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COACHSPEAK | EXCERPTS FROM BILL O'BRIEN'S WEEKLY PRESSER Now that you've had a chance to watch film, how would you assess the defense's performance vs. UCF? We watched it from every angle. We spent a lot of time. We watched it as a staff, on both sides of the ball and special teams. That's usually what happens when you lose. You try to get together and really observe both sides of the ball and special teams. We have a lot of good coaches on our staff. It was a good meeting on Sunday. Defensively, it comes down to tackling. We've got to tackle better. One thing I want to address right off the bat – I know somebody is going to ask me this question, obviously I respect the question – it has nothing to do with "thud." 120 teams in the country all basically practice with thud. It's very rare that teams go live anymore, especially if you look at pro football. You're allowed 17 live practices a year. That's trickled down to college. Could you evaluate the tight ends Jesse James, Adam Breneman and Kyle Carter after a month? The tight ends, I think all those guys have played solid for us. Kyle Carter, on the fake field goal against Syracuse, he had an offensive lineman land on his arm. It almost broke his arm. He was pretty banged up last week. Obviously, [vs. UCF] we got him more involved. He's a good player for us. He'll continue to be more and more involved. Jesse has had a good year. These are young players. I think Jesse is 19. Kyle might have just turned 20. Maybe he's 19. Obviously, Adam Breneman is a freshman and probably had his best game last week. Those guys will continue to improve. They work really hard – a fun group of guys to coach. Geno Lewis on the kick return. What kind of spark does he give you there? I think on that [44-yard kick return vs. UCF] he had decent blocking. What he did on that is he made a decision. He didn't stutter step at all. When I was listening to the radio coming home, I heard [former PSU wide receiver] Derrick Williams on this radio show. [He was a] fantastic player here, great guy, great kick S E P T E M B E R GIVE THEM A HAND Bill O'Brien said he thinks Penn State's offensive line was at its season-best against UCF on Sept. 14. "Our offensive line played their best game," he said. "They played physical and they pass protected really well." Tim Owen returner. One of the things he said about the kick returner is you can't stutter step. You have to hit it. Make one cut and go. He is exactly right. On that particular return, that's what Geno did. That's what we have to continue to develop. The guys need to block a little bit better around him. There was a lot of improvement on that. So hopefully that will continue. Would you have expected to see Christian Hackenberg completing 71 percent of his passes through his first three games? I expect him to complete every pass. Obviously 70 percent is a good percentage. That is good. I think any time you complete over 70 percent of your passes, a lot of things are happening well there. He's throwing it well. The receivers are making good catches. We're protecting well. It's a team effort. When I call a pass, I don't expect it to be incomplete – that's for sure. I expect it to be completed. It's a high standard. He's done a good job. He needs to keep doing what he's doing. Day to day, try to keep getting better. I told him yesterday that if he could eliminate six or seven mistakes from his game, that he'll keep improving and he'll help our football team a lot. He's made some really good plays for us. There's six or seven plays within each game that he needs to really improve on. 1 8 , 2 0 1 3 13 In this offense, the quarterback truly is the field general. He runs the show. If you can eliminate those mistakes, you're going to really help your team out a lot. He understands that. How do you evaluate the play so far of Deion Barnes? He doesn't have any tackles for loss or sacks yet. Is that a big deal? I think you have to look at the film closely on that. I think he's playing with great effort. He's an excellent player. I believe people are running away from him. I think that people are giving their [offensive] tackles help in protection with him. I would, too. We've got to do things to move him around and help him out a little bit. We will and we have. But Deion, to me, is playing well. I'm glad he's on our team – I can tell you that. It looked like the offensive line made some steps forward last week. Did it look to you that way on film? Our offensive line played their best game. They played physical. I thought we pass protected really well. The sacks, I think somebody told me this morning we've given up eight sacks [this season]. Most of those sacks aren't on the offensive line. It's either [the QB] holding the SEE O'BRIEN PAGE 14 BL UEW HI T EON L I N E . COM

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