BlueWhiteIllustrated.com - Paterno post-game transcript

September 20, 2008

BWI Staff

After speculation that he wouldn't be able to pace the sidelines this afternoon, Penn State football head coach Joe Paterno started the game in his usual position on the Lions' side. Yet, by the time the Lions emerged from halftime, Paterno was nowhere to be seen. For the second half of the Lions' 45-3 win against Temple this afternoon, Paterno coached from the press box.

In his post-game press conference, he talks about it.

*** Transcript ***

How's your leg?

Ah, my leg is OK. It's just you stand on it too long and it aches. But, I'm probably babying myself.

How did you hurt it?

Oh, let's not get into me, alright? Let's talk about the football game.

Your leg is more interesting.

Well, that's more interesting than some of the things I read, too.

But, how did you hurt it?

I don't know. Alright? I probably kicked the wall. I probably had a picture of you in my room and I tried to kick it.

A lot of mistakes today. What was your general assessment?

I thought it was a very, very sloppy performance. Fumbles. Had an interception. The coverage was terrible. And I felt sorry for Temple that the quarterback goes down the second or third play and he's the guy that's really been driving them. I wasn't very pleased.

Could you talk about the performance of Stephfon Green today?

Stephfon Green has got a chance to be a really good back. If he gets out in the open and gets behind somebody, it's tough to catch him. He's getting better. He has a tendency at times to do an awful lot of this in the backfield and misses some opportunities but he's getting better. He works at it. He's a good kid and he's got a chance to be a good back.

There clearly is a lot of interest in you. Does it bother you that maybe some of this takes away from the team?

Absolutely. I mean, I got a bunch of guys out there fighting all kinds of adversity, with different lineups, hanging in there together. Alright? And you're worried about my leg. Now, if you were a bunch of good looking girls, I'd feel better about it.

Were you concerned that you might not have the focus going into today?

I don't know. I thought Tuesday we had a very mediocre practice. And I told them that. Wednesday and Thursday we practiced really well and I felt pretty good going into it. I don't know what it is. Sometimes you think you're ready to go but you just don't have that little edge. You get a little careless with the football. You do a little of this and that. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your kids have that edge or not. But, I didn't... We played like, 'Well, they can't beat us.' But that's going to happen and you're going to do that and they are going to beat you. But, overall, it's a win. I don't want to take anything away from them. I thought at times our defense played very well. And, at times we did some things well on offense. But, we just didn't have a lot of consistency. I didn't feel really good about it, that's all. I'm just giving you my gut feeling. I haven't seen the tapes for anything obviously, but we gotta play better than that. I know that.

Navorro Bowman got his first start. It looked like he had a pretty good game.

Well he's been alternating pretty much with the other kid. Bani Gbadyu. But, Ron (Vanderlinden) says, Hey, let's start Bowman. I say, OK, let's start Bowman. And, he's been practicing well but both of those kids are good football players. Both of them could start and play. They both have played well when they've been in there. And, they're getting better all the time. They haven't played a lot of football previous to this year but I think he deserved to start.

Was Royster bumped up?

No, we didn't want him to get bumped up. He had a couple of tough quarters, two and a half quarters, and we gotta get Green and Carter... Carter, except for that stupid play he made at the end, Carter's a really good football player. So, you'd like to give them all a shot at it, plus you like to give them some game experience because Carter hasn't played a lot, Green hasn't played a lot. We stuck Beachum in there, Beachum hasn't played a lot. Even Royster hasn't played a lot. So, anytime you get a chance to kind of divvi up that experience, you do it.

Did Mickey Shuler get bumped up today? Do you know what happened to him?

He's got an ankle. He could have played probably in the second half but his ankle was, I don't know the difference between an ankle sprain and a slight ankle sprain, but he's got a slight ankle sprain.

Were Galen and Bradley in charge throughout the game?

No, I was upstairs.

How did it work when you were up there?

Actually, I have more input when I'm up there than when I'm downstairs because I got a microphone where I can push 1 and it's the offense, I push 2, a button, and it's the defense. Plus, I'm sitting here and the offensive coaches are here and the defensive coaches are there. So, when it's a timeout or something like that, I'll say, get down to Tom, get down to Mike McQueary. I wouldn't want Mike to go through the game without me chewing him out at least a couple of times.

Now that Evans and Koroma have been charged, do you have any further comment to what will happen with them as the season progresses?

Do you know what they were charged with?

Yes.

A misdemeanor. We'll see what happens.

Does that mean you're waiting for Judicial Affairs?

I don't know what's going to happen with it. The ball is not in my court right now. OK? It's Judicial Affairs and it's downtown people. I don't know what I'm going to do.

Will it be good to finally open the conference season next week?

Well, I wish we had ben a little bit more precise today. Illinois... obviously we're going to have a tough time with them, plus the fact they have a week off. But, I think the kids are anxious to get into it and I'm anxious to get into it to see what kind of football team we have.

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