Penn State Nittany Lions College Football Postgame Quote, 01/09/2025

We went through some adversity this year as a team, from having to play from behind to losing guys on our offensive line ‚Ķ and having guys step up. For me, personally, the biggest thing I think I’m going to take away is some leadership, just being the same guy every single day, and try to help everyone else out. It takes one less variable off everyone else’s plate, trying to be the same person every day. Being one of the best leaders on this team that I can be.

There is going to be some pressure on your quarterback, what is your message to him, and how does the team feel about it?

I mean, that’s our guy. We got to help him out a little better, keep pressure out of his face, obviously. But he’s our guy. Great leader. I mean, I can’t say enough good things about the guy. He battles. He goes to war for us every single day. He prepares better than anyone in the country. Just does everything you can to put this team in a position to win the football game. You know, sometimes it just doesn’t work out like that for us.

Penn State ran the ball very well. Can you explain why?

It’s something that we’ve put such a big emphasis on, really, all year, getting outside zone going; sticking to it. If you watch Game 1 up until tonight, our outside zone is tremendously improved for us. Just being able to have Coach K’s [PSU OC Andy Kotelnicki] confidence and have him stick with us and know that we’re going to do everything we can to get them guys in space. It’s huge for us, and as an offensive line is what we want to do. We want to run the ball. We take a tremendous amount of pride and getting them running backs in the end zone, getting them out in space.

Talk about the bond this team had: 

It‚Äôs a brotherhood, from top to bottom. I probably say it’s the tightest team we’ve had since I got here. Obviously had some six-year seniors like Sal [Wormley] just merging in with some of us freshman, watching how the team was molded and became one big brotherhood over the year is awesome.