Opening Statement
Good afternoon. First of all, like always, I'd like to thank everyone for coming out. We had a great crowd. I'd like to thank the fans. Really had a great crowd and beautiful weather. I'd like to thank AccuWeather for that. Thank you for showing up and supporting us as well. I thought overall, we had a really good spring, from the beginning, practice one, through practice 15 with the Spring Game. I thought we got a lot accomplished. The spring game is a great opportunity to get out in front of the fans. Obviously, we are vanilla on both offense and defense, but it was really good work. Also, for us, we want to get everyone in the game so it's really good for those guys that have been busting their butt all season and all spring to get out there in front of their friends and families, I thought that was really good.
Some notes that I had, I thought too many times our defensive line was jumping offsides. We've got to clean that up from a discipline standpoint. Too many drops on offense. We've got to get that cleaned up between now and the first game. We had a penalty on special teams which essentially was an explosive play for the White offense which led to a touchdown, it was a touchdown drive after that 15-yard penalty. And then, I thought we could have stopped the run better with our "one" defense and I thought we could have run the ball better with our "one" offense. You've got to give the White offense and defense some credit there, but I thought overall, we could have been a bit better there. Overall, I'm pleased with where we're at. We've got a lot of work to do between now and the first game. This next week, our coaching staff will all be in the office. We will meet with every single player. We'll have an individual meeting with their position coaches, let them know what they have done well, what they need to work on to get better. There should be some really good discussions there. And then after that, over the next three weeks, I will meet with every single player on the team, which is always really good, but is also challenging to meet with every single player on the team. I go over their academics. I go over their medical. I go over where their position coach sees them, and then I go over where I see them with every single player on the team. And then obviously our staff will be out on the road recruiting. We've got to finish strong academically and then before you know it, we'll be in summer prep with summer session one starting. I really appreciate everyone coming and I really am proud and appreciate you all being here.
Q: What did you like most about Dan [Chisena] during this Spring that earned him a scholarship?
A: We really liked Dan on the front end. We recruited Dan. Dan won the 100 meters in the state of Pennsylvania his senior year. We really recruited him pretty hard, and then the track and field team stole him from us in a positive way, I guess. They ended up giving him a scholarship which is really good for him. And then he wanted to come back to football. He left his track scholarship to come to football without a scholarship. He's 6' 2". He's 210 pounds and one of the fastest guys on the team legitimately before he left. He ran in the 4.3s. He's catching the ball confidently. He's a guy that we've always had high hopes for, and he's just had a really good, consistent spring. He's mature, smart, strong. Obviously, he's got a lot of work do to from a fundamental standpoint, but we like where he's at.
Q: I'm curious about Keaton Ellis. What type of spring has he had and what interests you most about him? It seems like he's a kid that has the potential to get a green light in his first season.
A: I think so. Keaton's been very impressive. He graduated early, has been on campus. He really did a good job in the weight room. He can run. He's got length, he's gotten stronger. We like to recruit DBs who like to play wide receiver and vice versa and he's a guy who's got a lot of natural ball skills. You saw that in high school. That showed up. He was able to make a bunch of big plays on the ball. He's confident when the ball is in the air. A lot of times you have to teach that. A lot of guys panic when the ball is in the air. He's very comfortable, he's very confident, he's very relaxed. You've guys heard me say this before, it's easier to get on the field the further away from the ball you are. He checks all the boxes right now. He obviously has to have himself a great summer, but he's put himself in position to compete for significant playing time on special teams and defense.
Q: Can you talk a little about C.J. Thorpe and moving him back and forth on offense and defense and how he's handled that this spring? How did you guys approach him about that, going back and forth?
A: The first thing with C.J. is we approached that on the front end that it was a temporary decision. What happens is guys go on defense and they like it. It's a little different. It's a little less technique – little less, Sean [Spencer] don't take that the wrong way. Brent [Pry], don't take that the wrong way. It's about playing fast and playing aggressive. He was kind of enjoying it. We felt like for him and for us, for our long-term future and his long-term future, that was the best place for him. He's done a nice job, missed a year of technique and fundamentals, but he's got the ability to be really good. He's going to play for us this year, whether he's the starter or not. I could see him both him and [Mike] Miranda and [Steven] Gonzalez playing right now inside.
Q: I know you said you've kept the offense kind of vanilla and you've seen the guys all spring, but what did learn today and maybe didn't realize heading into the game about any of the individuals either offensively or defensively as they played?
A: I wouldn't say today necessarily showed me something or taught me something about our offense that I didn't know beforehand. I think it was really for [Will] Levis and Sean [Clifford] to get those reps today. Obviously having Tommy [Stevens] back is going to be huge for all of us and I'm really excited about that. We wanted to get everybody in the game, so some of those guys did better than I anticipated. On a different note, I thought Noah Cain did some nice things today. We're going to watch that tape and probably sometimes he rushed his cut, but he was decisive. He stuck his foot in the ground and he got downhill. A lot of times his runs aren't overly sexy, but he's just breaking tackles and just falling forward and his runs are very productive, 41 yards, 5.1 yard average. That's pretty good. He did a lot of that with the second o-line against the number one defense. I thought that was impressive.
Q: Tommy Stevens, you just mentioned that he will be used when he comes back, do you expect to go in to fall camp with him as the starter? Are you ready to say that now? Secondly, Isaac Lutz What have you seen from him and what made you make that decision?
A: Tommy Stevens situation, I mean obviously for us, I'm a big believer in competition at every single position. We haven't named a starter at any position. His situation, somewhat similar to GT's [Garret Taylor], GT's been waiting for his time and he's got to go take it. Tommy's situation – we were put in a tough spot because he had an injury that made it difficult. We want to be able to name the starter as soon as we possibly can, but we are not ready to do that right now and it's going to need to be more of a true competition. Tommy has done everything right for four years, there's been a huge body of work that we've seen from him, and I think last year, in a lot of ways wasn't fair for him because he was playing with an injury, a pretty significant injury. Our coaching staff has all the belief in the world in Tommy, our coaching staff understands what Tommy has done and who he can be, but we also have belief in the other guys, and we've created real good competition in our quarterback room. We'll see how this plays out, but we might name as soon as we can, but based on how things have played out, I don't know when that will happen. Isaac has just been one of these guys that really is really athletic, comes from an athletic family, brother is playing at Syracuse. Where he really earned his scholarship was last year was on special teams. We had him on the scout team, he kept kind of being a pain in practice, just making plays and going full speed and being tenacious, and when we gave him the opportunity to be on special teams, he made plays. He's a guy who we think can help from a depth perspective at wide receiver, but I think he's the guy that can really make a name for himself on special teams this year and kind of go from there. He's got a great attitude and is hardworking, growing, he's mature. We've been pleased with him. We went back and he was the guy who had the most reps in games that wasn't on scholarship.
Q: James, getting back to Noah Cain, you mentioned the decisiveness and the running style he runs with. Is that a unique quality for a kid who just enrolled in January?
A: I don't know because that's kind of just his style. You watch his tape that kind of who he was. So, I think what Noah does a good job with is knowing who he is and playing to his strengths. Obviously, he's going to get stronger, he's going to get more explosive, he's going to get faster, he going to get quicker, but we have to help with that from a development standpoint. What he did today was, he didn't try to be something he's not and bounce runs to the outside and things like that, he stuck his foot into the ground and got more south, broke arm tackles, fell forward, and got positive yards. I think that's a real positive. Adisa Isaac is little like that as freshman, there are times in practice where I know Adisa has no idea what he's doing, but he runs a thousand miles per hour, and he chases the ball. If you're on defense and you do that, you have a chance. So, I think Adisa is a little like Noah. He knows what he does well and does that 100-percent which allows us to coach all the other things.
Q: When you come into the spring game, you have different personnel, the game plan changes. What are some of the things that you learned from last year that had to change, especially on defense with as many personnel changes?
A: I don't know if necessarily if the spring game or spring ball does that. We'll go in to the spring with the mentality that we want to lay a foundation. We want to get as much offense in, as much defense in, and much special teams playing, and this year its magnified because we have a new special teams coordinator. Get those things in. To be able to come back now and have some recall in the summer when we install it all again, allow them to play with confidence, allow them to compete and then at that point kind of figure out what our identity is and who we are going to be. I don't necessarily know if we can figure that out in the spring, we really are just trying to get the foundations in. It's not about scheming, our offense scheming to beat our defense, our defense scheming to beat our offense. We don't want to do that. It's about Penn State winning, it's about Penn State getting better, it's about development. So, at this point, I think we did that. The work is going to come from now until the first game. Doing this all over again, coming up with our identity on offense, defense, and special teams, and then playing to our strengths and then trying to manage and minimize our weaknesses.
Q: James, what did it mean for you and for Penn State to have Matt Millen back in Beaver Stadium?
A: It's pretty emotional, I got interviewed and I'm an emotional guy. Matt [Millen] came into my office the other day and he looked good. He looked really good. For what he's been able to overcome, both physically and mentally, what he means to this university, obviously what he means to his family and his community all those types of things, it's just special. He's a legend here. He's a legend for us. He's a legend for the [Oakland] Raiders. So, to see him not only back so quickly, but also back in the booth and doing what he loves and talking about Penn State football, I think for all of us, that's something that we can identify with. I am super proud of being the head football coach at Penn State, that's something that is very near and dear to me, I'm super proud of my daughter and wife over there. But I think the thing that we all take for granted is our health, until it's gone. So, to see Matt in that situation and to be able to battle through it, and for somebody out there to be able to donate what Matt needed is awesome and it's special. So, congratulations to Matt and his family, and everybody praying and pulling for him, really pretty cool for Matt, our university, and our football program.
