It's 2010 and Youngstown St. is still tough. Let's get to it.
- Joe likes Devon Still. Said he used to be lazy but has really grown into a leader.
- Laments the loss of Curtis Drake. Says the team will miss his versatility. No word on whether Drake will red shirt this year or not.
- Chaz Powell isn't going anywhere. Joe says he's growing on defense and seems to really like playing that side of the ball, so barring disaster, Powell is staying put in the defensive backfield.
- Joe was non-committal on the quarterback situation, saying "We've been trying people out. And we're trying to get the best combination of people to react to each other."
- On playing a freshman at quarterback: "Well, there isn't anybody with any experience out there, so when you say you're going to play a freshman or what have you, we may be forced into playing a freshman. I think we have really -- the Newsome kid is really a freshman. He started in January a year ago."
Jump it...
- Says Pete Massaro looks good so far coming off his knee injury.
- Indicated that Doug Klopacz is coming along at center. The biggest thing he needs to work on is consistency as Joe said, "He has a tendency every once in a while to take a blow."
- Joe believes Eric Shrive is probably a year away from seeing playing time.
- Admitted he's delegated more of the coaching on the practice fields to his assistants. "In the old days I used to grab a couple kids and shove them around a little bit. There's two things wrong with that these days: Number one, the first one and the more important one is I don't want to get like the guy at Texas Tech, if you know what I mean. And the second thing is I prefer to wait until I get them in a meeting and say, hey, I don't like what we're doing there and I didn't like the way he handled that kid or do something like that. But I try to stick my two cents in."
- Says Brandon Ware is still a little overweight--he's around 330 but should be closer to 320--and that his biggest problem is academics. Called him a "good-off" in the classroom, but says he's making progress in that area.
- Didn't commit to a punter, but believes Penn State will be OK on that front.
- Insisted canceling his Thursday night radio appearances was about them being "annoying" than anything else.
- Says he's seen Alabama tape, but won't focus on the Tide until the week of the game.
- On Stephon Morris's injury, and some of the other injuries piling up: "Morris wasn't hurt that badly, but we've had some tough injuries. I don't know why. We've got four or five concussions. We are going to keep some people out, and I'm talking about two or three really good players, and I'm not sure -- we're trying -- the medical people and I have spent some time trying to figure out, you know, whether it's the helmet, whether it's some type of blocking. I don't know.
But Morris is going to be all right." - On the offensive line: "Well, we're not very good right now, our offensive line. We've got two or three guys that -- three anyway, that are -- that I think can play right now. The others we're going to have to work hard with, and they're going to have to work hard in order to be good enough to handle some of the people we have to play."
For the entire transcript, head over to Giger Counters.