Joe's Tosu Press Conference

Joe's press conference was, as always, a pinnacle of class and style. He had nothing but praise for both the Tosu offense and defense. A defense which has been called a rag-tag group of turd-snugglers(8)...possibly by this blog. THEY ARE TURD-SNUGGLERS(9)! They have just gotten lucky for the first few games. Joe, however, took the high-road:

Whether we are good enough to handle a team of the caliber of Ohio State, you are looking at a team that really has a right to say they are the #1 team in the country and we have to play them away. I just want our kids to play with some poise, concentrate, play every play hard and see what happens. Beyond that, I don't know what to tell you. There is no magical combination. You can't come back home and say, "OK, we are going to do this and this," and then we are going to win. It doesn't work that way. We are going to play a superior football team…one of the better football teams we have played in, probably, the last five or six years. They are extremely well coached. Jim and his staff have done a great job. They adjust real well and you don’t fool them. Go out and play. It is a game. Let's go out and have a little fun. Who knows what can happen?

Everyone has been saying since July (or earlier) that if PSU splits the ND and Tosu games than the Lions will have a very good season. I'm still pulling for a "very good" season, so, this game is definitive for Penn State.

It has become common knowledge, over the last few days, that GameDay will be in Columbus for the which will define PSU's season. Not a good thing for the Lions. The horde of ill-educated, scarlet and gray hordes (10) will be out with a vengeance. Joe had this to say about the playing in Columbus:

There is no question about that. I think the crowd, once the kids are getting a little bit down or discouraged, and the crowd gets into it and tries to encourage them, that is a big plus. I think it will be a plus for Ohio State in Columbus. It is one of the noisiest places in the country to play in. Much worse than a couple of other stadiums, which have a reputation of being noisy. When you go into that stadium in Columbus, they are loud. Their fans do a great job for their team and we just have to live with that.

Penn State needs a few things to win on saturday: 1. They need a fast start on offense. There needs to be 7 or more points up on the big board at the end of the first quarter. 2. The defense needs to create turnovers. Think Troy Smith's fumble last year when Tamba Hali devoured him alive!
(find a transcript of Joe's press conference here)

GO STATE! BEAT THE BUCKEYES!