Opening Statement: Always appreciate you guys coming out and covering Penn State football. Just a couple things to kind of close-up the last game.
Positives. Obviously, we overcame a lot of adversity on the road and found a way to get a big time Big Ten win, which is tough to do.
You look across college football, you know, that's hard to do. I thought our guys did a really good job of maximizing; we talk about kind of one-moment opportunities. You prepare all year long for certain opportunities to come up. I thought the fake punt was a perfect example. We been repping that all the way back since training camp and Dom Rulli did a phenomenal job of being the quarterback of that and getting us into the right call at the right time or checking out of it. He's done that all year long, and that was great in that situation.
But there are also things in that, like if you had a chance to go back and watch the play, DaKaari Nelson's block is like a clinic block. Like he pancakes the guy on it. Tyler Elsdon on the front side gets his hands inside, gets a beautiful block. He may have a pancake as well. So really cool that you work all year for something and then when the time presents itself, the guys are able to take advantage of it and maximize. So really cool and really proud of the guys for that.
Two-for-two on field goals. Not a whole lot of people talking about [Ryan] Barker right now and that unit, but that's been big for us. I think he's 10 of 11 since he got started for us and is doing a nice job.
You know, I think the situational football stuff that we talk about all the time has really showed up this year. If you look at two-minute drives, you know, this season, whether it's before the half or at the end of the game, we've scored points in West Virginia, Bowling Green, Kent State, UCLA, Washington, and Minnesota, so take a lot of pride that that's showed up. Then four-minute drives at the end of games, West Virginia, Washington, Minnesota. So all of those things were really positive.
Then maybe my favorite play of the game was what we call surrender. We call a play on offense. Now we're able to call surrender and we signal surrender. It means once you get the first down you go down or once you're about to score you go down before scoring. It's kind of a perfect example of who we are.
I also think it's a perfect example of Tyler Warren. You know with that catch he has a chance to score and be the all-time leading scorer in Penn State history at the tight end position and he falls down at the one yard-line. Easily could have scored; goes down.
It's the best thing to do in terms of managing that situation and winning the game and not having to kickoff again, ending on our terms. So just really, really cool play and not surprising that Tyler Warren is going to put the team first. I'm a big believer in that. The more you give to others and pour into others, it comes back to you ten times. Tyler Warren is a perfect example of that.
Opportunities for growth, obviously the blocked punt, that wasn't a scheme issue. They had three guys rushing. We had three guys to block. The guy got a little bit on of the edge and the punt was kicked a little bit wider than normal and he got his hand on the ball. That was a huge play in the game.
The field goal was a fluke deal. We haven't done that for, I don't know, 11 years. For whatever reason, we block out when we've always blocked down. But we’ve obviously got to get those things cleaned up.
And then the start of the game was disappointing. Three-and-out on offense and then a 70-yard drive resulting in a touchdown. So not the way you want to start the game. So we'll get those things cleaned up.
And then two last points is we got to be better creating YAC yards, so that's after the catch YAC yards, that's after the carry YAC yards, that's after first contact.
To me, the scheme and the other 10 players are responsible to get the ball carrier in position to be in a one-on-one situation. Then you’ve got to win that one-on-one situation. Got to be a little bit better there.
Then we call the quick-kick with Tyler Warren, obviously we don't want to shank the punt and we've been working that all year long. The bigger picture thing I talked about with the team is when you're in a sky-punt situation, so typically where we were on the field, whether it's a quick-kick situation or whether it's a sky-kick situation, we would never call timeout there.
So it was a good opportunity to talk about it. We talked about it as a team. Sometimes the quarterbacks are not in that discussion because it's a special teams conversation. But we never call timeout there.
You're in a plus-territory punt situation. If you get a five-yard penalty for delay of game, no big deal. Back up five yards and you're still in a really good situation. That was a good opportunity to talk through that.
Most importantly we found a way to get a win on the road against a good opponent.
When you get into Maryland, obviously got a lot of familiarity with those people. Was there for eight years, five years and then three years as offensive coordinator, head-coach-in-waiting there. So got a lot of history there.
Me and Locks [Mike Locksley] coached together for a number of years together there as well. Know the area. Got a ton of respect for the university. Ton of respect for the area, the DMV, the high school coaches in the area, high school programs.
You look at their roster, they've done a good job of building their roster between high school and transfer portal. They got 14 players from the transfer portal on their roster. Obviously, Locks has a background as an offensive coordinator and from what I understand, Locks is calling the offense right now.
Josh Gattis, the offensive coordinator, was on our staff here at Penn State. I know Josh very well. Got a ton of respect for him, too.
They're an 11-personnel team primarily. They'll go into some other things like 12 and 20 personnel, but they're predominantly an 11 personnel team.
Passing offense, they're first in the Big Ten. Total offense, sixth until the Big Ten. Quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. has done a nice job there for a number of years as a backup quarterback and this year doing a really good job when you talk about throwing the ball for yards and touchdowns.
Roman Hemby has been playing there for a while. Very, very productive back that we got a lot of respect for. And then Tai Felton, I think is leading the Big Ten in receiving, catches and yards. He's got 92 catches for over 1,000 yards, and a guy that we got a lot of respect for on film and we'll need to be aware of. He'll be a big part of the our defensive game plan.
Defensive coordinator, Brian Williams, also known for a very long time, all the way back to his time as a high school coach in Florida. Brian does a really good job. Multiple front, multiple scheme from both three-down front and four-down front.
Guys that we're impressed with, linebacker Ruben Hyppolite, who we also recruited; safety Dante Trader, No. 12; the defensive lineman, No. 7, Tommy Akingbesote. I hope I said that right. D-lineman, No. 8, Jordan Phillips, who is a Tennessee transfer, and then linebacker, No. 44, Caleb Wheatland. Guys we have respect for.
On special teams, James Thomas and their punter, No. 34, Bryce McFerson, who is a Notre Dame transfer, and punting very well right now.
Excited about the opportunity. It's also Senior Day for our guys, so a lot that comes with that. That's been a little bit challenging for everybody in college football right now with the COVID years and things like that. It's made it a little bit whacky over the last couple years. You’ve got sixth-year guys, you got fifth-year guys, you got fourth-year guys; some programs have seventh-and eighth-year guys. That's been different.
But we look forward to having the opportunity to celebrate the seniors and what they've done for our program. Obviously, we need to play well and be 1-0 to put us in the best position to be able to continue playing as a family as long as possible.
Q: In the last two days, have you learned anything more about Anthony Donkoh? Is it a long-term injury? How did Nolan [Rucci] play in his place?
A: Yeah, Anthony is a long-term injury. We felt like Rucci played well. I think our offensive line, as well as Rucci, I think you could watch 20 plays and be very impress and you could watch a couple plays and be frustrated.
I think that's not just coming from me. That's coming from the line coaches, the players themselves. Like always, right, we’ve got to take responsibility for that and you’ve also got to give Minnesota some credit for that. Minnesota had an extra week in preparation and I thought they had a really good plan; it showed up.
Yeah, I think we were pleased with Rucci, and we sure are glad he's on our team. We felt like that all year long. We're going to need him to have a really good week this week in preparation, as well as on Saturday, and have a lot of confidence that he will.
Q: You mentioned earlier about being able to play well Saturday in order to keep playing together this season. One of those options is the Big Ten title game if you beat Maryland and some other things happen. What would be the pros and cons of playing in that game?
A: To be honest with you, I haven't spent a whole lot time thinking about that. I'm literally completely focused on the Terps and the University of Maryland, and after that game there is a lot of other things I think that have to happen.
But that is a possibility. For us, we want an opportunity to compete as many times as we possibly can this year. If that includes a conference championship game, we would be very, very excited about that opportunity.
But, again, all we have to do is focus on playing Maryland this week and if we're not focused on that, then a lot of these other things that everybody else wants to talk about, then those things become questionable. Those things become challenging. Those things become different.
So I honestly; we have not talked about it in the Lasch Building once. We are focused totally on the University of Maryland and sending our seniors out the right way.
Got a ton of respect for the University of Maryland and the talent they have on their team every year. Totally focused on that. Anything that happens after Saturday, we'll be excited about those opportunities that we've earned.
Q: When you were deciding to pull the trigger on the fake punt on Saturday, I know what the outside world thinks can't factor into your decision of course, doesn't enter the process, and I guess I'm asking you this more as a human being than a coach. Was there any instant where you were thinking, if I do this and it doesn't work the critics head's are going to explode? Do you think of that? Does that ever cross your mind?
A: At the moment, no. After the case when everybody is sending messages and saying, ‘wow, great decision. That was awesome. I love it.’ Why? Because it worked. If it didn't work, Mike, you wouldn't be having fun with me talking about the fried turkey or the roasted turkey. You would be roasting James Franklin.
I totally get that. But, again, when you’ve got Dom Rulli as your quarterback and you have Luke Reynolds carrying the ball and you have DaKaari Nelson and Elsdon and Cooper Cousins and we have repped it 1000 times and I've called it probably six times this year when we checked out because it wasn't the right look, checked out because it wasn't the right look, checked out because it wasn't the right look, and we have had a ton of reps at it, it gives me a ton of confidence because of the young men on this unit and how they've executed it every single day at practice and the trust that they've built with me in terms of we're not going to run it into a bad look.
Dom Rulli has done a great job of that all year long. So at the time I did not think like that because, No. 1, we were trying to win the game. Felt like it gave us the best chance to win the game. No. 2, because of how these guys have repped that and handled that in practice and all year long.
So Dom Rulli has earned that right to allow me to call that play based on how he's conducted himself, not just this year, but over his time at Penn State. He's been awesome.
If you haven't watched that play, watch DaKarri Nelson's block on that play. It's a thing of beauty. I think you guys have probably seen the belt and it says BMF on it that the guys wear. That's an offensive award for the best block of the week. I made the argument that DaKaari should have been a part of that award because it was such a beautiful block.
So, yeah, I get it. I've said that to you guys before. When we don't go for it on fourth down and people think we should have, you know, everybody has an opinion. When we go for it on fourth down and don't get it, everybody has an opinion. When we do go for it on fourth down and it works, you're smart. I get it.
The announcers on TV, I would love for them to have opinions on it before the play. Everyone has opinions after the play. For me it just comes down to trusting my staff and, most importantly, trusting the players that it's about executing what we call.
Q: Alonzo Ford, is that something that's long-term? Do you guys know at this point? Staying with D-tackles, can you talk about how good Zane Durant is playing right now, his impact right now?
A: Yeah, so Alonzo Ford is long-term. When I talked about adversity that we faced at Minnesota, there was a lot of reasons for that, right? Alonzo is long-term as well.
But Zane I think is playing really good. I think I made a big deal on Sunday out of it with our team. He's just the same guy every single day. He is mentally tough, physically tough. He loves, not likes, football. He loves football.
He understands and is willing to do the things that football takes, the sacrifices he has to make to be a great player. He is the same way in the weight room, at practice, on game day.
To me, he's what you want, what you're looking for in terms of the whole package. I've been very complimentary of his parents and how he was raised. His high school did a really good job developing him. He showed up here with the mentality he was going to play as true freshman, which is very unusual as a defensive tackle position, and he's done that.
For the young guys in our program, he's a really good guy to model behaviors, habits after. Big, big fan of Zane. Also a guy that will speak from a leadership standpoint. He'll speak the truth to his teammates.
I just I'm a big fan, and I think from a leadership standpoint a lot of guys want to be leaders by example and they're not willing to be verbal and he is. I'm a big fan of his.
Q: How about the team’s Thanksgiving plans? Are you saying that Warren was supposed to sky punt that?
A: First of all about the punt, no, not necessarily sky punt. When you're not the full-time punter, your punts are sky punts, right? Look, you don't punt it very far and you don't have to.
The whole reason you quick kick is nobody is back there. You get it out there and let it roll type of deal so it falls into that category is what I was saying. There is no returner back there. Whole reason for a quick kick. Kind of let it punt about 25 yards and let it roll for another 10.
Thanksgiving plans, we changed a little bit this year. We'll have our Thanksgiving meal as a team Wednesday night and then Thursday morning, have our practice like we always do and then instead of having a Thanksgiving meal afterwards, just trying give the guys as much time as possible.
So by having it Wednesday night, we'll still have like a light lunch for them to go in and grab if they want to after practice. It just allows the guys to have more time on Thanksgiving to either go to my house, their position coaches house, for some of the local guys, possibly go home.
A lot of the guys, as you know when we have home games, a lot of families just come in early and they come to practice and do Thanksgiving and then stay for the game. When it's an away game that becomes more challenging. That is the plan.
Q: With Rucci elevating, who else might get an opportunity to do some of the things that he was doing, maybe coming in as an extra offensive lineman or being that extra offensive tackle in the rotation?
A: Yeah, so obviously a guy that you guys know we have a ton of respect for, played a bunch of football for us, is JB Nelson. JB's role will increase and he's earned that. JB had some lingering injuries this year that have affected how much we been able to use him, but JB's role will increase.
I would also say Cooper Cousins's role will increase. Eagan Boyer's role could increase. And J'ven Williams' role will increase.
So all those guys will take on some of those reps and take on some of those roles. Part of it will be also how they practice this week. It's still early in the week to say those things.
But all those guys have played this year already, so that group will make up those opportunities. But also, it's still early in the week. Haven't even had a gameplan practice yet.
Q: The cameras caught with the sky kick. You went over to Drew [Allar]. Obviously, he was frustrated on the sideline and you talked to him. Looked like you maybe calmed him down a little bit. What do you think that moment and how he responded says about him and his maturation this season? You told us the fourth-and-1 play to Warren, that he was felt strongly about that play and felt like he has the ownership to have a voice with you guys on that give and take. Maybe we saw some growth from Drew there. Do you agree with that?
A: The play you're talking about, fourth-and-1, he was discussing a couple different options on the headset and he felt strongly about that call and we went with it. Obviously, him and a bunch of other guys in that unit made it work in a way that probably didn't play out exactly the way we had drawn it up.
That's great, because as we all know, things aren't going to go as you have them drawn up in a controlled environment.
To be honest with you, I think a little bit misinterpreted. I think the people thought the frustration was with the quick kick. The frustration was with he was offset and [Nick] Dawkins couldn't hear him. He was frustrated that he's trying to get the snap off and the ball is not being snapped.
Drew does a great job managing the clock and he saw we were about to get a delay of game. That's what I was talking about at the beginning of the press conference. If we get a delay of game there, no big deal. We were quick kicking or sky punting or whatever it may be.
So his frustration was more with the ball not getting snapped to Tyler so he could quick kick it, and then obviously it did while it looked like he was walking off the field, which is really just part of the whole play. No? I'm just saying that. I think that was misinterpretation a little bit what his frustration was about.
Either way, it was an opportunity for us to have a discussion and then another discussion and then another discussion. And to me, that's exactly how I want it to be. I want him to be fiery. Obviously like anything, you don't want to live in the extremes. I want him to be fiery. I want him to play with passion and emotion.
That was an opportunity for him to do that, and what was great is we were able to have a conversation. He gave me good feedback and I gave him good feedback and went out and played really well.
I followed back up with him again because of just some things that kind of I thought it was important for him to hear from my perspective.
To me, it was perfect. I expect there to be fire and emotion and I'm totally okay with that. I encourage that. We work too hard, we sacrifice way too much. I think Drew is a great example of that.
I'm glad he is showing that side of his personality. We have seen it. I don't know if necessarily everybody else has seen it. Yeah, I think it was great.
Q: So we have talked a lot about Jaylen Reed at safety this year, maybe not as much about Zakee Wheatley. How would you evaluate how he has played this season?
A: We’ve got two of the better safeties in college football, and I think you guys know with K.J. [Winston] that is as impressive of a group of guys you could have that created a lot of diversity for us in what we did and how we did it.
But Zakee is just playing great right now. His tackle radius is really impressive. His ability to make plays, whether it's causing fumbles or interceptions, hasn't made as many of them this year as maybe I anticipated, but I know he's got the ability to do it.
He's one of the more natural playmakers we got. And just his football IQ and him and Dex's [Anthony Poindexter] relationship, how well they work together. I think he's playing at a very, very high level. I think he's got a really bright future.
You know, Kyle Schmidt was his high school coach at [Archbishop] Spalding High School. Did a phenomenal job with him. Kyle played for us at the University of Maryland and has done a great job at Spalding High School. Kid came in here ready and prepared to compete and just got better every year.
This past year probably made the biggest jump just in terms of all the different ways that we can use him, his confidence, understanding his strengths and weaknesses, playing to the strengths.
Probably one of the better tacklers, just pure tacklers we have on our team. He's got length. He's got athleticism. I'm a huge fan. I'm a huge fan of his. His maturity, just really has grown. Just really grown. I'm very, very proud of him.
I think he's got a very, very bright future for the rest of his career here at Penn State and then afterwards.
Q: Nick Singleton, from our vantage point, seems to be operating at a higher level than he was for a point of the season. His yards per carry the last three weeks are up from where they were the three games before that. Is that something that you're also picking up, where maybe Nick Singleton entering this stretch is in a better spot than he was mid-season health-wise?
A: Yeah, the reality is he's healthy again. You guys know what a healthy Nick Singleton looks like. He wasn't that. But I also think that is a credit to Nick and I also think that's part of the maturation process of a football player.
When you play in the Big Ten and you play in the Big Ten that's not playing 10 games anymore or 11 games, talking about 12 games and the possibility of 17, the reality is in major college football or the NFL, there are very few people that are going to be 100% all year long.
That's not the reality of college football. So you play with the things that you can play with and manage. The doctors and the trainers will step in when you can't. Nick went out there and played the best he could under the circumstances, but he was not 100%.
He's back closer to 100% than he's been in a while. So, yeah, that's great. I think Dani [Dennis-Sutton] is in a similar situation. He's played a couple weeks not being 100%.
And again, that's the nature of college football. Our guys understand that and they embrace that, and those types of decisions I think have allowed us to get to where we are right now.
The medical staff with Wayne [Sebastianelli] and Dr. [Gregory] Billy and Andy Mutnan and the whole group have done a phenomenal job of keeping our guys healthy and getting our guys healthy.
Then our guys have taken a mature approach of coming in and getting pre-hab or rehab even when it's not mandated just trying to get themselves in the best position to be as health use as they can for as long as they can throughout the season, which is hard to do.
Yeah, Nick is looking closer to full speed and 100% than he's been in a couple weeks. And we need that. He's an explosive player. I think when the defensive coordinators see that, when the defensive players see that, it changes how they defend him and how they defend us.
If you make one mistake, it could go for 80.