Opening Statement:
Like always, I want to take a minute and thank you guys for coming out and covering Penn State football. We don't take that for granted and we do appreciate it. I'd like to start by thanking the fans. We had a noon game, which I know they love. They love the noon games. FCS opponent, a good FCS opponent. Potential rain, thunder and lightning, but we had an awesome crowd. We had an awesome crowd of 108,585 fans. To me, that is an example of how special this place is. In today's day and age, people are struggling to get fans at games, and we got 108,000 for a noon game. So very, very appreciative especially with the weather forecast. The weather held out, which was great. A couple of things I thought offensively, I just thought we were very efficient. We were able to stay on the field, we were able to sustain drives, we were able to convert on third down. We converted a few times on fourth down. The one thing is the penalties; and we've been pretty disciplined with that. I wasn't happy with that (today). But besides that, I thought we played very efficient today on offense. Defensively, same thing, I thought we played really well. We had the one play where we were not gap sound. The ball found that gap, and they got some talented guys that can run, so just a really good example that everybody's got to do their job on a consistent basis. If you're supposed to be in a B gap, you have to be in the B gap. If you're supposed to be in the C gap, you have to be in the C gap. But overall, obviously statistically, really good. I thought we were more consistent on special teams today. Our kickoffs, our few kick returns, we have some things that we have to get cleaned up. We didn't have a whole lot of punt opportunities, but I think when we did that it was a 47-yard punt. So, there's some stuff to build on. And then the last thing is we were able to play a ton of guys. We were able to get a bunch of guys experience, which is going to be important for us down the stretch, but we also were able to get a lot of our guys off the field as well. I'll be interested to see what the play count was for a guy like Olu or a guy like Hunter. But we were able to get some guys off the field, to keep those guys fresh and healthy moving forward. So again, I appreciate everybody coming out. Last thing I'll say, if you talk about the stats and we talked about the time of possession, turnover battle, we won, explosive play battle, we won. I think we doubled explosive plays. Third down battle, we won. Sack battle, we won. Starting field position battle, we won. The one thing we did not win is the penalty battle, which is disappointing, but overall, really good.
Q: Can you describe how well your two lead running backs played? What goes into which series they play, who starts and those things because I know you mentioned how well both of them have played so far.
A: If you look at it, Kaytron had over 100 yards, averaged five yards a carry, over five yards a carry. Trey Potts averaged over eight yards a carry. Nick Singleton averaged four yards a carry and had three touchdowns. So, those guys have bought in to the idea that we have two starting tailbacks. We will see how that goes week to week, based on preparation throughout the week, but we are going to play both like starter reps. I think obviously, there are competitors, and they get out there and they want the ball, and they want opportunities to make plays. But I think they also understand in the long term, not only for their collegiate careers, but afterwards, showing that those guys have a lot of tread left on the tires and are fresh for their careers for the long haul. So, I think they' have bought into it. Sometimes in the heat of the battle, they want more opportunities and more touches, but I think big picture wise, they really get it, so I'm proud of them. We will continue to play them both like starters, that's how we view them. It is probably similar at our tight end position as well.
Q: James, you were able to do some mix and match options on your offensive line with JB, Venga, and Drew. Is that something you would ideally like to be able to do as the season goes along? And then can you address how your young kids played, true freshmen today.
A: Yeah, so with the offensive line, I apologize for whatever reason the board reported the starting lineup incorrect. I don't know how that happens, but I apologize for that. We had a couple of guys, who kind of had a flu bug going around campus. And we had a couple of guys miss a couple of days of practice where they were able to play but felt like between the position coaches and the players saying well, I missed two days of practice, this other guy deserves to start. I thought that was handled the right way and that factored into it. We were able to get Olu and Hunter out and be able to get Dawkins with some reps, which we thought was really important. Venga played a ton today, which we thought was important. Obviously, being able to get some of the younger guys in the game; J'ven and Anthony Donkoh, as well. So, it's a lot to build on and also smart just to keep those guys fresh and take care of them. We had a bunch of young guys play, so it will be really good film to evaluate. We will still have our D squad plus scrimmage Sunday night. Based on reps, some of these guys will be out of it this week, but they're not out of it for the season. I want to make sure that they understand they haven't arrived, and they still need to be developing and getting better. So, we'll look at the rep count for Sunday night, but overall, very pleased with all the young guys and how they were able to get in and contribute.
Q: Sometimes the program faces criticism for who's scheduled early in the season. Do you have a response to that? And also, what are the values of having a game like this where you get to get so many different guys in? Can this pay dividends in a few weeks when you start really needing some of those?
A: Yeah, you know, I think a couple of things. I think if you look at the model of teams that have been in the championship, teams that have been in the playoffs, teams that have won conference championships, I think there's pretty good data and evidence on what's the right thing to do. And again, like we talked about before, nine [conference] games factors into that as well. Those things have kind of changed college football more than anything back when you used to play the kickoff classic games and things like that, but with eight conference games it was different. So, I think at the end of the day, you're trying to do what you think is right for your university and your program. That's myself and the athletic director, but you're also doing studies and studying the data and seeing what the data says. So, this could be a long discussion.
Q: The value of having guys playing?
A: That's the other thing, right, is being able to play games like that where you get a ton of guys on the field and get your starters off the field. There's a lot of value and it's a long season. You know, you have an opportunity to play 15 games. And in all 15 of those games, your starters are staying in for four quarters and grinding it out. That's, that's challenging. So, we talked about nine conference games when you talk about conference championship games, when you talk about a playoff all those things, you have to factor that in your decision making.
Q: This is your first chance to monitor Drew Allar coming out of one start and preparing for the next start, along the way winning Big Ten Conference Player of the Week, but you also had these things happening from the roster perspective, I imagined resulting in parts with guys being sick and on and off the field. How did he handle this week as the orchestrator of the offense and ultimately at the point where he was as sharp as he was on Saturday.
A: Yeah, he's just steady Eddie and like never gets too high, never gets too low. You can pat him on the back. You can scream at him. He's just steady Eddie and it's preparation on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, obviously it's a small sample size. But last year, I thought he prepared as if he was the starter and he's taking it to another level this year. Doing a great job of managing the game, the clock, situational football, all those things. I've been; I've been impressed with him. So, you know we have obviously a larger number of plays to be able to evaluate the number of situations. I thought the two-minute drive with no timeouts was impressive. So, there's a ton of things to build on but so far, so good and then again, we talked about the quarterback group, Beau (Pribula) coming in and showing he's able to move the offense as well and make plays and do it in a different way. And now, you know defensively people are watching that and saying that we got to prepare for this guy because now you start to mix now that Beau has shown what he can do, now you start to mix Beau in, in a drive or for a couple of series in a game. And you got to spend a ton of time on preparing for that. So that's exciting for us as well.
Q: Drew's obviously very good, but he's still getting better. What's maybe the smallest detail that's made the biggest difference that he's been able to do consistently this year that maybe he didn't do last year.
A: Yeah, I don't know if I have that if there's anything that jumps kind of to the top of mind on that. I think the biggest thing is obviously, he showed signs last year, but it was a small sample size. And you know this training camp as well as these first two games, there's a ton of plays, to be able to evaluate and what you guys are now getting to see you know, a larger number of reps, a larger sample size is what we saw really all training camp. And you know, it's exciting to build on, it really is and, you know, I think if you're the first two opponents, specifically the first opponent, you say I'm not going to let Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen beat us. I'm going to make a starting quarterback, the first-time starting quarterback prove that he can do it no matter what the hype has been
like. He's still got to prove that he's done it. Well now, I think the defensive coordinators moving forward, you're in a tough, tough spot. You got two running backs that can be challenging and you got a quarterback that's shown that he'll do it and can make the throws and make the plays. So now, there's enough evidence out there that as a defensive coordinator, you're questioning you know, how do we, what is our model for beating Penn State in terms of our offense?
Q: On Tuesday you mentioned that you know, no matter how far down the depth chart you go, the standard remains the same for all your guys. We got to see a lot of guys see playing time today. Do you feel like they lived up to that standard that you set for Penn State?
A: Yeah. I think first of all, you know, I challenged them at halftime and said, listen, we need to play better in the second half than we did the first half. You could make the argument that we gave up a touchdown in the first half and didn't give up any points in the second half. So I think it's a start right, it's a start. I'll have a better idea after we watch the film and really grade these guys. But it's a start for the coaching staff to build off. But it's also a pretty good example for young guys and I'm going to talk to the coaches about making sure they're grading you know, the fourth quarter as hard as they graded the first quarter as well. This will be really good film for all those guys to watch on Sunday.
