Blue White Illustrated

pressure in playing the position of quarterback. If you look at it that way, you're probably not a quarterback. So I don't look at it that way. I've got a great opportunity here at Penn State. Is this place different? Yeah, because there are really high expectations and there's tra- dition and there's history, and although we've been through some challenges the last four years, people don't want to talk about that. They want to talk about the 1982 and 1986 national champi- onships, and I get that. We embrace those things. We just wake up every single morning and put a great day's work in to build this program to where everybody wants it to be. I will tell you this: What is emphasized here with our staff and our fans and our alumni probably more than at any place I've ever been – and that's why this place is so special and that's why I love it – is that people want it all. What I mean by that is it's not a win-at-all- costs place. This is a place that truly values our guys getting a world-class education. They want to see our guys making a positive impact in the com- munity. They also want to see our guys being successful on the field, and they really don't want to give up one for the other. They want them all. But I also know when you want that and when you're trying to build that, it takes some time. You can come in and there are quick fixes, but usually with most things in life, just like I tell our players, things that come quick go quick, and there's usually risk associ- ated with quick things. You know, that's why to me this place is a special place, and that's why I think it aligns with my values and why I got into this profession in the first place, and our staff, and I think our fans. That's really important to them, as well. There was a situation on the side- line with Mark Allen and Charles Huff that was caught on video. Can you explain what happened there, and does a coach ever have reason to put his hands on a player in a way that some people might view as ag- gressive? No. Yeah, no. That was something that's been addressed very clearly with our staff. Individually, me and Charles had a conversation about that, had a conversation with the overall staff. There are obviously a lot of details and specifics that go into it that we don't need to get into right now. I know who Charles Huff is as a man, I know who Charles Huff is as a coach, and those things have been addressed. So yeah, there's not a place for that. You talked earlier about the oppor- tunity to play a No. 1 team. Do you play it up at all that this is a once-in- a-lifetime opportunity or a couple- of-times-in-a-lifetime opportunity? No, we try not to do that, again, be- cause I want to keep our plan consis- tent. On Sunday when we met and reviewed the game film and tried at that time to kind of enjoy the win for a few more hours before we get on to the next opponent, we're reviewing the positives and the negatives from the game, and I talk about being 1-0 – they should be really proud of that – and winning the last five – they should be really proud of that – and being 2-0 in the Big Ten and being really proud of that. And then I did say, hey, what an unbelievable op- portunity we have this week being able to go play at Ohio State against the No. 1 team in the country. What a great op- portunity. And then a>er that it won't be dis- cussed the rest of the week. The rest of the week, it's, what are we doing on Monday in our normal preparation? What are we doing on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, so on and so forth? But there will be enough of that from the outside. We don't need to do that internally. We want to keep our ap- proach consistent. We've talked a lot this year about wide receiver separation and things like that. With Ohio State's aggres- sive secondary, what are some things that can be done to take advantage of their aggressiveness? It's interesting how they play defen- sively. It's almost like their corners have no responsibility whatsoever in the run. They basically play press-man almost all the time, and they lock those guys down, and those guys are cover guys. You know, they're big, long, physical guys who can really run. They do a re- ally good job of eliminating the big plays from that perspective. But that's some- thing that we need to look at and try to take advantage of. There's no doubt about it. Again, the specifics of that I don't re- ally want to get into at this point, but there's no doubt that basically they tell these two corners, the two outside re- ceivers, eliminate them from the pass- ing game, let us other nine guys worry about stopping the run, and defending the pass of everybody else. 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 15 PSUtixman@gmail.com www.PSUtixman.com Get your PSU Football Tickets at go t ti cke t s? k c i t t t e k man@g .PSUtixm www.PSUtixman.com at ootba Get yo k c i t t o gm .PSUtixman.com all ur s t s e k

• Cover