Blue White Illustrated

sellout crowd and a national TV au- dience. As a coach, do you get a little concerned about the guys peaking maybe a little too early, or do you feel like your guys can stay on an even keel leading right up to kickoff and then let it all go? They know this is a big game. We don't need to tell them that. We need to prepare and we need to work hard all week long to give us the best opportu- nity to go out and play well on Saturday. For exactly the points that you've made, that will help them not peak too early in the week or get too emotionally high too early in the week and run out of gas on Saturday. All of those things – consistency in behavior, consistency in play – are what we try to do all the time. Our approach won't change. They un- derstand how big this game is. They see it all over social media, walking around town and on campus and from their families and ticket requests and all those things. They get it. Can you describe a little bit the im- pact that Tyler Davis has had on your team in the past two seasons? I'm really proud of him. He's not the most vocal guy. He's very mature for his age, which I think is important for that position, because we do have some youth at that position with Gillikin and with Joe Julius. So to see an older guy who kind of goes about his business in school, goes about his business in football, and doesn't get too high or too low and is very consistent in his approach, I think it's been really important, specifically for the specialists. Kevin Givens was moved to second team at defensive tackle. Can you discuss what happened, the thought process there and what he's done the first six games good and bad? He's done some really good things. We're really happy and impressed with Kevin. He continues to grow in every area of his life, and he needs to continue to do that. We think Curtis [Cothran] is doing some nice things for us, as well. We have three guys there: Curtis and An- tione White and Kevin. They are all playing really well and playing at a high level. So we're going to rotate those guys, but it's not anything more than that. We just feel like Curtis is earning the opportunity to step in there and be the starter. When you look at possibly getting guys back, what are some of the chal- lenges as far as coming back from a long layoff? Because it's been a while since they played. We're excited about having the possi- bility of getting them back, and you think about their experience, but you also have to say, these guys haven't played. They haven't practiced. They haven't played. They haven't been in a game for a number of weeks. To think that they are just going to be able to jump back in and be the type of players they were when they leA, I don't know if that's realistic. We just need to make sure as coaches that we remember to evaluate the tape all week long – as long as they are going to be able to practice and be evaluated, that we evaluate it and make sure that we're not just throwing them back in there be- cause we're excited that they are back. What the medical staff says and how much they are going to be able to prac- tice and how much they are going to be able to do is really going to decide what we even do with them. It may be even a nonfactor this week. How soon does the decision from the medical staff need to be made to give you enough time to evaluate guys from a fitness and preparedness standpoint? It depends. We've talked about this a little bit in the past. I think it depends on experience. So if you have a guy like Brandon Bell who has played a lot of football and is a senior, he's probably going to be able to do things with a little bit fewer reps and a little bit less time than a guy like Jake Cooper, who is still a young player. At the end of the day, I've been around places where coaches have rules where if you don't practice full-go by this day [you won't play], but I don't know if I necessarily agree with that. I think you have to make the decisions that are the right decisions for your program and for the young man. That's going to be different for a freshman compared to a senior and everything in between. We'll just see how it goes all week long. We have a staff meeting every morning, and Tim Bream is in there and he goes through the medical report so everybody is on the same page. I can ask questions. The coaches can ask ques- tions. The coaches will tell them what we have planned in practice and if he's OK with that and all those types of things. O C T O B E R 1 9 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 13 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