Joe Paterno's Press Conference

What he says and what he means? It's an art with all coaches who speak in generalities and rarely, if ever, reveal their hand. Joe Paterno is the master -- after all, at his advanced age and football knowledge, he should be.

Throughout the season we will transcribe Paterno's mid-week press conference and add our two cents in certain spots. We will also play a game of Joe Said-Joe Means in our game recap each Monday.

Q. Can you discuss your thoughts on the way Jerome Hayes has come back from two serious knee injuries?

He's a very determined kid. Of course, he's not a kid anymore, but a young man. And he's worked awfully hard. He's been determined he was going to come back...so far so good.
We've not kept him in there any extended period of time because we didn't want him to get tired and maybe not be able to protect himself as well. But he's had a good pre season. I think right now he's ready to play.

It's a little different position where he's playing. We're playing him as a defensive end -- half a defensive end, half an outside linebacker. But, so far, so good.

Blog Thoughts: The development of Jerome Hayes will be an interesting case study this season. The Michael Mauti season-ending injury has definitely cut into Penn State's depth at linebacker and especially its speed. In essence, Navarro Bowman is now Penn State's lone every-down presence off the edge -- but Hayes has plenty of tools. It will be interesting to see how to acclimates himself to game speed through the cushioned early-season schedule.

Q. What has Nick Sukay done to emerge at one of the safety spots? With A.J. Wallace out, are you a little worried about your untested corners going against the Akron receivers?

Well, Sukay has been hurt a lot, so it appears he's come out of nowhere, which really hasn't been accurate. He's been around. He's always had tremendous potential. He's a fairly big kid. He runs well. He's a tough kid and he's smart.

I think his emergence as a starter didn't surprise anybody on the staff. We just kept hoping he'd stay healthy. He had foot problems, a couple other things. I think he had a shoulder problem for a while there. So he's never really had an opportunity to show what he can do.

So, he has stayed healthy and he's had a really good pre season, and I think he'll play well. I'm not sure what we're going to do with A.J. I had put some rules down that he had to get certain grades, which he got in the summertime. I had to put some other rules down. He's abided by them. He may end up playing some on Saturday. (Knowledge) Timmons right now would start with the other kid (D'Anton Lynn). Timmons will be fine.

I think the other corners will work out to be good. None of them have had a lot of experience in ballgames except for Wallace, but they're healthy and they've been getting better all the time. So I think they'll be okay.

Now, they'll be challenged, because this is a really good offensive football team. You get 9 of 11 kids back, got the quarterback back, they've got their wideouts back, they've got a big offensive line, which is very active, all of whom played last year, I think except one kid who might only be a sophomore.

But it will be a challenge for the secondary.

Blog Thoughts: One of this season's main focal points -- and a key to conference and national title hopes -- is the progression of a relatively untested secondary. Timmons is a track star, and as Paterno pointed out above, Nick Sukay was highly thought of out of high school only to run into a rash of injuries. A.J. Wallace must get his head on straight. He has more game experience than the collection of unknowns put together, and he needs to mature on and off the field to be the shutdown corner Penn State needs in conference play.

Q. What type of challenge do you think their quarterback (Chris Jacquemain) will bring to your team this weekend?

Well, he's been a two year starter. Akron at the end of the year last year was playing really well. And I think there's tremendous momentum with their football team. He's a very smart kid, very careful with the football. As I said, they've got good wideouts. Both the tight ends are redshirt freshmen, but they're big kids. One is about 260, 265, the other one is maybe 270. As I mentioned earlier, he's got an outstanding offensive line that did a great job protecting him last year and I think obviously they'll be better this year.

So he's a good all around quarterback, plays smart, has a good arm. He gets good protection, makes good decisions. We'll have our hands full with them.

Q. Andrew Quarless talked today about wanting to make you proud of him and make his family proud of him this year. Do you think he's had a different attitude than in the past few years?

Andrew Quarless, hopefully he's grown up. He did a lot of silly things when he first came into the program. But, so far so good. And he has the potential to be a really good tight end. He can run. He's got good hands. He's obviously got nice size for a tight end. So I think he and (Mickey) Shuler should give us two kids that are good tight ends, both of whom have played some.
But, I'm hoping Quarless will have a big year.

Blog Thoughts: Quarless' numbers are mentioned several times in my book, but his athletic line doesn't begin to mesh with his statistical line. He is long and athletic with soft hands and he NEEDS to become Daryll Clark's security blanket and go-to guy across the middle with a young receiving corps. Mickey Shuler isn't a bad pass catcher, but his seen (in my eyes) as more of a blocking tight end, while Quarless is the one who can stretch the field.

Q. Are you feeling any better after the last two weeks of practice with your offensive line, especially with the second team you have behind it?


I think the offensive line's made great strides. But, until they get in the football game, until they have to make some adjustments...The tough thing about an opening game is you're not quite sure what you're going to see. I think we have a little better feel for what we're going to see from their offense because so many of their kids are back, including the guys that have really run the show. Other than their tailback, who was their leading ground gainer last year, most all their skill people are back.

But, on defense we're not quite sure what we're going to see because there's a lot of new faces that are going to play. Last year they were basically a 3-5. We're not sure they're going to stay with the 3-5 or whether they're going to go to a 4-3. So we've had to do a lot of extra practicing because we're not sure what we're going to get.

So, I think it will be a challenge for the offensive line to make whatever adjustments we're going to have to make because you can't cover all of it. If you try to cover everything that they possibly could do, you'll have a bunch of kids that can't make any progress; they get stymied. But, I think we've made good progress on fundamentals. I think they've got a lot more confidence in themselves. I think they should, if we have a good week of practice this week, they ought to be looking forward to a good challenge.

Blog Thoughts: The two returning offensive lineman are playing new positions. Enough said. Not actually, but Penn State's offensive line -- its play and its growth -- will be discussed in this space ad naseum as the season progresses.

Q. ESPN Classic, they had on the '82 game against Georgia. Do you ever find yourself with your remote looking at some of the older games? Do you learn anything from any of those?

Yeah, the only one I look at is the last part of the (2008) Iowa game. I don't even want to look at that Southern Cal thing (laughter).

No, I don't look at that stuff. I mean, we have all those tapes. I don't have to listen to some guy telling me how the game should be played. I can find out myself. I can back and forth, the whole bit (laughter).

Blog Thoughts: Wanted to include this back-and-forth to show Paterno's personality with the media but also to mention that you can find all you need to know about that 1982 game in my new book, "Penn State Football: An Interactive Guide to the World of Sports" in bookstores in several weeks and available on Amazon after Labor Day.

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