Opening Statement:
So, a couple things. First of all, I want to thank you guys for coming out and covering Penn State football as always. I don't take that for granted. With everything we've got going on with the stadium and everything else, I thought the atmosphere and the fans were great. It was a beautiful day in Happy Valley. Overall, I was pleased. I thought we came out and played the way we were supposed to play. Obviously, we got a ton of things that we still need to get cleaned up. The reps that we were able to get late in the game for our twos and threes, I think are really valuable. It obviously was not perfect, but it'll serve us well as this season goes on and allow those guys to get coached off the two. But overall, I thought we played the way we were supposed to play. We have to finish some drives on offense and not end with field goals. Although, I think the field goal work was a blessing in disguise there. The field goal work was good for us, too. We won the takeaway battle. You got to score points off turnovers, and we had 16 points off our three turnovers. Explosive play battle. We were not as explosive as I would have liked to be today, but again, this is a smart coach. He does a nice job. If you watch them on offense, they snap the ball every time under five. They were going to shorten the game. On defense, they were going to play “bend, but don't break” and not give up the explosives, but we must be more explosive. The third down battle was significant. The sack battle was significant. The starting field position battle, which goes hand in hand with special teams and turnovers. Obviously, we did not win the penalty battle. I was not happy with the last one. The official is in the huddle holding us, turns to the umpire, says, pump the clock. He doesn't do it. Then throws a flag on us. Then I go and address it, and the same thing he's behind him going. ‘I tried to tell him.’ So, wasn't happy about that. Middle eight was great. Loved how we saved all of our timeouts. You see a ton of sloppy football early in the season. I didn't see any of that. We didn't have stupid penalties. We didn't put the ball on the ground, we didn't turn it over, we didn't burn timeouts. That was big. I think we had a two-minute drive at the end of the half, had all of our timeouts available, scored a touchdown, then came back because we deferred, went middle eight, got points, I think it was a field goal coming out of the second half. So, one to middle eight, that was big. Was very pleased with how we handled that. Had our first takeaway on a defensive possession to start the season since 1994, awesome. 10 drives, nine resulting in a scores. Dani Dennis Sutton became the first Penn State player with two forced fumbles in a game since a guy by name of Micah Parsons in 2019. Then with two touchdowns, Nick Singleton now has 43 career touchdowns passing a guy for the real Penn State fans out there, Lydell Mitchell, who was a legend here, for second all-time at Penn State in total touchdowns. So, a ton of cool stuff. I thought, Andy, year two, you could feel the difference. Same thing with Stig. And then I thought for our first game at Penn State, I liked how we operated on the headset with Jim and how poised he was. Obviously, he is an experienced guy. There's going to be a ton of stuff that we have got to get cleaned up off this film. I know that's a long opening statement. Appreciate you guys being here, and I'm happy to answer questions.
Q: James, can you assess the play with three transfer wide receivers and the amount of production you were able to get from them?
A: Yeah, so my gut says ‘good.’ Need to kind of look at it, to talk it through. But yeah, Trebor Peña kind of surprised me. I thought Kyron Hudson would have led us, but Peña had seven catches for 74 yards. Hudson had six catches for 89 yards, so more he got more yards. We got Nick Singleton involved, got Rappleyea involved. We would like to get more guys involved. We left some guys late in the game that last drive, trying to get a couple guys touches. We did that with Khalil Dinkins, and then as soon as he got the touch, we got him out of the game trying to get a ball to Liam as well. But overall, good. Hudson looks very mature. He looks very poised. He almost came down with that ball that was left behind him in the end zone which should have been a touchdown to start the game, but he just looks mature and strong and confident. Obviously, Peña did some really good things. We'll continue to get Ross involved as well, and then we'd like to get more of the tight ends involved earlier in the game with the weapons that we have at that position. But overall, really, really good game one. But we got to take a step. We got to take a significant step between game one and game two, and this will be great film to do all that.
Q: Hey, James, you had talked recently about getting more production from your kicking game. You mentioned last year you had the big game. Against Minnesota, you wanted to, I think, get some more plays and play some more winning football in the kicking game. You mentioned Barker, but I wanted to also get your thoughts. You got a big kick return from King Mack. How encouraged were you to be able to make some more big plays like that?
A: Yeah, that's going to be important, and it's really cool for King Mack, right? You know, I'll say he made a mistake. He left, figured it out quick, came back, and the first game back, he's got a huge play for us. So, that one that was cool. He broke us down there at the end. The four-for-four, all field goals were huge. The only thing that was somewhat disgusting was the two point fake field goal. That was probably the only thing in the game that was disgusting, but everything else, pretty good. And the kicking game was overall good. I would have liked to see us cover kicks a little bit better. That could be improved. It was great to see Darius Dixon on the backside come in and have a knife tackle. That was a thing of beauty, but there's some things we got to get cleaned up. It's nice to see us make some big plays with the kicks, the kickoff, the returns. I'll be interested to see who tackled him and if he got walked.
Q: You mentioned the red zone. Why do you think you struggled inside the red zone? Was there a common theme, and also with the running game?
A: I don’t know if I would describe it as a struggle, but the reality was I told Andy to call a couple plays that wouldn’t convert so we could work on our fuel. Again, I get it. There’s an area that we need to improve, we stalled out a few times. I don't want to give you the coach answer, the answer that you guys hate, which is, I have to watch the tape to decide, but obviously we didn't execute down there. And we need to do that. I thought our run game, especially our outside zone stuff, could have been better, but yeah, we stalled out there. Now exactly why? I don't have that answer for you right now. I will on Tuesday or Wednesday, whenever we get together, but yeah, if you're going to critique, that's an area that deserves to be critiqued. I just don't have the answer for you right now. But again, I do think the blessing in disguise. We went four-for-four on field goals, and that's going to pay dividends for us down the road.
Q: Coach, we talked a lot to call your offensive and defensive lines. How do you evaluate those two groups after today?
A: Overall good. Their quarterback made some plays with his legs to extend some drives; some designed quarterback draws and things like that. We played a ton of guys, so there's value in that for us. Offensive line, again, played a ton of zone, played a ton of trying to get an extra hat in the box, and that impacted us a little bit. So, we didn't have the explosive runs like you'd hope for. And I think there's a reason for that. I think that was kind of part of their plan. Soft coverage, get an extra hat in the box, don’t allow the two running backs to beat you. Last year that would happen sometimes, and we weren't able to distribute the ball enough, and we were able to do that today. So, things that we got to get cleaned up, there's no doubt about it. But overall, I think good. I think there's a lot more there in terms of our offensive line specifically. I think we got more there and how we can play.
Q: This was a career kind of day for Dani [Dennis-Sutton] all over the place. He disrupted from the get-go. Looks like you really kind of picked up where you left off last year during the playoff run. What do you think the ceiling kind of looks like for him, and just all the different ways that he can impact the game?
A: Yeah, when you're six-foot-five, you're 265 pounds, he's extremely strong. He's quicker and faster than people realize, he's a well-rounded defensive end. And there's some guys across the country that are great pass rushers. There are some guys that are good against the run. He can do both. He's a unique guy. He's going to have a big time here. I think the thing that separates him is the thing that all of them can do, but very few actually do is his motor is always on 100 from the snap to the whistle. He plays his tail off. And usually when you play hard, good things happen. You keep running to the ball, you're going to end up making a play; either a tackle for a loss, sack, a play down the field where you put it on tape and impress everybody, or the ball comes out and you're running and you're able to recover it. When you play with that type of effort, good things happen. And he is hungry, he is motivated, he is driven. He wants to be great. A lot of guys say they want to be great. This guy eats, sleeps and dreams football and wants to be special. He's been that way since we recruited him, and since he's been on campus, he just continues to get better. I think that the 10 pounds that he's lost, I think it's helpful for him. I think it's going to contribute to him having a big-time year for us.
Q: You mentioned Coach Knowles. I wanted to ask you about him. He's been open about how much he was excited to come to Penn State and coach as a PA guy. Before the game, you gave a nice big bear hug, and he seemed to laugh it off, and you get a sense of how excited he was for this day. I know he's going to settle into the season, but for this to be his first day at Penn State.
A: Yes, he's not an excitable guy. He's kind of like this; he whispers on the headset. When things don't go well, you see a different side on the practice field, you see a different side but besides that, he walks down the hallway quiet, he's thinking in staff meetings, he speaks a little. That's why I kind of was so animated with him before the game, trying to get a little bit of reaction out of him. But that's who he is, and we talk about that all the time in our building. You just have to be the best version of you and be comfortable in your own skin and, obviously, at this point in his career Jim knows who Jim is, and we're happy he's with us.