Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/174174
O'BRIEN CONTINUED FROM 13 ball too long or we don't have a blitz breakoff. I feel like our line played its best game. They need to continue from there. They're a great bunch of guys, tough, and a fun group of guys to be around. Mac [McWhorter] does a great job with them. They'll continue to improve. How would you evaluate the play of your young cornerbacks? They learned a lot last week. They had their share of good plays and they had their share of not-so-good plays. Start with [Jordan] Lucas. I think he's a really, really good player. He's tough, strong. He's got good size, good ball skills. He made his share of mistakes on Saturday, but he also made some real good plays. He had a great tackle on the 5-yard line on one of [UCF's] drives. He's a fantastic kid. He'll get better and better and better, because he works extremely hard. I can say the same thing for Trevor Williams. He's just a fantastic kid. Just like all of us, he made his share of mis- takes on Saturday. He's come back to work on Monday. He worked really hard. He'll get better and better and better. Remember, he was a receiver last year. It's really only his third game at corner. No excuse – we expect these guys to go out and play well. But these are young guys. Jordan Lucas, its his second year in the program. He didn't play a whole lot last year. There's a lot of improvement to make but there's a lot of good plays that he made, too. Do you pay a lot of attention to what is written or said about the team throughout the season? I probably try to read about five or six articles a day. That's what I try to do so I'm as prepared as I can possibly be for this [news conference]. Again, that takes me like 15 minutes. Nothing against your writing (laughter). It's fantastic writing, but it doesn't take me long. I pick five or six articles, or Tony [Mancuso] will send me five or six articles. I'll read up and see what's being said. I think that's important. That's part of my job as the head football coach here – to make sure I know what's going on, not just in that little office there. I try to do that. I don't Tweet, Facebook, blog or whatever. I don't do all that stuff. I just read the articles. You've stressed beginning the game fast. You have yet to be the first team to score this season. What would you like to see improve as far as first-half execution? [UCF] got the ball and scored first, but we answered it. We had a couple of three-and-outs during that half that weren't very good. We played better in the second half. We stress it, but I don't overanalyze it. I think what we have to do is make sure we string plays together. We've got to get a positive play on first down. If we end up losing 5 yards, or having a penalty on first down, we're not going to start the game fast. Let's do things we know we're good at. We know what the kids have confidence in. Let's get out there and move the ball. We've got a mixture of a younger and older team. That's part of it, too. I think as the guys get more and more into [the season], they'll start better. Casual Metropolitan Dining Metropolit Metropolitan opolitan Lunch Lunch and Dinner Small Plates Plates Martini Martini Nights RESTA RESTAURANT RESTAURANT AURANT www.GigisDining.com West College & Cato Ave., State College College Cato Ave State College Cat a State a S E P T E M B E R 1 8 , 2 0 1 3 814 . 861 . 3463 14 B L UE WHI T E ON L I N E . COM