Sept. 13, 2016
Opening Statement
I really appreciate everybody being here. I would like to start with just a brief statement. Thoughts and prayers are with the Brandon Jackson family, and Army's Head Football Coach Jeff Monken for their loss. Brandon played against us last year as a true freshman, had seven tackles and a sack, and the fact is that he's been taken way too soon, so our thoughts and prayers go out to Brandon Jackson's family as well as the Army football family.
I want to talk about Pitt briefly. You know, looking back at that tape and evaluating -- the first thing I want to talk about is how proud I am of our guys, how they battled and persevered, and also how they handled themselves postgame in the press conference. I thought those guys did a really, really good job. I'm really proud of them. Obviously, we needed to play better, especially early in the game, and offensively, we have to secure the ball. We have to be better on third down, although we're getting a lot more first downs on first and second down, which is really what you want to do. We need to be better on third down. Defensively [it was] alignment, keys and gap accountability there were our issues. You know, defensive line, not being gap accountable with their big physical offensive line and then consistency tackling.
Special teams [it was] kick location, whether it was kickoff or punt, we have to be more consistent with our location. I think special teams, we've made some significant strides, but we have to eliminate the big plays and momentum-swinging plays.
We are excited about, this week, being back in Beaver Stadium and the Stripe Out, which last year I thought went extremely well. Tremendous environment. Obviously, we had the whiteout tradition here for a long time, and hopefully the Stripe Out continues to be a tradition.
You look at the specifics to Temple and the history of the recent games. Obviously, last year we're all aware of. The season before, 30-13 here in State College. The year before that, in 2012, the year before we got here was 24-12. In 2011, at Lincoln Financial Field was 14-10. This game has become more and more competitive. Obviously, the Temple football program has improved dramatically over the last ten years, not only with Coach Rhule, who is doing a great job, but Coach Addazio did a great job there as well, and Coach Golden really got it started there as well.
Offensively, Glen Thomas, their offensive coordinator, this is his first season coordinating for them, but was on the staff before as the quarterbacks coach. They are a physical outfit that wants to run the ball and use the run to set up the play action pass. I am very impressed with their quarterback, Phillip Walker. He's a playmaker for them. [Phillip] and running back Jahad [Thomas], both of those guys went to the same high school. Both are big-time players out of Elizabeth High School in New Jersey. He's [Walker] been an impressive guy. He has a chance to break almost every record for a quarterback at Temple. So, [I've] been very impressed with him.
Defensively, Phil Snow is their defensive coordinator. It is a tough, fast, physical, well-coached defensive unit. Coach Snow is very well respected all over the country and has been doing it for a very long time. Special teams, Ed Foley has a very sound special teams unit, and have been for a number of years. They returned 12 of 24 starters, six on offense, six on defense, and four on special teams. So, it should be tremendous opportunity. I know our guys are excited to get back out and play in Beaver Stadium.
Q. James, can you discuss the decision to throw the ball into the end zone last week and risk a shot at a field goal.
JF: You know, obviously, we were having a lot of success throwing the ball. We picked up a big fourth-and-16…You look at the success Trace [McSorley] had throwing the football. We were able to mix the run in, but were having a lot more success throwing the football. We had run a double move on their safety earlier, had a chance for a big play and based on where the clock and having one time-out, we had burned two time-outs to give our offense as much time as possible late in the game. After the fact, when you see the result of the game, result of that play, you'd love to say run the ball a little more in that situation, but we had some other issues that did not help that play be successful. So, after the fact, it's easy to say we should have run the ball or called something different in that situation, but it's something that we discussed as an offensive staff. It's something we discussed as a team, but we had been very successful being aggressive, throwing the ball for really the whole second half.
Q. What are thoughts on DaeSean Hamilton's up and down day and how he handled it? And what are your thoughts on DeAndre Thompkins and his development into kind of a big-play threat?
JF: I love DaeSean Hamilton, he's a guy who's had a lot of success in his career, he works extremely hard and I believe in DaeSean Hamilton, always have and always will. We will continue to go to him in those situations, and I know he'll have opportunities to make more big plays for us the rest of his career and after that.
Thompkins is a great example. Most times when guys don't have success as quickly as they want [it's tough]. Things are going to happen when it's meant to happen and DeAndre is a young man that just kept working hard, waiting for his opportunities, and when his opportunities have come he's made plays. He's a guy that can really run. I think actually in some ways we can throw the ball further down and separate him a little bit more with his speed. He's put on, I think almost 20 pounds since he's been here, so he's able to be physical and fight for the ball in the air. That's been impressive. He's done it at important times, critical times, during the game. So I've been pleased with him. I think Coach Gattis has done a great job with his development, as well as the older wide receivers have in taking [DeAndre] under their wing. It's great to see young guys like that developing off the field, developing on the field and having some fun and having some success.
Q. You mentioned the need to get off to better starts. Have you been able to pick up on any common threads in the first two weeks and what as a coach do you need to improve on it?
JF: I think the first week was a typical first week. Last week, it was a tough environment. That stadium was rocking. There was a lot of emotion. We anticipated all of those things. We did a lot of stuff to work with noise in the stadium and I made some comments to you guys after the game about some challenges that we had, but I'm going to move on from now. We didn't handle that as well as we would have liked. First game on the road in a very intense environment and we started out a little bit slow.
I think the biggest thing…was the turnovers. Turnovers in our own area of the field really put our defense in a tough position. That's [limit turnovers] the thing we have to do. If you look back to the beginning of time, the beginning of football, if you turn the ball over, you're going to have a difficult time being successful, especially when you do it in your own end of the field.
Q. There are about 500 lettermen coming back for their reunion Friday night. Do you plan to be involved in that in any way, and what would it be like to have that many players back for a game?
JF: I think it's great. That's one of the things that makes us special is when we're able to get this type of support and guys come back that feel a real strong connection to the University and the football program. That's something that myself, Terry [Smith], Wally Richardson and all of guys are continuing to build and work on those relationships. That's something that's very important. I'm glad all of those guys are going to be back in town and going to be at the game this weekend. That's the type of support that's made this place so special for so long.
Q. I wanted to ask you about the tackling. Why do you think there are the tackling issues going on? How surprising is it, and how quickly do you guys think you can get that fixed?
JF: I think it's a combination of things. It's fundamentals and technique that we need to do a better job of coaching. It's also the fact that, like I mentioned at the beginning of the season, we have the second youngest team in the FBS. Those things show up when you go on the road and are handling a tough environment with a young team.
And on top of that, the tackling. We need to do a better job. That fine line of what can you do in practice with fundamentals and technique without live tackling. I think that's something we need to do a better job of coaching. We have to do a better job of emphasizing, embracing, and understanding that throwing a shoulder is not good enough when you have big, physical running backs.
Q. I wanted to ask you about the tempo of the offense. At Pitt it seemed like you guys ran quicker early in the game and did more with the check-with-me later in the game. Also, you ran three fewer plays than you did against Kent State but you did it in eight fewer minutes. What are your thoughts on that?
JF: Tempo is based on what we're anticipating from the defense, what we've seen on film. Can get up and run our tempo where we just get up and snap the ball or do we have the check-with-me plays. A lot of it is based on our game plan and what we've seen on film, do we feel like we have plays that we can call and get up and run in a quick tempo.
The next step is getting in a situation, maybe on third down, where you want to make sure that you have an idea of where the blitz is coming, where the pressure's coming, to find out what coverage they're in and check those situations. You have other situations where they are coming out and showing different looks than what they've shown on film, and you don't feel great about your original call and need to get out of it. So we're going to have some weeks where we go really, really fast. We're going to have other weeks where we're going to have to slow it down. It's all based on what Joe [Moorhead] needs to get us in the best play possible. That's going to vary. That's going to vary week to week based on who we play.
Q. You used a couple of different guys on return kickoffs. I'm wondering how you determine who does it when. Is that just a rotation? And related to that, I imagine you want to work Miles Sanders into the game, not just on returns but on offense, and how will you sort of determine when he's ready for that?
JF: On kickoff return, we're basically not having as much success there as we want to have. We have a couple guys that we feel have the chance to do it, and we're waiting for someone to take the job. We need to block better with the other ten guys on the field, but we're waiting for somebody to step up and make some plays, break some tackles, make some people miss and create some big plays and do it consistently. Then we can go with one guy. That's why you're seeing a rotation with those guys back there to figure out who that will be.
I think Saquon [Barkley] will have a role, but we'd love for somebody else to be the main kickoff returner and just let Saquon take some throughout the year.
And Miles, as a running back, is very similar to Saquon early in the season last year. Saquon didn't have a big role and that role improved as the season went on. Miles' situation is a little bit different with having Saquon as kind of the established starting tailback, which makes those opportunities a little bit smaller. All of those things were discussed before the season started and we felt before the year was out, we were going to need him and obviously this [returning kicks] is something Miles wanted to do, as well. So, it's a combination of those things.
In a perfect world, we'd would you love for him to get a few more opportunities, as well as the other backs. But when we left camp, you guys saw the depth chart, and that's kind of where it sits right now.
Q. How do you work on ball security, specifically with the quarterbacks? Is that something that realistically can be fixed quickly without throwing blind-side hits at quarterbacks during practice?
JF: That's one thing that is a little bit different. Typically, when you're talking about ball security, you're talking about decision making at the quarterback position, meaning interceptions, not ball security. We do the same ball security drills with the quarterbacks that we do with everybody else on the offense every single day. We take a period every single day, every practice since I've been here, and do ball security.
Standing in the pocket is a different thing. The quarterbacks do not get the banging in practice and the stripping and things that other positions do. You just can't afford to have those guys getting hit like the other positions. So that's something that we just need to continue to emphasize: ball security, two hands in the pocket, and being physical and durable enough to make sure you're going to getting tackled, but you have to come down with the ball. I think there's a difference between fumbles, and when you get hit while you're delivering the football. You take one hand off the ball and actually throw and you get hit from the blind side, that's a little bit different than the other ones. We need to protect the quarterback better in those situations. The other hits where he's getting hit while he has the two hands on the ball or the ball is tucked away, that's something that we need to get fixed.
Q. There were several absences on defense, like [Jason] Cabinda, [Kevin] Givens and [Grant] Haley at Pitt, do you think that affected you guys and do you expect to have some of those same absences against Temple?
JF: I think whenever you're missing starters and missing guys that have played significant reps for you, and you're a young football team, you get the combination of those two things, there's no doubt, it creates challenges. You have less experienced guys on the field that have to step up in more prominent roles. There's no doubt about it. Kevin Givens is already a redshirt freshman and is starting and playing a big role, and then you lose him. Jason Cabinda has played a lot of football here and was playing at a high level and not having him is significant. And throughout the game, Brandon Bell and Nyeem [Wartman-White] had some times where they were banged up. All of those things kind of factor into it, there's no doubt about it. You want to be as healthy as you possibly can. You want to have as much experience on the field as you possibly can, but that's part of the game. We understand that.
Cam Brown, I think you'll see his role continue to grow. Again, as a true freshman playing linebacker in the Big Ten, you'd like to have a little bit more time to develop those guys, but he's showing enough signs that we need to get him on the field. On top of that, we're thin at that position, so [Jake] Cooper, Manny [Bowen] and Cam Brown, I think you're going to see bigger roles for those guys.
Q. The offensive line has given Trace time to throw on a number of plays, but obviously he didn't have time on some big ones at Pitt. How did you evaluate the line so far and what are the next one or two steps that they have to take?
JF: I think they've taken strides. I don't think there's any doubt about it. I think those guys worked real hard in their off season. I think Coach Limegrover has done a nice job. We're still not where we want to be in terms of being able to impose our will on defensive lines and be really physical. That's something that should show up in the run game. That's something that should show up in pass protection.
I think they're headed in that direction. We need to be more consistent. We need to be more physical. We need to have more of a finisher's mentality. But, it's like on Saturday, that defense is designed to make you one dimensional. I think we had 38 runs called in the game, but they overloaded the box, and it doesn't make sense to hand the ball off when they have extra men in the box that you can't block. That's something that depending on what the defense gives us, is going to create opportunities. We had plenty of opportunities in the passing game because of their commitment to stop the run, and that's why you see the game play out the way it played out.
So, you know, for us to be the team that we want to be, we have to be more physical up front, so when we do have the opportunities to run the ball based on numbers, that we're able to finish blocks and not allow defenders to fall back off. And then in pass protection, I think we've improved dramatically, but we still have a ways to go.
Q. Did you get any clarity on the clap cadence situation from the Big Ten and is this something you can use going forward, given what the opposing team was doing against you?
JF: It's illegal. It's illegal. You're not allowed to do that.
Q. Has the Big Ten rectified or addressed that at all?
JF: There's no way to rectify these things. We turn plays in each week to the officials. The officials do a great job. I turn plays in, not because it's going to change anything, but to make sure that we're on the same page in understanding the rules and how we're teaching it and how we're coaching it, and if allowable, that we're doing the same thing. So we use it as education for our staff. I think it's also used with the officials moving forward. But, theres is not anything that can happen retroactively.
Q. Curious on Paris Palmer's status. Is he still in a competition? Is he close to more playing time to help shore up that position?
JF: He is competing for that job. Mahon -- if you look at how he's played the entire game, has done some nice things. Obviously, there have been a few letdowns at times that I know he would like to be better, and we need him to be better, but overall he's actually played pretty well. We just have to eliminate [the mistakes] -- like on special teams, the whole day we played really well and then we give up the kickoff return, which was a huge play in the game.
Overall, if you look at the entirety of the game, special teams played pretty well, but you can't give up that big play. And it's the same thing with Brendan Mahon and our offensive line. Overall, they played fairly well, but you can't have those one or two lapses.
Q. Does the zone read have a tendency to slow Saquon up at the point of handoff? And, second, do you have any plans on taking the load off of him?
JF: Our plan with all of our starters is that those guys will go until the coaches feel they need to blow, or that the players feel they need to blow. Saquon, we feel, is a valuable guy and has the ability to break a long run any time he touches it. So, I think that's kind of the philosophy with that. We'll see how this thing play themselves out.
The zone read, I think you'll have footwork. You'll have footwork when you go through the exchange with the quarterback. Whenever the quarterback is riding the ball with the running back, it's not just like a handoff where you turn around and give it to him as deep as you can and let him go. There's an aspect when you're riding it and there's footwork that goes along with that, which slows you down a little bit. But, also the defenders have to be concerned now who has the ball. Is the quarterback going to pull it or leave it? What happened a few times on Saturday, is number 5, did what we call a mesh charge. He basically ran directly at the running back and quarterback. He didn't choose either one. He ran right in between the two of them and it created some indecision. When you have a mesh charge, typically you want to hand the ball off. If it's a gray read you hand the ball off. Trace decided to pull that, and we got in a situation where he's pulling the ball right when there's contact occurring, and we need to get that cleaned up.
Q. You talk about after the first two weeks how to take Saquon out of the game. Has there been any discussion about going to four receiver sets more often, or splitting the tight out into the slot more often just so they can't load the box up as much, just to deal with coverage?
JF: That doesn't really solve your problem, unless the ball is in the middle of the field. If you look at the game of football, it's very rarely played in the middle of the field. When you're at the boundary, whether it's a tight end or whether it's a receiver, you're typically going to take that linebacker and hold him to the box as much as possible, or they'll have the guy outside of the box, but as soon as you put the ball into the ball carrier's belly, he's flying into the box. That's why you saw a bunch of those plays where we were riding it, and as that outside linebacker folded aggressively in the box, we pulled the ball and threw the ball out to DaeSean in the flat. Those are the games that the defensive coordinator is playing and offensive coordinator is playing, where they're trying to gain advantage on numbers and you're trying to control that.
Getting in 10n personnel, we're able to do that; 11 personnel, where we get in spread, we've done that, with [Mike] Gesicki in the game, whether he's connected to the tackle or not. There are different ways to attack it. Again, unless the ball is in the middle of the field, it's really hard to create the type of space that you want to create, because when the ball's on the boundary, there's less space over there, and they're typically going to hug that boundary backer to the box as close as possible.
Q. Past few years you've been primarily a defense first team, and it seems like that role is maybe reversed this year. How much does it change the mindset of the game plan when you know this might be a race of 30 points instead of, "we need to hold our opponent to 20 or fewer"?
JF: I think it changes my approach, so like receiving the kickoff, and things like that, that we've done or tried to do if you win the toss…or going for two early on and trying to get an advantage. Obviously, when we have three defensive linemen go on to the NFL, we knew it was going to take time to get those guys to grow and mature. So it changes things. There's no doubt about it. And, what we're doing, that's a little more of the DNA of who we're going to be now on offense. It's a combination of those two things. It affects the decisions I'm going to have to make throughout the game, and then obviously, we want to get our defense back playing the way they're capable of playing so that you're in a situation that not only is your defense playing extremely well, but your offense is able to score a bunch of points. Now you get in a situation where now your opponent has to throw. And that's something that we've shown we can do a good job of, rushing the passer. What we need to do a better job is be more consistent in the run game and force people into throwing situations.
Q. Are more comfortable coach in a game that's going to be fewer than 30 points for both teams, or are you comfortable with kind of what we saw this weekend?
JF: To be honest with you, I've been in a situation kind of with both. I think if you look around college football in general, that's really how things have changed. I remember a few years back, if you had 400 yards on offense, that was considered a good day. Those days are gone. If you scored 30 points, that was considered a big-time scoring day. Those days are gone. People are winning games 62-58. It's common more across the country. We want to play great defense and great offense. We're still working with that and allowing young players on the defensive side of the ball the opportunity to mature.
Q. You have a lot of different types of bodies in your defensive tackle rotation. With as much as you rotate, do you have packages that are specifically run-stuffing packages versus pass-rushing packages, and what goes into who plays, and who plays next to who, on certain drives?
JF: That's a good question. We'll do a couple things. So, for example, we don't want to get in a situation where, we're putting a young defensive tackle on the field at the same time as another young defensive tackle. For example, say you have two starting D tackles backed up by the two second team guys, you prefer that your rotation is not one-to-one. The one side may be two-to-one, the other side may be three-to-one, whatever it may be, to make sure when that guy comes back in he's going back in with the opposite starter. So you have a starter and backup on the field at the same time when you do get into rotation situations.
On top of that, we do have different looks. So if it's a passing situation, we have a look where we're going to have three defensive ends on the field. One of those defensive ends playing at the defensive tackle position. Then we also have situations where we're playing a team like Pitt that wants to run the ball, where we may have [Robert] Windsor and Parker Cothren on the field at the same time, two guys that are technically both noses, but we put Windsor at the three-technique to get a bit little more size on the field. Kevin [Givens] has been able to put some size on since she's got here, but he's still somewhat of an undersized defensive tackle. So, being able to rotate those things and give those guys a number, but also put them in position to be successful is important. These are all things we kind of look at throughout the week, then either Friday night or Saturday morning we sit down as a staff and go through the rotation to make sure we're all on the same page and how we're going to handle those things.
Q. It seemed like the rushing defense got better as the game went on last week. So was there an adjustment in the rotation? Did you see something you liked more and you took those combinations?
JF: To be honest with you, it's dramatic. I mean, you look at statistics defensively from the first half to the second half, we played much better. Really it was really as simple as us being gap sound. If you're a defensive tackle and you have the A gap, or defensive tackle and you have the C gap, you cannot allow the offensive lineman to lull you away from your gap, because now you put the linebacker in conflict, where he knows he's responsible, and he sees the B gap is wide open, and now he's in conflict. What do I do? How do I take on that block? Do I rip up through the A gap and defeat that gap, or now try to play the blocker down the middle and try to two-gap, which is not what you want linebackers to do. So, we did a much better job of that in the second half. I think some of the fly sweeps and motions and shifts that they were doing gave some of our young players a little more hesitant, and they weren't playing as fast, as aggressive, as they needed to play.
Q. James, what do you remember when you guys recruited Manny Bowen when he got here, because he kind of played all over the place on defense in his high school? What do you remember about him?
JF: Just fast, explosive, violent, aggressive. Really seen a lot of those things since he's been here and probably even more so in the last six months, as he's getting more comfortable and getting more confident. I think Manny has a very bright future here.
I think you're going to see his role over the next couple weeks continue to grow for us. I know talking to Coach Pry and the defensive staff and watching tape with those guys, I feel he's a guy that can make plays. You're probably going to see a little more flexibility with him as he continues to grow in the package. We'd like our linebackers to be able to play multiple positions. He's typically a field linebacker. We'd like to have the flexibility to move him around, so now when we get into money, or star, or things like that, instead of him coming off the field, he can move to other positions. That would be the ideal situation, but up to this point he hasn't been ready for that. We're going to need him to be able to do that moving forward. I know that's something he's excited about doing as well. Guys like Manny they don't want to leave the field. They want to prove they can play all three downs, or if we do want to sub out, like I said, that nickel position, he has the ability to move over to the boundary side linebacker as well.
Q. There's some plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Joe Paterno's first game coaching the Nittany Lions for the Temple game Saturday. I'm interested to know what Joe Paterno symbolizes to you, personally as the coach of Penn State today.
JF: I've stated this before. You know, all of the wonderful things that have happened here academically, all of the wonderful things that have happened here athletically, and in the community as well, those things have been significant, and I think I've stated that before. But my focus and our team's focus is on Temple and the game this week. And all of those other decisions are for the administration. Our focus is on Temple.
Q. Do you have any sense of what that commemoration might be like or how you think it might be received at Beaver Stadium?
JF: Once again, our focus is on Temple. I've stated before, how I feel our focus is on Temple and getting prepared for this game. And that's really enough on our plate.