Paterno presser quick hits

Iowa is a big game, and Joe knows it. So don't let his dismissive tone mislead you. This is what Joe Paterno lives for. Let's do a quick run down of everything you've probably already heard about Joe Paterno's Tuesday press conference.

• Joe's keeping the injury situation very close to the vest. He said Sean Lee is iffy; Navorro Bowman should be able to play, but no promises. Coaches generally don't like to talk about their game week depth charts/injuries unless things are 100 percent going to happen.

• Joe is willing to let Daryll Clark do whatever it takes to win the football games. That means he can run the ball if he has to. Joe said the staff doesn't have any plans to run him, which makes me think they totally have plans to run him. It's just a matter of when.

• Even though Penn State's backup linebackers would start for 90 percent of all college football programs right now, Joe isn't comfortable with leaving everything up to them. Nate Stupar and Bani Gbadyu "can be good," but aren't yet. I think Joe even said that about Pozluszny and Connor.

• Graham Zug will be fine, and will play.

• Joe did his weekly "call out" of one of the reporters, saying "you don't know what you're talking about." The reporter asked about kickoff returns, and as you would expect, didn't phrase the question in a way Joe would actually answer it. Even I knew that the reporter was wrong for asking if the return specialist are the problem. It's been blatantly obvious that the blocking has been terrible on returns.

• Joe doesn't believe in the whole "revenge" thing this week. I find that hard to believe. I'm sure he wants to lick Iowa the way the Hawkeyes did to Penn State last year.

• Ricki Stanzi could be even more of a problem this year for Penn State, particularly with such a good offensive line.

• Sometimes Joe forgets (not really) that Dennis Landolt is playing left tackle, because he doesn't make any mistakes. That's usually when you notice offensive linemen, when they screw up.

• Jared Odrick is kind of like Landolt, in that they both work really hard to be as good as they are. Joe likes that.

• Joe thinks the reason Penn State has lost to Iowa a lot recently is the Hawkeyes scoring more points than the Nittany Lions.

• The flu isn't killing his team, but it's still hanging around. Joe doesn't like to talk about doctor stuff. As if he doesn't know every little detail about his team.

• The offense hasn't really let loose, according to Joe. He downplayed how much is left in the playbook, and that it might not be any good. Oh, Joe. You're funny.

• As we already mentioned, if Lee and Bowman are out, Stupar and Gbadyu will go in.

• Joe is really pissed off at the goal line offense. But he's hoping the line shifts and some extra practice (Jay said they worked on it a lot this week) will do them well enough against Iowa. Let's hope so. In 2007, Penn State lost a bunch of games (oh, say, Illinois, Michigan and Michigan State!) because of putrid goal line offense.

• Unlike most other programs, Joe doesn't work the first teams more than the second teams. We now know why it's such a valuable coaching habit, as Penn State hasn't really missed a beat with all the injuries.

• Lee sprained his knee, but his ankle is fine.

• Back to kickoff returns... it's the blocking, dammit!

• Joe still pretends he doesn't know what happened in past Iowa-PSU games. He remembers the 1965 loss to Maryland, but he can't remember a game from 2002? Again, Joe is a character.

• Joe's known Kirk Ferentz for a long time, and knows quite a bit about who he played football with and his love life. But he still can't remember that 2002 Iowa game.

• The father-son thing at Penn State never really gets old. I admit, it's one thing I do like hearing stories about. I can just imagine Joe screaming at Mickey Shuler, Jr., thinking it was his father.

• If one team kicks off at 8 p.m., both teams kick off at 8 p.m. Joe doesn't really care when kickoff is. Although, I remember him saying a few years ago that he wishes all games would kickoff at 1:30 p.m. I'd have to agree with that.

• Jack Crawford could be good soon. Soon.

• Finally, Joe was asked what he thinks of Penn State's game day atmosphere, the white out, and such. I'll leave you with his answer:

"Well, I think it's a great place to play a football game, whether you're the home team or the visiting team. I've never really worried about when we've gone to certain places whether it was big crowds and things like that. I used to tell the kids all the time, "Hey, just make like they're cheering for us. When the noise goes up, it's for us."

But I think having said that, to be home and to have a crowd as enthusiastic as the crowds that we have here, and to have them as loud as it has been, it's an advantage for us. There's something about it, the whole business about the White Out, it's a bringing together of the whole institution, not only the undergraduate kids, but you see people out there that will be old men, maybe 60. (Laughing). It's fun. And it's great to be a part of it. And I think the kids feel that way about it.

We have a rally Friday night down at the Rec Hall, and the whole thing is something that...what do you do when you're in college? How many things do you do where you're involved with 110,000 people all on the same page?"

Read the Full Transcript at GoPSUsports.com