Blue White Illustrated

O c T O B E R 8 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 7 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 P O S T G A M E P R E S S E R Trace McSorely opened up the run game with some of those run-pass options and zone reads early. What did that do to ultimately allow Saquon Barkley to kind of break loose later on? I think it really helped us. … It's one more thing for [opponents] to defend. I know when I sit in with our defensive coaches and watch tape, you've heard me say this before, it's frustrating on defense when you stop the run then you do a great job in coverage, you stop the pass, and all of a sudden the guy takes off and runs for 12-15 yards or even 6 yards. It's just one more thing that you have to deal with on defense. So the mobility of the quarterback position is going to be important for us. How important was it to get off to a fast start? I think it was huge. I've been talking to Joe [Moorhead] about it a lot. I've been talking to the team about it. I've put some statistics up. When Penn State wins the first quarter, when Penn State wins the first half, it's in the 80 percent win percentage when we do that in Beaver Stadium. So whenever we do those things – turnover ratio, winning the first half, explosive plays – I always try to put the statistics up nationally, put the statistics up in the Big Ten, and then put the statistics up specifically to Penn State and try to reinforce the im- portance of starting out strong. What does it say about Brent Pry and Sean Spencer and everyone on the defensive side of the ball, with all of the injuries you've had, for them to come out and have this kind of day? I don't know if there's another defense in the country that's had to overcome all of the different personnel [losses] and the adversity that we've had. Our defen- sive coaches and players just keep step- ping up. We've lost seven linebackers, so we have guys playing in positions they've never played before and other players moving positions. We're taking redshirts off. There's been a lot of that. I'm very proud of Brent Pry and our defensive staff and players, but I think it also [re- flects] our strengths and the develop- ments we've made. We would not have been able to survive this from a depth standpoint a year or two years ago. You have many players on this team from the Washington area, and you recruit there pretty heavily. What's the significance of this win from that perspective? Winning helps everything. With the guys that we have from Maryland, D.C., and northern Virginia, the DMV as it's called, it's important and it helps us. Especially when we walk into some of those high schools. It helps us, no doubt about it.

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