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camp. I'm not trying to get them in trouble. I can't imagine that was legal. My entire college career, three-a-days. We would practice in the morning, mist, dew, wet. Gnats everywhere. Gnats in your nose and mouth. We practiced in the aBernoon. Then special teams prac- tice at night. We didn't have the facilities that we have here. The first practice, you would be soaking wet. By the time the second practice came, none of your equipment would be dry. You'd be pulling on all this wet equipment. Go out there, Denny would go, "It's a hundred dollar day in the Poconos. People are paying big money to come here and you guys are here for free." His positivity, his consistency, his care for people, the importance that he felt, academics, athletics, how they comple- ment each other, the educational process in high school and the college campus, those kind of things stuck with me forever, they really have. Denny is a mentor. Denny is a good friend. Judy as well. All those people. That was a long answer. But Denny and East Stroudsburg had a huge impact on me and always will. With respect to your three main backup tailbacks, can you pinpoint something that they've improved the most on? Is it tough during a game when Saquon Barkley isn't in there to divide up the playing time? I think managing that in general is challenging. It's challenging on Coach [Charles] Huff. It's challenging on those guys. They're all really good players. They all want to play more. They all want to make an impact. I think they've handled it pretty well. For the most part they get it. Andre [Robinson] has said about eight words since he's been here. Saquon gets really angry because it seems like when- ever Andre goes in, the plays are blocked really well. He kind of runs through the line, into the secondary without anybody touching him. I think Saquon actually thinks the offensive line likes Andre more. I don't know what that deal is, but they kid around with each other on that. Andre has been really, really produc- tive in the opportunities he's gotten. I think he's a great example of how, if you work hard and keep a great attitude, you maximize the opportunities you get, whatever they are. Mark Allen has done that here of late. The Rutgers game, things like that. He's kind of an emotional fireball on our team. He has a lot of energy, a lot of natural leadership skills. Comes from a winning program in DeMatha. They did a great job there with him. He came in understanding what it takes to be suc- cessful and how to win. Then obviously, whenever you're able to get a guy like Miles Sanders, who is a really talented guy, it was obvious the first day he showed up on campus. I think Coach Huff has done a really, really good job of setting the tone in that room – team first, the importance of the ball being the program, protect- ing that thing. When you're carrying the ball, you're carrying the program. That's something we talk about all the time. But, yeah, I think for the most part, it's a tough situation when you've got a guy like Saquon Barkley to keep every- body involved, positive. I think for the most part that's been managed well. A3er the Michigan State game, you addressed the crowd on Saturday and mentioned that your guys had over- achieved. When they were 2-2, did you feel they were underachieving? How did you see that arc of achieve- ment grow as the season went on? I think all good teams across the coun- try overachieve. That's what you're try- ing to do. You're trying to maximize the opportunities you get, trying to maxi- mize the talent you have. You do that with great chemistry, relationships, trust and love for one another. You've heard me say those things before. You prepare like crazy, so that when oppor- tunities come, you can take advantage of them. I think good teams all over the coun- try, that's what you're striving to do. You're striving to be greater than the sum of your parts. That's all of us, coaches, players, trainers, doctors, everybody. So I think we're right about where we want to be. I think obviously you would always like a little bit more. You would always like to be a little bit better. You like to learn from your mistakes and grow from them. I don't second-guess anything. I don't look back and say, I wish we did this, could have done that. I think all those experiences, the last three years, including this year, have led us to where we are now. We wouldn't be the same type of team without the highs and the lows. I wouldn't be the same person, the players wouldn't have the same ex- periences. You learn from all those things. You've talked a lot this year about how opposing defenses have played you: crowding the box, crowding the line of scrimmage, using man cover- age. It seems like you've proven you have a way to deal with that now. Do you suspect as you go forward, teams might change their approach a little bit, particularly because, for exam- ple, Wisconsin is so good against the run anyway? Yeah, I think actually we saw that last week. Last week they widened the D- ends, they rushed them up the field to try to stop the perimeter running game, they crossed the two inside linebackers a bunch in what we call cross dogs, bul- lets, whatever you want to call it. To be honest with you, they played the defensive backs soB: "We're going to let you throw the underneath stuff all day long. You're not going to get the chunk plays because you're getting them on everybody. We're going to make it diffi- cult for you guys to run the ball on us." That's an area where we've still got to improve. We had 13 linemen travel last week, and eight were freshmen. Late in the season, we're growing, getting more mature, but it still is what it is. I think we've seen those plans. It goes back to what I said before. When Trace is able to be mobile and he's able to hold onto the ball that long and still be a threat to either run or throw it down the field, and we have big, physical wide re- ceivers who go up and get the ball, and Trace has the ability to put it in spots where they're going to come down with it, that's hard to defend. N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 13

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