Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/218298
O'BRIEN CONTINUED FROM 13 lot of respect for Gary and what he's doing there. This being Thanksgiving week, what are some of the good things and some of the challenging things that keep the kids occupied without the other students there and no classes? I think that we have a really focused group. We had a really good meeting yesterday. We had a good walk through, had about a 50‑play walk through. We walked through some special teams, and I felt like our guys were really focused. I think it's good. It's football. These guys are football players. It's Thanksgiving week. There is no class. I think it allows them to just really focus on Wisconsin and what they need to do to help us beat Wisconsin. So I think it's good. Last night we took them to the movies. That was good. They saw some movie called "Thor" or something like that. I don't know what that movie is, but it sounds like it was a good movie. Then we'll do some other things throughout the week. But it sounds like they're pretty focused to me. N O V E M B E R Following up on that question, it's Thanksgiving week. Outside of being with us, what are you thankful for? Oh, where can I go with that one? I'm thankful for my family. I'm thankful for this football team, these players. I really am. I can't tell you enough how much I enjoy coaching these guys. I wish that some of these games had gone our way, but they didn't. It is what it is. I'm very thankful to come in here every day and coach these guys. I really am. I'm thankful for that. I've made some good friends here at Penn State and State College, I'm thankful for that. But mostly I'm thankful for my family and the guys that I coach. Ty Howle will play his last game Saturday. Can you evaluate the two guys behind him, Wendy Laurent and Angelo Mangiro? There will be a competition there. Angelo also plays guard, so he could play guard for us next year. Wendy's pretty much a center only, and I think Wendy's really improved. Angelo's improved, too. I think both these guys have gotten better. Now we haven't gotten them into 2 7 , 2 0 1 3 15 games. We've stuck with [the starting] five with the addition of Garry Gilliam and Eric Shrive as an extra tackle. But those seven guys basically we've played. I think that it will be a big off-season for both Wendy and Angelo. It will be a big off-season to get stronger, get more knowledgeable about the offense and have a good spring practice. But we think that both those guys can be good players for us. C.J. Olaniyan said that the birth of his daughter in April has been a big motivating factor for him. Did you see that urgency when you guys came back in camp this summer? I think that's probably more of a question for him. Obviously the responsibility of being a dad is a big deal, and I think that C.J. felt that. He and I had a couple of conversations about that, and I don't know if that was the exact time that he started coming on as a player, but he did. He played a lot better for us this year than he did last year. So I'm sure that that has something to do with his daughter. But that's more something for him to answer than me. B LUE W HI T E ON L I N E . COM