Joe Paterno Press Conference Recap: Youngstown State

Chaz Powell could play offense
or defense this Saturday, depending on
some key injuries in the Penn State secondary.

Here's the long and short of what happened today at Joe Paterno's first game week press conference. The season opener against Youngstown State is four days away (!), and the quarterback situation isn't getting any better. But more on that in a minute.

Quick hits:

• Being a team captain is a lot like being an officer on Omaha Beach. Yikes.
  
• Andrew Szczerba's back isn't any better, and might not play for a few weeks. (I guess injury information isn't secret after all)
• Chaz Powell is moving back to offense. This is due to an unusually high number of injuries at the wide receiver position--Curtis Drake's broken leg, and Christian Kuntz's knee injury this past weekend. And with Szczerba's absence, they may take some time working in a sufficient gameplan for TE Garry Gilliam, meaning more WR sets.
• Linebacker will be a strength of the team, despite what the pundits are saying. Mike Mauti is fine.
• Stephfon Morris might be out, but it depends on how his neck injury heals. Powell can be moved back to defense if Morris can't go.
• Drew Astorino is doing alright, and should go.
• The offensive line is getting better. Joe and the staff are "very encouraged," which means they might actually be good. Joe doesn't praise units that aren't doing remarkably well. If they weren't, the wouldn't remark on them, right?
  
• Joe Paterno was asked about the quarterbacks, a lot. The gist of it all? Everything is fine, but unknown.
• Paul Jones was redshirted because of academics. Joe's worried about a few players, but wouldn't name them, and asked the guys not to ask about them.
• Both quarterbacks, Newsome and Bolden, can play. But they're obviously young.
• Hopefully a starter will be named tomorrow night.
  

So how many questions did Joe get about the quarterbacks? This many...

(courtesy of PSU athletics...)

Q. Joe, what have you seen from your quarterbacks during camp, and when do you expect to name a starter?

Q. What's the latest you've ever told a quarterback that he would be the starter for your opener? And do you like doing it this late into a preseason?

Q. I was wondering if you could talk about what you like about the two freshmen quarterbacks (Robert Bolden and Paul Jones), what you've seen from them in August?

Q. Getting back to the quarterback situation. Do you have guys that you see that it could be situational type quarterbacks like short yardage, long yardage, goal line situations, one particular guy might be used for those particular things?

Q. Given the fact that you've said that you have some concerns about your offensive line and maybe that's going to take a while to shake out, how much will your decision on who plays at quarterback be determined on who is best able to handle? And it may be a situation in which he doesn't have the best protection.

Q. Want to clarify a couple of things with a depth chart. With Powell on offense is it Lynn and Morris your cornerback on the first string? With Powell on offense, is it (D'Anton) Lynn and (Stephon) Morris as first string cornerback? And then you said at the beginning you anticipated playing a couple of quarterbacks this weekend. The depth chart listed Bolden, (Matt) McGloin and (Kevin) Newsome. Do you anticipate playing all three of them?

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