Hear what Joe Paterno had to say at the link below.
Note: There was an audience of fans at this press conference. A group of EPA workers were in the middle of a tour of the facility stopped and watched from the recruiting area above the press room. That is who Paterno addresses at the end of this file (and they give him a round of applause).
Hear Paterno Here.
Here is the recap of Paterno's PC:
1. Injury update on Levi Brown, Jim Shaw and yourself.
Levi Brown will not play this week. Jim Shaw is
questionable as is Robert Price. Who cares about Joe?
He has his bumps and bruises but he’ll be all right.
2. How serious is Levi Brown’s knee injury?
The coaches talked about it last week. He could have
played last week and could play this week, but they
don’t want to take a chance. He’ll be ready to go next
week.
3. Does your team need to prove something to you this
week by winning on the road?
Not really. They have to get a little better. Joe
hopes they will be little better than they’ve been and
keep progressing. When you get to be good, you really
don’t care whether you play home or away. When you’re
a good football team, obviously that makes a
difference. This team just doesn’t have that kind of
experience yet, but Joe doesn’t think that being on
the road is a big problem.
The problem is that Minnesota is a lot better than
people think they are. They lost to two outstanding
teams in California and Michigan, who might be the
best team in the conference. And they lost to Purdue
who is playing much better than they did last year.
4. What is the injury to Robert Price and who will
start if he can't play?
Cadogan will start if Price can't play. Price has a
shoulder injury but he's not definitely out for
Saturday. He's questionable.
5. Do you believe that not having your own stadium is
a disadvantage as Minnesota does? Glen Mason believes
it is a disadvantage.
If Glen said it, he means it. He must feel there’s
something lacking that might be there if they had
their own stadium. Joe has never had that situation so
he can't comment on it.
6. Talk about Sean Lee's development and how being
around Connor and Posluszny has helped.
Being around those kids has certainly helped, but he
is a heck of an athlete. He was probably one of the
most underrated kids around coming out of high school.
He carried his high school basketball team to the
WPIAL championship basically by himself. Sean is not
the fastest kid in the world. He's not the best
jumper. He’s a tremendous competitor and a smart
athlete.
He has mimicked Connor and Posluszny some and he
should. Obviously, when you have a player who goes to
a school that has great players at his position, you
would assume that the kid would watch the great
players to see how they play. Unless you’re a
knucklehead, you watch the great players. Sean has
definitely benefited from that.
7. You've had to shuffle the offensive line a bit.
What do you think about the line right now?
Joe's concerned, not only about the kids they have to
play. Joe’s also concerned if someone gets hurt. They
will have to play some kids who haven't played much in
place of the injured starters and some of the starters
haven’t played a lot of football either. The ones
behind the starters have even less experience. They're
in a tenuous situation there.
He's concerned the line will see some things they
haven't seen before and won't be able to handle it.
It’s like starting all over again. They did that with
Akron and now they might have to do it all over again.
Minnesota is a good football team. They have an
aggressive defense. Joe is concerned.
8. Were you able to get a better understanding of the
red zone problems against NW? What was the reasoning
behind the onsides kick?
They had worked on the onside kick all week because
the coaches saw a gap in the middle, but they didn't
execute it very well. It was an opportunity to get the
ball and put the game away. They didn’t think
Northwestern would be able to run it back and they
didn’t. They got better field position out of it
obviously.
The red zone is really a question of making mistakes
at the wrong time. Tony Hunt fumbled and that hurt.
There were some other problems. It bothers Joe. When
you're driving well and kids are doing things well and
you can only get 3 points, 6 points, 9 points on three
drives, that bothers you.
The team is working on it. Sometimes those things go
away all of a sudden.
9. Talk about the receivers and how they have
developed.
Joe thinks he has really good receivers. The hard part
about handling the receivers is that a defense can
take any one of them out of the game if they want to.
Last game, Butler was given room and Morelli was able
to get the ball to him a couple of times on deep
passes. Penn State was in formations that made it
tough to double up on Butler.
They have 5-6 really good receivers. They're all good.
Whichever one gets some room, the offense can take
advantage of it.
10. Is it unusual to find a back like Tony Hunt who
seems to relish running in heavy traffic and taking on
tacklers?
The program has had some pretty good backs. Larry
Johnson loved to run over people and Joe tried to get
him to run away from people because he was so fast.
Larry would just as soon run over you as run away from
you.
Hunt is a good runner. He’s one of the most underrated
backs in the country. He’s a big back, a 230-235
pounder. He can catch the ball. He can use his
leverage and he's an excellent blocker. Tony Hunt is
one of the better backs in the country. He wants to
carry the ball a lot. Most good running backs want to
carry the ball a lot. Blair Thomas was angry if he
didn't get 25-30 carries a game.
11. What has been the difference between the success
the receivers last year and this year? Are you a
victim of your own success?
Joe isn’t sure what the reporter means. They aren’t a
victim of anything. Teams have a lot of tape that they
can watch to see what you do. You have to be ready to
adjust. Joe thinks they’ve played some very fine
football teams.
They haven’t been a victim of anything. When people do
one thing, the offense has to do something else to
take advantage of what the defense is giving them.
They haven’t done that as well as they would like, but
they’re getting better at it.
12. Who will start for Levi Brown? Lloyd Carr said
there should be a college football playoff. Has he
ever talked with you about that?
Joe has never talked with Lloyd about that. He has
always pushed for a playoff. It’s a better way to do
it. A couple of years ago, when Auburn was undefeated
and #3, Joe was on the coaches’ poll and voted all
three teams #1. He got a call from USA Today saying he
couldn’t do that because it would mess the computers
up. Joe said he couldn’t say who was #1 because he
hadn’t seen the teams play. He got another call saying
he couldn’t vote for all three, but he refused to
change his vote. So, he doesn’t vote in the coaches’
poll anymore.
Chris Auletta will play again in place of Levi Brown.
13. With some of the question marks you’ve had on the
offensive line, how much of that affects what you can
do offensively?
It affects you a lot. You don’t want to ask kids to do
things that they either haven’t had enough reps or
don’t have the physical abilities to be able to do.
Every time the offensive coaches put a game plan
together, Joe sits down and cuts out plays that he
thinks certain players won’t be able to execute.
There’s no question it affects you.
14. Talk about Donnie Johnson’s play.
Donnie has played very well. Donnie’s been a great kid
to have. He’s never griped. He just went out there and
did what he was supposed to do and tried to get
better, and now he’s a good football player.
Joe hopes that some of the young players learn from
Donnie and see that it’s not the end of the world if
you don’t have instant success. You can still be a
good football player if you keep plugging away and
take advantage of it when your opportunity comes.
15. How does Amir Pinnix stand up to the likes of
Maroney, Barber and Russell?
He’s comparable to those guys. They’re all big backs.
They’re tough kids. It’s a typical Minnesota team.
They have a great offensive line that’s coached well.
They do a lot of good things up front. They have a
good running back but if you get reckless trying to
stop the run, now they have a good quarterback. He’s
very mature. A big kid with a good arm.
16. Talk about Anthony Morelli’s character through the
first half of the season and is he on the pace you
want him to be on?
Anthony has done as well as Joe could expect him to
do. He’s taken some bumps and bruises. Joe has griped
about him. He has been unfairly criticized about some
things he didn’t have control over. He’s showing more
and more leadership all the time. He’s stronger in the
huddle and he’s making good progress. He’s just got to
keep playing.
17. You’ve said that this will become a very good
football team eventually. Are they where you expected
them to be right now?
Joe thinks the team is about as good as it could be at
this point. The thing that worries him is the
injuries. They’re going into the game Saturday without
Levi Brown and with only one senior on the entire
offense in Tony Hunt except when BranDon Snow gets in
there, then it’s two.
Obviously, no one likes to see the two losses, but
Penn State lost to two very good football teams. Joe
knew before the season started those games would be
problems with an inexperienced football team.
18. What are Terrell Golden’s and Mark Rubin’s status
for Saturday?
Golden has been hurt but he’ll be able to play
Saturday as will Rubin. He’s been out for about 5
weeks.
19. You’ve been able to play a lot of defensive
linemen this year. Is that done to keep the defense
fresh until the end of the season? How would you
assess the play of the defensive line as a whole?
It’s not done to keep them fresh until the end of the
season. It’s done to keep them fresh to the end of
each ballgame. Last two games, that hasn’t been a big
problem because the defense was only out there for 50
plays or so. Against Notre Dame, they had 80 plays or
so.
They have to keep the linemen healthy and get some of
the young guys in there because they’re good players.
The coaches want to play those young guys. With Jim
Shaw hurt, they may start a freshman this week. Gaines
will play, but there are two freshmen behind him.
20. Talk about Andrew Quarless’ progress.
Quarless is moving along. He’s a big, tall kid. He
needs to learn to block a little better, but Joe
thinks he’s going to be a pretty good player.
21. Do you remember anything about Michael Robinson’s
big hit last year on the Minnesota safety? Was that
hit indicative of the kind of toughness he brought to
the team?
Joe hasn’t thought about it. He didn’t realize that
hit ended the safety’s career. That’s a real shame.
Joe doesn’t need to make a statement about how tough
Michael Robinson was. Michael Robinson was one of the
greatest players they’ve ever had at Penn State. He
did a lot of different things. He was a running back,
could catch the ball. He made some great catches at
receiver, was a great quarterback and a great leader.
22. How closely did you follow the baseball games on
Sunday?
Joe doesn’t worry about something he can’t do anything
about. He got three telephone calls after it was
decided that they would play this weekend. He didn’t
watch any of the baseball, so until those calls, he
didn’t know when they would play next.
All Joe had done to that point was make a plan for
Minnesota and a contingency plan in case they had the
week off. They’re going to play Saturday.
23. Is it difficult to have to play so early in the
day, especially on the road?
Joe’s not sure how big of a problem it is, but it’s
something that concerns him, the whole trip. What time
you go out, when you put them to bed, what time you
get them up in the morning. Anytime you change the
team’s routine, it worries Joe a little bit. You
wonder if you’re doing things the right way. They’re
going to be playing in an indoor stadium which they
haven’t done yet this season. It’s a fair observation
but it’s not something that can’t be overcome. It’s
not a big, big problem. It’s just something you have
to adjust to.
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