Q: Curious with the Olu [Fashanu] news that he's coming back, if you're able to give any clarity on his status as you get into postseason preparation and what his return might mean for Drew Shelton and his role on the offensive line moving forward?
A: We'll see how this whole thing plays out. Obviously, medical will play the biggest factor in all these things. But we'll see how it plays out.
Obviously, Olu deciding, him and his family deciding to come back was something as a program that we're really excited about. But also making sure that we're doing everything we possibly can to support Olu and all his academic plans and goals he has for himself, as well as playing even better next year and getting drafted as high as possible.
So for me to sit here and say all those things aren't on my mind and something that I want to make sure we do a good job of, would not be accurate.
Obviously, we're excited. I've got a great relationship with Olu and his family and it was exciting news. But I want to make sure that we're doing everything we possibly can to support Olu as well. We'll see how this bowl game plays out, you know, with his timeline.
Q: Wanted to ask about how you balance these next three-plus weeks with getting ready for this bowl, recruiting, the portal, all those types of things? Where are you at now? What do you know about the practice schedule so far for this bowl game?
A: Yeah, I'm sitting in an airport in the middle of Kansas, hoping this press conference will go smoothly and I'm gonna jump on a plane and head to my next destination.
But yeah, we have it all mapped out. So our players and staff have already received our practice schedule, kind of went over what we thought it would be, a preliminary schedule with the staff a few days ago, but everybody got our schedule. When there's going to be time off, how we're going to handle finals week, when we'll be traveling, when we'll be practicing. All those things are mapped out for us, which is nice. Kevin Threlkel does a great job for us in those areas.
But you know, right now, I think balance is a good word. We're trying to split our time between finishing up this traditional recruiting class. Obviously, have an awareness of what's going on in the transfer portal, which is about to hit hot and heavy here pretty soon. Making sure that we met with all of our current players before we left and making sure our guys finished strong academically and then, we'll continue to practice.
The practices right now, we've already had a couple. But the practices right now are more of a spring ball-type of practice. Then as we continue to break our opponent down, the University of Utah, and then start game planning, we'll get into more specific-Utah, game-plan specific practices.
Right now, it's more like a spring ball-type of practice, program development, where we're trying to get the guys that we think are going to have big roles for us next year, try to get them a little bit more involved than maybe they had been.
Q: Don't think we've had a chance to ask you about this new transfer portal window. What are your general thoughts on it? When you hit it tomorrow, how crazy is that going to be given everything else that you guys are dealing with at this time?
A: Well, you know, for me to sit here and say that I'm not worried about college football and that I'm not concerned about maybe some of the advice that some of these guys are getting, I'm not talking Penn State-specific, I'm talking big picture right now, you know, is concerning.
At Penn State and specifically with me, I want as many of our guys to play in the NFL as possible. But I'm also still a big believer on what getting your undergraduate degree, and for a lot of our guys a master's degree, what that's gonna do for them for the rest of their lives.
What my concern is, the more coaches I talk to and the more people I see, academics is less and less a part of some of these decision-making processes. It's strictly about football. I do think there's still a balancing act that I think needs to happen and can happen, you know, where a kid can reach all of his goals from an academic perspective and still be able to chase his football dreams.
That's why being at a place like Penn State is so important and it's so special, because the young men in our program have the support and resources to achieve all their goals and all their dreams. That's not the case everywhere, you know, that's not really the case everywhere. So to be fortunate to be at a place like Penn State, as a coach or a player is a phenomenal thing. I think it's magnified right now in the landscape of college football.
Q: You mentioned on the last call that you watched the Pac-12 Championship game the other night. From first glance, what impressed you with Utah. As a fan, what did you like about what their program looked like the other night?
A: They're a tough, hard-nosed football team that is resilient and can overcome adversity.
Obviously, USC is a talented football team. They made their plays. They've got a talented quarterback that made plays and Utah just kept competing and made timely plays.
You know, one of my favorite plays in that game is when the quarterback kind of hurdled over a leg or body and then got hit and his helmet flew off. To me, it's very telling when you watch a guy that gets hit like that and how they respond. He bounced right up and put his helmet right back on. You know, that has such and impact on your team and on your program when your quarterback can take a shot like that and bounce right back. I think that's very telling of who they are as a program.
They've got a veteran coach [Kyle Whittingham], who's been there and one that. He's had a ton of success building that program.
It's gonna be a heck of a game and it's going to be a heck of a challenge in a tremendous venue. I know our guys will be looking forward to it.
Q: A few days ago, Joey Porter Jr. announced that he would be declaring for the draft and forego the bowl. What has Joey's impact been on your program, him coming back to play on Senior Day, and on guys in the cornerbacks room who will be stepping up in his absence?
A: Here's a young man that we recruited out of Western Pennsylvania and obviously comes from a football family.
He came here and really thrived. Thrived academically, thrived from a football perspective, and kept getting better and better. Obviously, you guys have seen him physically. He's got a lot of physical tools that most corners do not have.
He just kept getting better, you know, within our program, from the strength and conditioning perspective, from a technique and fundamental perspective, from an overall football perspective. Terry Smith did a phenomenal job with him.
Whether it was Brent Pry or Manny Diaz, we were able to call certain things or run certain schemes because of the confidence that we had in our defensive backs and specficially with our corners, when we're talking about Joey.
So, you know, I'm proud of him. And for him to be able to fight and battle and try to come back as quickly as he did from his medical situation, which was the appendicitis during the season, and do everything he possibly could to try to get back. I think that was very telling on his commitment to his teammates and his commitment to this program and university. So I'm proud of him and we're going to be there to support him every step of the way.
Q: In terms of talking about the balance of academics and everything that goes into these decisions, do you have to set a deadline for these guys in terms of getting ready for the bowl? How does that all work with the portal and NFL Draft decisions that all these kids have to make?
A: You just try to have open, transparent conversations and you hope the relationships that you built, all the way from the recruiting process and through this, you know, that they're comfortable enough to come in and talk to their position coaches and are comfortable enough to come in and talk to me and be honest and be transparent, so that we understand what we're doing. Hopefully, we can help them and advise them.
That's also so that we can plan for Penn State moving forward and know what's coming and not be surprised by anything.
So you know, that's just how we try to approach it. Again, be honest and transparent, know what's going on and have really good conversations. But again, that doesn't happen over a month. That's happened over three years, two years, four years, sometimes, depending on how this whole thing plays out, which gives you a pretty good idea.
The other thing, it's a small world, right? You know, my buddies are coaching all over the country and I've been in situations in the past where one of my buddies has called me and said, "hey, you know we've heard from a player and I wanted you to be aware of it", and so on and so forth. So making sure that everybody understands it and there's a way to handle these situations and be respectful of everybody, as much as you possibly can.
Q: You talked a little about some of the young guys getting some looks and some more reps. One player that's really emerged for your defense over this past month or so is Abdul Carter. What have you seen from him over the course of the season, growing in the defense, and how impactful will he be going forward in the Rose Bowl Game and over the next few seasons?
A: Obviously, a really talented guy. Physically talented when you talk about size and speed and how explosive he is and his burst. His burst on film, I think is as good as I've seen on the defensive side of the ball. There's been one other guy we've had that's had that type of acceleration to the ball carrier.
To me, the thing that's really stood out is his maturity and his discipline and his mental approach, as a true freshman, has been phenomenal.
His high school coach and program did a great job with him. But his dad did an unbelievable job with him. You know, his dad told me this, it's interesting, a lot of dads say this about their sons, but his dad was adamant about how his son was going to be in our program and he's been exactly that. It's been really impressive and as the season has gone on, he's gotten more and more confident in his responsibilities and his role within the defense and has been able to play with a little bit more instincts in terms of not thinking about what his responsibility is in the defense. Just knowing it cold and going out and playing the way he's capable of playing. I think it's showed.
You don't have to be a football expert to watch this guy play and realize he's got a chance to be really special. It's already shown, not just flashes of it, but on a consistent basis and it's gotten more and more consistent as the year's gone one. Obviously, he's got a bright future and we're gonna need him to play well in the Rose Bowl.
