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C OA C H S P E A K | E X C E R P T S F R O M J A M E S F R A N K L I N ' S W E E K LY P R E S S E R What have you learned about your team's identity and personality in the first six games, and do you expect to learn even more Saturday night than you have so far? Yeah, very much so. I think we'll learn a lot this week. We'll learn a lot Satur- day. I think we're resilient. I think we have found ways to be successful each week, different ways of doing it. We're getting better, like every team in the country. You're finding ways to hide some of your deficiencies or weaknesses and play to your strengths, and we're doing a better job of that each week. But yeah, five games in a row at home, now going on the road to Ohio State, my first time ever going there, and to face that type of adversity and that type of environment is going to be a challenge. It's going to be interesting. I think every day we're getting closer as a team. We're getting a better under- standing of how to work together and how to complement one another, but Saturday will obviously be a real chal- lenge. The way we look at it is as a tremendous opportunity. I wanted to ask you about your scout team. I know you talk about those guys a lot and their value to the team on the practice field. I wanted to get your thoughts on the challenge of putting together a scout team offense this week that will give your defense a real representative look at what Ohio State can do. I don't think you're ever going to get a real representation of what Ohio State is going to do from your scout team. It's just like when we played Army. To think our scout team is going to be able to replicate that type of speed and that type of precision, it's not going to happen. Our guys will work really hard and will rep the plays that we think we're going to see, but obviously you're not going to be able to replicate their tailback and their quarterback, [J.T.] Barrett and those guys, with your scout team. If you were, those guys wouldn't be on the scout team. They're young players who are still developing and learning, getting bigger and stronger. But that's going to be important for us, there's no doubt about it. I do think there are some similarities with how we prepared last week and how we'll pre- pare this week, and what I mean by that is they have one quarterback who's 250 pounds and can chuck it all over and is more of a traditional pocket passer, and then they've got another guy who's real athletic and can do both. That's kind of what we had to prepare for last week because we didn't know who was going to start and play in the game. So I do think there's some carryover there for us. Obviously, J.T. is showing up more and more as a red zone option for them, and from what I hear, that package is going to continue to grow. What's your kicking situation look- ing like heading into the week, and how did Joey Julius respond in prac- tice Sunday a5er a tough game? Joey is our guy. It'll be a competition like it is every week. But we're not in the business of changing our plan if a guy has a rough day or makes a mistake. I mean, Joey is our guy. He did a great job all off-season. He's working really, re- ally hard. He's grown so much in the last year that he's been in the program. Now he's going to have to come out and show it every single day at practice this week, and we'll make a decision later in the week. But again, if we were playing today, Joey would be our guy, and we'll see what happens and go from there. What do you need to see from Saquon Barkley this week that will tell you he's ready to play, and also, how do you approach playing fresh- men a5er the''ve been injured? The days of the coach making deci- sions on who plays or not are long gone. They've been gone for a long time. We've got doctors, we've got trainers who make those decisions. Obviously, we watch him at practice, we talk to them. We get an idea of where we think they are. But ultimately, at the end, the doctors and the trainers will make those calls. That's what they're paid to do. That's what their expertise is in. I took a kinesiology class in college once. Didn't fare so well in it, so I'll leave those things to them. Obviously, we watch him at practice and we work together to put the best Penn State football program we can out there on the field. But the doctors and trainers will do that. He practiced last week limited, he'll practice this week limited. We'll see what happens. Obviously with freshmen, you know, it's different. You come back as a junior and a senior from injury and you've played a lot of football in your career. That's different, compared to a fresh- man who hasn't played a whole lot of football anyway and now he's out a couple weeks. Getting that guy back ready to play is important, but no dif- ferent than any other situation in life. This is an opportunity for growth for Saquon, an opportunity for him to re- ally work on the mental aspect of the game and to handle adversity. We look at all these things as an opportunity to grow. There's been an awful lot of news this week about college football coaches, all of it seemingly related to the pressure of the profession, and I wonder how you deal with that and how maybe unique you think it is at Penn State? I've never really been a person who has kind of felt that way. You're so busy just doing the job or being the dad or being the husband or being the coach or whatever it is that you don't spend a whole lot of time dealing with those things. I will say, I don't know if you guys remember a year and a half ago when I came in here and I had the high- top box fade rocking before I went bald, I think obviously the time, the hours, all those things and running in different directions, yeah, all those things factor in. But in my playing career, in my coach- ing career, I've never really looked at it that way. Some people think there's O C T O B E R 1 4 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 14

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