Blue White Illustrated

ing him, so we're not going to force the ball to him. I think Saturday was a combination of a lot of factors, which I think you guys are aware of. To call it the perfect storm of events is probably a great way to describe it. But I think obviously we want to get the ball in Saquon's hands as much as we pos- sibly can. But we won't force it. And once again, if people are doing so much to keep Saquon from getting the ball, it creates other opportunities. I think Trace threw for about 400 yards last week. That's going to happen when you overcompen- sate. It creates opportunities in other areas. For us, the big issue is the turnovers. This isn't about creating stats for one person, this is about finding the best ways to win. This is a chess game, and the de- fense is going to try to do things to take things away from you. You need to be able to take advantage of the opportunities that that scheme or that style presents. I wanted to ask about something you said a1er the Michigan State game. You said you don't believe in goal-setting. And I think I know what you mean by that. Some people might find that sur- prising, that a football coach doesn't believe in goal-setting. Can you expand on how you arrived at that idea? Well, you know, maybe I haven't come out and said it in a direct way. Really, for my seven years as a head coach, every speech I've given, talking to the team, clinics, things like that, that's something that I've always believed in. I think goal- setting is a powerful, useful tool for some people. But it's not something that I've ever used for the leadership position. For us, it's about our formula of how we do things, not necessarily setting a goal. I think what I learned early on as a head coach is you set a goal that some people may see as a fairly aggressive goal and then you reach that goal, it's human na- ture to take a deep breath and feel like you've arrived. And now you can reset an- other goal. But I don't think it has the same type of effect. And then I'd also make the argument that if you set a goal and that goal is no longer an obtainable anymore, then that has an impact, as well. So for us, I'm a big believer that you wake up every single morning, you maxi- mize the day, you prepare the best you possibly can. You train. You do all the things necessary to put your program and your organization and your team in the best position to be successful. So you focus on the formula, not necessarily on the goals and things like that, because goals in a lot of ways can limit you at cer- tain times. How do you think you and your staff over these four years have done re- cruiting the state of New Jersey? How have the relationships of the high school coaches grown over the years? I think it's been really good. We've got a lot of respect for the state of New Jersey, from a high school play perspective, the level of football that's played, how well they're coached, how well they're devel- oped. You look at Penn State historically, we've had a number of great [New Jersey] players who have come here and who have had great careers and great experiences. So it's something that's going to con- tinue to be very, very important for our program. I do think we're in pretty good shape from a relationship standpoint, and the guys who have come here have been successful academically, socially, the whole package. How much of a plus is it to be back at home this week? And why have you gotten so dominant here in this season? It's great to be home. It's great to be homecoming, it's great to be military ap- preciation. It's great to be in our own sur- roundings, and in front of our fans and loved ones and things like that. Yeah, that's great. To me, there are things that you try to do as a program. And No. 1 is, you want to create culture that allows you to build and grow over time. I think the other thing that you want to do is that you want to teach your players how to be suc- cessful and how to win. And I think we've done that. I think winning at home is something you have to do. It's the same thing we've talked about since day one of recruiting: You've got to be able to win your area. It's the same way on the field. You've got to be able to defend your home turf on the football field in Beaver Stadium. And then you need to be able to win on the road and be able to win on the road against elite competition. It's kind of like phases. And we've worked through a number of those phases. But we still have work to do, there's no doubt. There is a home field advantage. And across the country, if you look at what people's records are at home compared to on the road, there is an advantage, no doubt about it. We have a distinct advan- tage here at our stadium, and we want to continue to do that, and need our fan sup- port, come Saturday, to find a way to be successful. It's going to take all of us. I said that I think in my opening press con- ference. I believe that more today: It's going to take all of us together to go to the stadium, in a very challenging environ- ment for people to be successful. No dif- ferent than for us being on the road. You said Saturday night that you thought the team was too finesse-ori- ented. And I know you said earlier this year that offensive linemen are usually some of the nicest guys, and you wanted them to establish a mean streak. At what point did you begin to think this team was too finesse-ori- ented? And what can you do to work through this? I don't think this is something that's been [emerging] the last two weeks. We were this way last year when we won the Big Ten championship, and this year. We have been saying internally and externally that we want to be a more physical team up front. And when I say that, I'm not just talking about the offensive line, I'm talk- ing about tight ends, I'm talking about all of it. I think it's something that we can do a better job of and need to do a better job of to take that next step as a program, es- pecially when you get into games like last week where the weather can make it maybe a little bit more challenging to throw the ball the way you want to throw the ball. So this isn't something that just showed up in the last two weeks. This is some- thing that we've been talking about, about being a more physical unit up front, O-line, D-line, tight ends, really every position. I think that's an area that we can improve. And again, these things aren't just showing their ugly heads aBer the last two games. We've been talking about these same issues aBer wins, as well. But we've been able to make up for some of those things with explosive plays or leading the country in turnover ratio. We've been doing a lot of good things. The best pro- N O V E M B E R 8 , 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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