Opening Statement: Appreciate you guys being here. Couple things I wanted to cover, one thing before we get into the previous game.
We'll honor the 1982 National Championship Team at halftime on Saturday, which will be really cool. The 40-year anniversary. Awesome that we'll have an opportunity to do that with our lettermen.
From an Auburn game perspective, we won the turnover battle, which obviously was significant. Talking about plus-four in that situation.
Penalties, we did not win that one. Minus-19 yards. We've got to be better there. Drive start we did win. The turnovers obviously played a big part in that.
Sack battle we won. We didn't talk about that enough after the game. How come we didn't talk about that? Zero sacks. Let's talk about that. No? All right.
Explosive play battle, we met our goal on offense but did not meet our goal on defense.
Then when you talk about players of the game and things like that, offensively we went with our offensive line, and when we talk about our offensive line, we are talking about really who we view as seven starters, Olu [Fashanu], Landon [Tengwall], Juice [Scruggs], Sal [Wormley], Caeden [Wallace], Bryce Effner and Hunter Nourzad, guys that are all playing a ton for us.
Defensively, Ji'Ayir Brown and Adisa Isaac, and then on special teams, Jack Pinegar. Also cool that Ji'Ayir Brown was the Defensive Player of the Week in the Big Ten, and Nick Singleton was the Freshman of the Week in the Big Ten.
Some other notes just briefly, some positives. I think you guys noticed, we've talked about this before. We do shares at the hotel Friday night. It's usually a player and a staff member get up and share some things about their background that maybe the room doesn't know personally, and then talk about the game of football overall and the game that we're playing in the next day. I just thought Hunter Nourzad and Dan Connor both did a phenomenal job Friday night. I really think it set the tone for the whole weekend. I was very appreciative of what they shared and how they shared it.
I thought the fourth-and-one to start the game, I thought that was a critical situation in the game. Went for it, being aggressive on fourth down, which has been good to us to this point of the season, but our defense having the offense's back, holding them to a field goal, felt like that was a critical situation in the game.
We had a big discussion as a staff before the season started. Actually, had a big discussion with the team as well, about how we wanted to handle fourth down, because it's not an offensive decision, it's not a defensive decision, it's a team decision that we all factor into. Special teams as well.
I thought we handled hydration, noise, crowd noise, atmosphere pretty well overall. Obviously, we had a spike in penalties and that factored in a little bit. Overall, I was pleased with how we handled those things.
It was great that on offense we had 17 players play double-digit snaps; 28 players on defense with double-digit snaps, 45 overall.
Areas for growth, we've got to eliminate the pre-snap and post-snap penalties, and we've got to better with our kick locations. That's on punt and kickoff. We've got to be better there.
Getting into Central Michigan, I thought it was interesting. Kind of looking historically, I was shocked that we only ever played them one other time. Just seemed strange to only play them one time.
Got a ton of the respect for Coach [Jim] McElwain and his career. My time in the Northwest, my wife is from the Northwest, obviously my time at Washington State, a lot of these guys that's not only Coach McElwain, but on his staff, he's from Montana. You look at his career, he's done a bunch of really good things.
Excited about this opportunity to compete with Coach McElwain and Central Michigan.
Offensively another name, a Northwest guy, but another big-time name in college football, big family name is Paul Petrino, on the offensive side of the ball. Their family, and specifically Paul, have a great history with knowing how to move the ball. On top of that, his nine years as head coach experience at the University of Idaho.
We've been impressed on that side of the ball with their running back, Lew Nichols, a kid out of Detroit, Michigan. Their quarterback, Daniel Richardson is an undersized guy but very productive. Wide receiver, number zero [Jalen McGaughy], another young man from Detroit. Big kid.
Defensively, Robb Akey is a guy I've known for a long time. He's got ties to that Washington State tree that I'm a little bit of a part of. Known Robb for a long time. Ton of respect for him. He's been a long-time defensive coordinator and does a nice job. The guys that we're impressed with, their defensive end No. 9 [Thomas Incoom], their safety No. 3 [Trey Jones], and then cornerback, who's a local kid, Donte Kent, is playing well for them. Freshman all-American for them last year.
And then on special teams, Keith Murphy. I don't know him as well. But Keith has done a good job for them. Very impressed with them on tape, what they do. They're sound and consistent, and we are going to have to be ready for what they bring. Their punt returner is a guy we need to be aware of. He's averaging almost eight yards a return. Jordyn Williams has done some good things.
Overall, excited about this opportunity this week to get better throughout our week of preparation. I thought Sunday was good. Monday is the player's day off and obviously coaches game plan, perspective, and today is our first opportunity to get out there.
Q. In Indy at the Big Ten kickoff and at local media day, you said you weren't ready to bang your fist on the table about the offensive line and declare them ready. Through three games how would you assess their performance? Where do you think they are headed?
A: Yeah, I'm still not ready. I'm going to hold off. Like I also mentioned, you guys will clearly tell me how they're playing.
Obviously, I do think this past weekend with zero sacks and being able to run the ball the way we ran the ball and being on the road and handle crowd noise, which can be challenging for an offensive line, I do think it was a step in the right direction.
But we still have work to do and I'm still not ready to pound the table. But I probably won't be all year long, because I know as soon as I say something positive, something won't go well.
So, I'm going to hold my thoughts.
Q. The hard-hit hammer guys are carrying around, who's idea with was that? Who made it and why did you do to this year?
A: Manny [Diaz]. It's something that Manny brought with him and wanted to do, kind of the big hit of week. We are doing something similar on offense with the finisher award. We did it last year as well. Trying to continue to build on that, who has the most physical block of the game.
Now, where it came from and where they ordered it online or whatever, I don't know, or whether Manny made it in his wood shop in his basement, I'm not sure of those details.
But just trying to reinforce the physical aspect on defense and the physical aspect on offense and emphasizing toughness.
Q. Brenton Strange, your tight end, can you talk about his development, not just as a receiver, but maybe as a blocker? Seemed like he had a couple really important blocks on Saturday. Have you seen a change in him? Is there a big development difference from last year with him?
A: I think he's playing his best football right now. He's an older guy who has played a bunch of football for us already. I don't know if I necessarily would say it's a big change. This was expected for him and really that whole group. You've heard me talk about that whole group for a while.
But do I think he's playing really good football for us, which I think has been really impactful. We talk about the O-line all the time and the run game. Our tight ends I think are having a big impact as well.
I think Brenton is playing as good as any tight end in the country. What I mean by that is I see these awards; like I thought Stout was the best punter in the country last year. Why? Because the only stat that matters in punting is net punting. If you punt the ball 93 yards and they return it 75 yards because you outkicked your coverage with no hang time, it doesn't matter. It's net punting. I think Stout was No. 1 in that in the country last year.
I think it's similar with tight ends. If we're just going to award tight ends individually because of receiving yards and receptions, to me there is so much more to being a tight end than that.
I think Brenton is playing really well-rounded tight end play right now. I think the real true football people understand that. I think that's going to help us throughout this year offensively.
I know it helps our defense having to go against him every day in practice and really that whole group. I also know it's going to help Brenton in terms of his future. Whenever that opportunity comes at the next level, I think it's going to help him, because so many of these tight ends in high school and so many of the tight ends in college are not tight ends.
They're big wideouts.
Q. How is Anthony Ivey doing? The Chad Powers/Eli Manning thing; how did that come about? Why did he choose Penn State? Any kind of behind-the-scenes things that you can share with us about that?
A: Yeah, so a couple things. To your first point, Ivey is doing really well. I'm proud of him. His development and growth and evolution, since we first started recruiting him, to now, I'm really proud of him.
He's doing really well in school. He is making plays on the football field. He's probably further along as a football player than we anticipated. He's made a bunch of big plays. He has earned our coaches' respect. I know he's earned the defense's respect being over there on the D squad.
I think he has a bright future. When we can keep a really good player in the state of Pennsylvania home, I think it makes a ton of sense to everybody. And I'm really proud of him. He's still got work to do, like a lot of them do, but I think the people that read your newspaper, I think people in the state of Pennsylvania, they're going to be happy with Anthony Ivey throughout his career and what he's able to do here.
When it comes to Chad Powers and Eli, we've got a pretty good relationship with the Manning family. Sean has been able to go do the Manning Passing Academy every year, which is great. We've had quarterbacks before Sean go. Seems like Sean has been here from the beginning, but we've had quarterbacks pretty much every year go to the Manning Passing Academy, which is an unbelievable event. I wish I could go.
It would be a really cool event to be a part of. I've been able to get to know Archie through that, as well as the National Football Foundation and some other things.
Obviously, you could make the argument, or not, could be a statement, they're like the first family of college football or football in general. The impact that that family has had has been significant and pretty cool.
So for me, when they reached out about doing this, obviously we wanted to be a part of it because I think Eli has done a great job with all this. He's also a regional guy; lives in New Jersey. Obviously, did tremendous things with the Giants.
So when he reached out about doing this and they reached out about doing this, all these things factored in. At the end of the day, for me, I wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to disturb our process of what we needed to do and not become a distraction.
So the week we did that, I think it was our first week of school. Really, they were able to do 99% of it without messing up our normal routine. I think I had to give them 10 minutes of my time, which took time away from either lunch or my walk, which was good.
Once I was comfortable with the fact we were going to be able to do that and it not impact our normal routine or become a distraction, then we were all about it. Most of it was going to happen at our run-on tryout, which is something that's kind of separate from our normal routine. The coaches don't normally go to that.
Then it was also cool because we were able to couple it with, what you guys saw, we were able to couple it with Barney [Amor] being able to get his scholarship, which was cool.
So it just worked out and it was something I thought was kind of unique and different, but also wasn't going to cause us any distractions or issues. When you're able to have somebody like that on campus, whether it's a coach or former player or somebody that can get up in front of the team and deliver a message, obviously he's been able to win at the very, very highest level, so that was a good opportunity there as well. It just made sense.
Q. It seems you're running a little bit more on offense out of these sets where Clifford is under center, the running back is seven yards behind him, you got the tight end acting as the fullback and you're running downhill. How successful do you think that's been? How has it added to the physicality on offense, you were talking about earlier? How has it helped the offensive line?
A: Yeah, couple things. I think it is;it has helped our physicality, not only of our offense, but also of our defense. I think the strength of our tight end room plays a factor in that as well. I don't think you do this if you don't have the depth and the strength of a tight end room like we do.
The other thing I'll hit, just to kind of reinforce a point we've talked about before, again, the quarterback under center, running back at seven yards, and when the quarterback goes to hand it to him, he gets it about four and a half yards deep, which is the same depth that you get it out of the gun.
But I do agree the ability to run the quarterback sneak is the one difference of being under center. I also think it does help you in your play-action pass game. I think it helps you sell it a little bit more. But I do think it's been valuable, us being able to run or pass or play-action pass or two-minute. Those things have always been really important to me, all the way back to our time at Vanderbilt. Not just for the offense and the difficulty to defend, but also your defense getting some of those things throughout the year in good-on-good periods so that you don't get into a situation you've never seen under center, hard ball runs, and now you got to defend them when you're playing a team that is like that.
Or a spread. You're never seeing spread because you're all 13 personnel, 12 personnel, heavy sets, pounding people, and you never give the defense the spread looks as well. So having that balance is something that has always been important to me.
I think your point and other's points is, depending on who you hire to be the offensive and defensive coordinator, it's not always an exact fit. Obviously, you can have some influence in adjusting some of the things that people do scheme-wise on offense, defense, and special teams. But, you also hire people for a reason, to play to their strengths and things like that. It's a fine line between those things and how much you influence it as the head coach.
But if you look all the way back to our time at Vanderbilt, this is really who we've been.
Q. You just beat Auburn and two days later you get all this Chad Powers stuff, which keeps the program in the news. We all know who Hingle McCringleberry is. How important is it that Penn State is kind of cool, that people look at these things and it helps your brand?
A: Yeah, I think your point is a good one. This is a game. It should be fun for the players, for the coaches, for our fans, alumni, for the community.
Although, the videos everybody puts out, the hype videos, are good and cool and they serve a purpose as well, providing other opportunities to kind of peek behind the curtain and show some personality and allow people to see some of these things and have some fun.
Whether it's in the summer canceling a practice and going to the pool or bowling or out to Bald Eagle Lake or whatever it is, you do need to have some things that are a change of pace. And whether that's internally for your program or whether that's externally to give people maybe different content and different things to look at, there is value in it. I don't think there is any doubt about it.
Again, it can't be at the expense of what you're here to do, which is to educate young people and put your team in the best position to win. So that's, you've just got to make sure you don't lose sight of what you're here to do and mix the fun things in from time to time when the opportunities present themselves.
Q. You've been fortunate enough to have some young players blow up on a national stage in your career at Penn State. How do you prepare kids for that? How is Nick Singleton dealing with what's coming at him over the last few weeks?
A: Yeah, I think a lot of these young players are more prepared for this stuff than ever before just with the way media coverage has changed, the way social media has changed, the opportunities that some of these high-profile young players get when it comes to travel or All-Star games or exposure that you really didn't have before. At least not on this level, in my mind from a national perspective. It may happen locally.
I think they're more prepared for that. I think some of policies we have in place I think help because it takes some things off their plate. I know you guys don't always necessarily agree with that, but it takes some things off their plate.
Then we try to do things in the summer and throughout the year where we're educating them and preparing them for life after football, for life outside of football, and trying to prepare them for as many things that will come. Try to include the parents in the process, too, so they can be helpful.
Right now, Nick is handling things pretty well. I also think that is a little bit his personality. Like the players kind of give him a hard time, because like after he scores a touchdown or something, they say he has no swag. No swag, all substance. He doesn't wear gloves. They love to give him a hard time, but it doesn't faze him.
I think he's said 17 words since he's been at Penn State. He's very Steady Eddie, level-headed, doesn't get too high or get too low. I think that's kind of how he was raised, with his family, as well as the program that he came from, Governor Mifflin. I think they have done a really good job preparing him for this as well. I think the relationships that he has built with our staff has helped with that as well.
Q. A couple years ago, the NCAA changed the redshirt policy allowing you to play a lot of these younger guys more now than you would've in years past, do you have that in the back of your mind when you are putting guys out there right now? Should we see fewer younger guys moving forward as you try to preserve eligibility?
A: Yes, I think that's a fair point. There will be a strategy to it, right? There will be some guys we play early. They show that they're going to have a significant role for us and we're going to keep playing them.
We talked about a guy this morning that has played because maybe there has been some bumps and bruises and he's done okay, but we still think the best thing to do is probably to redshirt him if we can.
Your point is about the four-game rule and trying, when we can, to be strategic in how we use those two games. Sometimes it doesn't always play out that way. This young man has already played in two games. I would've liked for one of the games to be this week, but because of some injuries we had to play him earlier. It is a conversation, and there is more flexibility now based on the NCAA rule changes that help with that.
Q. You mentioned giving teams different looks offensively, obviously going under center and going under gun. You seem to do that more defensively this year too with the looks you're giving. How does that help with the aggressiveness when you can put different personnel packages out there to add some confusion to it? How does the depth at corner and safety add to that as well?
A: You're talking about different, more personnel groupings on defense is what you're saying? Yeah, I think it's more. We have gone to a three down-linemen look in the past. I think the difference is, where it's probably a little bit different this year, who are those body types that are out there.
There has been a lot of conversations, like about having seven DBs on the field. That's because we feel like our DBs are our strength this year. Coming into the season there were more question marks at linebacker than there were at DB. That will change year-to-year based on getting your best players on the field and these different personnel groupings also help with that, right?
You may be able to play a kid earlier in his career because he may not be able to do these two or three things, but he can do this. So that's a factor in it as well. But I think it probably feels that way more than, in my mind, the reality of it, just because of the strengths of our DB room. If that's fair.
Q. You have a 26-day period where you're going to play two games between right after the end of Auburn and the end of the bye or off-week. Do you measure that time in days or practices?
A: Yeah, fair question. I would say really both. It's funny because we talked about it this morning. Manny brought up some things in the staff meeting this morning about it.
I think we're going to tweak some of the things we do during the bye week, something we spend a lot of time in the offseason studying, and then brought it up again this week. You can have a plan in the off-season about the tweaks, but then also want to say, okay, where are we at? How does it make sense?
So, I think we're looking at it as both. Okay, we have this period of time; this is a time we usually give the players off; this is the time that the coaches usually go recruiting. And then how are we going to use these days? Are we using them as developmental practices to get better at Penn State? Are they getting a head start on our next opponent? What's the sweet spot of the balance of those two things?
So, for us, we're going to try to do a little bit of both. We are going to do some good-on-good work, because the speed work I think is really important. We are probably going to spend some more time on our opponents than maybe we have in the past, and maybe a little bit different way of looking at it. Then, probably not be out there very long. Short, quick practices. Get on and off the field, and then have a developmental aspect as well for the young guys that haven't played.
We are looking at that complete window of time, and then like we do with most things in football, how do we maximize it from a current roster perspective, from a future roster perspective, and what's going to put you in the best position to take advantage of that bye week by getting a head start on, at least, your next opponent, if not multiple opponents?
I think that's also where you see some of those changes in staff sizing in football. That helps with this as well, because guys are able to get ahead.
Q. Kaytron Allen on the latest roster update was listed at 201 pounds. I think he came in around 225 back in December. What have you seen in his physical development since he's been here? Is this the player you thought you were getting or has anything changed? What do you make of his performance?
A: It's funny you say that, because I was kidding around about his nickname, Fat Man. He's less and less of his nickname.
But, yeah, coming from a program like IMG, he understood how to compete, you know, in the backfield for carries. Played a national schedule for that type of competition. I do think even with the really good training that they do at place like IMG, he's probably changed his body as much as anybody in our program.
Him and probably Maleek McNeil. I don't know if I; did I tell you guys about Maleek today? I think he's lost like 47 or 50 pounds since being on campus in not a long period of time. That's really without us even emphasizing it. I think he went from 381 to whatever that number I said is less.
Kaytron, just looking at him, he just physically looks different. I think with that, he is quicker, he's faster, he's more explosive. I just think he's playing really confident, really good football right now. I think you'll see him gradually put weight back on, but it will be the right weight.
Right now, he's thriving in a lot of ways. He's somewhat of a quiet guy and not the most expressive, so to see him on Saturday, for me almost like a father figure kind of looking at these guys as your sons, to watch that kid smile and his whole face light up and see the team react to him is cool.
It's really cool. He's really starting to break out of his shell. I'm really proud of him. He's a guy that's killed it academically since he stepped on campus. He's just thriving at Penn State and I'm really happy for him.
Q. One more on the Mannings, if you would. Did you guys know it was coming out this week? Did they work with you or did you have any input into when that would be released?
A: No, we had no input in when it was released, and I don't think it's really been released yet. They put some things out. I guess they call them teasers in the business. You guys would know that better than me.
There has probably been more put out than I thought was going to be put out. Someone sent it to me that it was out on social media, and then Kris said, 'yeah, we just got an email from them that they were going to put some things out as teasers for the show'.
Obviously, a lot more content in the show that I hope people watch, because it was cool and funny. There is a decent amount of it out there. But literally, we didn't know exactly when it would come out. We had a good idea when we thought it would come out based on what they told us.
The turnaround was probably a little bit faster than we anticipated, but we didn't know it until the morning-of that some of it was going to start to get leaked out as a teaser, if that's the correct term.
Q. I wanted to ask you about Abdul Carter, your freshman linebacker. Seems like he's been able to hit the ground running in a very short period of time. How far has he come since August? He's only played three games and already looks like he's very comfortable out there.
A: Yeah, it starts with the fact that he's freakishly fast, freakishly strong and doesn't have the body of a normal high school linebacker coming in. I remember talking to him throughout the recruiting process after he had signed, and him and his dad were asking about weight. I'm like, you're plenty big now. I think they felt like they had to put on more weight. No, you're plenty big enough now. It's about strength and things like that.
But I will say a couple things: I think his dad, specifically, and his family have done a really good job raising him. One of the things that has really helped him, these physical traits we talked about, but his dad talked about his maturity and his focus, and he's exactly right. His maturity and focus for a guy his age is impressive.
He is a very disciplined young man. Comes from a disciplined family. I know his mom is really happy that he's at Penn State. When we went to do the home visit, and I'm not exaggerating, when you walk in the house, hardwood floors, and the weight room is set up getting him ready for Penn State right when you walk into the house in the living room, and he's like power cleaning and dropping the barbell on hardwood floors.
I know she was happy when he came to Penn State because she was able to get that stuff I think back into the basement. But just very focused, very determined, very driven. Just like dad told me.
You combine that with his physical traits, then you've got a chance. You guys have heard me say before, there are guys that are physically ready but not mentally ready, or physically ready and mentally ready, but not emotionally ready. He's really shown that he's been ready in a lot of those different areas. I also think that La Salle High School, that program did a really good job preparing him as well. Just like his dad said when things started trending in this direction, just makes sense if you can stay close to home, get a world class education, play big-time football.
One of the big things that I think people undervalue sometimes is his support system. He's got a support system that he's had his whole life that has helped him get to this stage. That support system is still able to be a part of it. I see his dad up here all the time. So, it's been pretty cool. I would say that we're not surprised since we've been able to be around him and see and hear his testing numbers when he arrived on campus and his approach in the weight room and with summer camp and so on and so forth.
Q. I'm glad you mentioned the weight bench because I did an interview with Abdul during high school and I swear I was like, is that weight bench in his living room? He was on the bench during the interview.
A: It's literally right when you walk in. A lot of you guys probably have been in some of those Philadelphia neighborhoods and you open up the front door and it's the living room and goes back into the kitchen, and to the left, you go up the stairs. Literally soon as you walked in it, it was right there.
And it wasn't like some of these things are for show. Like you're doing the interview, so you sit on the weight bench. I can guarantee it was not for show.
Q. How much more can he [Carter] handle mentally? You mention him playing fast and getting to this point because of that maturity. How much more do you think he can handle, and then secondly, where is Dani [Dennis-Sutton] on that trajectory?
A: Yeah, I think he can handle more, but I think you have to be careful, because if not, you get greedy. You have a true freshman having success and you start putting more on his plate and he doesn't have the same type of success.
It's not just learning the defense. It's learning the offense and all the adjustments that take place when people trade or shift a tight end, or when they motion in the back or when they motion the receiver or when they end up in unbalanced or FSL, which is formation in the sideline, or some people call it FIB, formation into the boundary, and how that affects your rules.
That's what people are trying to do with motions and shifts and things like that. They're trying to give the linebackers and the defense indecision. So, for us, we want to continue to help him grow and evolve. But it's always that fine line that you don't do too much that now he's thinking more than he's playing.
Right now, he's playing pretty well, so we'll continue to look at that. It's just a fine line of how much more we put on his plate. Each week there will be a new challenge and how much they do offensively.
Dani, there is a little bit less for a defensive lineman in terms of learning. I think you guys have seen he is physically ready and prepared to play. Another high school as we know, McDonogh High School, we have had a ton of success with players from that high school coming here and thriving. Part of that is because McDonogh High School does a great job. But they've worked out really well. Those kids have come here and been prepared academically, physically prepared, mentally prepared, and have adjusted well. I think the number of big brothers he has, helped with that process, has been good, too.
I think you'll see his opportunities continue to grow as the year goes on and his success. But he's also another mature kid. Physically and emotionally mature kid. He's always been super focused. Where he's maybe different than others, and I don't know how much this has been covered, Dani is actually from Delaware, and he boarded at McDonogh, he was a boarding student.
He also has the aspect that this isn't his first time away from home, like some of the guys that had to make that adjustment. He already made this adjustment, which has been helpful. He's also been one of the guys, I think you guys have heard me talk about in the past, who had his own dorm room at McDonogh, and that was a big part in the recruiting process. A lot of schools that we recruit against either have athletic dorms or football-specific dorms. Auburn just built a football dorm, which people are going to say you're not allowed to do that. There is a way to do it within the rules and still get the same thing accomplished.
That was a big part in the recruiting process. We lost a kid a few years ago because we didn't have singles for the football team like other schools do. That kid got drafted and now is playing in the NFL and we almost lost Dani over it. He's been really good and is adjusting well.
