I love Joe Paterno

[PSUFAN]

Offered otherwise without comment:

Joe Paterno & Tom Bradley Postgame Quotes
Sept. 30, 2006
Joe Paterno

Q: What was your overall assessment of the offense even with the problems in the first half?

A: Well I have mixed feelings. When you blow as many chances as we did in the first half, unless your defense really plays a heck of a football game, you’re probably going to get licked. I thought our defense really played awfully well and then we started to pick it up offensively. But it still bothers me that we wasted so many opportunities in the first half and that’s what killed us early. Hopefully we’ll get over those but until you do it you don’t know if you’re over it or not. But overall I thought they did a good job.

Q: How much do you think the offense missed Levi today, if at all, and how long is he going to be out?

A: I think Levi will be alright this week. In fact, we moved Auletta over there and I though Auletta did a good job, really. He hasn’t played a lot and early in game he wasn’t that sharp, he made some mistakes. But as the game went on he got better. But I think Levi will be ready next week.

Q: In terms of confidence, what does a win like this do for your team to beat a Big Ten team and beat them pretty handily the way they did?

A: Well, it’s only one game. We’ve got a long way to go. Like the old saying you’re never as bad as you think you are when you lose and you’re never as good as you think you are when you win. Northwestern is a good, solid team. Obviously they are playing with an inexperienced quarterback, they’re both redshirt freshman. When they get that thing settled down that’s going to be a pretty good football team. I think we are a pretty good football team but until we get in there where we can get into a real tough football game, I don’t know whether you get real confidence until you win a tough one.

Q: There were more long balls downfield this week. Did you make a concerted effort to take advantage of Morelli’s arm strength or what?

A: Not really. In fact, we started out with a lot of play-action passes because we were afraid that with the makeshift offensive line we had in there that we wouldn’t be able to protect. So we started out with a reverse and as I said some play-action passes that really were designed to come underneath but he had a couple of shots deep so once we felt we could run by them we decided to throw more deep stuff. But there wasn’t a preconceived idea to give Morelli more shots downfield. It was really more a concern of just having some play-action so that the offensive line wouldn’t have to sit in the pocket and protect.

Q: How important was it for Anthony to hit that first pass like that and can you assess his day overall?

A: Well, Anthony has played well. There are three of four plays that kind of take away from some of the good things he has done. I thought he played well today. I thought he played very well. He had a lot of poise in the pocket. When we wanted to hurry it up, he hurried it up. When we wanted to do different things, he did it. I thought he played with a lot of confidence today.

Q: What are you seeing from the defense as to how it has responded since the Notre Dame game?

A: Well, what do you mean about the defense responding after Notre Dame? I don’t quite get that. I thought our defense played a pretty good football game against Notre Dame. We held them to about 380 yards. We had more first downs than they did. I thought our defense played a heck of a football game against a really good offensive football team in Notre Dame. So I think the defensive coaches just stayed with them and stayed basically with what we had and of course I think we’re playing well. But I would take exception to that. Notre Dame was under 400 yards in the game and of course we gave them a couple. The offense gave them a couple. But they are getting better. They are young and they’re playing better.

Q: Did you use the walk-on kicker because you were concerned about Kelly’s back?

A: Actually, as you probably noticed, because I know how astute you all are watching the football game, you never miss anything, that we were placing the ball down in one corner because they are good. Our guys did a great job with #19 (Tyrell Sutton) from the line of scrimmage and covering. He was probably a bit more accurate in placing the ball down in the right corner. So we decided to go with him.

Q: How’s Kelly’s back?

A: He was hurting. He wasn’t 100 percent. But he’s a tough kid. It was good to see him have a good day.

Q: Butler set the school receiving record today. Can you analyze his game?

A: Well it looked like he had a heck of a game. What kind of a record did he break? . . . Yards for a game . . . Well you could have fooled me, I wouldn’t know. But Butler has been a really good receiver the last couple of games. In fact, if I would be critical of some of the things we’ve done, I don’t know if we got him the ball enough earlier in the year. But he is a tireless worker, keeps his mouth shut, works hard on his routes, and it’s good to see a kid like that. He was a walk-on, you know. But he’s a good receiver.

Q: Can you talk about what was going on inside the 20-yard-line and maybe what you guys discussed at halftime to correct some of those problems and punch it in in the second half?

A: A mistake here, a mistake there and there were some bad decisions by a couple of guys early in the game. Ohrnberger and Auletta have not played a lot of football and they got licked on a couple of plays. Those should have been good plays going on in there. I think once they got their noses wet and understood what they had to do, then we did a better job. We didn’t change anything, really. Once the ball gets down there, you can’t screw around with it. We missed a couple of blocks down in there. You lose two yards on a running play when it should be a four-yard play anytime you run it, you’re going to have troubles.

Q: We’ve had a few moments over the years like Alford’s summersault, where we know you’re going to go nuts. Describe why you go nuts because we really haven’t asked you that before?

A: It cost us 15 yards, you know that.

Q: But there’s more to it than that, it seems like with you?

A: Oh, sure there’s more to it. You play football and I’ve always felt, have a little respect for the other guy. And you guys have heard me make this speech a thousand times. I used to play an awful lot of handball. If some guy showed up and wasn’t ready to play, I just would walk out of the court and hang over something. But if he came and played hard and I played hard and he beat me, that’s fine. I’d put my arm around him and we maybe went downtown and had a beer. But I just hate to see that. When you score you score. What is it, is it the greatest thing that ever happened? He didn’t invent the wheel or anything. I could have picked that ball up and ran it in. Even with my banged up ribs and everything else.

Q: How much of a comfort level does Deon Butler provide for a young quarterback like Anthony?

A: Well I think all those receivers are good receivers. Deon just happened to have a great day. People have tendency to underestimate him (Morelli). He’s not a young quarterback anymore. He’s got good receivers. If we made a mistake against Ohio State, it was that he didn’t take some of the under stuff, some of the short stuff and we probably weren’t persistent enough with our running game because they would just back him right out there and they weren’t going to give us anything. That’s hard for a kid to just get a feel for it because Ohio State is a good defensive football team. As I said, if you hold Texas to seven points at Texas you’re doing a pretty good job. So, I think we have good receivers. Norwood is a good one. Derrick Williams is having a tough time getting away from some people but he’ll come around. We’re right there. Morelli has to be the guy and he knows it now.

Q: What do you plan to do if you have the week off?

A: I haven’t even thought about it. I’m thinking we’re going to play next Saturday. . . . Let me say one more time, I never worry about anything until I have to. Ok, if I can’t do anything about it, I don’t worry about it. Like I told the kids, I’m not sure who we’re playing next but we’ll get together Monday and we’ll go from there. Honestly, I haven’t even thought about it. I’m thinking we’ll just have a regular week next week, same kind of week we’d have any week.

Q: The way Tony Hunt is running now, is he as good between the tackles as anybody you’ve had? It just seems like he finds the hole where there doesn’t seem to be any.

A: Well he is certainly one of the better backs we’ve had. And I don’t like to compare people. You know I try not to do that. But I think Tony Hunt right now is a big league back. As I told him when he came out, I said “you can’t turn the ball over. If you can’t hang onto the football, you’re never going to be a big league back.” And he’s turned it over a couple of times. But I think he’s a solid runner. He’s a complete back. He’s really a good receiver. And he’s an excellent blocker. And he’s 230 pounds. He’s a big-time football player.

[Ken]

Q: We’ve had a few moments over the years like Alford’s summersault, where we know you’re going to go nuts. Describe why you go nuts because we really haven’t asked you that before?

A: It cost us 15 yards, you know that.

Q: But there’s more to it than that, it seems like with you?

A: Oh, sure there’s more to it. You play football and I’ve always felt, have a little respect for the other guy. And you guys have heard me make this speech a thousand times. I used to play an awful lot of handball. If some guy showed up and wasn’t ready to play, I just would walk out of the court and hang over something. But if he came and played hard and I played hard and he beat me, that’s fine. I’d put my arm around him and we maybe went downtown and had a beer.

I don't get it. How's that analogy work again?

[PSUFAN]

Not sure it does, explicitly. However, he's saying that it's good to go against tough competition, with a spirit of good sportsmanship.