Hear Joe Paterno Here.
Below is a Scott Cole's recap of Paterno's press conference:
1. Has Wisconsin's offensive philosophy changed with
the coaching change?
No, Joe doesn't think so. The years he has watched
Wisconsin, they have always been a solid, basic, tough
football team. They keep coming at you. They're very
patient. Joe has not seen it change. He sees them as
the kind of Wisconsin team that has been successful
through the years. They run hard. That could be Ron
Dayne playing tailback. The quarterback is very
careful with the football. The offensive line is big
and strong. It's a typical Wisconsin team. Their
defense isn't real fancy. They're fast, they
anticipate things. If you're going to beat them,
you've got to beat them. They're not gonna beat
themsevles.
2. Evaluate the performance of Norwood, Williams and
Butler and how much have dropped passes affected the
offense?
Obviously, dropped passes are going to affect you. Joe
is reluctant to overemphasize the dropped passes at
Purdue because the wind was tricky. The three kids
mentioned are normally sure-handed. The receivers
haven't made as many big plays as the coaches would
have hoped, but he doesn't want to criticize them
because they hustle, they block downfield and do the
things asked of them. They'll get better. That wind
was really tricky. They had to stare down the ball to
get a bead on it.
3. Have you ever had an offense that could move the
ball so well and then can't score?
There's no doubt about it, they've had trouble
scoring. They haven't gotten any easy ones. Teams have
made them go the length of the field to score. Joe
doesn't know if it's inexperience or if people get too
anxious when they get down there. They have simulated
red zone situations constantly at practice, so Joe
doesn't know what you can do. He won't criticize the
play calling because he thinks that it has been good.
They've made a series of mistakes. The offense has
moved the ball fairly well but they haven't done as
good a job in the red zone as they have to do.
4. How much does it help when you're playing a team
that has played the same opponent recently, as
Wisconsin played Purdue two weeks ago?
Obviously, it helps. It's a two-way street though
because Wisconsin will see the way Penn State played
Purdue. It's not an advantage. Both squads get exactly
the same opportunities.
5. Your offensive line got more surge at Purdue. Is
that because they've been playing together for a while
now?
Maybe that has something to do with it. They had a
great week of practice last week after having been
overworked the week before Illinois. They practiced a
little bit better and maybe Joe was smarter and didn't
work them as hard. They did get more surge. You have
to be careful though because Illinois is a better
defensive football team up front than Purdue is.
Illinois held Wisconsin to less than 100 yards rushing
last week.
6. What can your defense take away from the shutout?
Joe doesn't look at it as a shutout. He looks at the
way people played to see if the players did what was
asked of them. Joe does think they played well. They
haven't given up a touchdown in two games now. They
are not giving anything up easily and now they're
creating some turnovers. Overall, it was a good game.
7. The team fumbled 4 times and had 9 penalties for 80
yards at Purdue. Is that a problem or more of a
one-day occurrance?
Sometimes, you fumble. The one they lost, BranDon Snow
hasn't carried the ball much. The penalties? They had
one penalty against Illinois for 5 yards. Then they go
out and have 9 against Purdue. Why? Joe doesn't know.
The coaches are on the team's back about not taking
penalties in practice all the time.
8. Wisconsin is very experienced. In a game where the
talent is relatively equal, how much of an edge is
experience?
Experience provides poise. You've been in situations
before, so you don't panic. You can play faster
because you anticipate things. Wisconsin is a very
poised, aggressive football team that plays fast. It's
tough to play fast and get that poise if you don't
have the experience. That comes with experience.
Experience will give you 2-3 plays you wouldn't have
had if you didn't have experience.
9. Talk about Dan Connor.
Dan's a fine linebacker. Actually, Paul and Dan are
outstanding linebackers. He does everything well. He
was a heck of a high school linebacker and comes from
a football family. Danny's a big time player.
10. What makes Wisconsin;'s defense so tough and how
does it compare to your defense?
They're similar in that the linebackers are good and
the down guys are persistent. The secondary guys are
always in position. They know what they're doing and
you have to beat them. Joe goes back to the same
story. They're a coach's team. They're well-coached.
They do things well on both sides of the ball and in
the kicking game. They don't make bad adjustments to
things. They keep everything in front of them. They're
a good defrense.
11. How has Bret Bielema changed the Wisconsin team
during the transition from Barry Alvarez?
You don't see much difference in the football team.
Joe wouldn't know whether Barry was on the sideline or
Bret is there. Bret has a lot of poise and
self-assurance and his team is playing that way. Barry
knew what he was doing when he named Bielema as his
successor.
12. Was there a chance that this game would be played
at night? Did you deny Wisconsin the chance to move
this game to a night game?
The home team has to make those decisions prior to the
season if they want a night game like Penn State did
against Michigan. When Joe was asked about playing at
Wisconsin at night recently, he decided to deny
Wisconsin that chance because he didn't want his
players to get back home the next day.
13. Will Bell and Wallace get more reps on offense and
are you throwing the ball into the end zone as much as
you want to?
The weather has had something to do with that. Joe
doesn't see any problem in the offense that would
prevent them from throwing the ball into the end zone.
They tried a couple of times last week and the wind
pushed the ball well off course.
Bell and Wallace will play more when they're ready.
They haven't done much with Wallace on offense lately.
He's been strictly on defense.
14. Tony Hunt is getting closer to the Penn State
career rushing mark. Did you ever envision him being
this good?
The coaches had to fight like dogs to get him. He was
a heck of a high school running back. He's a tough
runner, he can block. He doesn't have great speed, but
he has enough. He's a heck of a back.
15. What are the advantages of a coach being in a
system before taking over as head coach?
For Joe, he hadn't even graduated college when he came
to Penn State. He had to go bck to Brown to finish his
senior paper. He didn't intend to coach for long. Joe
didn't know the first thing about coaching when he got
here. The coaches on Rip Engle's staff taught him how
to coach. Joe was with class people. Rip was one of
the most underrated coaches that ever coached. Great
patience, very innovative. Many times, Joe would get
into an argument with another assistant and Rip would
tell him to slow down. He didn't have all the answers
yet. Joe lived with Jim O'Hora for 11 years and spent
so much time talking football with him. Most of what
he learned about coaching came from those people.
16. How has Austin Scott adjusted to the redshirt?
He's done great. He's on the scout team and is trying
to make the first team defense better. He's been
great.
17. Bobby Bowden has come under a lot of criticism
lately. Have you talked to him?
Joe has thought about calling him to tell him to hang
in there. Youn can't pay any attention to the
criticism. Bobby kbows how to coach. He has a very
young football team. They played without their
starting quarterback last week and had to play a
freshman. He doesn't need Joe's advice. He'll come out
of it. He's a great coach at a great program.
18. Talk about the Penn State-Wisconsin series.
Joe can't think about past games in the series. He has
to worry about this Wisconsin team. He couldn't tell
you who has won more games or even what the score of
last year's game was. He has to get ready for a
football game on Saturday. Wisconsin is a good
football team and his team will have their hands full.
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