Opening Statement
Like always, appreciate you guys coming out to cover Penn State football. Awesome being at the THON game. I think everybody obviously is listening to this, knows how important the bond is to our university, and really, the culture of the entire community here. I love the fact that we're able to be a part of that. We had 3.0 recognition at halftime. Obviously, our guys are not able to be a part of that, but we would have had 59 football players recognized today as part of that. So that is pretty cool. You know, overall, I am pleased with the win. I think we made it harder than it needed to be in a lot of areas. We're playing a bunch of young guys, and it felt like that at times. So, we have got to get those things cleaned up. Some interesting facts: we've shut out an opponent for the fifth straight season. The last time Penn State shut out an opponent in five straight seasons was 1972 to 1976. It hasn't happened in a long time, and we've done it with a number of different coordinators. Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen both eclipsed 3000 yards rushing today and they now rank eighth and ninth all-time and program history. Dom DeLuca had his third career block punt. Soa ton of cool stuff when you talk about the important stats, takeaway battle, that was a big part. Seems like our defensive line, and specifically our defensive tackles, are doing some phenomenal things with two interceptions and Chaz almost had a strip-sack fumble return for a touchdown. The explosive play battle? We won it, but it’s still not as explosive as we need to be on offense. The third-down battle is not good. We lost that. We were not good on third down. That was the reason we struggled offensively and couldn't get into a rhythm. The sack battle was a tie. Field position? We won. I thought it was great for you guys to get a chance to see what we've seen all camp, with Gabe Nwosu swinging field position on the punts. Obviously, two kicks out of bounds, we can't have, or we would have dominated field position. Then the penalty battle, we won that as well. Middle eight, we won that. So, some good things, but not where we need to be. But also, winning consistently is hard to do, and we have found a way to do that. I appreciate you guys all being here, and I'm happy to answer questions.
Q: How would you assess Drew Allar's play in that game?
A: I didn't think he was in his normal rhythm. We had some drops. He had some throws that he normally makes that he didn't. That was a major factor for us on third down. But we just couldn't seem to get into the rhythm on offense, and that was part of it.
Q: Your inability to finish drives in the first half, obviously, was a problem last week. Where is it on the worry scale for you right now, after two games?
A: I want to finish drives and score touchdowns too, and so does Andy Kotelnicki, and so do all of our players. We have got to get better. We got to get better this week. We got to be better on third down. We have got to be more explosive. We haven't. We have not met our explosive play mark the last two weeks, and we weren't good enough on third down today, and those things are going to stall out drives. I have the same concerns that you do, but that's what they are. They're concerns, and they're things that we're going to emphasize and focus on this week, and we'll get better. That's what we have done, really, in my time here is we focus on getting better every single week, and usually it leads us in a good direction. We have to speed up that process a little bit. I do think things are magnified because we rotate more early in the season than we will late in the season, so we're playing a ton of guys or playing a lot of reps for those guys, and there are some mistakes that are coming with it. When we get into some crunch time, there'll be less of that rotation unless they've earned it.
Q: In terms of explosive plays, we saw some of that from Devonte Ross with his punt return for 17 yards. I think there was a 42-yard touchdown catch too. You told us that his summer was a little slow going for him with some of the injury stuff. Where is he now in terms of how it can help this team? Based on what you've seen thus far, what did it mean to see that in action for him in live football?
A: Yeah, when we started dealing with some of his bumps and bruises, we didn't think we would have him. It was being projected that we wouldn't have it until game four, so the fact that he has played in week one in a limited capacity and was really no limitations in week two and he was able to be an impact in the game, is a positive. I think we're way ahead of where we hoped to be with him, and we just have to continue to build on it. But the good thing is, you guys now have had the opportunity to see Hudson, Pena, and Ross. Now we’ve got to be able to get all three of them involved on a consistent basis.
Q: Coach, what did you think the identity was going to be for your offense and defense coming out of camp? And have you seen that in action on both sides of the ball over the first two weeks?
A: I think we're still working towards that. I don't know if you necessarily know at the end of training camp what your identity is going to be. You have an idea of what you think, but it's an evolution until you get to the games and start doing it. I don't know if we're there yet. I still think we're trying to figure that out. But I would also say this, we've gone into these first couple of weeks with a philosophy of things we were trying to get done in terms of building chemistry and confidence in certain aspects of the game, rather than just going to do what we got to do to win games and score points. I think that those things could factor in to a degree, and that really kind of revolves around those three receivers, but we need to be more balanced. We need to be more explosive on offense. Defensively, we're not playing fast yet. They're still thinking a lot about some of the new wrinkles in the new defense. We’ve got to get some of those things cleaned up so they can play faster and more naturally. I think on special teams we've shown that we have a chance to win games on special teams in these first couple of weeks. I think that's a positive. That blocked field goal is frustrating. We've had two blocked field goals in two years where a guy does completely opposite of what we coach: field goal responsibility. Then suddenly, I'm going to take two hands down on my inside gap and give out my outside gap, which is not what we coach and what we do. In the last two years, we've had a guy do that on their own without ever doing it in practice, without ever being coached. We need to clean up a couple of things, like the two kicks that went out of bounds. Those things are disappointing, but we've made some big-time plays on special teams, and we need to continue doing that.
Q: In August, both you and Jim Knowles talked about Chaz Coleman as a true freshman who had flashed and really done some good things for a first- year player who didn’t even enroll early. Over the last few weeks, what have you seen from Chaz?
A: You guys are starting to see what we have. I think your point is a good one, he wasn’t even here for spring ball. I think you’re going to continue to seem him take strides. He is quick, he’s twitchy, he’s athletic, he’s 250 pounds and he looks skinny. His ball awareness today to be able to get the strip-sack and then scoop it up and run away with it are some cool things. You’re just going to be able to see him keep getting better. Having Zuriah Fisher out there today was helpful, too. He’s a veteran player that we haven’t had early in the season and even for most of camp, so to have him back was good too. I thought he looked really explosive and quick off the ball. I thought his get off was excellent.
Q: You mentioned the depth; can you comment on the intensity today? You did have a noon start. Were you satisfied with the intensity, and can you comment on the intangibles of how the team played today?
A: We started out sluggish. We did not execute the way we needed to early on for a number of reasons. Obviously third down was a factor in that. We missed some throws; we dropped some passes. We allowed them on defense to stay on schedule too often. I think it was a combination of all those things. I would have liked to see us start stronger and faster. That’s a better football team [FIU]. I think they’re going to have a good year in that conference. Standing out there on that field, I thought they had some really good players, and I thought they were coached well. I thought they were efficient with what they did today. I have to give them a ton of credit, but I was not happy with how we started. Starting fast on offense, defense and special teams, we did not do that today.
Q: Where are you at with your offensive line now? Through two games do you feel like you’re making some strides there? There has been some rotation in that unit.
A: I haven’t watched this tape yet but based on last week and what I saw today out on the field, I think there’s a lot of meat left on the bone. I think we have the chance to be a dominant front, but I wouldn’t say we have played like that up to this point. We have to get that figured out and playing up to our potential is going to be important to us moving forward. I don’t know if the rotation of the offensive line factors in the that discussion. I think those seven guys are going to play all year long. Some of the guys that are rotating at other positions, maybe we’re going one-to-one at certain positions, or two-to-one at certain positions, where we would probably be two-to-one or three-to-one. As this continues to develop and guys earn either more playing time or less playing time, you’ll see the gap widen between the starter reps and the backups.