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On the balls being batted down, I think that's a combination. If you look at [Iowa's] defensive line, it's probably one of the tallest defensive lines in the country. I think they have two guys over 6-6. One guy is even maybe 6-7 or 6-8. Part of their plan is that when [opponents] try to get the ball out quickly, they are going to stay at the line of scrimmage and jump up and bat balls down. I think that was part of their plan. Obviously, it fits their personnel very well because they are so long across their front. I think the O-line is playing probably about where we thought they would. Can they be better? Yes, no doubt about it. Will they get better? Yes, there's no doubt about it. I'd say they're probably about where we thought they were going to be. I did think there was still a lot of room for growth and improvement up front, and I think that's what we're going to need to happen in every area for us to continue playing and finding a way to get W's on Saturdays. Could you talk specifically about the snap and hold for Tyler Davis, and the problem you saw with the last block, which involved a personnel break- down. I think the snaps and the holds for the most part have been pretty good. If you watched the one that got blocked, we had an offensive lineman lean forward and fall out of the hole… and guys came pretty much unblocked through that hole, through that gap. We had some changes there, not having Chasz Wright in the lineup and things like that. We had some moving parts. Either way, we've got to get it done. We didn't in that situation. I think what happens a lot of times with young players is that they see an overload inside of them. Say there are three guys over your guard. The tackle feels like he has to help him, and he leans in to help. And when you lean in like that, you've just helped one guy, but you've created a weak- ness in another part of your protection. That's what happened. We leaned in to help to the leB and created a scene to our right. We put [Colin] Castagna in a really tough position; he's got two to three guys over him with no one helping him. So we've got to get those things cleaned up. That's on us. That's our responsibility. But I feel confi- dent that we'll be able to get that done. You said something Saturday night about the way Indiana defended you last year and how it informed what Iowa did. What are you seeing in terms of how teams are trying to deal with what you guys do offensively? And how can you react to their reaction? I think we've reacted to people's plans pretty well over the last year and a half. We've been pretty successful. Sometimes it's taken till the second half to do it, but we've been pretty good and everybody has a theory or philosophy on how they are going to stop us. It's not a consistent deal. One week it's this and the next week it's that, whether from a coverage perspective or from a pressure perspective or from a front perspective. So we did see some similar philosophies pop up on Saturday. But yeah, I think that what we're trying to do is to kind of figure out: Are defenses going to stay with who they have been based on the film that we have been able to break down? Did they have a bye week the week before us, and is that going to factor into how much creativity they are going to have and are they going to change? Are they going to copycat from things they think other people have used and had some success against us? That's what you're try- ing to figure out, coming up with your game plan, factoring all those things in. And then what you're trying to do is, early in the game, as early as you possibly can, within the first couple drives [figure out], are they who we thought they were going to be, or are they playing things dif- ferently? You look at a lot of offensive coordina- tors, and they're going to try to get all their formations called early in the game to game to see, [is the opponent] aligning to those formations how we anticipated them to align? Or in third-down situa- tions or in red zone situations, are the pressure percentages the same, all those types of things? That's what you're trying to figure out as early as you possibly can in games. Is all the time we spent game planning, is it consistent with what we thought, or do we need to adjust based on what they're doing now? The president came out last week and said anyone who protests in any shape or form should probably be fired, and a lot of NFL players chose to react. Do you have any reaction or comment re- garding what the president said and re- garding the anthem and the flag? And is it a priority for you to talk about it with your players or coaches? We spent a lot of time discussing this last year. Had a lot of discussion about this really when it all first started. As a team, we spent a good portion of the bye week talking through this, talking through this issue. I think it was really good for our team to hear different perspectives. They had great dialogue. To me, that's what college athletics are about, that's what Penn State is about and that's what this country is about. Fortunately for us, we spent a lot of time talking about this last year. This year, we've still spent some time talking about it, but we didn't need to go into as much depth because they knew how I felt and I knew how they felt and how we were going to handle it moving forward. As you can imagine, I want my focus to be on Indiana as much as possible. I have strong feelings as a United States citizen. I do have strong feelings as a college foot- ball coach, and I have very strong feelings as an African-American. But to me, those conversations are personal. They are pri- vate to our team. What I love is how our guys are handling it. We are able to have really good discussion as a family. There are guys who are voicing their opinions with their teammates face-to-face. There are guys who are voicing their opinion so- cially. What's most important for me is that guys don't react and make an emo- tional decision or have an emotional out- burst, that they take their time and think it through and are thoughtful and express themselves and are articulate. That's what this country is about. It's funny, yesterday I was at Rothrock and… somebody asked me about it, and they had an opinion on how we should be han- dling it. I appreciate their opinion. But to me, that's what's so great about this country is that people have the ability to express themselves and people have the ability to have different opinions and dif- ferent perspectives, but that we respect one another and we respect all different backgrounds. That's what makes this country so special. So to me, the answer is pretty simple. We're in a free country and people have the ability to express themselves the way they think is right and it's our job as edu- cators and as coaches, especially at colle- giate level, to just make sure our guys are being thoughtful about it. S E P T E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 13

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