Paterno's Presser: Oregon State Approaches!

Joepa was answering questions Tuesday afternoon in anticipation of Saturday's showdown with Oregon State. Joe spoke for a while on a variety of topics, you can find the transcript here and the audio here (via FOS). You can find my brief recaps and impressions below.

Joe was basically asked if he thinks that they know a lot more about the PSU squad than they did before the Coastal Carolina game?

I think we've got to be realistic that that was a tough assignment for the Coastal Carolina kids to come up here with that kind of crowd and the whole bit. But, they've got some good athletes, and I was pleased we came away from it, playing with no turnovers and minimum (number of) penalties. A couple of stupid penalties, and playing fairly disciplined football game and some kids played, for their first time in a football game, played well.
But, that's a long shot from playing against a team as good as Oregon State. Oregon State's a good football team. So I think what we have to do is just see if we can get a little better. As most of you have heard me say before, if you've got a good football team, it probably gets better from the first game to the second game at any time in the season. We'll know a lot more about our football team this Saturday.

Well, yeah! Coastal Carolina played well and hard but were over their heads against a more talented squad. This will not be the case on Saturday. OSU is a good team who got some tough breaks last week. They will be playing with a chip on their shoulder and will be no easier to defeat merely because they lost to Stanford the week before. They have also had a long week to get ready for the Lions.

Joe addressed OSU's long week and long flight before Saturday's game.

I think the one thing that I would think that Mike Riley has going for him is the fact that he did coach at San Diego, the pro team, and would have had to take a team across the country to play in the NFL. And he's got he would have a good feel for the problems that he faced the clock changing on you and all those kinds of things.
So I think they'll come here prepared and they'll be ready to go. Mike will have them ready to play. And I don't think there will be any...we can't hope that something's going to happen in the way of their preparation that's going to make it easier for us. I don't believe that at all.

I think it could have some effect. The Beavers have played 2 games on the east coast in the last four years and they are 1-1 in those games. The later start time on saturday will help the Beavers out. Hmm...come to think of it, can we move the start time up to 10 A.M?

Joe, are you gearing up for a lot of passing?

But I don't think I'd go by the fact that they threw the ball as much as they did against Stanford. I think they got behind a little bit and a couple of things happened there.
We've got to be ready to handle the running game. So I don't know whether I would overreact to the amount of throwing they did last Thursday night. I think we've got to be ready for a more balanced attack. I think everybody saw it.

Fuck no, bitch!

Because of the rain?

It's pretty tough to prepare for the kind of weather that we may get. Except for the fact that you've got to get the people that handle the ball, they have to have a wet ball. Ordinarily we do that every Thursday night, anyway. We get some buckets out there and put the footballs in a bucket of water. If we have a prediction of weather, the snappers and punters and all that stuff, get used to handling a wet ball, try to be prepared.
If the weather forecast still looks as if it's going to be a tough day on Saturday, we'll do a couple of things on Thursday a little differently. But I'm not going to change up the routine until I find out for sure.

It's gonna be rainy up in this bitch. Joe, will have to win this shit ol'-skool style, yo! Three yards in a cloud of mud and blood! WOOO! Get Royster in the deep cleats and heavy pads!

Are OSU's WRs crap?

(No) I think they're very good. I am concerned about them. In fact, we had a long talk Sunday night about it.
Numbers are the guys I look at when I look at the tapes. And I stayed up until quarter to 1:00 eastern time on Thursday night to watch the game with Stanford. And I was very impressed with them, and I'm very impressed with their quarterback.
I think the quarterback is a very poised kid. He had to make some tough plays to keep them in the ballgame. You know, Oregon State, (if) the kid doesn't fumble it in the end zone, they might be in an overtime game. They gave Stanford a lot, and they really beat themselves. Oregon State beat themselves. So I go into that game thinking we're going to have our hands full, and nothing's changed.

For Joe to stay up until 1 AM is like you or I staying up until 4.30 and then going to work at 7. The man is over eighty damn years old and he is up watching football at 1 AM! I am asleep at 1 am! I am 54 years Joe's junior. Joe will have plenty of time to sleep when he is dead....in 2065!

Brett Brackett, is he tall?

Well, he's 6' 6", but he's a good athlete. Now if he was 6'6", a big gangly kid there was a kid at Notre Dame a couple of years ago, he was a baseball player, and he was 6'5". Brackett's a good athlete, he just happens to be 6' 6". I don't know if he's quite 6' 6", he might be 6' 5". But he's a good athlete.

Yes. Yes, he is.

Did you escape injury free?

Yes, we were fortunate.

Look, this Saturday's game is going to be tough. The Beavers are going to be fired up and ready to go. It is probably going to be a tough, wet, sloppy game. This is a game where Penn State's going to reveal its inner character.

I am FIRED UP!