Opening Statement: So a couple things. The first thing is, the Super Bowl, and Saquon [Barkley’s] success and Jahan [Dotson’s] success and Tariq Castro-Fields—it is really cool to be a part of this journey with these guys all the way back to from when we recruited them. So to see them having that type of success on that stage is really cool. So congratulations to those guys. Went back and forth with some text messages with all of them.
And then obviously, this time of year, we're busy. We've gotten back into the weight room—I think we talked about this before—the players had about two weeks off after the season; long season. So I had two weeks off. We're getting back into workouts now. We'll get ready to get started with winter workouts here pretty soon, which is our morning mat workouts, I think most of you guys know that we typically have anywhere between eight to 10. Again, based on the schedule, we'll probably have six of those this year. We have to make modifications based on the calendar and how long we played into the season.
And then the reason the room is probably full is we’ve been very, very busy with getting coach Knowles and our defensive staff—got a ton of work to do. Very similar to what we did on offense, spending a bunch of time going through what we've done, what they have done, kind of side by side. You know, here's our five-man pressures, there's their five-man pressures. This is what we did. This is what they did. This is how they called it. This is how we've called it. It's a painstaking process, but I think also really, really valuable. So doing that right now, which, which takes a ton of time.
And then, obviously, we have two positions that we need to fill. Ja’Juan Seider, after being with us for seven years—did a great job for us and we’re very appreciative of Ja’Juan and his family. His son played for us, and was part of our program for a long time—you know, has moved on, and we wish him nothing but the best. Again, seven years. In some ways it's a shame that in college football, that that's a long time, but he gave our program and our community seven years and did a really good job for us, so we're appreciative of that.
And then I think you guys also know we lost Khalil [Ahmad] to Temple for an advancement in his career from a from a title perspective and a responsibility perspective. Khalil did a really good job for us as well, so we wish him well, but that creates a ton of work as well. The interview process, being as thorough as we possibly can with that, while also understanding in today's college football, the timing of it is really important as well. There’s a lot of uneasiness and uncertainty from our current roster, as well as recruits. So we want to be sensitive to that as well, but not to the point where we don't do a great job and we're not thorough with our process. So that's my opening statement, and I'm happy to answer questions.
Q. Can you speak to the time, effort and financial commitment that went into hiring Jim Knowles, and what made him the right guy for the position?
A.Yeah, so, time: it happened pretty quickly. What I think helped with this is we spoke a couple years back when the position was open, so that helped. We already had pretty good familiarity with each other. We were able to start conversations after the national championship game, obviously, and it went quickly.
I will say this in defense to Jim, because I know he took some grief for this. Jim had all intentions of going to their national champion celebration. We did not have a deal yet, even the day the deal was being announced by everybody that it was done, it was not done. I was concerned that it being announced may screw up our ability to get the deal done, but I didn't know it was being reported everywhere that he was coming, and we didn't have a signed contract until way after that. And as you guys know, the amount of high-profile jobs that were open for defensive coordinator positions you never truly know until the deal is done.
In terms of the commitment, it's, it's been phenomenal. It's been all you can ask for. I think really, in the last two years, the commitment level has matched the expectations and I think there's very few places in the country that can actually say that. So I'm very, very appreciative of that. Pat Kraft has been phenomenal, has been supportive. Neeli Bendapudi has been unbelievably supportive. As you know, we have unique flexibility because we are self-sufficient. A lot of different universities are using resources from the university or the student body, and we're not, but it still takes the support to get those things done, so I'm very appreciative. And obviously, when you're able to be able to go out and compete with who we competed with to get arguably the best defensive coordinator in college football, I'm very, very appreciative of that.
I know there's a ton of excitement from our players, there's a ton of excitement from the fans, there's a ton of excitement from our supporters and alumni and lettermen, and all those things matter.
Q. When Tom Allen told you he was leaving, at that point, what would you say the chances were of you getting a Jim Knowles? Was he even on your short list? And does having him, what does it say to the fan base, not just to the players and staff in the room, about the kind of commitment that you folks have made?
A. Yeah, I think it's very telling. I think goes back to that statement I made earlier that, you know, in my—what is it going on 12 years now? I think the last two years, our commitment has matched our expectations. I don't know if I would have said that before. I think Pat's been with us for three years—and the only reason I didn’t say three years before is when you first get here, that first year you're figuring everything out. But yeah, I think to a passionate and hungry fan base, I think it speaks volumes. I think it speaks volumes.
So, as you guys know, I always have a list ahead of time. Will Reimann does a really good job for us in that where he'll bring names to me, I'll bring names to him. Whenever we hire a new staff member, I always ask them feedback about who's the best people you've worked with, where you came from, and those types of things. So we're constantly working on lists. But you know, the thing that's interesting is, and we've talked about this before, when we lose somebody in any position, it's a painstaking process to fill the position. There's not as many qualified people out there as many as people may think so, going through that process and making sure we get the right person.
It what's great about being at a place like Penn State. I've been at places in my career where you have a dream list and they're not really realistic. Your dream list at Penn State is realistic, specifically now with the support that we have. But again, it was a twisting and turning process.
You know, I think I got a call at 5:40 in the morning two days after the national championship, and that's when I thought it may be real. There may have a chance before that, but we hadn't had any communication. And this isn't one of these talks where I say I haven't had any communication, but I had been talking to his agent, like there was it was none. We had been talking to a ton of other guys and vetting and going through the process, but you know it's kind of a twisting and a winding deal. There's guys that you think you may be able to get and you can't, you know, we looked at NFL guys, we looked at college guys, kind of kept narrowing the list down, hadn't made any offers. And then this became a possibility. And then, I think, getting to figure out both sides’ interest levels took a little bit of time. And then are you actually going to be able to get it done? And from our perspective, we knew what other jobs were open, some really good jobs, so that played a factor into it as well, but I would say he was on an initial list, but there's a lot of people on that list.
Q. You mentioned there are not a lot of qualified candidates for these types of jobs. With the running backs job, what are you looking for in that kind of candidate? What do you want out of that candidate? And how does your timeline change with it being kind of late in the coaching carousel at this point?
A. Yeah, I think that's one of the things that that we're going to have a lot of conversations with about as a as a staff as well.
The NFL hiring process has really changed schools like Penn State because what happens is, you either lose a coach to the NFL very late in the process and now you have to go hire someone who's probably already signed a contract, which can become costly in terms of buyouts and things like that because it's so late in the process and all the best guys are typically tied up at that point. Or, an NFL team hires somebody else, and then they take your guy to fill their spot.
In the old days, people didn't necessarily put buyouts in for NFL positions because you didn't want to ever act like you were prohibiting or making it more difficult for people to, you know, to move professionally in terms of upward mobility. But I think the timing of it now makes those things even more challenging. It is very detrimental to lose people in your organization this late in the process. So I think all those things need to be looked at and determined what's fair for both sides. But it's something that is very, very challenging. And again, the timing is problematic.
And so I think when you look at the qualities for a running backs coach, it's the same for all these positions. You know, we’ve got to go out and get the very best candidate we can. And again, there's a list that's probably not as deep as people think of, of candidates that can come to Penn State. And in hiring, in my mind, it's, it's about how are you going to get the return on your investment. What I mean by that is, there's some young guys that you can hire that are on an upward trajectory, are going to have really good careers, but you may not get the return on your investment until year two. And then there's other guys that are much more seasoned, but you want to make sure that they haven't gotten to the point of their career where their career starting to decline and go in the opposite direction. So you kind of find that sweet spot of a guy that's got enough experience, both in coaching and in recruiting at this level, and that we're going to get the return on our investment quickly. Because, you know, we're just not a at a point as a program to come in and and have to wait a year or two while we're still developing somebody.
So that's, that's the hard part of finding that sweet spot of they got enough experience that there's they're still trending, from a from a coaching and from a recruiting perspective, but not too much that maybe they're on the downward trend of their career as well, and you're trying to kind of balance all those things.
And then the other thing is, obviously, are they a fit? Are they a fit for the university? Are they a fit for the community? Are they a fit in recruiting? Probably changed a little bit with the Big Ten expansion, because we're probably doing more national recruiting than we've ever done, but I would still say, the majority of our class and majority of our team still comes from the footprint. So I think that factors in. It's not the end all-be all, but I think when we can get somebody that's from either the Northeast or the Big Ten footprint, that's important too.
Q. Since the past month when the season ended, now that you've had kind of more time to look at it—obviously the personnel has changed as well—in your receiving corps, how would you kind of evaluate the job that Marcus Hagans did? And also, could you speak a little bit about some of the new additions that you have there that you added this winter?
A. Yeah, so first of all, I felt like we got better this year. Obviously, when the season ends the way it did, you know that probably taints the perspective.
I think overall, we got better this year. I think that's the first thing that we have to evaluate. Then I think when you talk about kind of moving forward, we were able to bring in a couple guys that graduated early from high school, which is which is helpful, and those guys have been impressive so far at a position where freshmen can play. And then we obviously went to the transfer portal and got some. guys as well, who've also been impressive. But we'll have a better idea once we get through winter workouts. We'll have a better idea through spring ball. We'll have a better idea after talking to the strength coaches, when we kind of really get into it and the testing. And then we'll have to make some decisions once the spring transfer portal opens and also who's available.
I think that's one of those things with the transfer portal. You have to be careful—you get intoxicated by the transfer portal and the possibilities of the transfer portal, but as you know, we have not lived in the transfer portal, really for any position, and we want to be very strategic about who and what we bring in, because we've worked so hard to create a locker room that we feel really good about culturally, that we want to make sure we're bringing the right guys in. I think that's also why you see us, typically a lot of guys we recruit from the transfer portal or guys that we had preexisting relationships with, because we know how important the culture of the locker room is. So you know, I tell our guys, don't get intoxicated by talent and talent alone. That's sometimes hard to do in a transfer portal when it opens and closes quickly and, more times than not, the best players already know where they're going before they ever go in into the portal. So that's what makes it so challenging and so problematic, because that's technically illegal. I shouldn't even say technically, but the reality is that that's what's happening.
Q. Throughout your tenure here, a lot of your positional coaches have been tied to you rather than a coordinator. So that being said, how much will Andy [Kotelnicki] play, and what role will he play in the hiring of your new running backs coach?
A. Yeah, I think ultimately, the guys will ultimately be tied to me, and it’s ultimately my decision. But obviously, Andy plays a huge role in that, and really the whole staff plays a huge role in that. Again, back to the process. We're fortunate that we're able to hire, I wouldn't say pretty much anybody we want to, but we're able to really get a very strong list together that, I would say, most of the candidates we would be happy with hiring. So it's now trying to find the best one. I don't think we'll ever hire somebody that that Andy's unhappy with or I'm unhappy with. It's somebody that we're both comfortable with and the staff is comfortable with. So in these interviews, I'll pretty much narrow it down with Andy, but then they'll interview with the staff, and everybody kind of has a vote. I got my feeling, and he's got his feeling. And then kind of what the entire staff feels. But you know, it's just like in recruiting or just like hiring, I want these coaches to come to Penn State and have a great experience and retire at Penn State, but that's not always the case. So I'm, I'm the guy that's going to be here, and I need to make sure that I'm comfortable with everybody we're bringing into the building.
Q. In a couple minutes, we're going to meet some of your 2024, guys. What did you learn about maybe some of the freshmen you were able to play prominently—whether we whether it was Luke Reynolds, I know you think a lot of Cooper Cousins—as they enter their second year? Who are you really excited about that you got a good look at? And also, maybe your thoughts on some guys that are good at that redshirted that you think have a chance to really help the team in their second year?
A. [Dejuan] Lane fits in that category too. I guess the first thing is, I'm really strategic about playing those guys, because there's just been too many times where the assistants say they want to play a guy early in the season. We agree to green light him—I think you guys know that term we use—and then we get halfway through the season, and those guys haven't really played a whole lot, right? So I want to make sure that we're being strategic about it so that the coaches and the players and their parents feel like, at the end of the season, hey, this was worth it. This was worth burning a year for.
And the hard part with that is it's sometimes hard to predict with injuries, what's going to happen. Sometimes you know you're going to play him and you're going to go full throttle, kind of like what happened with [Dejuan] Lane and other guys. You're trying to manage it is as much as you possibly can, but that's hard to predict. The good thing is, with us being able to play, you know, four regular season games and then all the postseason games, guys could play a ton of football and still and still preserve your year of eligibility. So I think in the long run, it will help all those guys.
I think the other thing I would say, to answer your question, is I also want to make sure that in year two, they have the chance for a bigger role. Because what I think can be frustrating sometimes is you burn a guy's redshirt and then the next year, their role doesn't grow. And that becomes problematic as well based on who's in front of them. So that plays a part in it too. Is it are there seniors in front of them that are going to be moving on, someone that may be leaving for the NFL? Those things factor into the decision as well. Because I think it's one thing, you don't play a whole lot your first year, but then that that role stays about the same in year two. That can create some frustration, too. So, you know, looking at all that and managing all that in terms of the players, I'd probably prefer to wait to answer that until we get into spring ball, and I have a little bit more evidence to speak on.
The other reason is, there's so many guys to talk about. If I miss somebody, you know, their mom's mad at me, and I prefer, at this point, not to have that with not a whole lot of information. I think you guys saw the scout team and d-squad players of the week and things like that that were doing some nice things. I think you saw the guys that actually got to play in games this year and still preserve the redshirts. I think you got a pretty good idea of who those people are, but I probably prefer to wait until I have a little bit more evidence to answer that question for you.
Q: Wanted to circle back to the running back room, but to the two guys that are back in it that maybe we didn't think they'd be back, Nick [Singleton] and Kaytron [Allen]. They announced within a few hours of each other three weeks ago. When did you know that they were going to be on board in 2025? How have they handled Ja’Juan [Seider] moving on, considering how important he has been to their process? What is their role going to be in terms of you selling the vision for the room and in picking your coach for what happens next at running backs coach?
A: First of all, I think you guys know the way we handled it with all of those guys that had decisions to make on whether to come back or whether to leave. We never dealt with it during a game week. So we tried to do it right when the regular season ended. We tried to do it a little bit during bye weeks, things like that. But whenever we weren't in a game week, a traditional game week.
I think maybe the first playoff game, we had maybe 10 days or something like that. So we were able to use those first, you know, three days, or whatever it may be, ahead of time, to work through this. But it was a scramble, you know. And then who do you meet with? And when do you meet with them? And these guys that were here, well, you haven't met with us yet. Well, kind of working through the roster, and starting with, obviously, the oldest guys and the guys that had legitimate NFL decisions to make.
But I wasn't sure how it was going to play out, because obviously it's not just us talking to them. The agents are talking to them as well. Everybody's providing information from the NFL. So I wasn't really sure.
I thought there was a good chance early on that we would get one of them back, very similar to the Tyler [Warren] and Theo [Johnson] situation last year. But then it started to look like we may be able to get them both back.
With Nick, it was a little bit like an Olu [Fashanu] situation where getting his degree, finishing what he started, taking a few more steps. I think that was a factor for him.
I think with Katron, to be honest with you, one of the most exciting things about Kaytron is Kaytron has never really had an off-season. Every off-season, he's had some injury that has really limited his off-season development. So, you know, with him really having his first off-season where he's been healthy, I think he's really excited about what he can do, and I know we're really excited.
But I didn't really know how it was going to go with either of those guys, but obviously it worked out to be a positive. I think they also now are at a point of their career, that I think early on, maybe they struggled splitting time, and I think now they understand the value of splitting time. It obviously helps that they both rush for 1000 yards.
Then, you know, the hiring process with that. It's funny, because, you know, people just like hiring a defense coordinator, like everybody kind of is anxious about that and what it's going to look like, and do they still fit. Well at this point of the program, it makes no sense to go hire somebody that doesn't fit our program and fit our personnel. We're not at a point that we're going to start over. It's to continue to build that same way with the running back coach.
I would make the argument with Nick and Fat and the rest of the room coming back, and what we've recruited and who's committed to us out there, it's arguably the most attractive running back job in the country. So those things help with that.
So to your point, I'm not hiring anybody that Nick and Fat, that I don't think will feel great about. Now, I also don't include them in the process, just like I didn't include Drew [Allar] in the process of hiring an offensive coordinator, because I don't want them to go through the emotional roller coaster. I say, ‘okay, here are the guys I'm thinking about’, they get excited about somebody. We don't get that guy, it goes in a different direction. I don't think that's the right thing to do for the reasons I just explained.
But with the guys, to be honest, you just don't know. Some guys you think are going to come back and should come back and don't. And other guys you didn't think we're going to come back and they do. Like for a while there, I wasn't sure about Zane, and you guys haven't seen my office, but he knocked on the back door and he came walking in, and in very Zane fashion, he goes, I'm back. And that was it.
It was less Schwarzenegger, although I said it that way, but more just kind of like Southern Florida. You know Zane, his deep voice, you guys know that and he was with Deion [Barnes]. Deion seemed to shocked by it, as I was.
But, I think that's also telling right, when guys like Olu and the guys that we had come back this year, I think that speaks to the culture in the room, and I think that speaks to the development that they're getting, and the excitement about some of the things that we can do this year. So, I think it's all those things.
Q: You talked earlier about modifying winter workouts because of how long you played. Looking ahead to spring practice, anything you have to change either because of how long you played this past year or how long you might play in 2025? What challenges, if any, do you expect the portal being open during your spring practice could cause?
A: Yeah, that's fun. I guess the first thing I would say is this. I don't see us modifying spring ball a whole lot compared to what we have done in the past. You know, I do see us making some modifications to the spring game.
We will still have the spring game, because I know what it means to this community and the hotels and the bars and the restaurants and the tailgating and all of it. We're working on that now. We we may do some more events that we're still working through. I don't want to speak on them too early.
I think the biggest modification that we will make is very similar to what we did with Tyler Warren and Olu, you know, two years ago, is we'll modify specific guys rather than modify the whole program, because, to me, that's the hard part, and that's the challenge, right? It's kind of like teaching, you know, you're trying to teach a class and you got all this different ability within that class. You’ve got some people in the class that really need to be challenged at a very high level and you’ve got some people that just showed up that are entry level and you're trying to reach all of them, which is challenging. I think it's the same way with us. If we modify spring ball, then all these guys that are fighting for jobs and need to be evaluated and need to be developed, they're losing it and they need it. So for me, what I think we'll do is we'll modify specific players based on age, experience, reps that they had last year, reps that they've had over their career. Very similar to what we did late in the season in practice. You know, there's some guys that still need a ton of reps and there's some guys that still have to get better, but you limit them.
So we'll do modifications based on my recommendation, the position coaches’ recommendation, sports science, Andrew Nelson, Chuck Losey. We’ll kind of get together and say, okay, here are the guys.
Now, obviously, you know, with Coach [Jim] Knowles here, that becomes challenging too, because they need reps within that. But there's ways of doing that, making sure the vets are getting all the jog through reps and things like that.
So that'll be our approach. The spring game, we’ll wait to talk about that in more detail, so that myself, the coaches, the administration, everybody's on the same page. Because I think a lot of you guys know at a place like Penn State, I locked my date in for the spring game a while ago because there's so many things at the university that are built around the game in terms of development, fundraising, you know, all types of events that the university has. So, we don't have a whole lot of flexibility there.
Q: Tough ending for Drew [Allar]. How did he come out of the end emotionally and looking ahead? What can be learned there?
A: I mean, obviously, you know when the season ends the way it does, you know, everybody's disappointed, and there's typically nobody more disappointed than the players themselves
and the coaches because of how much time and effort you put into it.
There's only one program in college football that's happy at the end of the season at this level and, obviously, the most important thing for all of us is that we learn from it and grow from it, and that's what we're all doing.
I think this experience this year will be helpful, very similar to what you've seen with other programs. We understand what it's like. You have a plan, you have a routine, you kind of go back and do an after-action review about how things went as a program. The players do that as well and then you attack it.
So yeah, I think everybody is as disappointed as you could be, you know, when it ends, but there's also a ton to be proud of and appreciative of.
But the most important thing is that we use every experience we have, both positive and negative, to get better and grow. That's what I see all of our guys doing, including Drew.