Penn State Football
Defensive Student-Athlete Quotes
vs. Kent State – September 15, 2018
Cam Brown | LB | Jr.
Q: How do you feel about your personal game as far as technique and positioning? How have you think you've done and where can you improve?
A: I think I played well but not as great as I wanted to. I wanted to make more plays for us but I feel like I'm doing my role and I feel like the guys around us are doing their role right now and playing well.
Q: You were leading the team in tackles today, do you feel like you were all over the place in today's game?
A: Moving from Sam to Mike I feel like I'm moving from ying to yang a little bit. But I feel like my speed is helping me get across the field and the training that we had in the off season is helping me get more plays.
Q: How is playing with your defensive line as a whole and what are you focusing on for improvements?
A: Honestly, I feel like we're getting better and better every week. It sounds cliché but obviously guys are getting more chemistry and starting to mesh well together. We are starting to get everything so going into week four I feel like we will be even better.
Q: How did the substitutions and rotations impact the team's chemistry?
A: I think it makes us a little bit tighter. You have to know who is in with you, you have to know how to play with that person, and you have to know that communication with that person – is that person not going to make that play or will they? It's a lot of work but it's good for the whole defense. If at any point any guy goes down, you have to be ready for it.
Tariq Castro-Fields | CB | So.
Q: KJ is one of those athletic guys, talking about performance, what's it like watching him, especially in the kicking game?
A: KJ is one of my best friends on the team so anytime he touches the ball I know he's going to score or make a big play so it's great to see him succeed because we knew he had it all along and this season he gets to show it.
Q: How has your mindset changed ahead of the short week? You've got a game on Friday, not that much time off, how do you go about it?
A: Just do what we have to do. We already knew it was coming up, so just take care of business. That's it.
Q: I just want to ask you a little about some of your teammates on the defensive line. The last two games they've had about 25 tackles for loss, 10 sacks. How much does that help out the defense as a whole when you've got those guys up front?
A: It helps a lot when the defensive line is getting so much pressure. From tipped balls to us covering for less time, so I think we kind of help each other out so the defensive line has been awesome these last two games.
Yetur Gross-Matos | DL/SN | So.
Q: How much are the younger guys pushing the older guys?
A: I think they have really good competition and the younger guys really stepped up today, like Jayson Oweh. He never played a college snap and first drive he goes in he has two sacks so it's just motivating for all of us.
Q: (follow up) What does that do in practice and the mindset in the locker room that you have this group of really talented young guys pushing the older guys?
A: I think obviously the older guys compete to keep their spots. The young guys are in the mindset where they want to take everything.
Q: Have you seen the quality of the unit getting better?
A: The unit itself is as hardest working as I've ever seen, so I'm confident.
Q: What does Shareef [Miller] do for you guys?
A: Shareef [Miller] is a great leader for the defensive line, he keeps us up when things may or may not be going our way. He's a consistent playmaker.
Q: What have you learned about yourself and also this defensive line for the three games so far?
A: Just that we play with tremendous effort and, you know, every week we keep making progress and we are working towards our goal, so I like the direction that we're going in.
Shareef Miller | DE | Sr./Jr.
Q: How does a team figure out how good they are? Do you guys know? It seems like there is a lot of good out there and a lot of things that you are going to have to fix.
A: Me, I just build week-by-week, study the opponents and stuff like that.
Q: Your first career game for Penn State you had two sacks against Kent State, and you had two sacks today. How do you like playing Kent State and what is the biggest change in Shareef Miller?
A: I do like playing Kent State. It is kind of funny because I got two sacks in the second half my freshman year. I would say the difference from me my freshman year to me now is I am just more mature. I know the game more and everything has just slowed down to me, I can play off of reactions and stuff like that.
Q: What ways do you think that the defense has gotten better over the first three weeks?
A: Tackling we got way better I believe. Communication, everybody is communicating the calls better and stuff like that.
Nick Scott | S | Gr./Sr.
Q: What did you guys get out of this week going into a Big Ten game?
A: I'd say one of the biggest things is the amount of experience we got for the younger guys. I think a lot of you guys saw we had a lot of redshirt freshman in there towards the end. We had a lot of true freshman in there towards the end. So just getting that experience in and being able to put them in a position where we can figure out whether or not we can trust them and if they understand their role.
Q: Have the first three games put you guys in enough of a comfort zone now?
A: Oh yeah absolutely, and I'd say most of the guys are stepping into those new roles. The coaches have been great in the offseason. I think all of us were ready by game one which is a testament to them. Each game we learn something a little bit more and gain a little bit more experience so it only pads us a little bit.
Q: How would assess the team's tackling today compared to the first two weeks of the season?
A: I think we did a good job tackling today and getting guys on the ground when necessary. We limited them with their explosive plays. I think we held them to only 215 yards total, so we did a really good job, especially in the run game, and held them to 40 yards which is a testament to our tackling.