Sept. 20, 2008

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Temple Head Coach Al Golden Quotes

Q: Do you have an update on Adam DiMichele?
A: Just that it is going to be awhile. I don't know what the complete diagnosis is. He will be out a considerable amount of time.

Q: Your thought on how Chester Stewart played?
A: Chester played courageous today. Obviously, your number one quarterback gets most of the reps. He fought hard; got anxious a couple times and overthrew the ball. But he came in on the first play of the game at the minus two yard line and threw a nice throw. He's talented...everyone can see that. I was just pleased that he was competing. It's nice that he could finish runs and do those types of things. We will just regroup here tomorrow and move forward. Chester will start next week. Love the kid. I have a lot of confidence in him. Anyone that watched him can tell, even when he is scrambling or running, he is always trying to move forward. He's lowering his shoulders. He is going to be a good player for us. We didn't think it was going to be today. I think it was inspiring to a lot of the guys that he could come in there and do that.

Q: How do the tough breaks that your team has had injury-wise affect you guys as a team?
A: I don't think they scored in the first quarter. I thought our kids were fighting. We had a good-looking pre-game. I didn't think the moment was too big for us the second time. They were ready to mix it up, and I thought they did that. I thought we were physical. I thought we hit pretty well out there today. They just had too much power. They wore us down; the ball is on the ground three times in the first half, and we didn't come up with it. We dropped two interceptions. If you want to stay in the game and you want a chance to win, you have to make those plays. They have a really good offense; they distribute the ball really well right now. You have to give them credit.

Q: Have you gotten a chance to talk to Adam DiMichele? Where is his head?
A: His head is not good. He had a tough break last year. If anybody in this room had a chance to spend some time with him, he is one of the greatest human beings I have ever been around. Period. He'll come through it.

Q: How do you think Penn State's defense played?
A: I thought their defense played really well. (Aaron) Maybin got off the ball really well early in the game. We really just didn't take care of them. We needed to protect the quarterback better; obviously that is the bottom line. I think we only had one or two sacks before this game, and we must have given up a ton today.

Q: How much will your offense change now that Carter (Stewart) will be quarterback?
A: We'll see. We will reevaluate that tomorrow. It's too soon to tell. Anytime you have a quarterback, as with Penn State with (Daryll) Clark, you have to tailor to them. We will try to make sure that we're imploring the plays that he can execute the best and the throws that he does best. We will use the type of offense that best suits him, and well go from there. I don't have an idea right now how much it will change.

Q: We you confident going into this game that your players were ready for the atmosphere?
A: I was pretty confident watching their demeanor last night and in pre-game. There wasn't anything that reminded me of how they felt two years ago, or even last year at our place. I just thought they were ready; they were prepared. Now, we didn't execute well enough to hang in there. But as I said, I think we came out pretty sharp. We weren't afraid to throw it in there and be physical. We just didn't make enough plays, and certainly they played really well on offense, and I think the defense set the tempo for them.

Q: Did you have any indication that Joe Paterno would be in the press box during the second half?
A: No, not really. You always hear things, and a couple guys alluded to it before the game. I just wish him a speedy recovery, whatever the case is.

Q: Does coaching against a coach who is in the press box change anything?
A: No, I don't think it changes anything. I'd coach from the press box if I had that offense.

Q: Were you confident with your special teams today?
A: Yeah. I guess we are top 10 in the country on kick returns. We have a good group of guys in that kick-off return. We have courageous punt returners in Jamal (Schulters) and Travis (Shelton), and we have guys that are buying into it right now. Travis has the green light. He is mature enough to ask me. Certainly, Kevin Kelly is a very good kicker. But Travis has the confidence to ask me, "Okay, coach. Minus five or six, can I take it out?" And I say yes. That is the kind of confidence we have in him. We punted the ball well. A couple of times in the plus territory we had the chance to down it and didn't do that. But other than that, I thought we were ready to play on the special teams unit.

Q: What did Penn State's offense do that made things so hard for you?
A: They make you try to stop a lot of things. That is when you have good offensive distribution. Obviously, with (Andrew) Quarless back- I have known Andy for a long time and I think he's a great football player- he adds another dimension there at tight end that we really hadn't seen (in film) in the previous three games. I think they had a lot of things that we were trying to stop and that made it hard.

Q: What are your thoughts on your overall season, thus far?
A: I don't know. If anyone has perspective, it's me. What we went through the last two weeks...I think when they turn on the TV and see that Connecticut is hanging 40 on Virginia, or hanging 30-something last night...I think they understand that we are getting better. I think it computes to them..."Wait a minute." They only scored six on us, and we were flying around. Certainly, they understand that they needed to finish one more play in Buffalo to be 2-1. This was going to be a tough out no matter how good we were playing coming in. Certainly, Penn State is a very good team. They have a good defense, and very good special teams. Everyone knows what they are doing on offense. I think the important thing for us is to regroup. It's a whole new season for us. We're in the conference, just as Penn State is. The teams that are winning the conference aren't winning with one loss or two losses or three losses; that's the reality of it. A lot of guys get banged up out of conference. Right now, it's who plays best in October and November in our conference.

Q: Did you get a thought in your mind that this may be your last time coaching against Joe Paterno?
A: No. I think he knows he has a good team right now, and he's excited about that. God bless him. I have enough to worry about. He has 1,400 wins.

Q: How have the injuries affected the team's attitude?
A: It's tough. We still have some guys out. We haven't been healthy. That's the way it goes. When you are building a program, you have to stay healthy until you get to the point where you have 85 guys that are trained. We just aren't there yet. We lose a couple guys, and we look mediocre at times. Where as, at the end of last year, we were just really humming because everyone was healthy and we finished strong on defense. We have been a little banged up on defense. I'm concerned about that. I'm sure we will figure it out.

Q: How did your team react to Aaron Maybin switching sides?
A: Not very well. Not good. He is a good player, and he's done that to a lot of people, especially in the Big Ten. He is certainly more mature than he was a year ago. I think he has a tool box now. Last year, he could beat people with speed. I think he has some moves that he has added to his repertoire that make him a better player. I think they are pleased with his development. But we didn't do a good job blocking him. Even when we kept him back in the chip, he got through us. We didn't do a good job on him.

Q: Talk about why you moved Steve Caputo over to that side?
A: I think that is a function of how much we like Steve Caputo. He's another one of these guys that is rugged and tough, likes to compete. He is another freshman, so it was a great opportunity to be in that environment for him.

Q: What is your relationship with Andrew Quarless?
A: We recruited him when I was at Virginia. We got a chance to know his family really well. He's a good kid with a great family. I am pleased to see him back out there. I am happy for him. He's a good football player. I saw him after the game really quick and wished him well.

PSU Head Coach Paterno Quotes

Q: Joe, how's your leg? A: My leg's okay. I just stand on it too long, and it aches. But, you know, I'm probably babying myself.

Q: Joe, there were a lot of mistakes today - fumbles, kickoff coverage. What's your general assessment? A: I tell you it was a very, very sloppy performance - fumbles, had an interception. Coverage was terrible. I felt sorry for Temple; their quarterback goes down on the second or third play. He's the guy who's really been driving them. I wasn't very please.

Q: Joe, can you talk about the running of Stephfon Green today? A: Well, Stephfon's got a chance to become a very good back. If he gets out in the open and behind somebody, he's going to be very tough to catch. He's getting better. He's getting better. He has a tendency at times to do an awful lot of this in the backfield. He misses some opportunities, but he's getting better. He's works out, and he's a good kid. And I think he's got a chance to become a good back.

Q: Coach, there clearly is a lot of interest in you. Does it bother you that maybe some of this takes away from the team? A: Absolutely! I've got a bunch of kids out there fighting all kinds of adversity with different lineups, hanging in there together. Alright. And you're worried about my leg. Now, if you were a bunch of good-looking girls, I'd feel better about it.

Q: Coach, going in were you a little concerned that you guys may not have a focus or what do you attribute today to the sloppy play? A: Well, I don't know. I thought Tuesday we had a very mediocre practice. And I told them that. Wednesday and Thursday, we practiced really well. I felt pretty good going into it. I don't know what it is. Sometimes you think you're ready to go, but you just don't have that edge. You get a little careless with the football. And you get into this and that. Sometimes it's hard to tell if you have that edge or not. We can't be this. But you're going to do that, and they are going to beat you. But, overall, it's a win. I won't take anything away from it. I thought at times our defense played very well. And, at times, we did things well on offense. We just didn't have a lot of consistency. I didn't really feel good about it. And I'm just giving you my gut feeling. I haven't seen the tapes or anything. But we got to play better than that, I thought.

Q: Joe, Bowman had his first start. What did Bowman do over the past couple weeks to earn that start to reward that? A: Well, he's been rotating with that other kid, Bani Gbadyu. Ron says "Let's start Bowman," so I say "Let's start Bowman." He's been practicing well. But both of those kids are good football players. Both of them can play. They've both played well when they've been in there. And they're getting better all the time. Bowman hasn't played a lot of football previously to this year, but I think he deserved to start.

Q: Was Royster bumped up? A: He had a couple of tough quarters - two and a half quarters. We're going to give Green some work. And Carter, except for that stupid play he made at the end, has been a good football player. So you'd like to give them all a shot at it. But you'd like to give them some game experience because Carter hasn't played a lot, Green hasn't played a lot. Stick Beachum in there; Beachum hasn't played a lot. Even Royster hasn't played a lot. Any time you can get a chance to divvy it up and get them some experience, and you try to do it.

Q: Joe, did Mickey Schuler get bumped up today? Do you know what happened to him? A: Yeah, he's got an ankle sprain. He's going to play probably. His ankle is - I don't know what the difference is between an ankle sprain and a slight ankle sprain. But he's got a slight ankle sprain.

Q: Coach, were Galen and Bradley in charge during the game? A: I was upstairs.

Q: How does the strategy work when you're not on the field but upstairs? A: I get more work up there than I can downstairs. Because I got a microphone. I press 1 and I got the offense. I push 2 and I've got defense. Plus, I'm sitting here, the offensive coaches are here and the defensive are there. So when there's a timeout or something like that, I'll say get down to Tom, get down to Mike McQueary. I wouldn't want Mike to get through a game without me chewing him out. My chewing him out, pardon me. My wife will give me the business on the grammar.

Q: Joe, will it been good to open the conference season next week? A: Well, I wish we would've been more precise today. Illinois, well obviously we're going to have a tough time with them. I think the kids are anxious to get into it. I'm anxious to get into it so I can see what kind of football team we have.