Joe Paterno spoke as part of the Big Ten coaches' teleconference today, as his weekly press conference is on hiatus because of Penn State's bye week. Lions 24/7 has the transcript.
- Not thinking about the 400 victory mark.
- On players getting on each other after the Illinois game: "If there is a lot of finger pointing, I think that's certainly detrimental, it doesn't help. I hope there isn't maybe as much as some of the guys would react to after a tough, not a tough loss, but after a situation that we had against Illinois. We really just got outplayed. I don't know how accurate that is, but if it is, it's certainly something that we've got to address this week."
- Flatly denied that he's thinking about his job situation at present.
- On criticism: "I don't even know [what] kind of criticism it is. Send me a detailed list of it and I'll tell you. I just don't… I don't read and I certainly don't listen to any of the commentators on the radio, I don't even listen to ESPN, which I probably should because a lot of times they're very constructive."
- Players had Sunday and Monday off this week.
- On coaching going forward: "I thought after we'd played 4-5 games we'd be a little better football team than we are right now. As I said earlier, I can't be blaming anybody but myself for that. So I think, that's where we are. We've got to be encouraging, and we've got to get some of these kids to realize that they still have the potential I've felt we've had. We've been set back by some things that we can't control, we've talked about their injuries. We've just got to go out and say, 'hey, this is what we need to get better. Let's recommit ourselves to getting better,' and see where we go"
- Believes the offensive line is getting more criticism than it deserves.
- Thinks it's been hard for leaders to emerge on the team because of the injury situation.
We'll have more on the injuries later on, as Joe is having Jeff Nelson write a release on what in the heavens is going on. That should be loads of fun.