I'm north of Chicago today, prepping for coverage of tonight's
Women's Volleyball match at Northwestern and tomorrow's match at Illinois.
Despite the travel, I had my weekly talk with Daryll Clark for the
ComRadio pregame show, which starts Saturday at 6:30 PM. Below are my notes from the interview.
But before reading my notes, listen to what Daryll told the Allentown
Morning Call about what it's like being coached by Joe Paterno...
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Daryll Clark on being coached by JoePa...
- The offense obviously slowed down in the air a little bit last week, but Daryll attributes that mainly to the production on the ground. The goal is to get balanced. He also acknowledged they had a few protection issues as the game went on.
- Daryll thinks that the criticism of the offense is overblown. The struggles are expected with a brand new offensive line. He isn’t surprised at all and feels that everything is coming together. He thinks that they’re really close to getting where he wants to be on offense. The biggest thing about it is execution. That’s what they’ve been focusing on.
- He acknowledges it will be tough without Sean Lee. There are guys who can step in for him, but obviously better to have him than not. He knows that Sean is working as hard as possible to be ready to go.
- He continued to harp on the offensive line and the progress they’ve made. Neither the players nor the coaches have been surprised by anything they’ve done, other than in a positive sense.
- Daryll still feels he owes the football team for what happened last year in Iowa. Doing everything he can to make sure that doesn’t happen again. He knows what’s on the line. It’s a possibility he could get “too excited” for the game, but he knows that’s something he needs to guard against.
- He's excited to play in the night game, Whiteout atmosphere. When I brought up to him that it was his last time he’d ever get to play in those conditions at Penn State, it kinda startled him. He admitted that had never crossed his mind until that point. It’s going to be really special for him.
I really get the sense talking to Daryll that the team is ready to go and fired up for this game. I expect the best performance so far this season.
Finally, check out these Daryll quotes from this week's presser...“There’s nothing that anyone can say to me to make me believe that [last year's loss to Iowa] wasn’t my fault. Period. I feel like I owe our football team a lot given the fact of what happened last season.
“I hear about it all the time, people back home, from the media and everything, It’s my responsibility as a quarterback to put in the past because it happened last year.”
You can hear the entire interview with Daryll on the ComRadio pregame show, which starts Saturday at 6:30 pm. More details on the pregame show to come later.
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Dan Krupinsky is a senior at Penn State, majoring in broadcasting and journalism. He is a member of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism. Dan is one of three sports directors at the Penn State student radio station, ComRadio and is also the voice of Penn State women’s volleyball for GoPSUSports.com. The STAA Talent Agency ranked him as one of the top 40 collegiate broadcasters last year (as a Junior), in a nationwide competition.
