Opening statement
"You go through the non-conference schedule, you want to win every game. Of course that was a big game for us, we had it circled. Had a chance to play a team that really got after us the year before. After watching the video, I like a lot of things that we did in the game. All phases, special teams, offense, defense. But you don't like the way we finished as a team. We all had an opportunity to do something. It doesn't ever come down to just one play, but we're 2 and 1. Now we start Big Ten play. In an ideal world, Big Ten play you want to start at home as much as anything. We're excited about the Friday night game, and we know were playing a good team. Penn State has been one of the top teams in our conference for a few years now. We understand the challenge. Talking about our football team, hopefully we'll get a couple of our injured guys back. But, again, the guys we will line up with, we feel good about. Offensively, a lot of you want to know about A.J. Bush, who is getting better. Any injury that I normally talk about, guys are getting better. If somebody is out for the year, I'll let you know that, but that's not the case. We have a couple of other players that are bruised up a little bit, but we have a little bit of time to get them back."

On positives from Saturday's game with USF
"We got better in a lot of ways. Offense, defense, special teams. There were things that we liked, things we can build on. We started fast. We had an opportunity to win right up until the last play."

On defense forcing more turnovers
"We have done a good job. We have a goal of getting at least three [per game]. We didn't get that this past week. One more, one more takeaway would have been the difference in that game. We're not there yet, but hopefully we'll get there. We will keep harping on that to get that done."

On special teams dominance
"Blake Hayes, we know what he's been able to do just for the defense. Backing them up, placements of the ball. That's a weapon. Same thing with Chase McLaughlin. This past week, we're playing great returner, there's a lot of different ways to try and take him out of the game. Chase has worked awfully hard to get stronger, and we see that in his leg strength, as well as being accurate with those field goals. Right before the half, that gave us a big boost. Very happy with what those guys have done."

On continuity among players on offensive line
"It helps when you keep the same group of guys. They have gotten a lot of time together, playing together. And I think it helps the confidence, too, of course when you talk about those explosive plays, they know where it starts and they know how big of a part they have had in it. It's going to be a big challenge this week, but I know the offensive line is looking forward to  that challenge."

On playing Penn State
"How about we start with Quarterback. He's mobile, he's accurate throwing the ball, good athlete. Running game wise, they have a good staple of running backs. Wide-outs, line. Just kind of go down the list, they have good players at most positions. These are the kind of games, where we are with our program, we look forward to this challenge. When you play an opponent like this, you want to play them at home. We're going to show up excited about seeing exactly how much improvement we can make and how we come back from adversity."