Paterno presser quick hits

At his weekly press conference Joe Paterno seemed to get more questions about Syracuse than Penn State. I guess with such a storied relationship between the two schools, that's bound to happen.

The media definitely wasn't at its finest today. There was no flow, no real conversation with Paterno. I realize he's not that fond of the media nowadays, but if you ask him the right questions, he'll sing like a bird. Oh well, on to the highlights.

• Answering a question about G Matt Stankiewitch and T DeOn'tae Pannell's first starts, Joe was less critical of the offensive line than I thought he'd be.

"We've got to be more consistent... We did a fine job with the pass protection early in the game, and then we got a little sloppy later in the second half, and the young guys got a little confused. There's no question about that, but they hung in there, and I think that game will be a good experience for them and it'll be much better this week."

• That tied in nicely with a later question, in which Joe actually referred back to the former. He was asked what is it about the week-one to week-two improvement that he has talked about in the past.

"...I think you've got build on that first game. And I've always felt that way, that we'll find out how good a team we're going to be by how much we improve this week... I think that's a big, big item for us, that we've got some kids...somebody asked me earlier about a couple of the offensive linemen."

• You just knew there would be a question about the 1980's and Joe's eastern football conference pitch. It took a while, but it was raised, and Joe took the bait. He said he isn't mad about it, but I really don't believe that.

"[I] had met with John Toner, who was the athletic director at Connecticut, Dave Gavitt, and we sat around, got a room in the airport in Connecticut, and we talked, and they wanted me to take Penn State into the Big East and, later on what they did with Notre Dame, just in basketball... I said, "no, I don't want to do that." I wanted the thing (all-sports conference). So I kept working at it, and then of course, the people that pulled the rug from us were the Pitt people. They ended up going in the Big East for the basketball. And they were the ones that...because we had five, six teams. If Pitt had come in, BC would have come in and Syracuse would have come in."

He sure does remember how that sh*t went down, huh? "pulled the rug..." Love it.

• Apparently, Joe didn't want to play freshman Devon Smith so much. But the coaching staff did. So, Joe gave the go ahead.

"...we debated how much we wanted to play him in the first game. I didn't want to put him on the kickoff team, but I got out-voted, and he did a good job there. We had made up our mind we were going to try to get the ball to him on the outside, not necessarily with the very elaborate passing lanes because it takes a while to get that kind of timing, especially when you're dealing with somebody who's not as tall as you'd like them to be. You've got to get them in the right spot. The timing's got to be good, and the quarterback's got to get used to throwing the ball to him."

A question later went back and touched on Joe's relationship with the staff, particularly on issues that he's out-voted on, like who to play or when.

"It depends on the mood I'm in. If I'm in a good mood, I'll give in. If I'm not in a good mood, I might be an SOB. No, I'm teasing a little bit now, but no, it depends on the situation. It depends on, sometimes I went in and just try to agitate the staff, just to make sure that they've considered a lot of different things..."

• On Jack Crawford against the Syracuse defensive front, which is a bit more talented than Akron's line...

"Jack's got to play his game...He's got certain responsibilities in any one of the defenses that we may call, and he's a bright kid and a really good athlete for a big man."

• Keeping with the defensive line, Joe, on Jared Odrick...

"he's a very fine football player, and the kind of guy that would make some other people good because he works so hard."

• On the most memorable moments from Penn State-Syracuse...

"I can still see Floyd Little running by me three times for three touchdowns on three punt returns, and he waved to me. (Laughs)... I can go back to I think it was '54, '55, we played at Old Beaver Field. We won it 21-20. They had Jimmy Brown. I think Jimmy Brown carried the ball 14 times for 140 yards, and Lenny (Moore) carried it 12 times for about 130 yards. In those days they didn't carry the ball 20, 25 times. They were two of the greatest running backs to ever play the game on that field."

• The cornerback situation could be better than we thought.

"I was pleased with Timmons. I thought Timmons played well, and I thought A.J. played well. And the other kid, (D'Anton) Lynn, did a good job at the other corner. So I think we were adequate."

That's about as much praise as any position got this week. So, looks like we're ok there for now.

• Navorro Bowman didn't practice yesterday, and might not play this week.

"...it's probably an outside chance as to whether he'll play or not Saturday."

• And now for the worst question all day. I mean, this was really terrible. If you know anything about Joe Paterno, he doesn't pay attention to things we football junkies do, like players that were made popular more by Xbox than their actual performance on the field.

"Q: Has the success of other small, really best players like Trendon Holliday at LSU and going back a few years, Gerald McNeil, did that make it a little bit easier to take a chance on [Devon Smith]?

JVP: I don't even know any of the players you're talking about. I really don't.

He really doesn't. And the reporter walked right into that one. As soon as the question was asked, I swear I physically cringed.

• All in all, it was one of the most boring press conferences I've watched in a long time.