Penn State Nittany Lions College Football Pregame Quote, 12/26/2024

Q. A lot has been made of your versatility and what you can do on the football field. What’s your favorite thing you’re able to do on a football field?

TYLER WARREN: I think being able to play tight end is my favorite, because with that comes different stuff. I feel like tight end in general, you’re usually going to do a little of everything as a position itself. I have done a little bit more than what a usual tight end would do. I enjoy doing that, and knowing I’m doing something to help out the offense in whatever way that is week-to-week is something I really take pride in and what kind of my goal is each week.

Q. You’re playing obviously your 15th game next week. What kind of toll has it taken on your body? How do you stay fresh and stay healthy through this grind?

TYLER WARREN: I think staying on top of just recovery stuff, any little thing you can is a big help. It takes a toll, but you’re kind of just in the groove of it and the routine of the season. You’re used to waking up and feeling how you feel, however that is.

But doing whatever you can during the day, getting in the tub, stuff like that, little things to give you an edge, but also understanding that everybody is in the same situation as you. So it’s not really an excuse to have. It’s just something you’ve got to deal with in this sport.

Q. I want to talk about your running backs. [Andy] Kotelnicki said they are more effective than they’ve been at any other point this season. I don’t think a lot of teams can lean on that train of thought with their running backs this time of year. For you guys to be getting this kind of play in the postseason from Nick [Singleton] and Kaytron [Allen], how does it set the table for whatever else you wanted to accomplish?

TYLER WARREN: Obviously, being able to have a run game in any game you play is really important, and opens up a lot of different things, just because you have to respect more than one thing. They’ve been playing great. But also speaking on the O-line, if you give those guys a chance to get their momentum going forward, that makes a big difference than if they’re getting hit at the line of scrimmage.

I think the unit as a whole has really been doing well. They’re, obviously, really good running backs. You give them two yards of plus yardage, and they get their head of steam going, and that makes an effective running back. I think the offense as a unit has been playing really good. It’s awesome to keep building up as the season’s been going.

Q. You’re a unique player. How have you seen teams defend you differently? What maybe would be the widest range of how teams decided to play you?

TYLER WARREN: I guess I haven’t noticed anything crazy, if I’m being honest. But I honestly don’t look into it too much, kind of after the fact. But that probably would be a better question for the other teams. I just focus on my job, and I know what the scheme of each play we run is, and I know what to do to either make the play or get somebody else open, something like that. That’s kind of how I look at it each game to game.

Q. How do you guys feel like you’ve handled the pressure this year, playing the 12 game playoff, and now you’re playing on New Year’s Eve in the Fiesta Bowl?

TYLER WARREN: I think every game is important and it only gets more important and more urgent, as Coach K [Andy Kotelnicki] says each week in the offensive meetings. I feel like it’s kind of how we practice and how we do things at our facility; putting pressure on guys in front of the team, whether it’s one-on-ones to start practice.

I feel like that’s where we build a foundation for it and I feel like we’ve done a good job of handling it and playing well in the games we need to play well. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that so far.

Q. Drew [Allar] said day one, day two of spring ball, you were repping two minute stuff. What do you remember about the offense at that point? How was it going at that juncture in the season when you guys just started repping it?

TYLER WARREN: I think kind of where we started, it seemed like it was complicated then. Then we’re at this point, where we’re doing way more things, but it’s still pretty much the same stuff, just adding more verbiage and getting more guys moving before doing similar things.

I think it’s been fun learning this offense. It was new when we learned it, but now we’re all comfortable in it. To see how many things we can do just by making a little tweak here or there has been really fun for us, and it’s been going well.

Q. I want to ask you about Ty Howle. His first year with the program was your true freshman year. What about his personality or coaching approach resonates, not only with you, but maybe the entire tight end room?

TYLER WARREN: Him, obviously, being somewhat of a recent letterman is kind of cool for us, because he can relate to us on a more personal level. He’s been doing some of the same stuff we have pretty recently.

Coming in, for me personally, he was an analyst. So that’s kind of a guy you’re more comfortable around. You can kind of talk and have different conversations with, because they couldn’t coach back then. So it’s more getting to know them on a personal level. That helped me when he was my coach, because I already had that relationship with him.

He’s awesome. He’s one of the best tight end coaches in the country. The way he gets us prepared, if you’ve seen him before a game talking to us on the field, it would be hard to not want to play for that guy. I’m happy he’s my coach and we love playing for him.

Q. You’re part of the offensive line on a lot of plays, but you’ve expressed your faith in the offensive line throughout the season. But it seems like they’ve taken it up a notch these last two games against Oregon and SMU. What have you seen from your offensive line the last two games?

TYLER WARREN: I think we’ve trusted kind of the purpose of each play and understanding why we’re running certain plays and stuff like that. I think, honestly, now that we’re in the back half of the season, we’ve had more reps. Just getting those under our belts and keep building off of what we’re seeing each week has been really good for us. I felt like we’re on an upward trend. Just being able to keep learning from what we put on film will be important for us.

Q. I wanted to follow up on something you discussed about the offense back in the spring to now. You said it seemed complicated then. What was complicated about the offense in the spring? What was your timeline for making it less complicated?

TYLER WARREN: It was really when we just first got introduced to it, all the new verbiage. Because this was the first time where it was a lot more wordy play calls and telling everybody what to do within the play, instead of having one word that means a bunch of different things.

But honestly, once you got into the flow of spring ball, -it was really more in the winter when we first got the offense, and when it was more of a “this might be complicated.” But once we went into spring ball, I think we were all pretty comfortable, and being able to add to it is really good-, once you get to that comfortable point.

Q. What is the pregame prep leading up to a game like this from a physical perspective compared to earlier in the year, in terms of the weight room, in terms of practices? How is it different before game 15 compared to game 1?

TYLER WARREN: The weight room is pretty similar. Obviously, the lifts won’t look exactly the same or as heavy as before. But that’s still strong. Being smart with reps and being able to practice like professionals and being able to do walkthroughs and get as much out of a walkthrough as you would a full speed period.

Having a mature approach to practice and having a mature team is really important, which I think we’ve done a really good job of in the back half of the season so far.

Q. Something that Coach [Andy] Kotelnicki told us earlier was with the way Drew [Allar] is operating and his input in the game plan week tow eek, it can make it more seamless. When you’re getting opponents thrown your way during the playoffs, you may not have a lot of history and background on them, how big is Drew Allar’s experience and knowing what it takes to deliver a game plan? How important has that become here in the month of December?

TYLER WARREN: It’s very important. Like you said, it’s kind of a lot closer timeframe of being able to plan for different people and stuff like that. So I think really Drew being the player he has so far this season, and our offense being able to just kind of function as focusing on us and doing what we do best and not trying to do too much about specific schemed up stuff, just kind of trusting what we do well as an offense.

It starts with Drew and the way he’s been playing so far. So he’s been doing really good. I know he’ll be ready and prepared for the game and he’ll do great.