Here is Joe's pre-EIU presser and [our comments] on selected questions...Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email
Q: Bobby Bowden has come under fire at Florida State in the past couple days. It appears he might not be able to go out on his own terms. Do you have any reaction to what's going on down there?
A: I don't know what's going on, so it would be foolish of me to discuss it.
Q: The chairman of the Florida State Board of Trustees yesterday said he wants Bobby Bowden to retire. You said you weren't aware of that. That was the news coming out of there. What's your reaction to that?
A: I have no reaction because I don't know what's going on. I'm sitting in the office this morning at a meeting, and I said, "Hey, I got to get out of here. I've got make a telephone call."
It was something I had to do about a couple things, recruiting and other things. So I said, "I've got to get out of here, plus I got the press conference."
Somebody said, "Well, you better be ready to answer some questions about Bobby Bowden."
I said, "What's going on?" He said, "Well, there's some pressure on Bobby."
I said, "Well, what I don't know I can't talk about." So I didn't ask him any questions. I don't know what to tell you.
[Savvy responses. Saying ANYTHING beyond "no comment" is a stone-cold loser for Joe.]
Q: This is your Big Ten bye week essentially. Would you rather be having this week off and no game or playing a game against an opponent like Eastern Illinois?
A: Well, I don't know what you mean by "an opponent such as Eastern Illinois." I think Eastern Illinois is a good solid football team.
You can put all the quotes "A," "AA," "below BCS," "above BCS"...I can't follow all that stuff. I had trouble with the alphabet when I was a kid (laughter).
I would have preferred we had an open date for a lot of reasons, not one of which is the fact that we're playing Eastern Illinois. I think Eastern Illinois is a solid program. They're 4-1. The coach has been there for a long time. They're solid.
If you look at the he stats and everything else, you'll see just how steady they've been. The quarterback (Jake Christensen) we played against a couple years ago when he was at Iowa.
They have a kid from Michigan that was a running back that is an outstanding running back. They've got a lot of people. When the NCAA passed that rule that you could transfer here we go with the alphabet again - I-A to I-AA and not lose a year, a lot of kids like the kid who was at Pitt and transferred to Delaware and is now a pro quarterback.
What's his name? The big, tall kid. (Joe Flacco) Yeah. I mean, in the old days you would've had to sit out a year. Pat Devlin, he left here because he could play two years at Delaware. He didn't have to sit out a year. If he wanted to transfer to one the Big Ten schools or other schools, he could not have played two years.
So that has given these clubs some good football players. When you get a solid, sound coaching staff, as they have at Eastern Illinois, they're tough. So I get a little bit annoyed with that attitude.
Q: There are a lot programs that are playing I-AA schools. Why is Penn State playing a I-AA school? What went into the process of you guys deciding to play a school like that?
A: Why don't you ask me about all those other teams playing I-AA schools? You want a list of them?
Q: Go ahead.
A:You got Michigan, Florida, Miami of Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida State, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and on and on.
Q: So why is Penn State playing a I-AA?
A: Because we...all of a sudden we had...I thought I explained that earlier. We had an open date. We had a chance to play 12 games. All right?
Which means money so we can support the other 28 sports on this campus. All right?
You know, you go around and you try to get somebody that would be appropriate. At one time, I think--and you guys can correct me if I'm wrong on this--at one time you couldn't count a I-AA victory as part of your qualifications for a bowl game. Is that right, or no? So, they changed that.
We had an opportunity to go out there and find someone really good to play. You know, you've got a couple years to pick out somebody, you got to go out and look around. We were fortunate enough to be able to get a good team like Eastern Illinois with a good football tradition and a fine program. It worked out.
Q: Who makes those decisions?
A: Well, I'm sure there were some inquiries made by Tim Curley and Fran Ganter, who handles most of the thing. And if there were an opportunity for us to make some kind of a switch they would have come to me. They didn't come to me. Either they didn't feel it was appropriate or they didn't feel there was anybody available.
Q: One last thing. Do you think your fans should pay the same price for a game like this as they would Ohio State or Iowa?
A: That's up to them. Stop belaboring the question. I don't know, that's up to them. That's up to them.
Is it worth you coming to the game? That's your decision. All right?
Don't get me into that, will you for crying out loud? We're playing a good football team, and a bunch of kids are going to get ready for it from Eastern Illinois and from Penn State and go out there and play as hard as they know how to play and go from there. I hope the fans come and see it and enjoy it.
[Wow, major grilling! If Joe is still coaching in 2011 it will be interesting to see how he spins the game against Indiana State, which is one of the worst teams in all of Division I football. The Sycamores are 1-50 since 2005 (!) and have lost 32 consecutive games.]
Q: Could you update us on injuries? Is there anyone we don't know about?
A: Nerraw McCormack is doubtful. He hurt his ankle early in the Illinois game, but he gutted it out and played the whole game. That was the first time he started. He had been practicing really well, which that's too bad.
DeOn'tae Pannell's got an ankle. He practiced yesterday, but he's limping around a little bit.
[We sure hope McCormack is healthy for the second half of the season because he's a major upgrade from a healthy DeOn'tae Pannell, let alone who with a gimpy ankle.]
Q: Kevin Newsome has six just pass attempts so far this season. Has he gotten enough game experience to this point in the year?
A: No, I wish we had been able to give him more experience, but he's getting a lot of reps in practice and getting a better feel for some things...I wish we could have gotten him playing more. I really would have liked to have him in the Illinois game more. But, we just haven't I haven't felt comfortable.
Two things: I didn't want to put him in there with too much pressure on him and have him not succeed, because that would only set him back. I wanted to put him in situations and give him things that I felt comfortable with, that Jay felt comfortable with, he could do as indicated by the way he did them in practice.
When we were comfortable he could do this in practice, we were willing to try and put him in the game and let him do it. When he was able to do this, plus this, plus this, we were willing to do it. Unfortunately, we haven't had as many opportunities to play him as we would have liked.
[This is a really, really frustrating answer. There were opportunities to get him in the game with a 28-10 lead at both the 8:46 and 5:42 marks of the fourth quarter against Illinois. Instead they hauled him halfway across the country to run one play in a blowout.
They were afraid there would be too much pressure if they put Newsome into the game in the middle of the fourth quarter with an 18-point lead??? Good gravy, if that's too much pressure how will he avoid a complete meltdown if Clark gets knocked out against a good team???
Either they're being way too conservative or Newsome is the second coming of the mentally fragile Anthony Morelli.
They wanted to wait until they could find a situation where Joe and Jay were comfortable and Newsome could do the things he was doing well in practice. Apparently the only thing he's doing well in practice is the quarterback draw, because that was his one play against Illinois.
This will come back to haunt us next year and Joe will lament not getting more snaps for Newsome this season.]
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