Blue White Illustrated

Pitt Pregame

Penn State Sports Magazine

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C O A 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 B O W L P R E S S E R How would you compare the Pitt game to games against people like Ohio State and Michigan? And do you consider it a rivalry? Yeah, I think obviously being in the same state and the past history of the game is really going to put a major em- phasis on it. To me, there is no doubt [a rivalry] is there from an historical per- spective. But once again, to me, a rivalry isn't something that you have to have a discussion about. The fans, the media, the players, the coaches all view it that way. None of our players have ever played against Pitt, and none of our players have ever seen a Penn State-Pitt game in their lifetime. I don't think they're watching many games at 2, 3, and 4 years old. So there are elements there from an historical perspective. There is no doubt about it. But, again, our play- ers haven't done that. So for us, we approach this like every other game on our schedule. Keep our focus consistent. Focus on the process of being successful, not the results or not a specific type of game. And our guys are excited about it. But I think everybody understands the significance of it. We've been hearing about it all off-season. There is no doubt about it. But our approach is consistent week in and week out. Would you like to see Pitt be a per- manent addition to the Penn State schedule? The current series is for four games. Your thoughts on them being permanently added to the schedule? I think it's great for the state of Penn- sylvania. I think high school coaches love it. I think it makes sense in a lot of different ways. But… I think our sched- ules are set. Theirs and ours through like 2025 or 2026. So we'll see how this thing goes moving forward and we're excited about the opportunity this weekend. What is your personal relationship with this game, having lived on both sides of the state? And how have fans inside or outside of State College communicated their level of interest to you? Once again, this game hasn't been played in a very, very long time. I have a cousin who works at the University of Pittsburgh. One of my best friends who comes to almost every single game lives in Pittsburgh. He's been talking to me about the game, family and friends talk- ing about the game, obviously growing up just outside of Philadelphia, there is an aspect of that. So growing up in the state of Pennsyl- vania, my dad being from Pittsburgh and spending all of my holidays and summers in Pittsburgh, I'm aware. My grandma's house was in the Hill Dis- trict on Bedford Avenue, not far at all from Pitt Stadium. So I'm very, very fa- miliar. But that's about it. I've never played in a game there. I've never coached a game there. So that's probably the ex- tent of it. Obviously, we get a bunch of stuff on Twitter, get a bunch of comments from our fans, I get a bunch of comments from their fans, which has been great. … We've had some blocking conversations as a group. I've learned there is this other thing called mute which does the same exact thing [as blocking] but you don't know I've done it, which is even better. But, yeah, I get stuff from our fans about how excited they are about the game. I get stuff from their fans about how they feel about me and how they feel about us. But to be honest with you, I'd say most of the stuff I get is more about the ex- citement and the respect for both insti- tutions and the state and the community and how awesome this is. So I've got a lot of respect for the Uni- versity of Pittsburgh, their coaches, their administration, and to me this is great. It's great for the state of Pennsyl- vania, two great academic institutions, two historical football programs, so it should be fun. Most of the stuff I get is positive. There's been a small percent- age that's angry, but most of it is very positive. I wanted to go back to your philos- ophy on treating every game the same. I only ask that because Pat Narduzzi said yesterday that he's going to explain the rivalry to his kids and he wants them to embrace it. Did you ever have a thought of having your guys embrace this ri- valry? And in your coaching career, have you ever had a situation where your team played a rival and there was some special emphasis put on that game? Great question. Obviously, again, we have talked about this game with our players. We have done that. Again, I don't think we have to talk about it a whole lot because they understand and they hear it all the time. They have friends who play at Pitt. They have family members who went to Pitt. There's a lot of that, so I think it natu- rally just happens. Yeah, I've been a part of rivalry games in the past. When I was at Vanderbilt, we played Tennessee in the same state, and we approached it like every other game. Kept our routine the same. Kept our process the same, and we were fairly successful. If you look at the history of that rivalry and you look at the success that we had there, we were pretty suc- cessful. So we want to keep our routine the same. In my 22 years of doing this, I think you have to be very careful when you tell your players that this game is more important than another game. Then I think you have a tendency to come out and play inconsistent. Guys will be emotionally high one game and below the next. So we keep our process the same, focus on the results of being suc- cessful and not things that are outside of your control. These things are going to happen without me having to do it. It's like if you're playing an opponent like Pitt or if you're playing a Top 25 or top-10 op- ponent or top-five opponent or White Out game. It's not like I have to come in and tell them, "Guys, this is a White Out game. I'm not sure if you know this is a big game for us." These things nat- S E P T E M B E R 7 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 12

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