Blue White Illustrated

COACHSPEAK | EXCERPTS FROM BILL O'BRIEN'S WEEKLY PRESSER When you come off a disappointing showing like you did against Indiana, how do you strike a balance between correcting things and emphasizing teaching points? We've moved on from Indiana. We're focused on Michigan. Our guys are very, very excited about the opportunity that they have Saturday night against a great Michigan team. They're a 5‑0 team coming in here [with] 108,000 fans. Our guys are very focused on Michigan, learning the game plan, studying Michigan. Our guys are going to show up and play hard on Saturday night. We're very focused on Michigan. Could you just talk briefly about Jesse James' role and how it might be a little different from the second half of last season? No, Jesse has been asked to do very similar things, and Jesse is very focused on the Michigan gameplan. Jesse, barring injury, will play a lot on Saturday night. Devin Gardner is one of those double‑threat quarterbacks – a good passer, good runner. What specific problems will he be presenting for your defense on Saturday night? He presents a lot of problems. You're right. He's a dangerous guy because he can run and throw. There are a number of guys like that in this conference. I think [what] you've got to try to do is keep him in the pocket. When he gets out of the pocket, he's very dangerous – very dangerous. The other thing about Devin Gardner, from being around him at the Big Ten media day [in Chicago], he's a great kid. He's just a really nice kid who represents Michigan really well, and it's going to be a big challenge playing against him. Are you concerned at all that the team's confidence might be shaken a little bit by last week? The team's confidence is not shaken. Could you talk about the Michigan defense a little bit? Everyone talks about the offense, but the defense has played pretty well this year. When you look at their defense – just from my knowledge of Michigan – it's a STUDY HALL PSU is ranked No. 10 in the Big Ten with a turnover differential of minus-three. "We need to do a better job in that area. No doubt about it," Bill O'Brien said. "We've just got keep working on it and emphasize it on film." Tim Owen typical Michigan team. I think Coach [Brady] Hoke is a fantastic coach and he's done a great job. He's in his third year of putting together the type of team he wants. On defense they're very stout up front – very stout. The linebacker corps, they play a lot of guys there. The secondary is very disciplined. Greg Mattison is the defensive coordinator, and obviously I have gone up against him when he was [a defensive coordinator] with the Baltimore Ravens. He's an excellent football coach. It's going to be a great challenge. These guys are a very good football team, but we're going to do our very best to put together a good gameplan. Big Ten in turnover margin. Is that something you could work on in the course of a season? We definitely work on that, we really do. We do a lot of drills on that and coach it up. Whether it's ball drills, interception drills, strip drills, fumble recovery drills, blocked punt drills, we drill it, and we need to do a better job in that area. No doubt about it. We've just got to keep working on it and emphasize it on film. When we see a good play – somebody that caught an interception or recovered a fumble in practice – we say, "Hey, great job," and emphasize it. Hopefully we'll start getting that turned around a little bit. Can you talk about your young linebackers Gary Wooten and Brandon Bell? How are they developing? They've both been incorporated into special teams and they're both doing a decent job on that. Brandon Bell last weekend and also Gary Wooten throughout the season on the kickoff team has done a nice job of being physical. Breaking into the lineup on defense right now, you know, they're backups. I think if they were called into duty that they would be ready to go. But right now they're backups. How important is Allen Robinson to the team and how has he helped with Christian Hackenberg's progression? He's done a lot of really good things that started in the off‑season. He really worked extremely hard on his own game: getting stronger, getting faster, getting quicker. You know, he worked hard in the summertime. He worked hard with Christian when Christian arrived here, and he worked hard with Tyler Ferguson. He's a guy that you have to give a lot of credit to for the year that he's having. He's done a really, really good job to date. O C T O B E R Penn State is near the bottom of the 9 , 2 0 1 3 13 SEE O'BRIEN PAGE 14 BL UEW H I T EON L I N E. COM

• Cover