Paterno presser quick hits

Penn State hopes to use this bye week game against Eastern Illinois to work out any left over kinks (been using that word a lot, huh?) from the first five weeks. Let's do a quick run down of everything you've probably already heard about Joe Paterno's Tuesday press conference.

• Even though it wasn't addressed until later in the presser, let's run down the injury updates for this week: Sean Lee (out - knee); Devon Smith (out - concussion); Nerraw McCormack (doubtful - ankle); Brent Carter (possible - N/A); Stephfon Green (possible - N/A); Chris Colasanti (possible - N/A); DeOn'Tae Pannell (possible - ankle). Joe wasn't very specific as to the exact injuries. He said if this were a bye week, they would all rest. But I won't be surprised if all those guys are held out just to be safe.

• Joe isn't holding his breath when it comes to the running game. He knows that one good day doesn't mean everything will be hunky-dory from now on. Eastern Illinois is a blitzing team, so this should be a good, but relatively light, test to see if the run game is for real or not. The balance was much better on offense this past week.

• Why would any Penn State beat reporter with half a brain think Joe is going to comment about Florida State and Bobby Bowden right now? Well, I guess when you have two reporters with half a brain each, that makes a full brain, no? Joe said that one of his coaches toll him, "Well, you better be ready to answer some questions about Bobby Bowden." Joe said, "What's going on?" The coach said, "Well, there's some pressure on Bobby." Joe said, "Well, what I don't know I can't talk about."

• Someday, Jack Crawford and Eric Latimore will be good defensive ends. Someday.

• Joe is not overlooking Eastern Illinois just because they're an FCS team, and he's kind of pissed off that the reporter insulted them by saying they were inferior (even though he was right). But I know what Joe means, so whatever.

Joe added that he would have rather had a bye week around this time of the season, but because the Big Ten said no to games after Thanksgiving, Penn State crammed everything into the 12-week schedule. However, as Joe noted, another Big Ten team (*cough*Illinois*cough*) then turned right around and scheduled opponents after the holiday.

• Depth at defensive tackle hasn't been an issue, even with the injuries and dismissals the past few years. Devon Still and Sean Stanley have made really nice additions to the line this year. But Joe is more concerned with the linebackers' health and the secondary's lack of big plays.

• Jeremy Boone is great. Duh.

• The staff had gone into the Illinois game wanting to get the ball to the tight ends more, mostly due to what they expected the Illini to do on defense. Turns out, they might just throw it to them more. Joe really liked how Mickey Shuler and Andrew Quarless played this week.

• Jake Christensen seems to have settled in nicely at Eastern Illinois. Joe offered his standard lines about how EIU is a good team that doesn't beat themselves.

• One of these days, Stephfon Green will be a really good running back. One of these days.

• The press got a bit snarky today, asking Joe why Penn State is playing an FCS team. When Joe hit back by asking why not ask him to talk about all those other big time schools playing FCS teams, the reporter said "go ahead." Douche. So Joe listed about a dozen top 25 teams playing FCS teams this year. But the reporter pushed the question again, even though Joe already talked about it (see a few comments up). Why are these guys so dumb? They even stayed on this topic for four or five more questions, asking who makes the scheduling decisions, should college football go back to 11 games and such. This is why I'm glad I'm not a reporter anymore. The stupid, repetitive questions you ask, just to get a quote for the next edition.

• Although Joe doesn't know EIU coach Bob Spoo all that well, he's very familiar with his body of work. He's won a bunch of games, so he must be doing something right.

• Mike Zordich and Chris Colasanti are seeing more action lately because of all the injuries to the linebackers. I'm not really sure why Colasanti is out there, wasting a redshirt season. Joe said they wanted to redshirt him, but aren't because of the said injuries.

• Joe contradicted himself a bit when discussing Daryll Clark and the offense, saying "that's not exactly something that you say, 'you're going to do this and you're going to do that.' You play it by ear, I guess." But in the same response, he said that the past few weeks he wasn't "going be happy if we have to run Clark a lot until the younger kids come along." That sounds a lot like "you're going to do this and you're going to do that."

• Kevin Newsome hasn't played as much as Joe wants, but that's mostly because Penn State hasn't put itself in position (blowouts) in games to do so.

• Sean Lee isn't playing because Joe and the doctors want him to be able to play in the NFL. I happen to agree with this decision. The kid's got a lot to lose.

• Lou Eliades has come along nicely, but still has some progress to make. Joe likes what he's seeing so far.

• Stephon Morris has what it takes to be a good defensive back. He played more corner back this week, since they would move D'Anton Lynn into the nickel when that package was used.

Read the Full Transcript at GoPSUsports.com