Penn State Football
Visiting Coach/Student-Athlete Postgame Press Conference
vs. West Virginia – September 2, 2023
Neal Brown | Head Coach | West Virginia
Opening Statement
"Tough opener, they're very good, very talented. I think defensively they're probably as good as you'll see all year. Lots of NFL players. You tip your hat to the quarterback in his first start, I thought he handled himself well. I'm zero discouraged with our guys, they've got a team that's capable of making the playoffs, and we've got a really good football team and I think time will tell. I think our guys handled the elements and they competed, it was clean football, I think we had five penalties, one of which really hurt us, it was a procedure penalty on an explosive run and that really hurt us, but clean football, had zero turnovers, I thought we managed the game well, I'm talking about the quarterback. Y'all know our history of playing here, it has not been kind. There have been a lot of really good West Virginia teams bounce back from a loss here and I think we'll be one of those. I have no doubt that we will bounce back, and we are onward and upward. We had some opportunities, you know, we came in and knew they were going to be aggressive; I wasn't worried if they were going to win or if we got beat or if it was a little wider, I wasn't trying to win any beauty contest. We're going to go for it on third and fourth down, we had some plays that we didn't convert. If we convert and extend those drives, you know I think the time of possession was 31/28, we knew to win we were going to have to control the ball and convert those, you're probably looking at another two or three minutes on the clock, but we didn't. For us to win this they were going to have to turn it over, get some penalties, and now either they blocked the cleanest of anyone in the history of college football, or there were some missed calls because they had one penalty in the game, which was a false start, but zero holding penalties. But I tip my hat to them, they're a really good football team, I think they proved themselves to be ready and I think they deserved their seventh ranking in the country, and they'll continue to move up."
Q: It looked like you really tried to slow down the run and see if [Drew] Allar could beat you, is that fair?
A: That's absolutely true. We were going to come in, he's making his first start, and there was a lot of pressure on him, and I mean that. For that kid to come out and throw for 300+ yards in his first career start in front of a group that was really expecting a lot, you know they had their fourth largest crowd in stadium history, and there were a lot of eyeballs on him, and hats off to him. He was going to have to play well for them to win and he did.
Q: Overall, how do you think your offense faired in the pass game?
A: I mean, what were we, 16-for-27? I thought we protected him okay and Wyatt Milum got hurt, he missed probably half of the first half. We didn't execute in those third and fourth down situations in passing, but I thought the protection was good. Garrett made some plays, and I think we dropped one ball there on the dig late in the game, but I thought our guys got open. They're really good at the corner you know, one is going to be a first-round pick and the other is pretty good, but I thought our guys got open, but we've got to be able to hit on a couple of those.
Q: In terms of the defense, do you think you defended the run fairly well?
A: I felt good about our matchup, the left tackle here is special, but I felt good. I think our D-Line here is better than what people give it credit for and I thought that they really battled and were able to hang in there. We were physical, we tackled, you know I don't know how many explosive runs they had but it wasn't many, they had to work. I thought we played the run pretty fair, and I thought we played the pass well. They ran a lot of rub routes, legal, I don't have a problem with them. They got us in some man, we played some man, they got us in some rub routes down in the end zone and a couple crossing routes. Those are things we've got to get cleaned up is when the ball moved away, and he extended plays so credit to him for doing that, but the routes across the field, the crossing routes we did not do a very good job of covering today, and we're going to see those a bunch so we better get better.
Q: Overall, are you disappointed in the second half?
A: Oh yeah. We had the chance to win, we came out and it was three and out and it was 14-7, and we got an explosive run followed by a procedure penalty. I thought we had a chance to win. Coming in here I knew we had a good football team. This is a tough place to play, all your preparation is really sped up, but I felt good coming in. I knew we were going to have to catch some breaks; they were going to have to turn it over, they were going to have to get some penalties... and here's the thing, we had some opportunities, had two balls bounce off our chest, and so those are missed opportunities and you've got to make those. Am I disappointed? Am I discouraged with our football team? No, because I know we're going to be good. We're going to come home, get back to work on Monday, and get prepared to go win a game, so once we get back into Morgantown, it's not like we're going to hang our heads.
Q: In terms of Garrett Greene, what do you think about his decision making in terms of when to pass and when to run?
A: My deal with him, is I think about guys that play like him, as like an artist. Anybody can paint by numbers, but that's not very creative. So, when you have an artist, you want to create art. For him, I do not want to take his playmaking skills away. He's an athletic quarterback, he took care of the football, and that's my main concern. Was he perfect with every run or pass decision, probably not. But I did think he ran around, made some plays, extended some plays, but what we've got to do a better job of, is when he extends, looking down the field. If you were asking one disappointing thing, we really needed to be more explosive in the passing game.
Garrett Greene | QB | Jr.
Q: What was the experience like just getting to play in front of 110,000 people?
A: It was an unbelievable environment. You know, we've prepared all week for the noise so I don't think the noise was too much of a factor. The guys here handled the environment really well.
Q: Was there anything Penn State did with their pressure concepts that you didn't expect or simulated or actual pressure that you didn't see coming?
A: Yeah, I think just the speed off the edge of Chop Robinson, um Dani Dennis-Sutton as well. They're really really fast off the edge.
Q: Were there throws that, after you missed them you were like- ah I missed that guy over there, or are you gonna have to look back at the film?
A: I know when I miss a guy. Like the first play of the game or the second play of the game, the one screen to Cortez, I just have to give him a better throw.
Lee Kpogba | LB | Sr.
Q: You Come out with a double digit tackle game right out of the gates, just individually how do you think you played?
A: I feel like I played decent.
Q: The defense at halftime you get a couple of breaks there late towards only one score, I mean, how did you guys feel about that?
A: I mean, we felt good from the beginning of the game. I mean we came here to win, so we felt like we had a real chance at halftime and a couple of plays got away from us.
Q: One of the big question marks was D-line coming in, the big guys in front of you they can make your life easier. How'd you feel playing behind them tonight, that rotation?
A: I feel good. I feel like they got penetration and I feel like they did their job up front. I saw them doing their job, they allowed me to make some plays, so I feel like they did a great job.
