Penn State Football
Idaho Head Coach Paul Petrino Postgame Press Conference
vs. Idaho – August 31, 2019
Q: Coach, do you find any silver lining at all?
A: You know, I got a lot to take in… that I think you will. I think these two guys right here [Jeff Cotton and Tre Walker] played hard. I think they competed and hopefully there's more guys, you know. But I think, obviously, I think there were times in the first half where the defense played well. We put them in some tough situations. I did on that first one going for it on fourth down. We did on our punt team, quite a few times. So, I think first-half wise, defense did some good things. I didn't like how they finished the game. But I thought both these guys played hard, hopefully when you watch the tape there'll be some other things that show up. I thought at times, we did a good job of seeing different things, seeing pressures and making some checks, were probably some of the few plays we did a good job on offense. We checked versus the pressure. But, overall, we expected to play a lot better than we did, but now we got to get back to work. We'll go to practice tomorrow and fight and continue to keep fighting and getting better.
Q: Paul, I was watching the sideline when you got close down in the end zone. I didn't bother watching the play, I just wanted to see how the reaction was and everyone was real excited and everyone throwing their hands up in the air. Do you pay attention to that stuff?
A: Yeah, we always do. I think our guys, I think we have really good chemistry in our team. I really like how they went through fall camp; we have to make sure we stay there. You know, we knew that there were chances early in the season. We have a tough… today, you know, just, the team we're playing. What we have to do is make sure we show up to practice tomorrow. Still believe in each other. Still believe in ourselves, believe in the scheme and keep fighting and keep getting better. But, I think that everyone was still into it and still celebrating that; that's a good sign.
Q: And you started going around to each and every guy, when you looked in their eyes what did you see?
A: I thought I saw guys that were still excited to be out there and wanted to keep playing. It's a long season. That's a tough day today. That's tough on anybody's pride, and it's tough on… But, it… character will show up. If you have great character, you show up to work tomorrow and bust your tail and work hard to get better. And I think we got a lot of guys with good character, so we have to continue to work hard and improve.
Q: You've been around. You played since you were a high school legend in Montana as a player. Everyone's been beat like this at one point or another if you're a competitor. Did you learn anything about what to do and how to handle your mind when you were a young man? Either as a coach or a player?
A: I think it's kind of what I just went back to really. I think if, like, you should be mad right now. if you're a competitor, right now you should be mad. And some guys can look in the mirror and know they played their tails off, you know. We just have to make sure we get it where everybody does that, you know. And we have to have good leadership within, we all have to stick together and you just have to keep fighting. And if you have good character, you're going to show up, keep fighting; the first thing you're going to do is watch the game is, 'what could I have done better?' You know what I mean. First thing I have to do as the coach, 'what could I have done better as a coach?' First thing these two guys, because they're our leaders, what could they have done better as players? Then you can get everyone else to come along and get better. What'll kill you is if everyone starts pointing the finger at each other. Then you're in trouble. As long as we can all watch the film, learn from it, understand what we could have done better as players and coaches, then we have a chance to move on and get better.
Q: Coach, do you have any thoughts after watching both quarterbacks play, any separation between the two?
A: I have to watch that on tape more, to be honest with you. There was times… I think they both did a good job at times of making checks. I think they both struggled at times because of protection. So we just have to watch the tape. And I already decided that I was going to play both of them the first three games and then probably make a decision from there. But I have to watch the tape before I make a comment on that.