Blue White Illustrated

But it's hard. These guys come in, and they've got all the answers. They're 17, 18 years old. They're highly recruited. They've got all the answers and they've got it all figured out. And they get humbled on the field like we all do, because it's a very humbling sport, very humbling profession. Then you grow. You grow together as an organization from individual relationships. To be honest with you, it's not enough time. Because right when you start to get to know each other on a significant level, they're leaving and they're moving on. So it's hard. It's emotional. I think they're probably a lot like us. There's a part of them that would probably like to stay longer, and there's probably a part of them that wants to get out of here. It's like I tell them all the time, they all look back at high school now, and at the time they thought high school was so hard and stressful. Then they get to college and they look back and high school is kind of a joke. Then they're in college, and they're stressing about college and how hard col- lege is and how hard and tough we are, then they look back at college and they're like, Please, can I go back to Penn State? But that's kind of how life is. Now they get it. They get why you've had some of the hard conversations or made some of the tough decisions you had to make. But it's hard. It's hard to let these guys go. But the thing that probably helps me through it and helps our organization through it is knowing that Penn State does an unbelievable job of preparing these guys, that they're ready for the next step to go on and be successful. You talked about some of the ups and downs the seniors have been through. I wonder how appreciative you are of these kids taking a chance with you. And I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, but with you and Penn State at a very difficult time for Penn State. A lot of these kids had other opportunities and they decided to come here. Yeah, I talk about that when guys com- mit even now. To me, I equate everything back to my own kids. I think about me trying to pick a kindergarten for my daughters or me trying to pick an elemen- tary school. It's a huge decision, let alone college. So I take it as the ultimate sign of respect when a young man and his parents decide to choose us, Penn State, Penn State football, our coaches, our players. To me, the biggest compliment you can get is someone saying, "Look, I've spent 18 years investing in my son, and I'm handing him over to you to continue to build on the foundation that we've laid." For the guys that we're recruiting, it's not like we're the only option. There are other really good options for him. So, to me, it's the ultimate sign of respect. It's the ultimate compliment you can get. That's why we take it so seriously. That's why every decision that we make once they join our program [involves these questions]: Is this in the best interest of the team, first, and is this in the best in- terest of the individual, second? Every decision is made like that. So these guys came at a time that was a challenging time for all of us at Penn State. These guys believed in Penn State. They believed in this community. They believed in our professors and our faculty and the deans, the administration. They believed in our coaching staff. They be- lieved in their teammates and felt like we could do something special here. Those guys should be very proud. I would hope that we sell out the stadium on Saturday for no other reason than to show these seniors how much we appre- ciate all their hard work and sacrifices that they've made. Then it's our job as coaches and players to play well and to thank the fans. To me, that's the relationship we have. They come to support us and show us how much they appreciate the commitment and what these players have done. Then it's us as coaches and players to thank the fans by going out and playing well and representing them well during the week and in the off-season, which we take a lot of pride in as well. Yeah, I'm really proud of these guys and couldn't be more thankful and apprecia- tive that they chose to come and be a part of our family. Who are the guys on defense who kept your guys focused and positive a5er the losses to Ohio State and Michigan State, and what kind of meaning did last week's performance have on their overall well-being? Yeah, I guess I don't look at it like that. Football in general is a crazy sport. Col- lege football at this level is a crazy sport. I watch games on TV, I watch games on coach cut-ups and edits, [and there's a] lack of consistency that you see all over the country and at every level. To sustain it for 12 straight weeks is challenging. That's the challenge for all of us. I think our defense has played really good football, maybe some of the best de- fensive football in the country for most of our weeks. And there are a lot of things that factor into that. Playing good teams is part of it. Having some guys who aren't available for whatever reason is part of it. Us coaches consistently doing a great job and being aggressive is part of it on of- fense, defense and special teams. It's all of those things. But I don't think it was ever that. We played two really good teams and didn't play well enough. We've lost two games this year by a total of four points. So I guess sometimes the way you guys ask questions and the way you guys kind of pose things, I don't necessarily look at it the same way. We didn't play as well as we needed to two weeks on offense, defense and special teams and lost to two of the better teams in this country on the road by four points. So we're excited about how we played last week against Rutgers. That's behind us. And we're looking forward to the op- portunity we have this week playing Ne- braska. Another storied, historic program. What are some of the different chal- lenges playing against a 3-4, which I don't think you see as o5en in the col- lege game or in the Big Ten as you do in the NFL, especially in terms of the on- going effort to get the running game going. It changes combination blocks and who you're working to, and how you're coordi- nated across the board and how you're ac- counting for the second-level players and things like that. So identifying most peo- ple that play a 3-4, they're typically bringing a fourth man. So that's the other challenge with the 3- 4 defense: figuring out who is that fourth man. To me, the most challenging form of a 3-4 is when they have two outside line- backers and they're bringing those guys equally, and you have to figure out by safety rotation or linebacker skew who that fourth rusher is going to be. Most people typically have a fourth rusher who is the guy who is coming most of the time. So it's that. It's playing a style of defense and a defensive front that we don't see that much. Our defense doesn't play it, and we N O V E M B E R 1 5 , 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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