Do you see Barkley playing this week?
“I’m not sure and to be honest with you I’m probably talking directly to Coach Wilson right now. I listen to his show too. He did practice all week long but he’s not 100 percent. If he plays this week, and say I say he’s 85 percent. But by playing this week, he’ll be at 80 percent next week. If we don’t play him this week, he’s got a chance to be 100 percent next week. He did practice this week in a limited level. We’ll see. Fridays are a walkthrough for us, so it allows him another 24 hours of healing. I know he wants to play bad.”
Are you a fan of the short passes or is it just a necessity?
“I’m a fan of both. I’m a fan of being able to line up and run the ball down someone’s throat even though they know you’re going to do it. I’m a fan of dropping back and chucking it over their head. I’m a fan of doing it all, and now you keep the defense on their toes. We were going to have to play a style to allow our offensive line time to grow and develop. We’ve done that and we’ve found a way to get wins. The way these guys play, they’re going to have 9 or 10 in the box on every single play and leave you one on one. It’s a combination of two things: we need to be more aggressive, and then on top of that, this defense forces you to do it.”
Do you have any hobbies outside of football?
“My wife makes fun of me a lot. I’m somewhat pathetic in that I don’t have a whole lot of hobbies and interests. I love my family and football the opportunity I have at Penn State. And I love music. I can combine them all. I get in and turn on some R&B from the 90s and set there and watch film and organize my thoughts. I don’t play golf. I’m bad at it. I’m too competitive. I don’t want to spend four hours of misery driving myself crazy. I don’t get a whole lot of time so all those extra hours are spent with my family as much as I possibly can.”
What do you want to accomplish in walkthrough on Friday?
“It’s pretty extensive. I’m real proud of our walkthrough. I’ve had retired coaches come through and been impressed with how we do things. We have our meetings, make corrections and walk film. We go on the field and do a 15-play walkthrough correcting the plays from Thursday’s practice. Then there’s 10 plays we’re going to probably open the game with. Then we go through about 32 situations that may come up in the game. Field goal block, kick after safety, kick return after safety, taking a safety in the end zone on purpose. We go through 32 different situations that may come up in a game. So you don’t have any situation that looks like a lack of preparation. That’s a way for us to cover all those situations on Friday, the situations you may not be able to cover in the week.”
What do you think of the NFL moving extra points back?
“I know some people view me as a young coach but I have kind of an old school mentality, and I like the way the game has always been. The changes you have to make from a health standpoint, I get that. They’re trying to create more excitement with the point after and they’ve done that. It’s why everybody is wondering why Ficken hasn’t gotten a call yet. But I also like that most of the rules have stayed the same forever, because when you’re trying to compare a player from the 50s to today, it helps that the rules have stayed the same. I’m not a huge fan of it.”
