Coach Joe Paterno
Big Ten Spring Football Teleconference
Q: There's a lot of attention on college football this off-season in a negative light. Urban Meyer said it's out of control. Do you feel the college football landscape is out of control and what needs to be done?
A: Well, I don't know whether it's out of control, to be frank with you. Obviously, we have some problems, but I'm not the kind of guy that likes to throw rocks at the other guy. There's so many little things that can happen to you without you having control of them. I'll beg off that one. I do think we've got some problems. How many, whether they have been made to appear worse than they are because of media exposure, I don't know. You're always going to have some problems, whether we've got more, or the whole foundation of college football is deteriorating, that's for a much longer discussion and a give-and-take that I'd have to hear before I could really make a comment.
Q: On the field, how important is this spring to your development up-front, especially on the offensive line?
A: Well it's vital. We lost most of our entire offensive line. One of the projects we had this spring was getting the kids together who can play together and keep them healthy. Overall I think we've made some progress, but we still have a long way to go. We are not dominating much up front, we have troubles with some people that are stronger, maybe a little quicker. But technique-wise we are getting better and the comaraderie that you have to have on the offensive line and the pride you have that goes along with a good offensive line we don't have that yet but we are working on it.
Q: I was wondering if you could update us on the progress on your quarterbacks and do you still expect to wait until the fall to name a starter?
A: I hadn't thought about who to name the starter but I am very pleased with the quarterback situation. I don't think there is any doubt that we have least two kids that are ready to play and can do a good job for us, (Matt) McGloin and (Rob) Bolden. I don't know which one of those would start if I was going to start the season this week. Both of them are ready to go, will be ready to go, and then there is a couple of kids that have a lot of ability but are not quite that comfortable with the type of offense we are using or comfortable with a couple things. But the two kids, McGloin and Bolden, Bolden in particular has got a tremdendous amount of ability, he is a big, tall kid, that can really throw the football, may not move around quite as well as McGloin, but is close. I feel pretty good about our quarterback situation.
Q: Do you have any feeling about the 7-on-7 teams and having to deal with those coaches and high school coaches?
A: We talked about [that] this morning because I knew we were going to be on the telephone call and I thought it was something that would probably come up. There is concern on our staff that and that there are some people getting involved in it, ala AAU basketball, where they are handling things in the summer and that there are in-between people that are getting involved in this business, starting them out in 7-on-7 camps and literally putting them up on auction blocks so people can get a look at them. To what degree, to what extent I don't know. There are a lot of high school teams that go to different places to get that kind of competition but they go with their normal high school coach and they go as group of people from the same program. It isn't a question if the agent picks them or if there is outside influences on them. It is just a learning process that they can come together and get a couple extra days of practice. When some of the guys on our staff are concerned that we are getting a third guy in there, an in between guy, a guy that is soliciting kids to go to a camp and who is getting paid to bring certain kids to camps, some things that you really don't want. You don't want those kinds of people involved in our game. There is some of it going on, how much of it I don't know, whether the NCAA has to do something to eliminate it because it's gone too far, I don't know, I really don't. I know there's some people concerned about it, and if what I hear is correct, I'd be concerned about it, too. As of now, I've not seen enough of that business about taking two kids from this squad and two kids from that squad and taking them some place where they can compete and people can evaluate and put tapes together, I'm against that. How much of that is going, I don't know.
Q: What's your level of concern and what would you like to see the leadership of college football do about it?
A: I've been around the game for 60 years, more than that as a player and a coach, so I've been in about 65 years. I've seen the good, the bad, the reaction to different situations. I don't think this is the end of the world for college football. I'm not quite as familiar as to some of the things you hear about that supposedly are going on. I think we've had problems, we've got problems now, and we'll have problems next year. Because if you a change a rule to eliminate one thing, there is always some smart guy out there that takes advantage of it. So then you've to have another new rule, change that rule and that can go on. I don't want to start pointing fingers. I think the game of college football right now is as good as it's ever been. As far as the caliber of play, the interest of the fans, a lot of it is because of the media, television and press. Unfortunately, some of the problems get blown up because the press is competing against television and vice-versa so they have the tendency to make some things look worse than they are. That's my gut feeling without really being able to tell you this is what I mean or if there is an example here, I don't know. But I do think that in all the years I've been in college football there has been problems. I could not honestly tell you whether we have more problems today than we had 30 years ago, I don't know. I think we've always had them, we have some now. How bad they are compared to how they were 30 years ago, I don't know. There will always been some problems and there will always be some guy that want to circumvent the rules and get an advantage of the other guy. How do you handle it? That's debatable.
Q: Do you feel you are more active in spring practice this year, do you notice that and is that because of the disappointment of last year?
A: I don't think I did a particularly good job last year to be frank with you. I didn't want to push some of the younger kids too far. We were a very, very young football team last year. Probably the youngest team I've had. We had a lot of kids bumped up. I have not knowingly gone out and said I'm going to do more than I've done. But I have been aware that I think we have to do one heck of a coaching job, starting with the head coach. We've got to do a better job than we did last year, and that starts with the head coach. I've enjoyed this team, I still enjoy coaching, thank God the good Lord has kept me healthy. I can run around a little bit out there and get involved in drills and different things. If it appears to the kids that I am working harder at it, good, I'm glad to hear that. I don't know whether I'm working any harder at it. I hope that I'm doing a better job than I did last year, let's put it that way.
Q: Can you talk a little more about Nebraska joining the league and playing them every year?
A: I think the addition of Nebraska to the Big Ten, with 12 teams now, is a great asset, a great addition. Nebraska is a great place to play, and great people to compete against. We go back to 1954-55, when they were not as recognizable of a program that they have now. They had a great back by the name of Reynolds. They have great fans, they've got a great program, Tommy Osborne will be a tremendous athletic director. I think this will be a good thing for everybody. Plus, the fact that this will give the Big Ten the chance to have a championship game, which is something that has bothered me in the sense that we went to the Rose Bowl one year and played a team that had played two or three games after we had been through playing. To sit at home and watch some of these other teams play when the Big Ten is sitting around watching when our season was over has bothered me a little bit. I hate to see any organization we are involved with take a backseat to anybody. This move to bring Nebraska into our group has really created a big plus for Big Ten football, a class operation and I think it's a good thing and I'm happy about it.