Q: Taylor [Mouser] indicated that you guys want to try to play [Alex] Manske. How does that look having two quarterbacks do things in the course of a game? What does he bring to the table?
A: First thing is Alex certainly has deserved the right to be able to get on the field. I think even a year ago, if you watched us play, we were able to find ways to get him into the football game, impact the football game in a positive way. Alex does a lot of things well.
Obviously, as we game plan each week, we try to figure out where we can plug him in and give us an advantage in the football game, for sure.
Q: You guys have put a ton of faith in Rocco [Becht] over the years. Why should Penn State fans be confident in his leadership on the field as we get to see him for the first time?
A: Well, I think it really goes down to a couple things. One of my favorite things to say about Rocco, what makes him special, to me, what makes great quarterbacks special, is when they know who they are and they're confident in who they are rather than trying to be somebody else. I think that's hard in the quarterback world, right? Boy, in the recruiting of quarterbacks today, the world of elite 11, all the stuff. I think you can get lost in trying to be somebody else, the next this or the next that.
Rocco even had that unique challenge at his last institution, the next Brock Purdy. What I always love about Rocco is, Rocco is never trying to be anybody else but the absolute best version of himself. I think you've seen that in really critical, hard moments, him step up in key situations and win the football game with the ball in his hand. I think that aspect of it, it's earned.
Then I think the other aspect of who he is as a leader and human being. I think you guys have got to see that a little bit over the last seven months. Even greater than the football player is the man and the human being and how he goes about his process to be his best on Saturdays.
Q: I wonder if you could go back to when you first walked into the stadium and looked around. Seemed like you were a little bit in awe. What will your emotions be like this week, whether you have to manage that?
A: I probably will. I will be honest with you. Former defensive lineman doesn't leave you sometimes. Sometimes I wear my emotions on my sleeve, which is not maybe my greatest quality. I apologize for that early.
But the reality is when you love the sport and you love to watch your guys, you've seen how much they've sacrificed for these moments, I'm probably more excited for that, to be able to watch our football team grow forward starting on Saturday.
I know I said this last week, but they've earned the right to get in the stadium, they've earned the right to get on this field and continue to define what they're going to be, what kind of team we can become. I think my excitement level really generates from there.
Obviously, there's a great sense of gratitude to be here and be part of a great place like this, one of the cathedrals of college football. To be a part of that is awesome.
I think the greater reward is to watch a group of young men you've been part of for the last seven, eight months, start to come together, chart their own journey, who are they going to become and who do we have the ability to be? That part, I'm really excited about.
Q: Three guys you mentioned going into camp, maybe they will, maybe they won't be available week one. [Jeremiah] Cooper, [Alex] Tatsch, [Gabe] Burkle. What kind of progress did they make during August? Will they be available this Saturday?
A: Number one, they've all three made great progress. I'd say Jeremiah Cooper is probably in the probable category. I think in his ability to play, he's probably the closest to being able to play this week. He's had a really good week and a half of practice. Slow and right has got to be the answer to that.
I think Gabe and Tatsch are probably on track for week two. I would say they're doubtful this week. But we're still early in the week a little bit to see where they're at. That's my guess right now, best guesstimation where those guys are.
All three guys are back on the practice field, progressing themselves forward. It's just making absolutely sure they're prepared to step back on the field. But I'd say Jeremiah Cooper is probably the closest to that.
Q: What is the most important thing you want to learn about this team on Saturday?
A: I think when you turn the lights on, and obviously game day, there's only 12 guaranteed opportunities. We live in a world where that's just a different challenge. That's another unique set of circumstances that infiltrate the team. How do you handle all of it?
Obviously, for all of us, this is new: new staff, new players, new environment. So I think that's all what I'm looking forward to seeing, how to we handle the challenges.
Number one, you have a good Marshall football team. You have a really good Marshall football program that has stood for, man, what's right in the world of college football in terms of play great football, got a great coaching staff, got some really talented players.
They're going to put us in challenging situations. How do we respond to that? How do we handle the crowd? How do we handle, man, our own ego, our own leadership? What do these things look like from coaches and players?
I think there's so much we're going to learn about ourselves. First games are challenging no matter if you've been there for 10 years or this is your first time around. I think first games of the season are always tricky and always challenging.
I'm excited to get into this moment because it's going to tell us a lot more where we need to continue to grow forward to, with a big challenge at hand on top of it.
Q: Could you give us updates on special teams and your kicking game? A guy like [Ryan] Barker coming back, 18 or 19 [field goals] made. Also the punter, your snappers, and who might be your top coverage players?
A: I think when you look at the specialist room, we feel really confident that, that group has had a really good fall camp. Again, you start at punter. Nathan Tiyce has had a really good finish to camp. Kind of again what does he do well, how do we put him in a great position to be successful?
I think he's got an extremely strong leg. He has the ability to do so many different things. We've been really proud of his progress through fall camp. He's a guy that's done it in games. It's not like you're asking a rookie to go out there and do it.
You've hit on Ryan Barker. I think he's been the catalyst, him and Blaise Sokach-Minnick. Both of those people have made meaningful snaps for Penn State, have been in critical moments. Both guys have shown veteran leadership in that room.
When you talk about coverage units, returning units, I think in the return world it's going to be really interesting. We've had a bunch of guys back there in terms of Koby Howard, Zay Robinson. Both of those guys have emerged as really exciting ball handlers, punt returners, certainly in the kick return game.
In the coverage unit, I feel that's one of the areas of great strength. We have a lot of guys, Brett Eskildsen, A.C. Collins, Zion Tracy, those are some early names of guys that have had elite reps covering punts and kicks. We're excited about what those guys bring to the table, for sure.
Q: How did you feel about the offensive line coming out of camp? Have you settled on a five? The depth at offensive line, where are you at with that?
A: Yeah, certainly have. Malachi Goodman will start at left tackle. He's had a really tremendous camp. Excited about the growth that he's made and the consistency that he's given or football team across the board.
Then you’ve got Trevor [Buhr], at left guard, at center, [Brock] Riker, at right guard Cooper Cousins.
Somebody asked me the question last week about MVPs at camp. I left Coop out, because I think he's made the most monumental growth in terms of, lost 15 pounds. I think he's physically as dominant as I've seen him, at least from the videotape that I was able to watch a year ago, what I watched in spring. I thought he had an unbelievable camp for us.
Then obviously with Donk [Anthony Donkoh] at right tackle.
I feel really good about what that group looks like. The twos and kind of the rotational guys, guys earning reps, we were really excited about that group early in camp. We kind of got bit by the injury bug a little bit. I think we'll be back to hopefully close to full strength.
Obviously, as we get into this weekend, Owen Aliciene I thought had a really good camp. We lost him for about a week. He's been back the last five days. I'm excited about what he brings to the table.
Garrett Sexton has had a really good camp. I think he can do a lot of different things on the that offensive line. He can almost swing between guard, tackle, a lot of different areas.
Obviously, Dom Rulli, huge to get back. We missed him for a couple weeks. But having Dom back finally is huge for our football team. Played a lot of football.
Vaea [Ikakoula], another guy we lost early, got injured in the summer. We didn't have him through the early part of fall camp, but has been back here the last week and really excited about what he brings to the table.
We feel like there's really good growth there. We feel like there's a lot of options. I think it's going to be really, again, exciting to get into the start of the season to see how we rotate guys through, what does that look like. But I think that group's got a chance, the depth of that group has a chance to grow forward each week this season.
Q: One thing we missed I think with Taylor was going through the tight end room. How you guys came out of camp with that? There's some guys missing here and there. Where does that room stand up now?
A: Yeah, I think that group's probably similar to the O-line group. You go through a physical fall camp, some guys have been dinged up at times. But I think holistically that's probably been a positive for us because a lot of guys got great reps.
Ben [Brahmer] stayed healthy through all of camp, has had a great camp. We're excited about where he is.
Rapp [Andrew Rappleyea] was great early on. Got dinged up a little bit in camp. Has come back and been back here the last week. Looks really good. Really excited about what he's done and the progress he made through the off-season.
Then the guy that's probably been the most exciting for me is Finn. Finn Furmanek played a lot of really good football, has gotten a lot of critical reps. He stayed healthy. It was huge to watch his growth and development there.
We've talked about [Peyton] Falzone. He's kind of been force-fed some critical reps. I do think he's done a nice job of growing into that position, certainly in some areas that I think can be an asset to the football team, for sure.
Then we'll be excited to get some of these guys back. Obviously, to get Gabe Burkle back will be a huge addition to that room, for sure.
Yeah, that's probably my synopsis on the tight end position.
Q. Jake Waters was telling us a couple weeks ago with the quarterbacks that he tries to coach them to let it rip, that's an extension of Mouser's philosophy as a play-caller. How have you seen Taylor keep Rocco, but whoever else, upbeat and not afraid to make a mistake?
A: Yeah, I think that's hard, right? I think Rocco has had to go through some tough moments of that. I think that's the nature of the beast.
Coaching and watching Brock [Purdy] go through that same process, you can cut it loose, then you have great success. You feel the weight of the world on your shoulders. Then there's almost this, sometimes coaches get this, I have gotten like this as a play-caller, you try not to screw it up. It's a fine line. It's not easy. I think those are all a holistic cultural point of view of, how do you navigate that journey with the team and with the quarterback?
I think one of Rocco's greatest qualities, we talk about this a lot, you don't have to make every play on Saturday, but you got to make great decisions on Saturday. When you can go with that mindset, you got the ability, that you understand one play is one play, it's got a life of its own, you live it, you breathe it, you understand it, you go to the next play. I think that's one area that Rocco has excelled in. You've seen it even where mistakes have happened, his ability to flush it, correct it, come back and play the next play.
Again, I think when you have confidence that the leader with the ball in his hand can live that way, I think it allows you as the coach to live that way and call the plays that way.
Q. In listening to Taylor, and some of the other assistants talk, we've heard the word 'trusted' used a lot when talking about guys. What does that mean to you? What's your definition for that? What does a player have to do to enter that trusted category for you?
A: I think that's really big. From the first team meeting that I ever had here, to the start of fall camp, to every kid and every parent of our program, everybody wants to know who's going to play. The number one value is you have to be trusted. There's, like, six categories of who plays, but the first one's ‘trusted’.
I think 'trusted' means your ability to do everything right on and off the football field. Again, you've heard me say this a lot: we're not going to win at all costs, we're going to win the right way, we're going to win with guys that do the right thing, that carry themselves the right way on the field, but they carry themselves right off the field. If not, you're only going to get beat anyway, right?
At some point, at some moment when we need you the most, you can't live to that standard, you're going to cost our football team. That value is carried really heavy in our program. We talk about it on a daily basis. But it's why we put standards and expectations in academics, nutrition, strength and conditioning. We do it all for these moments, right?
Man, 12 games of 60 minutes that are guaranteed to you. You’ve got to win the moments and you’ve got to win more of 'em than you do screw 'em up, right? College football is the greatest game of screw up known to mankind. You have to screw it up less than the team across from you.
When you talk about it that way, man, trust is a critical value in our football team. Some guys are great playmakers, but may not be trusted all the time. I think you got to find that great balancing act and understand when you put a guy on the field, that guy has had to earn the right to be on the football field. One of those seven values, but trusted is certainly the most. Sometimes it's not who starts, but who is in in those critical moments when it matters the most.
That trust value is really big for me. It's why we grade every practice. It's why we hold high standards in everything we try to do within our football program.
Q. Are you expecting anybody to be on a pitch count this week?
A: Those are things we'll usually talk about a little bit as we get into Thursday and Friday kind of just where we are. I think probably to answer that today as we work ourselves through practice, just where we are. I think that's certainly a possibility, but I think it's one of those things where, man, how critical Wednesday's practice and Thursday's practice is to know where the health of our football team truly is, what's in the best interest for the young men in our football team.
Q. Quick question about the week one situation when you're facing a team that there is no film for 2026. Brad Lambert, long time defensive coordinator, wasn't in football last year, but has been at Marshall a couple of times. From that perspective trying to game plan, how do you go about balancing knowing a guy's history versus that year of did he come up with something new in the offseason? How do you go about understanding what you need to do in the game to have a strong first week with that unknown?
A: I think that's a great question. I think that is why week one games, the first game of the season, are nerve-wracking for any coach in America.
You're kind of balancing the thought of what may come at you. It is certainly unique, but Coach Lambert has had a great background as a coordinator. Tremendous success at Wake Forest, success at Marshall, was at Kentucky for a little bit.
Then you know Coach [Tony] Gibson. We've competed against him. He's one of the best defensive minds in the country. Man, he's had unbelievable success, whether it was at West Virginia or NC State.
You know that, yes, they have a history. I think what you know is, they're going to play really hard. That is the guarantee of what they've stood for. Man, they're going to run to the football. Then I think it comes back to you saying what do we have to do well to play good football.
I think game one’s are always about can you tackle, fundamentally can you be sound, can you take care of the football, get 11 guys out on the field, play clean football. I think all those things have to matter.
Then can you at least design a scheme really in all three phases that your guys can go play confident and not play reactive but have the ability to play with some confidence. Those things are a little bit tricky when you're a little bit unsure of exactly what you may get.
The great thing is we've seen a lot defensively from our own defense, a lot of different fronts, a lot of different blitzes, a lot of different coverages that you're going to have to kind of lean into, our recognition of what we see. We're going to have to be great adjustors as a coaching staff.
That's one great thing from our end, we've been together. Having in-game adjustments has been important, not only this game, but the entirety of the season for sure.