On Friday, Penn State held its Rose Bowl Media Day. Several players were available for interviews as the Nittany Lions prep for a Jan. 1 date with USC at the Rose Bowl.
In today’s edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll take you inside Rose Bowl Media Day. We’ll also have another edition of final grades, breaking down Penn State’s tight ends.
Let’s start with media day.
Joe Paterno met with the media for the first time since having his hip replaced.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
Rose Bowl Media Day
As his team prepares for the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, Penn State coach Joe Paterno met with the media for the first time since undergoing hip replacement surgery on Nov. 23.
At the news conference, which was held on Dec. 12, Paterno touched on a myriad of topics, including the Pat Devlin transfer, his hip surgery, the matchup with Southern Cal and his contract situation.
Some of the highlights from the news conference:
Successful Surgery
Paterno walked into the auditorium without a cane or a walker and appeared to be suffering no after-effects from his hip replacement surgery.
He stood for the duration of the news conference and proclaimed himself pain-free.
“I’m a lot better,” the 81-year-old Paterno said. “You know, they do wonderful things. Dr. (Wayne) Sebastianelli did a great job. Really, I don’t have any pain. If this were before the operation, just standing up, I had a lot of pain. Obviously, I didn’t want to get up here and probably would have had it and be moaning about it. It was a pain in the rear end to be honest with you. But right now, I don’t have any pain.”
Sideline or Not?
Paterno said he wasn’t sure if he would be on the sidelines for the Rose Bowl. There are many factors that will go into the decision, he said. However, it wasn’t a decision he was ready to make.
“I can’t tell you right now,” Paterno said. “I’m going to wait and see. I’m going to try to do some things in practice, not here, but when we get out to the coast, I’ll try to figure out just how much stamina I have on my feet. I’m going to try to coach without the motor scooter.”
Paterno has not been on the sidelines since the first half of the Temple game on Sept. 20.
Last season, Paterno coached the bowl game from the sidelines.
Previously, he coached the Nittany Lions from the coaches’ box at the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1, 2007.
Paterno is 23-10-1 in bowl games.
Contract Situation
Paterno said that he has had preliminary discusssions with athletic director Tim Curley about his future as head coach of the Nittany Lions.
“I’ve talked to Curley a little bit about a couple possibilities, without getting into it, and I’ll imagine we’ll maybe talk a little bit next week. We are in final exams and no practice or anything like that (next week). I’ll have most of our practice plans put together for what we want to do out on the coast, so I’ll have a little bit more time next week,” Paterno said.
Paterno is in the final year of his current contract and Penn State president Graham Spanier said that Paterno will not be offered another contract.
Scouting USC
Paterno said that the Nittany Lions will have their hands full with USC. The 11-1 Trojans have allowed an NCAA-low 11 touchdowns in 12 games. They’re No. 1 in the country in scoring defense (7.75 points per game), total defense (206.1 yards per game) and pass defense
(122.8 ypg) and No. 5 in run defense (83.3 ypg).
Paterno has watched the Trojans on film and he’s been impressed with what he’s seen thus far.
“I’ve seen an awfully good football team. This is a very, very talented team and they are as good as probably anybody in the country.
I didn’t realize until I took a good look at them how good they are on defense. Everybody knows how explosive they can be on offense, but the two things that I had really not paid attention to was how active and aggressive they are defensively and just how good they are,” Paterno said.
Replacing Pat
With Devlin gone, Paterno said that senior quarterback Paul Cianciolo will slide into the No. 2 spot on the depth chart. And, according to the iconic coach, he’s content with Cianciolo as the backup.
“Every time we’ve gotten into talking about quarterbacks, I’ve always tried to inject Paul Cianciolo into it. I think I’ve said that at many a press conference that we had three good kids, and Paul’s smart as a whip. He’s got good leadership qualities, and if we get in a jam for one reason or another, there’s no reason Paul can’t step in there and do the job,” Paterno said.
Recruiting Game
Paterno said that he’s pleased with the verbal comittments that the Lions have gotten in this class.
He said he’s tired of recruits asking him about how long he’s going to be around, Paterno mentioned that this year has been a good year for recruiting.
“Most of them are fine and we’ve had a good year recruiting,” he said. “We have a couple of kids that haven’t announced it yet but they’re going to really add to our program and we have a couple more we’re close to. So, I think it’s worked out all right.”
Tight ends like Andrew Quarless underperformed in 2008.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
Final Grades: Tight Ends
If there was an area of concern, it was tight end. Andrew Quarless came into the season with some legal woes hanging over his head, and they appeared to hinder his performance on the field. Mickey Shuler, Jr. was average at best and we didn’t see enough of Andrew Szczerba to make a judgement.
Quarless finished the year with nine catches for 95 yards and one TD.
Shuler had nine catches for 120 yards and one TD as well. Szczerba had just one reception for nine yards.
Key Stat: The three tight ends combined for just two scores. With Butler, Norwood and Williams departing, that will have to change in 2009.
Comment: We know it’s HD, but we’d still like to see more balls to the way of the tight ends. These guys can be weapons. Utilize them.
Grade: C
Chris Morelli is the award-winning editor of Blue White Illustrated, a weekly publication devoted to Penn State athletics. He is also a regular on “Front and Center,” which airs on ESPN Radio in Altoona and State College. E-mail him at morellionlion@gmail.com.
