You Say JoePa . . .

He says Terno!

At this week's press conference, Paterno was asked about his role in play-calling:

Q. How much personal involvement have you had in the offensive play calling this year compared to past years? Does that change when you're on the sideline?


COACH PATERNO: Galen (Hall) and Jay call most of the offensive plays. Sometimes I'll call Mike McQueary and tell him we like this. But I don't do a lot of play calling anymore. I'm a cheerleader. Somebody called up and said I'm shrugging my shoulders or something, that I should be back swaggering. Pretty tough to swagger on a cane (smiling). But I'm good now. I'm going to be swaggering all over the place. Don't get in my way (laughter).

You can see the clip here.
 
So does that make Jay Paterno the heir apparent to the Nittany Lion Mascot uniform?

Friday Funnies

A few hours early and 50 cents short . . .

Rich Ripley writes a blog with a "full day's worth of fiber."

He pokes fun at coaches press conferences.  For instance:

Reporter: Hey coach, thanks for taking a moment out of your busy schedule to talk to us this morning.

Coach: No problem Phil. We appreciate letting our avid fans get the inside scoop on our big game against State Tech.

Translation: Since my DUI conviction two summers ago it’s in my contract that I have to sit through these idiotic Q & A sessions.

Reporter: First things first, how’s your relationship with State Tech coach Bobby Franklin? Rumors are flying since your wife left you for him and he owns a 5-0 record against you.

Coach: Well let me tell you a little something about Coach Franklins teams…you gotta be well prepared ‘cuz Coach Franklins one of the best coaches in the nation. He’s assembled a top-notch staff, recruited some of this nations best football players and is thoroughly prepared for every situation. As for Marlys leaving me, I wish her well and there’s absolutely no hard feelings. End of story.

Translation: I can’t stand Franklin! He’s handsome, muscular, has great hair and screws anything in his path, including my Marlys. He’s intelligent, plays the guitar, writes poetry and no one, and I repeat NO ONE mentions the prick’s name in my presence, and I miss Marlys horribly. Tell her I said “hi”…would ya?

Reporter: If you can get Myers slowed down, that will open the door for their four time All-American quarterback, Troy Aikman Jr. to throw the ball downfield. How do you intend to counter that threat? He’s set and broken national records each time that he’s played against you. He’s a genuine Heisman candidate.

Coach: Aikman Jr has been a thorn in our side each of the times that he’s played against us, and he’s a real class act. Our secondary coach, Steve Peters, has been working around the clock on a plan to take away State Tech’s air superiority. Look for Coach Peters to have a few tricks up his sleeve this Saturday. I guarantee it.

Translation: Isn’t Aikman in the NFL yet?! HONESTLY!! Oh. My. GOD. It’s like watching a superhero play the position of quarterback against a team of eighth graders whenever we have to play against him. I really hate him. I told our secondary coach that his job was on the line this Saturday if Myers broke another single game passing record against us. Last year Myers threw for 975 yards in one game!!! 975 YARDS!!! How on earth does that happen?

Weekly Cup of Joe

Normally I don't spend much time rehashing press conferences. After all, what do we really learn from these things. Temple's a great team. Eastern Illinois will kick us in the teeth if we're not careful. I don't know anything about that. Blah, blah, blah. But, being that I couldn't find much else to blog about, I thought I'd take a look at this week's presser.

Q. Sean Lee was scheduled to test his knee yesterday. I was wondering, how did he do? Has he received medical clearance to play?

He hasn't received medical clearance yet to play. But I watched him a little bit (on Monday). We told him take it easy. Ron Vanderlinden, who is his position coach, stuck him in a couple plays. Monday's not tough day. We don't do a lot of hitting or anything like that. But it's a good day to break him in. And I think he came out of it okay. I'm anxious to see how he feels today when we go out there.

But it's still not a done deal. I'm not sure whether he's going to make it or not this Saturday. But, he's working like a dog trying to, so we'll see.

OK--some valuable info there. I will be surprised if Sean Lee plays this week. It has little to do with his rehab or his determination. It has everything to do with him being healthy for the games we might really need him.

Although, that said, will we be able to handle the Gophers? Adam Rittenberg dissects the Gopher Offense as a work in progress:

Minnesota has taken a variety of approaches in Fisch's first season as it transitions to a pro-style offense. When the running game stalled early on, the Gophers kept throwing the ball to superstar wide receiver Eric Decker, who carried the offense at times. The Gophers opened Big Ten play with a balanced effort against Northwestern (186 pass yards, 166 rush yards). The run game stalled the next week against Wisconsin, so Adam Weber took to the air. Last week against Purdue, Weber attempted only nine passes as Minnesota racked up 207 rush yards in a win. It's been a process for a unit still in transition.

Minnesota ranks last in the league in total offense (319.7 yards per game) and rushing offense (114.5 ypg) but owns a 4-2 record, 2-1 in Big Ten play. "We've shown that we can run the ball, and we've shown that we can throw the ball," Fisch said. "The games have dictated what we've chosen to do."

Joe addressed the issue of the Minnesota Offense:

Q. From your point of view, is it harder to defend a passing game that primarily features one guy, like Minnesota does with Eric Decker, or a passing game that really spreads the ball around?

Well, you've always got to be aware of the superior wideouts such as Decker. Decker is a great football player. There's a great chemistry with him and the quarterback (Adam Weber). And the quarterback has so much confidence in him, he'll make throws to him that you ordinarily wouldn't make. You've got to know where he is all the time. If you don't, he'll catch seven, eight, 10 passes for a lot of yards and a couple scores. That's one thing.

But, it's hard. When you say one receiver as opposed to three good receivers, offensive line, kind of pass protection, handle certain blitzes, quarterback, can he read certain things when he's working with three receivers, it's just not that simple to answer that question. I think each one of them, depending on the cast of characters, gives you problems. Decker gives you a problem. He's not the only guy. You know, that No. 11 (Troy Stoudemire) is a good football player and return guy....No. 5 (MarQueis Gray), they've got a couple other guys that can go catch the football. Fall asleep, (they will) throw the ball to the tight end. In the clutch, it's a one-man show maybe, but it's not a one-man show the entire game. You can go overboard trying to cover Decker. They can hurt you other ways. So it's a combination. When you're dealing against a team that's as well-coached offensively and defensively as Minnesota is, then you've got to be available to handle a lot of different things, and one of them obviously, top of the list, would be, don't let Decker beat you.

Got it. Don't let Decker beat you. But how will we cover Decker? Joe was asked about both our secondary, and this particular issue.

On Knowledge Timmons:

Knowledge practiced yesterday. I'm anxious to see how he feels today. I think he's going to be fine.

On the Secondary:

I think our secondary has been good, solid. Hasn't come up with the football as often as I'd like to see them do it. They've made one or two mistakes. Two big passes on us, and that's about it. The rest of it's been pretty good. . . I think this week -- I think we'll know a lot more after this week. Although, as I said, I'm encouraged at where we are right now, particularly with the attitude of the practice yesterday.

And on the issue of Decker:

Q. On the Timmons thing, what would your plans be to cover Decker? Will you try to rotate cornerbacks?

Why in God's name would I answer that in any way? You sound like a Minnesota assistant coach. "What are you going to do with Decker?" You know, I don't know. We may put four corners on him, all right, let everybody else run for touchdowns. I don't know what we're going to do yet. We've got to look at some things. It's Tuesday. We've had one practice. We had a long discussion this morning as to some of the things they do.

Gotta Love Joe. Yeah, that's the ticket. Maybe FIVE guys on Decker. That'll fix him.

More on Rodriguez

THEM Coach Rich Rodriguez was teary eyed as he held a press conference today.



There apparently were some strange goings-on at WVU after Rodriguez took the UM job. According to this ESPN article from January 2008:

West Virginia University said Tuesday it will investigate the disappearance of player and football program files found to be missing from the former office of ex-Mountaineers coach Rich Rodriguez.

Paperwork detailing every player on West Virginia's roster, as well as the program's activities over the past seven years, went missing between Rodriguez's resignation as coach to take over at Michigan and the team's return from the Fiesta Bowl, the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette reported.

After returning to work about a week ago, the staff at WVU's Puskar Center found that most of the files that had been stored in Rodriguez's office, as well as the players' strength and conditioning files in the weight room, were gone, the Gazette reported.

According to the report, multiple sources said several people in the Puskar Center reported seeing Rodriguez and at least one of his assistants, video coordinator Dusty Rutledge, in Rodriguez's private office shredding paperwork on Dec. 18 -- the day he returned from Ann Arbor after being named Michigan's new head coach.

Of note is that Rodriguez brought his strength and conditioning coach with him from WVU.

Sooo . . . do you believe him?

Cup O' Joe

Gordie Jones of FOS has a recap of a recent press conference with the legend himself.

Paterno was asked about Bowman:

Paterno said, “Right now he doesn't have any problems, as long as he keeps up
his academics.” Paterno added that Bowman still has to complete his community service -- “and in all fairness to Navorro, there was some misunderstanding about who was going to supervise that part of it.” But as far as the team is concerned, he is in good standing.

Hopefully, Navarro will keep things together.

About Notre Dame being the 12th member of the Big Ten . . .

“I think they've had their chance,” he said.

Classic! Let's face it, ND brings viewership, but little else to the Big Ten. And as long as the Irish can negotiate their own TV contracts, they have no incentive to join any conference.

On incoming recruits . . .

“You know what I tell high school kids when they come in?” he said. “ 'Get ready to get knocked on your ass. This ain't high school. You come here, and you've got a lot to learn. If you think you're going to walk across the field and say I'm all-this, I'm all-that, it ain't going to work. You've got to get out there, you've got to take your bumps and your bruises and you've got to get after it.' Which ones are going to do it? How do I know? I've never been on the practice field with any one of those incoming kids. They've never heard me yell at them.”

He said "ass!" BOOGER! Then, he compares football to . . . chess:

“Chess, the king can do one thing, the pawn can do another thing, the whole bit. Football and coaching is (determining) who's the pawn? Who's the king? So you can put them all together. ... I don't have any reservations about playing a freshman. ... When I say to a kid, 'Hey, get ready to get knocked on your rear end,' I also tell him, 'Learn. Learn why you got knocked on your rear end, so when you come out to practice the next day, they're not going to knock you on your rear end the same way. And you've got a chance to knock him on his rear end.' There's no hard-and-fast rules. We've got a bunch of kids coming in, we're going to work our butts off to see how good they can be, and how much we can help them be good. We've got to put the combination together that gives us the best chess board.”

Will they go back to the checkerboard end zone? Does that mean he'll open the Akron game with a Ruy Lopez opening? I imagine Paterno is more fond of the Sicilian Defense, though.