Opening Statement
Like always, I want to thank you guys for coming out to cover Penn State football. I want to thank the fans. I thought that was impressive. You guys know how we approach it each week, that that was a Super Bowl for us, but sometimes certain opponents, certain fan bases, won't show up, like that, and we don't have that problem here at Penn State, week in and week out, the fan base shows up. And not only that, all types of discussions out there about possible bad weather, thunder, lightning, this doesn't happen. So, we don't take it for granted whatsoever. Got the best fans in America, and it is special. I know I've been here 11 years now, but I do not take it for granted whatsoever. It is awesome. So, I want to thank the fans.
The game in general - really kind of in all three phases. The school record - 718 yards, 409 yards passing, 309 yards rushing, school record for first downs. Defense only gave up 67 yards. I love how we managed the clock. At the end of the first half, we had all three timeouts available. We went down and scored. We burned the timeouts. They threw an incompletion on the first play, stopped the clock. We were able to use some time outs, get the ball back, go down, score again. I thought that was significant. We were more efficient today on offense. We were still explosive. We were 80% on third down, which was big.
We did do a great job with the turnover, really kind of a tough situation with Beau in the game. I think they called a twist, which is what you do a lot of times when you're trying to defend a quarterback draw or the quarterback running game, and the defense just twisted right into it. There's no way you're going to see it. The kid made a hell of a play. We didn't win the turnover ratio, that was probably the one thing that we didn't do a great job of. But we had much better balance on offense. We were able to distribute the ball to a ton of different players. Ty Warren is the best tight end in college football. The tight end position isn't supposed to be about receiving yards. It's about complete players, blockers, receivers, rushers and throwing the ball. He threw a touchdown. I told him it was one of the ugliest touchdown passes I've ever seen, but it went for a touchdown, which is all that matters. We’ve still got to clean up some penalties, too many penalties, but overall, probably the most important thing is our veteran players played well enough to get a ton of guys in the locker room on the field who deserve to play, and that's going to be great film for us to teach off of. That's going to be great film for us to learn from.
We're obviously going to enjoy this for a couple hours, and then get into next week. The last thing I'll say for the fans, we need this place rocking next week, I'm calling for White Out energy. Everybody got me? That could be all your headlines. I'm writing your headlines. I'm the editor – White Out energy. So that's going to be big next week. We need this place rocking, but we're going to enjoy this for a couple hours, and then, you know, grade film. And then get going on our next opponent.
Q: Was Tom in the box? And if so, what went into that decision, and how do you think it went with his first time up here? I know it's only a few games that he'd been on the staff, but just take us through that.
A: Yeah, I thought it went really well. I brought it up last week about going up into the box. Tom hadn't been up there in a long time as a head coach. I just think some of the things that he's done as a head coach, he doesn't need to do here anymore as a defensive coordinator, and he thought about it. Ultimately, it was his decision. He didn't want to do it last week but wanted to do it this week. I don't know if he'll be up there next week but it's something to consider. So, I do think I'm a big believer that, as a play caller, the best place to call the game, just truly call the game is upstairs, if you're having to manage emotions and the leadership on the sideline. We got a ton of really good coaches, so in terms of just calling the game, I think it's the best place to do it. There are some other things that I'll get into maybe later on Tuesday with you guys, but I thought it was really good, and then we'll have some discussions this week and see if it makes sense for our next opponent.
Q: Against a team like this, in a game like this, is it difficult to gauge how much progress you made? Do you feel like your team is ready for Big Ten play?
A: It's interesting, because you play this type of opponent, and everybody thinks it's just going to be easy, right? You know, they still got scholarship athletes, and I know they've had some struggles this year, but they came out here and fought, and we started out a little bit slower than I would have liked, but overall, I thought we took a really good step. We went on the road and won in a tough environment. I think West Virginia won today. We played well enough to win last week, but probably not up to our standard, which I'll admit. And then I thought this week we did what we needed to do, so we’ve got to take all three of those different experiences and learn from them, and then get better this week, and we’ve got a really good opponent coming in. I’ve got ton of respect for them. It's going to be a heck of a game, but, I do think we've done what we needed to do up to this point. It hasn't always been perfect, but there's a lot of places in the country right now that would love to be 1-0 this week, and 3-0 for the season. So, I'm happy with that, but there'll be a ton of things that we're still going to have to get cleaned up for next week.
Q: That 718 number, I know a lot of us were talking about the change of the offense from last week. Does that number mean anything to you all, and if so, what does it mean?
A: I mean, obviously, when you're able to score that many points and that many yards and be explosive, you know, we put up some pretty big numbers in the past, but whenever you're able to set a school record at a place like Penn State, it's something to be proud of, and it's something to build off of. I don't think there's any doubt about it. To me, the more important stat is the yardage differential. It’s the point differential. When you're able to get 718 yards on offense but only give up 67, I'd be interested to see that, right? That'd be a great stat. What's the largest yardage differential at Penn State in our history? That'd be good. To me, that's an important stat, because if you get 718 yards on offense, but you give up 500, right? So, I think that that's the important one. Whenever possible, you want it to be about the team, and you want it to be a team stat. And that would be a great one.
Q: I want to make sure I have this right. But Omari Evans, last year through 10 games, he maxed out at five yards on a reception. This is now his-fifth straight regular season game with a 25-plus yard catch. Can you talk through what has just changed for Omari, from him going from what seemed like an offensive afterthought, to someone who's consistently driving the ball down the field, coming up in plays?
A: I think sometimes when I talk about guys, you think I'm just like, being super optimistic and things like that. But he's a guy that we always had a ton of respect for the type of athlete he was. I mean, his running, jumping, strength numbers are freakish. I would also say, when he first got here, he's probably a little bit more of a track guy than a football guy. I guess I'd say to you, just like I say to the players, you’ve got to run your race. Some guys are able as freshmen by their third game, they're ready. Other guys that we've had here didn't start. I think Nick Scott didn't start until his senior year, and he's been in the NFL now going on six years. Dan Chisena walked on here and is now in the NFL for six years. Everybody's journey is different. And we used to quote all the time, “comparison is the thief of joy.” Run your race, and I know you guys got to see it. You don't want to just hear it from me, but Omari has shown flashes, really, since we recruited him and he came to camp, but it's about consistency, and he's practicing more consistent. He's competing more consistently. He's gaining confidence. And I think I told you guys, if he has some success, his career could go through the roof, so you're starting to see it and I think sometimes you guys think I just say things to you, but it's great when you guys are able to see what we get to see at practice. But I will say this, the biggest difference with him is the consistency. It's the consistency at practice that's starting to show up in games.
Q: Obviously, I know you’ll get a chance to watch the film closer tomorrow, but I think Dejuan was in there at safety on the second drive of the game. Obviously, a big point of discussion in the wake of KJ’s injury, you know, being able to see that group on the field, how are you feeling about the depth there and just kind of quick takeaways from that?
A: I think Max Granville was in series three. As you guys know, we've had some injuries this year, probably more injuries than we've had in a while. Whether they're long-term injuries, or guys are going to be out a couple weeks and things like that. So, I know how it is, you know, we don't spend a whole lot of time talking about injuries. So, I can't talk about injuries, and then want to get credit, you know when these guys are out. But at the end of the day, we’ve got a ton of respect for DeDe [Dejuan] Lane. We think he's got a very, very bright future. I’d love for him to be behind KJ and learning from him, but where we're at, we’ve got to speed up his maturation process and get him on the field. Today was great because he got a ton of reps. We'd love to get to the point where you can get him and Zakee [Wheatley] playing the two safety spots, so we can get Jayden Reed back down, playing the nickel, or the line, or however you want to describe it. But I thought he did some really good things and he got a ton of reps. So that'll be important for us moving forward. But again, we were able to get, to me, what's interesting, right? Is there's ton of guys that played but played late, but there's also a ton of guys, like DeDe, like Granville, that played early in the game, I think series three or series five. So that's significant for so we're going to need him.
Q: You guys came in today averaging, I think seven penalties a game. You got seven more today. So, as you move into Big Ten play, what are some of the things you guys can do to clean up, especially the pre snap ones?
A: Yeah, I don't like them. I don't like them at all, to be honest with you. You know, if you look at the analytics and the statistics, they don't really have a significant impact when you talk about winning and losing, but as a head coach, it embarrasses me, because it shows a lack of discipline and it's sloppy and it makes things harder than it needs to be. We end up making a drive on offense harder. Everything for us, on offense and on defense, just like everybody else across the country, is you want to be ahead of the sticks. If it's first and five because you jumped offsides on defense, you're not going to get the sacks you want. You're not going to get the tackles for loss you want, because they're ahead of the sticks, and now they can run the ball, go quick game, go naked and things like that. So, I'm going to keep my poise, but I’m going to keep people accountable. I'm going to hold the staff accountable to it. We're going to get it fixed. I'm totally bald now. I'm basically gray, so there's not a whole lot left I can lose. I guess, gain weight, eating from stress and embarrassment of penalties. But I ain't got a whole lot left, you know, in terms of what else, right? Maybe gray eyebrows, that's probably the last thing that goes but I'm not happy about it at all. So, we're going to have a lot of discussions about it as a staff, and we're going to work on getting it fixed.