things. We had the guys out all over the community yesterday. About five different locations our guys were at, whether it was doing manual labor or hanging out with some kids. Our guys really enjoy it. That's one of the real positive things that we've got going on and I'm really proud of our guys and our program with what we're doing with those projects.
Q: Going back to the facilities master plan. Sandy (Barbour) said a lot of the coaches have previously met. What would be at the top of your wish list as far as upgrades?
JF: I literally just got back from my meeting. All of the coaches are doing it. I did mine with the bye week, obviously. It's nothing that I haven't already voiced. We've got a great facility (Lasch Building); we've got great bones. We've got the infrastructure and the size that we need; it's the updates. We've made some progress there already, still got some work to do. It's more that than anything. Some people are trying to get certain facilities built; we're just trying to get some things updated. Another thing that's been discussed, not just for football, but more for the other sports, is possibly getting another indoor facility on campus. Our indoor facility (Holuba Hall) once the weather breaks, is packed from 6 in the morning until 12 o'clock at night. Which also creates wear and tear issues and makes it difficult for us to do the necessary upkeep and things that need to happen, because it's used basically 20 hours a day. Those things are some of the things that are in discussion. There's a lot of (public) conversation about the stadium. Right now, my focus is on the season. The discussions we've had about Lasch, we've talked about before. I think you're aware of those things. There were more discussions and conversations that went on before the season started so that once the season started we could focus.