Things Discussed

• Last year's Penn State game and the motivation derived from it
• How to know if a player loves football
• Shea Patterson and Ben Mason anecdotes
• Rashan Gary injury update

[After THE JUMP: Don Brown gets you ready to hit some dudes]

 

So for real, you wake up every day thinking about Penn State, since last year?

 

“I swear. I said it. I do. Some people get driven by positives. Some people are driven by the negatives. What drives me is when I don’t give our players the best possible chance, I want to make sure I remind myself of that. Cause that’s all you’re trying to do. You’re trying to make sure you give your players the best chance. And I didn’t feel like I did that. So I own it. But at the same time, gotta move on and learn from it. And I think that’s what happens in 41 years. You’re gonna win some battles, some you’re not gonna win. At the end of the day, you gotta get better and keep improving. … Make sure you have all the tools in your toolbox at your disposal. Don’t say, ‘Ah, we’re good without that.’ You guys don’t care what it was. It’s just —”

 

I was gonna ask you what it was. What tool was it?

 

“Can’t really talk about it. Cause I use it. But it’s an important piece, for sure.”

 

How much of a balance goes into that with an age of the team. Overloading the toolbox, making sure that you have — how much of a balance is that, that you’re working with?

 

“Yeah. I think the one thing that happens in — you don’t give your guys enough credit sometimes. And, ‘I don’t think I can put that in because they won’t be able to handle it.’ Well, that group was pretty smart. Now, they’re really smart. So, it is what it is. And it’s part of coaching. How much is too much? Coach (Jim) Harbaugh says to me all the time, ‘More is more.’ So, when you got all your answers and you’re aiming to go to those, and you can’t predict things, some games are like — I mentioned the Michigan State game — well, you go in with a plan for third down. And three plays into third down, you’re like, ‘Throw that in the trash.’ And move on. And some games, you’re able to execute at a high level based on the things that you’re going in with . But the reality is, you gotta be able to adjust.”

 

Players said you showed them Penn State trying to score at the end of the game last season. You showed it to them once, I think, Kwity (Paye) said, last week. What was the — what did you get from that?

 

“Well, I just wanted them to see it. It’s not a good feeling. And we’re all personally accountable for it. And take the good with the bad, but you gotta learn from it. And, just wanted them to see it. Want them to be reminded of that feeling. And I think the point was made.”

 

Don, you’ve got a few guys from Florida, the Miami area, who are not only really good players but seem to bring a lot of intensity and edge. Is there anything to that, kinda where those guys are from?

 

“I never really looked at it that way, but maybe. You’ve got (Josh Uche), he certainly has some juice. The Flanagan trio, (Devin) Bush, (Devin) Gil and Josh, those guys. But I think every — all players from all over the country have juice. Those are the kinds of players that obviously, a coach likes to surround himself with. I think that’s part of the reason, is that piece right there, regardless of really, what sector you’re from. It’s getting guys that love the game of football. You can’t come here and play football here and not love football. Cause it’s too much a part of your DNA. This isn’t Happy Jack City. This is — you better like football. And you better like the things that go into it. The meetings, the walk-throughs, the intensity on the practice field, me up your behind sometimes. All those things count. So, you better like the game of football and all that goes into it, or this is probably not a good place for you to come.”

 

How do you identify that in players?

 

“Oh, you can. Sometimes a direct question is, ‘Do you love football?’ Some guys give you that look and, ‘Yeah coach.’ And some guys, you can tell, they’re ready to — like, if you ask Ben Mason that question, what do you think might happen?”

 

He might punch you or something

 

“Yeah, he might swing. And I can remember him sitting in my linebacker room and I’d ask him, ‘Right, Ben?’ ‘YES COACH.’ Good. So, you can kinda tell. But there’s ways when you’re trying to build a relationship with a guy that you can tell.”

 

You can’t have a cerebral approach with that?

 

“Oh, you better have a cerebral approach. I was just looking at our third down stuff over the last five weeks. Well, we repeated a bunch of stuff on third down, like I said, against Michigan State two weeks ago. But you go back beyond that — Northwestern, Nebraska — just going back, and there’s somewhere about 65 different concepts that we’ve challenged opposing offenses with. So you better have a cerebral approach and you better know your stuff. Cause you’re not getting on the field if you don’t know your stuff, obviously.”

 

One of the pieces is Rashan (Gary). How close do you think he is to getting back?

 

“We’ll see. We’ll see. I’m feeling good about him, we’ll see where he’s at. I’m not the doctor, so, I’m just a guy coaching. We’ll see though. I think he’s very, very close.”

 

To the toolbox analogy, when you first got here, you threw a lot at the guys, made sure they had a lot to work with. Do you feel like this is as large of —

 

“Yes.”

 

That you’ve had to work with right now?

 

“No question. We’ve got a lot of stuff at our disposal front-wise, coverage-wise, little — I think we’ve done a good job building our — I wouldn’t say new coverages — but little intricacies within the coverage that can help handle different scenarios that come up from offensive coaches, offenses that you’re dealing with. So, feel pretty good about that. And we’ve got a lot of good coaches in the Big Ten for sure, so they challenge you.”

 

Would this be the biggest in your career, would you say?

 

“This is pretty close. I would say, this is close. I think we’ve done a good job providing the players what I call compartmentalizing. So like, alright, we have four major concepts in coverage. It’s gonna fit in one of those four concepts. And then you can be really multiple up front. And vice versa. So, yeah, I think we’re about — I think you’re almost at the point — here’s one of the crazy issues of coaching. You have a day, so today we’ll practice for two hours. Well there’s only so much you can do within that two hour period. So I have a rule, if you don’t practice it, you can’t run it. Cause what’s your chances of effectively executing it if all we do is talk about it all week? Your chances are slim to none. That’s just the reality of it. So if we can’t get it practiced in that block of time, then we can’t run it on Saturday. Don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s how I roll.”

 

Think you said in spring about Shea Patterson, you were excited to see what he’d be like against other teams. What have you seen from Shea?

 

“Guy is a warrior. I think he’s — I’m trying to think of when it was. It was in the third quarter, I don’t know if I told you this. But in the third quarter of the Michigan-Michigan State game, is that when it — did we fumble in the third quarter?”

 

(Nods)

 

“He came up and got in my face. Said, ‘You get me the ball back and I’ll fix it. I promise you I’ll fix it.’ It’s like, ‘You got it.’ And he took care of his business. Made good on it. So, I kinda like guys like that. They’ll fight you in the ally. That, if you ask me the thing that stuck out to me the most, that’s probably the thing that stuck out to me the most about the guy in our first eight games. So, he’s a competitive guy. And he’s accountable, too. So that’s good.”

 

We often hear a lot about Trace McSorley when it comes to Penn State’s offense but —

 

“Boy, he’s good. He’s a really good player. James (Franklin) said some good things about him. I heard it on — I don’t know where, maybe it was ESPN, I forget. But he’s everything that — he means everything to them. So I think he’s a highly competitive guy. He has a really solid understanding. They do a lot of freeze cadence, so you’ll see him look over, changing plays and doing those things. So he has a really good handle of what he’s supposed to do, and getting his guys in the right places and taking into his own hands when it’s important. We certainly have a formidable challenge looking us right down the face on Saturday, for sure.”

 

Who are some of those other guys that are on Penn State’s offense that present a challenge?

 

“I like the receiver, number one. Hambler? I forget. KD? But number one (KJ Hamler). And I think (Miles Sanders) the tail back’s a really good player. With (Mike) Gesicki leaving, the tight end, I thought they’d have a hard time replacing him. And the youngster from … Massachusetts, funny, has done a good job as a youngster coming in there. And he’s very similar to him. So those guys are all solid. 84, the big tall receiver (Juwan Johnson). I like him. Seems like he might be a hair nicked up, he only played 10 snaps last week. But I’m sure he’ll be ready for us. So those are the guys. But 24 — Saunders? Sanders? He’s a really good player. I know numbers better than — relate better to numbers than names. But he’s a really good back. He’s got over 800 yards rushing. At this time of the year, that’s a significant amount of rushing yards.”

 

When you see 94 yards and 0-for-12, what do you think when you see that box score?

 

“Well, I’m relieved for another week. That’s just relief for another week. But, share something with you. That didn’t surprise me. This team — this defensive football team that we’re coaching presently — is the best practice team I’ve ever been on. I don’t have to go out there with my hair on fire, screaming at guys, ‘You gotta hustle, you gotta run. Get to the ball. Blah blah blah.’ There’s none of that going on. This team practices like it’s supposed to practice. And it starts, and at the end of the day, you just go, ‘Holy moly, did these guys fly today?’ And it’s been — they do it this way. They build days upon days upon days upon days of it. And you don’t even realize it, but we practice full-speed every day. And it’s impressive. Because some teams, you gotta chase them to practice the right way. And you’re living in their grill. This group, you just let them go. They know how important it is to play fast. See, here’s what happens late in the year. If you allow your practice habibts to wane, and you go, ‘Maybe they don’t have to tag. Maybe they don’t have to shimmy and bend their knees and tag and get in great posture so they’re prepared to make the tackle.’ What happens to your tackling is it goes like this (slants downward). Now all the sudden, you’re not making plays. It has nothing to do with the scheme, because everybody’s worried about their scheme. It’s because you let off the gas and haven’t demanded the necessary techniques and fundamentals for the preparation of tackling. It’s not like you gotta smash everybody. You won’t have any guys left. But they can run. And they can get in great posture to tackle. And this group is excellent at that.”

 

How much does the time of possession help?

 

“There was a point — there was a couple points against Michigan State, I’m like, sitting with the guys and Bush is here and Khaleke (Hudson) is here and I’m like, ‘Dude, that’s five minutes off the clock.’ And it was — that’s huge when you can go out there and just sell your soul to get off the field. And you’re rewarded by the offense just dominating the clock. That’s a big deal. You don’t have to score. But field position and giving you the rest so you can be 100 miles an hour, that’s a big deal. I did this study last year on us, and when we are below 70 snaps, in that 60s, we’re pretty good now. When we get into the high 70s and low 80s, that’s when trouble starts. Cause that’s when your fatigue’s done, concept is all out there. And it’s a bad deal.”

 

That was last year’s team though, right?

 

“Yeah, I did a study.”

 

Do you think this year’s team would have that kind of issue?

 

“I don’t know. We haven’t been there very often, so pretty happy about — in the last whatever games, seven games? We’re somewhere high-40s to mid-60s. Just a heck of a deal. That’s a — I think if you asked a couple Big 12 defensive coordinators, they’d take it.”