Blue White Illustrated

COACHSPEAK | EXCERPTS FROM BILL O'BRIEN'S WEEKLY PRESSER After two games, how would you evaluate your offensive line play – running and protecting the pass? Is it where you thought it would be? I think that some certain individuals up front have played really well. I don't want to get into the specifics, but I think that, overall, we need to play more consistently up front. I've talked to these guys about that. [Mac McWhorther] feels the same way. I think we've played decent. I don't think we've played poorly, but I know we can play better. I think the guys understand that. We hold our offensive line to a very high standard here at Penn State, and those guys know they can play better. And we expect them to. You have a lot of depth at wide receiver. Is it a challenge to rotate everyone into the game? It is. There are about six guys that are in the rotation right now at wide receiver. We have a lot of different personnel groupings, so we try to get as many guys [as possible] into that rotation. Some of the personnel groupings are two wide receiver personnel groupings, some of them are three, some of them are four, some of them are five wide receiver groupings, which we haven't even used yet. So we try to make sure that we're rotating guys in and out, and I think that does a lot. It gets guys on the field that are good players. It helps morale because a lot of guys are playing, and I think a lot of different guys have caught passes from Christian [Hackenberg] this year, which is good. So I think we just need to continue to do that. It's actually fun to come up with personnel groupings and [figuring out] where to put guys. Bill Belton said he feels like he's a more mature player and person. What kind of changes have you seen in him – not just as a running back but as a person? Billy's come a long way. Billy and I have had a number of conversations about a lot of different things – not just football. I just have a connection with Billy, and I think he's a great kid. He's working extremely hard in the classroom. He worked extremely hard this summer to be where he's at right now. S E P T E M B E R RAISING THE BAR Bill O'Brien said he wants to see more consistency from his offensive line. "We hold our offensive line to a very high standard here at Penn State," O'Brien said, "and these guys know they can play better." Tim Owen He had a good summer in conditioning and all the things that he did in the weight room. He's come on strong here in the past couple of games, especially against Eastern Michigan. That will continue because he's going to continue to play. He's running the ball better. He's being more decisive running the ball, and his pass‑catching ability out of the backfield is good. I think his protection needs to improve, but I know he's going to work on that this week. Overall, he's a much better player, and he's turned the corner off the field too, I believe. When you talk about your running backs, would you like to see one of them really kind of emerge as your go‑to runner? I like all three of these guys playing. I think one of the things that we try to do is, if a guy gets really hot, we'll stick with a hot back. I think it's hard for one of these guys to come out of the game and not play. In the Syracuse game, Akeel [Lynch] didn't play, and I think it's important to get all three of these guys in the game and give them a shot. Like I said, if one of them gets hot, more than likely, we would stick with that guy. Running back by committee isn't so bad when you have three good running backs. With some of the third-down problems, how much of that stems from things that may or may not be happening on first or second downs, as opposed to just third downs? We talked yesterday, and we'll talk about it again this afternoon. We've got to get off to a better start on first down. Once we get to third down, we have to execute better. I thought on Saturday there were plays to be made. Whether it was [because of] a protection breakdown or a poor throw or whatever it was, we just didn't make the play. It will get better. I can't guarantee it. I'm not into guarantees, but I do believe we're working on it. And it will definitely, in my opinion, improve. It needs to. There's no question about it. It has to improve. How important is Brandon Felder to what you're trying to accomplish? He's very important to what we do. Again, he probably should have some more catches in the time that I've been here – whether it was [a situation in which] we didn't read it right or maybe his route could have been better. But he's very important to what we do. He's one of those unsung guys. He practices every day. He's a very smart guy. He's a really good route-runner, very smooth route-runner. I really enjoy SEE O'BRIEN PAGE 14 1 1 , 2 0 1 3 13 BL UEW HI T EON L I N E . COM

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