Q: Tony [Rojas] talked about a win-now attitude. How do you balance building the foundation of your program and winning now? Is it an especially unique challenge?
A: Yeah, I think it's a unique challenge, but I think as a competitor, I don't know if I've ever not thought about doing everything in my power to win weekly, yearly, gamely, seasonally.
I think the biggest thing is as you're building the foundation of the culture, what are the standards and expectations that we are going to live by, aligning and unifying everybody in the program to that value system, then asking and understanding the why with our players.
I think that's one of the things that's been really rewarding to watch our own football team to be able to put those standards and expectations in place, understanding why, and I think the growth we've made in six months understanding those value systems.
Again, my whole belief process is how you do anything is how you do everything. It is all leading to be your best on those 12 guaranteed Saturdays.
I think everything that the program is about is, yes, we're trying to win on Saturdays, we're equally trying to win in life, but the reality becomes, this is a competitive sport and we are doing everything in our power to win and be the best team we possibly can be each and every Saturday.
I think even how we constructed the roster has that mindset. We're going to be the best team we can be in 2026. How do we be our best right now. How we live inside of our walls, build the right culture inside of our walls, that's going to build the foundation of our football program moving forward. I think that's the balance.
Q: Curious about Caleb Bacon. We've seen him working with the defensive line. Why does that make
sense for him, the team? Is that his permanent residency here in 2026?
A: I think for us, as Caleb [Bacon] went through the spring, he really had a great spring. We kept going back and forth to if you look at his Iowa State videotape, he was an all-conference player two years ago. Fifty percent of his snaps were up on the line of scrimmage. As we kind of got through spring, we felt we'd be missing the boat not to add his multiplicity.
He's a great edge player. He certainly has the ability to slide back and play Mike or Will linebacker. He's great in coverage, a smart football player. We felt like we gave him so many reps in at linebacker, we'd be missing the boat not to start him off in fall camp on the edge.
You've heard me talk about multiplicity pieces. You have Zion [Tracy], Marcus [Neal Jr.], even Tony [Rojas] has some of that multiplicity to do so many different things. Bake [Bacon] is one of those guys, too. He can play up on the line of scrimmage, he can play at linebacker.
I think cross-training him is really important. I think we've been really pleasantly surprised just even how well he's looked up on the line of scrimmage.
I think he just gives us another piece we can do a lot of different things with him.
Q: How is the NIL piece coming together for you guys? You've gone through so much change in a relatively short period of time. That seems like a pretty complicated thing. How are you addressing that?
A: I think it's a complicated question because it's a complicated landscape, right? Obviously, there's so many things as we know right now on a daily basis that are shifting right underneath our feet. I think sometimes you can get so wrapped up about what that looks like that, what is right in front of your face gets drifted away.
To me, we put our time, effort and energy on what's right in front of our face: building the culture, recruiting the right players, building the right team, and making sure we're having those conversations on the outside of, are we in the right wheelhouse, have a plan as we're moving ourselves forward, but understanding that landscape can shift at any point.
I think sometimes when you worry about the things that you can't control, you miss what you can control. I would just tell you our focus has been more on what we can control right now, doing everything in our power to make sure we're ready to adjust as our landscape continues to move around us.
Q: I know in the spring you were asked a lot about Koby Howard and the wideouts. Your thoughts on the entire room? What do you think Brett [Eskildsen] and Chase [Sowell] kind of bring to the room? What do you like about their games?
A: Let me start off with Brett [Eskildsen] and Chase [Sowell]. I'll get into the holistic piece of the room.
The whole thing that Brett and Chase give you, is they give you game reps. Chase, almost 200 yards receiving against Arizona last year. He has big-game moments, big-game plays. Great production when he was at East Carolina before he came to us at Iowa State. He has played in the moments.
Chase's last step from good to elite, because he has elite ability, is consistency. The ability to be the best game in, game out, moment in, moment out. That's what you would hope for of a fourth-year player. You've got the opportunity to finally put those final pieces of the puzzle together.
I think Brett does the same thing. Brett was a true freshman in a pretty good receiver room and earned the right to play. He earned the right to play on special teams where every great player usually is either made or found, on special teams, especially earlier in their career.
He had some great production as a true freshman on an 11-win team. Wins us the Cincinnati game with five huge catches, while [Jayden] Higgins and [Jaylin] Noel are getting double-teamed the entire game. He broke onto the scene.
Last year you kind of saw him take the next step. He made some huge plays down the field. Probably the fastest player on our football team, him and AC [Audavion Collins] have ran over 23.5 miles per hour on the clock, which is pretty impressive.
Again, he has strong hands, has the ability to accelerate down the field vertically. He can do a lot of different things and can be a great special teams player, as well.
I think those two guys give you proven reps that they can do it. Can they do it at the consistency now that the great ones do.
I think then you look the rest of the way and you see a guy like Koby [Howard], the flashes you saw of what he could do. I think the same thing I would say about Koby, his challenge, he and I have talked about this, is consistency. Can you be the best version of you every day? It's not a matter of do you have elite traits; it's having those elite traits show up with great consistency.
He's had a great summer. I couldn't be more proud of what that guy has done to put himself in a position to have a great camp. But it's going to take a great camp, the ability to prove it week in and week out as we move forward.
Zay Robinson, similar to what Koby was, everybody was talking about Koby a year ago here, Zay had the same conversation going on at Iowa State. Talented young guy, huge flashes of success during fall camp and the season, during practice. Was kind of waiting for his opportunity to emerge on to the scene and was really close.
Again, I think Zay is in the same boat where, what can he consistently show up and do. What does he have the ability to do. But has some elite traits, can really run, stretch the field vertically, has the ability to get in and out of his cuts and do some great things.
Collectively around there, you guys have been out to practice, Amarion Jackson is not a freshman, but he is. He looks like a guy that's going into his junior year. He looks like a guy that has such maturity for a young guy. How does that continue to show itself. It showed itself all spring practice. I think it showed itself early in the first couple days of practice we've had so far.
But we know we have a long fall camp. What does that look like. Can you keep stacking days and prove that you should get on the football field to help our football team?
Keith Jones, really flashed to me in the first two days. I think he's done some things that you're like, Hmm, this guy can do some things. We didn't get to see a ton in spring ball because I think he got hurt the fifth practice of spring ball. We didn't really get a great read on him.
Again, you're talking about Keith has played games, right? You see his Grambling game where he played against Ohio State. This guy has caught passes in college football games, has proven he has the ability to play. How great can he be, what can he do for our football team, where does it go.
Karon Brookins hasn't been with us the last two days, dealing with some personal things back home. We'll get him back here at some point. He certainly has ability.
I think when you look holistically at this room, we're excited about what that room has the ability to do. They're all in a little bit of a prove-it mode. Can you prove it every day and be great? Some of these young guys that have got talent, can you prove it enough to get on the field and help our football team. We're excited about what that room has the ability to do.
When you have quarterbacks that can throw them the ball so you can evaluate what you can do, then I think you're really excited. I think we feel really good about that right now.
Q: We talked a lot about 12 personnel this off-season. Do you expect that to be your home base this year with the offense? What does that say about the tight end room?
A: I think we'd be disappointed if it's not. You could challenge 13 personnel, the home base at times.
I just think one of the things that we're really excited about first obviously keeping Rapp [Andrew Rappleyea] home. It's been great for us to see Rapp fully healthy. I think this is the healthiest Andrew Rappleyea we've seen or got the ability to evaluate. It's been awesome to watch him in the first two days. He's twitchy, a dynamic mover. I'm excited about where he has the ability to continue to grow in this offense.
Obviously, Ben [Brahmer] is a young man we've worked with the last three years. We know what his high-end ability is. We think he's super talented. Gabe Burkle is on track. We have three guys on the same track. Burkie, Koop [Kooper Ebel] and Tatsch [Alex Tatsch] are kind of on that track of, they're close to being back. Are we going to get them for the first game, the second game. But they're kind of right in that wheelhouse as they keep coming back. When you talk about Gabe Burkle, those three guys on the top end, we feel really good about.
Then, you talk about some other chess pieces in there. What Finn [Furmanek] can do for you. He can play some fullback, do some different things. Cooper Alexander to me is a guy that had an incredible spring and a really great summer, physically looks like a guy that can be a matchup issue in some different areas. I think that room is certainly healthy at the top end of things. We're excited about where he's got the ability to be.
Again, that's the great thing about practice every day. If you're at the wide receiver room or tight end room, you only get maybe 60 to 70 snaps in a game in college football today. Who's going in and who's earning the right to play. It not just catching the ball, it's who can block, who can do the little things, who has the ability to be the complete player. That's what we're evaluating at those skill positions right now.
Q: What are your thoughts on Malachi Goodman a few days into camp? Had a chance to see him yesterday in one on ones and was impressive.
A: I think impressive moving around, impressive human being. One of the best humans that I have met since we've been here, yet falls under the same boat as some of those really talented young guys.
I think we all can get caught up in the flash and the sizzle, but can you do it every day. Can you show up every day, be the guy that consistently shows up and separates yourself from the pack?
He's going to be in a really great race. I think Garrett Sexton would be another guy that you say, you talk about where he was at the beginning of the summer to where he finished at the end of the summer.
Put on a good 20 pounds physically. Looks as good as I've ever seen him.
I think Owen Aliciene has seen some of the similar flashes for a young, talented player. I think there's going to be great competition.
But there's no question that Malachi [Goodman] has elite traits in every shape and form. Anytime you have a young player that has elite traits, what you're looking for is can you consistently do your job, can you consistently show up, especially at the offensive tackle position. Can you consistently be counted on?
I think all those guys, until the lights come on, we may not know that until the first two, three games, right? I think all those guys until the lights come on, we may not know that until the first two, three games, right?
I think this fall camp is going to show it because I think there's really good iron sharpens iron. You're going against a really good defensive front and a really good defensive front seven that's going to challenge you every day. Then I think as we get through the early part of the season, I think some of those questions may have to be answered through the early part of the season.
We're really excited about Malachi and trust he's going to be really an elite player. How fast is up to him.
Q: I'm curious about how you and your staff will handle the depth chart in the preseason. Obviously, you want to offer incentives to people, but also reward the players that have earned those spots. What is your philosophy when it comes to handling the depth chart leading into the season?
A: I think this year is so uniquely different, right? I think it's probably one of the years - I said this at the beginning of my first fall camp message - is kind of everybody's in an earn-it position, right? Everybody's either in a new scheme, at a new place, got new coaches. Everybody's going in with kind of the same starting line is, you got to go prove it, earn it.
To be honest with you, on good teams, on great teams that I've been a part of, where it's championship football, you kind of got to earn your job every day. You kind of got to earn it because there's enough good depth, enough good players that they're pushing for playing time.
I think that's probably one of the real positives that I've seen so far through the summer and the early part of fall camp. My guess is we continue to work through fall camp. I think everybody is in an earn-it situation where not only who's the starter, because I think sometimes you can get lost in it. We're going to rotate a lot of guys, we'll play a lot of guys.
I've always felt like the more guys that can have a role on your football team, the healthier your football team is. Who, when the game is on the line and it matters the most is in the game, who is the guy that's in the game? I think that's what's going to be earned right now. I think those are things we're continuing to be after and looking at and evaluating.
Q: You recently added Mike Mauti to your staff. What have you got to know about him during your time here that made you want to do that and what will he do as your director of football engagement?
A: First, I wanted to see if he could have any eligibility with this new rule that came out. I thought maybe we could get him for one more year (smiling).
Mike has been awesome. Obviously, he's been working on campus. I got to meet him early on during our time here. It was honestly just struck by his passion for what Penn State as a university and Penn State as a football program is about. That was even before, we got down the rabbit hole of the 2012 team.
I think you guys have heard, we took our football team to see Saving the Roar right at the end of May before our guys left to go home. Paid a great tribute to how Mike really was, what he stood for, what so many of those players on the 2012 team stood for.
When we were talking how could we bring him more in-house, Pat did a great job of allowing us to take his role from an athletic department focus and really bring him into the football facility for engagement, the ability to just continue to navigate ourselves forward.
To have Mike with us every day means a great deal. Even just to pick his brain as a football player, to have him around our players. Especially when our players watch that film, understood what him and Jordan Hill, what those guys stood for, I think it was a monumental growth moment for our football team to really understand what it means to play here and have those guys around us every day. It means a whole lot.
Q: Rocco [Becht] and others have talked about how they suspected maybe last year this was less of a player-led program than he's used to. How do you foster that? Do you think there's any piece of that that maybe the guys who were here last year, it's been eye-opening for them?
A: I don't know if I can really. I really never put much thought on what that process was prior to us coming. More so just on my beliefs to build a football program.
To me, as our world continues to transition - again it doesn't matter if it's the National Football League, if it's college football or high school football - when the players are leading the team, when they take accountability for the standards and expectations, how I clean my locker, what I do off the field, how I study the game of football, how I run off the field, what's the expectation.
When I keep saying it, “Listen I played”, they shut me off really fast. But when the players demand it and say, “This is how we're going to live and this is what we're doing it for,” then powerful things really have an opportunity to happen.
Every great team, whether I was playing or coaching, have been a part of, man, it's been player led. They demanded the standard and the expectation. My job as the coach is really to foster that leadership. My job is to help guide the leadership of our veteran players and guide the leadership in our program, help teach them how do you do these things.
I think some of my great failures as a head football coach at times has been when I failed to say we should be better at this; I didn't do a great job teaching it.
So, leadership, a player-led leadership, I think that's part of our responsibility as a head football coach and I've always taken it as my responsibility to help foster that.
Again, you have to have great players that want to lead. We've been fortunate that we have had a lot of great seniors that have stood up and done a great job so far.
Q: When we talked at the beginning of the spring practice, you talked about these three eight-week periods, habits in the winter, developing a team in the spring. What is the eight-week period of the fall before the season starts? What's the identity of this team that's forming now that you're officially in real practices?
A: Yeah, I would say the beginning piece of it is this is now preparation for the journey. How do you create the journey, the habits, the mentality that's going to allow you to weather the storm of college football?
The storm is where you are in it. And it's going to come, right? Man, you're going to have injuries, tough days, all these things that are going to happen. We don't know when they're coming. We don't know when the adversity is coming, but it's coming.
What you're trying to do at this point is, number one, prepare the team for the journey, and continue to pound away with our identity, the identity that we are working really hard to create.
I would not tell you it's created by any stretch of the imagination right now. We've got to prove it. We've got a lot of work to do. But we're going to be tough here at some point. Tough is mentally and physically tough. The ability to show up with great consistency day in and day out, to play to what our full potential looks like.
It's hard to be tough today. Man, it's hard with especially 18- to 22-year-olds, the challenges going on, the pressure underneath them. You have to have a great process. That's really what January, February, March and April are. How do you become the best version of you, how do you create a process for yourself to be consistent day in and day out.
I think the second thing that is really critical is we're going to be disciplined. Again, how does Penn State not be Penn State, right? That is the starting point for our football team in understanding how we go into a football game and not beat ourselves. Easier said obviously than done. I think we've all been a part of that in college football. We've seen that.
Then I think the biggest thing, the last thing, is we've got to be together. We've got to play harder for longer. When it gets tough, because it's going to, when you have the bad fourth quarter, bad half, maybe you have the bad game, how do you respond, how do you come back, how do you learn and not flinch, waver, not divide, how do you stay together through this. Those are the things that we're building towards.
Are we there yet? No. Man, we can keep making great strides. I hope we have the great leadership and continue to do a great job of demanding it every day.
We've grown. It was great to see practice one and two. There was great growth between practice one and practice two. We're going to have to not miss a day as we continue.
There's a sense of urgency. We're putting this together in six months. The urgency it's going to take to truly live up to that value system this fall, it's going to take everything we've got from everybody involved.
Q: We've seen Alex Manske for the first time since he's been here in practice the past few days. What has stood out about him on the field after a long layoff? Where do you see his trajectory?
A: I know you guys that are covering us weren't with us during the recruiting process of Alex. If you go back and really understand what Alex Manske was coming out of high school, you could probably say he was one of the top three quarterbacks, four quarterbacks coming out in his class. He had everybody in the country.
There wasn't many perks of being at Iowa State in terms of a recruiting region, but one of those was Alex. He grew up in Algona, was a diehard Iowa State fan, grew up wanting to come to Iowa State, and stayed loyal to Iowa State in coming to Iowa State. It was a monumental win for us because we thought he was the quarterback of the future.
If you watch, he led his team incredibly during his high school career. Was a great basketball player on top of it. Great golfer. A guy that has like all these elite traits. You just saw it, this guy is really special.
One of the things that was really tough going into game eight of his high school senior year, same injury as Brock Purdy that Brock got. Got surgery, comes back from it, graduated early, missed all of spring practice. Kind of was working his way back last year during the season. Enough to earn the right to get on the field a couple times. We were able to put him in in some moments and to different things because there were wild moments in practice. We got to play this guy.
I think that's probably what was so disheartening in terms of getting here. All of a sudden we got this undisclosed injury. Dag gone, man, we're going to miss spring again.
What that man has done to get back, to play the way he's playing. He's playing as good of football in the last two days as we've witnessed Alex Manske play his entire career. I think what you've seen if you watch him, he's got elite arm talent. He certainly is an elite athlete. A guy that could probably start at safety. He's a guy that's got the ability from a mental capacity, man, he's got the ability to play quarterback. He's got the ability to have great field awareness.
I think to have him and Rocco as two guys that, man, you got a guy like Rocco that has earned it every step of the way, and Alex learning from him, it's really what you would want your program to look like. You have a veteran teaching the young guy, and you have a young guy that's getting ready to take over the reins. We're really fortunate in that situation.
Q: I want to bring two thoughts together that you've talked about. Building this roster intentionally, as you discussed in the off-season. Earlier mentioning the talent you have at receiver, tight end, running back as well. How do you evolve what you've done on offense while still remaining true to that in the offense that you're building for Penn State?
A: I think that's the beauty of every season. I think the fool says, “This is our offense and this is what we're going to do come hell or high water.” That's the fool.
Coaching is the ability to adapt and grow with your personnel. I think the key is having the ability to adapt and grow. You're going to hear me say this a lot: players, formation, plays. Who are your players? What formation should we get in? What play should we call?
Again, this will be a little bit of a work in progress probably early on through fall camp because we're still trying to identify who are those players. We're a little bit fortunate that we know what some of those guys can do because we've been with some of those guys.
I think the evolution of those players, who are they, then what plays do we run, I think that's critical, right? I think I was really fortunate to learn that at a young age as a coach, as a play-caller. It's not you, it's not the coach, it's not your scheme. Who are the players, how do you create the right formations for those players to be successful, then call the plays to put those players in a position to make the plays. That's how you actually win games. The players win the games. How do you help those guys be in the right position to win the football game?
Q: A lot of your guys have talked about the domino effect coming from Iowa State. You were the first domino to fall. A lot have also talked about what you're instilling into them outside of the football field. For you personally, what is it that you're trying to instill into these guys? Why does that fit this Penn State culture?
A: I would just say from my standpoint, my aspiration in coaching has never come from win at all cost. Do I want to win and do I want to prove that we can win because of team and commitment? Boy, I do every day I step in this facility.
But I would tell you what my true passion is, is there was a high school coach and a college coach that changed my life. We get these 18- to 22- year-olds and we forget that these are young men growing into men. Our number one responsibility is how do we help our young men become the best that they possibly can be on the field for sure, but off the field as well? To me, that's what drives me. It's what I've always loved about it.
How do you create a team, a culture of togetherness. I've said this, “If every child today could be a part of a team, we'd be a lot better society.” Some team, band, cheer team, whatever that team is. If every child could be part of a team, we'd be really fortunate.
How do you understand a commitment to something bigger than your own personal agenda? How do you understand that, how do you bring that value? It's hard to understand that, it is hard to figure that out in our society today. But it's something we've put a lot of time and effort into. It's what my passion is. It's really why I coach. Trying to give back.
Two critical people that really saved my life, were huge impacts in my life, a huge impact on me. I hope to give that back to the young men I have the opportunity to coach.
Q: Who has D'Anton Lynn become now seven months after you hired him? What do you see him doing on the practice field that maybe you didn't know he was capable of doing when you hired him?
A: That's a great question. I don't know if I didn't know what he could do. I think, again, you want to hire no different than you talk about bringing the right players in. You want to bring the right coaches in. That value system really doesn't waver. Great character men, great passion for the game of football, this great ability and humility to be a life-long learner and want to continue to grow forward.
D'Anton, from day one to what I've seen in eight months, boy, you go into that meeting room and he's a great leader in there. There's a great alignment in that defensive room. He's a great communicator and teacher.
When you watch him with our players, the ability to invest in the players, not just as the teacher of the scheme, but then also the teacher of sitting down, pulling a young man into his office, wrapping his arms around the young man, having a real relationship with our players. All those things have mattered to me. That's what I thought I was hiring, and it certainly is exactly what I've witnessed over the last seven, eight months.
I think I'm excited because not only is D'Anton that, I feel like we've hired a coaching staff that embodies those same value systems. Everybody brings something a little different.
I think you have a coaching staff around those core values. It's been really awesome to watch our coaches buy into the relationship with our players and be great teachers of the scheme and the fundamentals we're asking our young men to be able to play football with.