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Penn State head coach Bill O'Brien Press Conference
COACH
O'BRIEN: Excited to be here. This is my second Big Ten media day. It's
always a sign that obviously the season is right around the corner.
And
brought three players with us here for these two days. John Urschel is
an offensive lineman for us. Malcolm Willis, safety for us. And Glenn
Carson, middle linebacker for us. It's great to be with them.
It's good to see the other coaches in the league. I have a lot of respect for all the coaches in this league.
We have some really good coaches, and it's great to meet with them. We had a good
meeting
with Jim Delany, Commissioner Delany, this morning, and that's always
-- it's always good to reconnect with the coaches here.
Really
excited about the season. We have a group of kids that have worked
extremely hard in the offseason to try to improve their individual
skill set and now we have to go out and have a productive training
camp, but it's a great group of guys to work with.
Our staff
is really excited about it, and I believe our first practice will be
August 5th. So it's right around the bend and can't wait. So I guess
I'll open it up to questions.
Q. What about the prospects of starting a true freshman at quarterback in Hackenberg? Would that be really unusual?
COACH
O’BRIEN: I don’t think it’s unusual. We have two quarterbacks at Penn
State this year that will compete for the starting job – Tyler Ferguson
and Christian Hackenburg.
Obviously we haven’t had a chance to
work with Christian yet – not allowed to work with the guys in the
summertime – and he just arrived here for our summer program. And
Tyler, we worked with in the spring and he improved every day
You
know, one thing that’s really exciting about working with young
quarterbacks is that you get a chance to really mold that quarterback.
You get a chance to really teach that quarterback. And Charlie Fisher
and I are going to do that and work hard at teaching our quarterbacks
how to play in our offense and managing a game and play smart, tough
Penn State football. We are excited about that.
We are going to
have to make a decision at some point during training camp to allow the
starter to get enough reps to be ready for the Syracuse game. It sure
is exciting for us, a challenge for us and we are looking forward to it.
Q. Coach, now that you've had the job for over a year, do you feel that the challenges
that have arisen because of the sanctions imposed, are those challenges what you
expected?
COACH O'BRIEN: When you go into a job like this, you always have to expect the
unexpected, regardless of what has happened in the last year.
Really,
I'm here to talk about the 2013 team. You know, a lot of the things
that we talked about last year, when I was here, it's water under the
bridge. We're in a situation at Penn State right now that is
unprecedented, sure. But at the same time I've said this over and over
again, our staff, myself, we're thankful for our players.
Our
players are tough. They're resilient. They're good kids. They're
hardworking. They go to class, and we're looking forward to working
with those guys. The rules are what they are. And that's what we play
under. And that's what we're going to do. So we're excited about the
season, and again just really want to concentrate on the
2013 season.
Q. Ideally, when would you like to decide on who the starting quarterback will be?
COACH
O'BRIEN: I think you have to make a decision about halfway through
training camp, I really do. I think in order to give that guy, whoever
that guy will be, Tyler or Christian, in order to give him enough time
to prepare for an excellent Syracuse team that throws a lot at you
defensively, you have to give them a couple of
weeks to get ready for the first game at the very least, especially a young quarterback.
Probably
halfway through, we'll have enough evaluation of our practice film and
all the different things that go into being the starting quarterback at
Penn State, not only on the practice field but in the meeting room, and
we'll make a good decision. We'll do what's best for the football team.
Again, it's an exciting time for us. We look at the fact that
we have a chance to work with two really talented young quarterbacks.
So it's an exciting time for us at Penn State and one we're looking
forward to when training camp starts.
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