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the five years that I've been together with this staff, but I've made it very, very clear that those things are going to change moving forward. I take a lot of pride in that, and it's an area that we as a coaching staff have got to do a better job of, and that starts with me. Michigan State is playing for an awful lot on Saturday; they're kind of playing for everything. Do you worry about the motivation of your own team when the tangible stuff that you're playing for is much less than the other side? And do you talk to the kids about wanting to be a spoiler? Is that part of the picture at all? No, we're playing for a lot. We're play- ing for a lot on Saturday. We've got a chance to win eight games in the regular season. We've got a chance to go into a bowl [with momentum]. We've got a chance to continue to do special things on the field and continue to build our program and our culture and the things that we're doing, so we're playing for a lot. Trust me, we're playing for a lot. We played for a lot on Saturday. A lot of people live and die Penn State football, and it's very, very important to them, so trust me, my staff and our players feel like we're playing for a lot on Saturday and feel like that every single Saturday. There was a lot of talk about tack- ling during and a>er the last game and all season, really. When you watch film a>er a game and evaluate something like tackling, how do you go about judging that? We're playing talented teams with tal- ented people, and if you're not in the right position, don't have the right leverage, they're going to make you miss. The other thing is making sure that all other 10 guys are running to the ball, so if the guy does make you miss [it] isn't the end of the world. You can't miss the tackle and be in the wrong leverage. That can't happen. You've got to have the right leverage and make the tackle, and if you miss the tackle you've got to have the right leverage so your teammates can have your back and run to the ball. If you lose – if you're the contain player and you lose your leverage and you're inside – now your teammates can't help you because now the ball is going down the sideline. Those are the things that we've got to get cleaned up. And then the other thing is that we're banged up. We're banged up right now, this week, probably more than we've been in a long time. That's shown up as the season has gone on, but probably more so this week than really in the year and a half we've been here. By all accounts, Michigan State played a remarkable game on defense last weekend. What jumps out the most when you watch their defense from the game against Ohio State? They're playing the way they've been playing for the past couple years. They're big and physical and long on the defen- sive line. They are really, really long – 6- 5, 6-6, 6-4. They're big, physical, guys, juniors and seniors, playmakers, guys who have been making plays there for multiple years. At linebacker, they're very, very productive, and in the second- ary they are athletic and long, as well. That's kind of their model. It's like their whole defense is 6-foot or taller, and they challenge you. They challenge every yard. They challenge every route. They're going to be in your face with press cover- age on the perimeter, no gimme throws, no easy throws, and then they're going to use their safeties. They're going to get very involved in the run game, which puts their corners in some challenging positions at times, but their philosophy is that they're going to get to you before you can get the ball out, and that philosophy has worked very well for them for the past couple years, and that's exactly what showed up again on Saturday. You've talked about establishing a physical identity on the offensive line. What's been the struggle this year that's prevented that? I think it's a number of things. You've got Paris, who's 297 pounds and still looks like a power forward. I think a year from now he's going to be 315 pounds, and that matters. You look at our league, and pretty much everybody has a defensive end who is 280 to 300 pounds. They've got one D-end who's a big, physical guy. They've got another D-end who's more of a pass rusher. I'm looking at Michi- gan State's offensive line this week, and I think they're 295, 325, 325, 315 and 325. They're massive human beings, and we're still kind of working toward that. Size isn't everything. Experience isn't everything. But those two things to- gether help. They help. You know, we've got some guys who we moved over from the other side of the ball, and I think they've done ex- tremely well, but that's a change. I mentioned before the season that we have more depth than we've had in the past, but I don't know if we still have more game depth at this time, and we're working toward that. Our second-line guys are Noah Beh, who when we signed him was a 238-pound offensive tackle out of Scranton who was committed when we got the job, and he's done a great job, but he's not ready to be a true backup yet in the Big Ten and step on the field. I've mentioned to you guys before that you're going to have the exception from time to time, a young kid who gets on the field, but when you've got it rolling, your O-line and D-line are [made up of] red- shirt sophomores, redshirt juniors and redshirt seniors in the two-deep who are rotating in and playing at a high level. Are there exceptions? No doubt about it. I've mentioned before that that's a po- sition [group at which] it's hard to solve [problems] overnight. You look at our D-line. Why is our D-line playing at a high level? Because we have depth and experience at that position. We're getting there. We had a discus- sion as a staff the other day. You watch our guys in practice in one-on-ones against our D-line in some of the com- petitive periods in which we go against our defense, and from the beginning of the year to now or from last year to now, it's dramatically improved. But again, not as much as we would all hope. You'd like it to be a little bit faster. We just finished a nutrition bar. The administration helped with that. That's been huge. So hopefully we'll put on two pounds this week on average across the O-line and you'll see a significant difference on Saturday with the yogurts and the smoothies. I hope that will be the difference. N O V E M B E R 2 5 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 15

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