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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 4, 2007

Charlie Weis

COACH CHARLIE WEIS: It comes down to their offense and defense and special teams. Galen Hall, their offensive coordinator, I don't have to tell but last week's stats because everyone knows they scored 59 points and 236 rushing yards and 313 passing yards and five yards a carry. Their offense looks like they are ready to rock and roll this year.
Morrelli, he's their quarterback. He's been named captain, justifiably so. He's really come along to be the leader of their team. He really started to pick it up towards the end of last year, and it just carried right over into this first game where he was 23 of 38 for 295 and three touchdowns. He really has done a nice job of being developed to show good poise. He showed at the end of last year right through the Bowl game and has not missed a beat.
When they played three running backs this past week, Austin Scott, he's their starter; and he came back off that red shirt year last year where he had injured his ankle and he only had 44 carries for 46 yards and got him out of there, a little over four yards a carry and a couple touchdowns along the 20. He's very similar to Hunt from last year, very similar type of running back.
Rodney Kinlaw is a little bit different. He also had big numbers last week, eight carries for 66 averaging over eight yards a carry, and he had a touchdown and also three catches for 34 yards. So average, a little over 11 yards a catch. He's a very good athlete and has very good feet and we've really got to be concerned with him not only in the running game but a screen back. We'd like to get the ball to him on screens.
Evan Royster, freshman, he also got in last week and got eight carries for 70 yards, just under nine yards a carry and a touchdown.
All three of them got time and I think that they are feeling pretty good about their running back situation going into our game.
Matt Hahn, he's their fullback, he's very versatile. He's not 250, he's more like 235, but they move him around a lot. He had a touchdown catch. Better not forget about him, especially in the passing game because he's a good athlete with good speed and he can't be forgotten.
On tight end, Quarless, Coach Paterno had suspended him indefinitely, I'm assuming he's still suspended. I'm not really sure if he's playing. If he's playing he's a major concern. He played last year as a freshman, 6-5, 250, looked like he can do it all. I'm not positive of his status, although at this time I think he's now playing.
But Mickey Shuler, who has good breeding with his dad, he had been a backup last year. He's 6-4, 250 himself and he started at tight end last week and he had a very productive game. And he had four catches for 54 yards, a little over 13 yards a catch, and he had a touchdown along the 19. He's got very good hands and runs very good routes for a tight end.
At receiver, they are loaded at wide receiver. They have three that all had over 40 catches last year. That's the first time in Penn State history, by the way, that they had that. They all averaged over ten yards a catch, as well. You start with Deon Butler, he had three catches last week for 66 averaging 22 yards a catch. But he finished last year as the team's leading receiver. He had 48 catches for 637 at a little over 13 yards a catch. He's not a big guy, but he shows good speed and hands. I think he's -- from watching the tape from last year, more than this year, he's definitely a solid receiver who is athletic and can run and he runs good routes.
Derrick Williams, when they play two wide receivers, Derrick Williams obviously is the other starter. He was not really happy with his production from last year, and it looks like he's slimmed down considerably from where he was last year. From what I understand, he's dropped about 15 pounds, and it looks like he's regained his quickness. He's had four catches but he's also had four punt returns for four yards. He was their on the team last year with receptions with 40 for 440. You have to be concerned because they will line him up all over the place. He'll be off-set, motion into the backfield, motion out of the backfield, he lined up at quarterback a couple of times. And especially with a couple of the problems we had last week in the Georgia Tech game, you can probably anticipate him being used in a similar capacity this week.
Now the two other guys that share the third spot, now Jordan Norwood is their wide receiver and they consider him a starter. He's their slot receiver had they put in multiple wide receiver set. He led the team in receptions. And we certainly know him because last year he had six catches for 91 yards against us. He's quick and elusive, and shows ability especially with run after catch. Not to be redundant, but he has really good quicks and he gets in and out of cuts and breaks very well.
Now, they also have Terrell Golden, who is a captain. I really think Golden who is a bigger guy, he plays on all of their special teams units. So although I haven't read it exactly, he's probably been named a captain because of special teams. But he's deceptive and fast for a big guy, and he can make plays and he has good ball skills.
So I think they are very good and very deep at the wide receiver -- at the wide receiver position. I think that their running game looks strong and their passing game looks strong, and it all starts with the offensive line.
They have three returning starters, and they are all the inside guys to center and both guards. Warren Berger (ph), he started last week at left guard after moving over from right guard where he played in 2006. Shipley, you know, he started off at Penn State as a defensive lineman before he moved to offensive line, but he played and started in every game at center last year and was the only offensive lineman to do that. He definitely plays with strength and power and plays with an attitude.
John Shaw starts at right guard. He shifted back from defensive line, offensive line, 205 as well and played and started all games last year at right tackle. So they moved him from right tackle to right guard, so that's where he's playing. Cadogan will man the left tackle position and Lucien (ph) who is the backup to Levy Brown (ph) at left tackle, they moved him over to make him a starter at right tackle.
Tom Bradley, you know, he's also been there for ever, the defensive coordinator. It's his 29th year there and eighth year where he's been running the defense. If you'll just look at last year and they play a good schedule, they are seventh in nation in rushing defense, 14th in the nation in passing efficiently defense, ninth in the nation in scoring defense; they give up about 285 yards a game. They only give up 29 points in the first quarter. We talked about that stat last week. They only gave up a little over 14 points a game, and then last week on top of everything else, they pitch a shutout.
So, I mean, obviously he's good and they are good. The one runner on the defensive line is Josh Gaines. He has very good athletic ability and show goods strength. The other guys, the newest starters, Ogbu starts, he's really their nose/one technique and Jared Odrick, he's more their three technique. You could see with this group right here, the other starter really uses -- they use two guys at the strong end. Maurice Evans is one guy, but they also play Jerome Hayes at a very similar capacity to how they used Shaw last year, who was a converted linebacker to defensive end. So when Hayes is in the game at defensive end, you'll see him at a two-point stance.
When you go to linebacker, Penn State has been always known as Linebacker-U and this is no exception. They have two veteran linebackers in Dan Connor and Sean Lee. Connor, he's their captain on defense. He was second-team all-Big 10. A lot of people felt he was an All-American last year. He got a little bit overshadowed by Paul. He's 93 tackles away from becoming the all-time leading tackler in Penn State history. So if you think about it, he's probably going to shatter this mark, and that's a very high accolade for all of the great linebackers that have come out of Penn State. He finished with 113 last year. And he's productive, he makes a lot of plays; he's a solid tackler. He fills, he's got football instincts. He's a good football player. And really you could say the same thing about Sean Lee. He's the returning starter, started every game last year, he's one of the leaders on their defense. Last week he led the team in tackles. He's a solid player and makes plays all over the field.
Opposite of Lee, you'll probably -- to the boundary, you'll probably see Tyrell Sales. He started last week, but you'll see Bowman, as well. They will both show up at that position.
And to finish this off, as far as their defense goes, their secondary, everyone talks about Justin King because everyone, he's the big guy -- big returning starter, not big in size, but the fact of how athletic he is, and he's one of the better corners in the country. But he's one of three starters to return. Tony Davis was starting corner last year. They moved him back to strong safety. Anthony Scirrotto, he's their free safety. And at the other corner, Lydell Sargeant starts, but had they go to nickel. They put Davis down, they put Sargeant over, and they bring A.J. Wallace in. So I think they are very happy with those five DBs. I think they are very content with the situation they have got in the secondary.
Now on special teams they have a first year punter, but he averaged 47.4 yards in his first performance, first game this week against Florida International. Their kicker, he is left-footed and both kicks off and kicks field goals, that's Kevin Kelly. Jeremy Boone is their punter, Webber is their long snapper. As returners, although we might see Kinlaw, the two guys you have to really be concerned with even more than that or just as much are Lawlor and Williams because they will put them back their. Even though they are full-time players, they will put them back there and they are both dynamic with the football.

Q. About the punter --
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Their punter or our punter?

Q. I was joking. With Jimmy, how much catch-up --
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Let's talk about the punter. 47.4 yards. (Laughter).

Q. Tough room.
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Okay.

Q. You've spoken how the injuries how they limited him in August, etc. How much catch up does he have to play in a short period of time to be able to effectively run?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: I think he's ready to run offense. If I didn't think he was ready, I wouldn't do this. I think that he was always ready mentally. It's just that his -- (operator interruption) -- he had been getting reps all along. We just had been keeping him from over-exerting himself in the past game.

Q. When you choose to go with Jimmy at this point, does the quarterback become still a week-to-week proposition, or do you have to have more patience because he's the freshman?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: I don't -- this evaluation process really was one that went on through the whole spring right on to this point right now. I'm not looking to play musical quarterbacks.

Q. Just one more thing. I know you have rules with freshmen, but will we be able to talk with Jimmy?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: We talked about that question and what we said, we won't do it this week. But if it turns out for him to be the regular player, my general policy is to wait till the bye week because I don't want to create prima donnas. But at the same time, I understand the role of the media, and dependent on how this goes here the next few weeks, I'll consider doing that.
We've already addressed this issue, so we don't have everyone every week putting him on the list for me to say no and getting everyone mad at me.

Q. The decision about Jimmy, was that an easy one, or how much deliberation did you have?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: At the end of the spring, he was the leader of the competition at the end of the spring. And then, you know, after the spring, he had that spur taken off and then he rehabbed his way to, you know, just as we had felt, that he was going to be ready to throw full speed by September 1. But he wasn't ready to do everything on a daily basis, you know, until September 1.
So we got kind of got in that gray area where we really couldn't consider him as the starter for the opening game.

Q. Would it be fair to say if he was healthy the whole time, would he have started last week then?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: That's potentially the case. Still you don't know how they are going to show up in training camp because depth charts change from the end of training camp to the start of the season. So I don't know the answer to that question because, you know, could have been Demetrius; could have been Evan. All depends how things go in training camp. But in training camp, he didn't do enough. He didn't/couldn't do enough to really be in contention for that first team.

Q. Looking at the depth chart from last week, are there any other personnel changes?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: I'd say it's close, it's very, very close. I don't think there are any major things. If a guy is banged up a little bit, he might be sharing time. But the first and seconds are very close.

Q. Who is the No. 2?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: We're just talking about who the starter is. We're not going to who is No. 2.

Q. In terms of Jimmy, you said at the end of spring, he was your No. 1. What was it in the spring that you saw in him that led you to that conclusion, and also this fall?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Well, it wasn't from the fall. What I said is at the end of the spring, because, and really in the fall, I think that Demetrius and Evan, you know, were doing more than he was doing. So he really was a distant third until he got ready where he could throw the ball. I'm not going to play a quarterback that can't do everything, so I didn't.
I think what we felt, at the end of spring, we took every throw by every player, and running the operation and everything we do, as we evaluated as a staff, the nudge would have gone to him at that time.
But that's only part of the process. You know, that's spring. That's why you go to training camp and depth charts change in training camp.

Q. What are the things that you've seen that you've been pleased with that pushes him to No. 1?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: The same things that we saw in the spring. You know, managing the team, his arm's back to full-go, managing the team; I think he gives us the best chance of winning.

Q. In terms of a couple of other things you addressed on Sunday, offensive line play and setting the edge with the defense, just early in the week, how do you feel about the progress of those two areas?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Well, we haven't practiced yet. But I tell you what, they are two things that are definitely, definitely have to be -- definitely have been -- in the classroom, have been addressed, but haven't been addressed physically yet. I have a feeling we are going to have a couple of physical practices here the next couple of days. I would make that a fairly safe assumption.

Q. This may be a no-brainer, but I assume the offense goes back to more of what you traditionally would do in general with Jimmy in the center and that's what he does best?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Well, the easiest way for me to answer that without just telling Penn State just exactly what I'm doing, I always put the quarterback in a position to do things they can do the best; that's what we did last week with Demetrius when he was playing. And when Evan came in, we put him in a position to do what he does the best. I'll do the same thing with Jimmy, even though last week was just getting a little taste of it.

Q. Do you feel like that's going to make the rest of the offense more comfortable, as well, without giving away what you're going to be doing, but maybe going to a more traditional --
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Well, they have more familiarity with that. I think that whether it's more comfortable or not; I don't think any of them should feel comfortable with how we played last week. I mean, I think that they all should feel uncomfortable.
But I think that there's -- not to be subjective here, but there is a comfort zone when you have more familiarity with what you're doing.

Q. Is there any concern that his first start is going to be on the road at arguably one of the loudest places in college football?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Well, I think that, you know, the best thing that happened was they got into the game last week. I would be more concerned if his first reps were in front of 107,000 in Happy Valley, but I think we got that out of the way in the fourth quarter last week.

Q. The running backs, what has Aldridge done to separate himself as the No. 2 guy?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Well, I don't even know if he's two. He's almost slash one; he just doesn't go in first. I think that James and Travis are very close. They are both very strong physical running. Hopefully we'll give him a little more opportunity for success this week than we did last week.

Q. As far as backups, will they get a lot of work with the first team, or where are you at with that, the second and third guy?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: At quarterback? No, they won't get a lot of work.

Q. And you saw Choice line up in the backfield last week, kind of the whole concept of non-quarterbacks lining up at quarterback, what are your thoughts on that, and is that something you might want to look at?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Well, I think that one of the things when you get into that situation, you know that the very, very high percentages that now it's going to be a run, not a pass; when you lineup an empty with just a back or in this case it might be No. 2. So you could say back/wide receiver in the backfield.
I think that one thing, you always have to be -- to make sure you cover the pass in case they pass. But, you know, you saw like with Arkansas, what we did last year, every once in a while, that guy would throw a pass and it's a touchdown because everyone is trying to stop the run. It's something that you definitely have to be concerned with, but the first thing you'd better be able to do is stop the run.

Q. Can you talk about how you're going to get Jimmy prepared for the noise that he's going to have to face, and does that limit some of the things that you can do, considering how much noise there will be?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: One thing you do know is that if you're in shotgun, you can't hear. We'll practice noise on Thursday. Thursday is our noise day and we practice noise for home games for the defense, and we practice noise on Thursday for the offense for away games.
And it will be loud where they can't hear anything and try to work on mental concentration. Really Tuesday and Wednesday, the days -- the most important thing on those days is putting in the game plan and practicing it.
Thursday is when you create the distractions.

Q. Obviously you had tape of the three guys, all three guys from Saturday. How much did that factor in, what you saw on film, into the decision?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Not much.

Q. So you're going basically back on history, spring --
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Spring through training camp.

Q. How do you then go about breaking the news; is it just matter of fact?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: When them we told them -- we talked to them all last night. This isn't something you do without talking to the players first. I mean, you have an ethical responsibility to your players.
And then after I told -- after they were told, all three guys we talked to, and then after we talked to all three guys, then we talked to the captains and the leadership committee and said I was telling them before I was telling you. Because the last thing you want to do is have me, I'm sitting here telling the media what happened and I haven't even told the team yet. So I thought that was important for them to know.

Q. Seemed like Robby Parris stepped up and made some nice catches.
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: I agree.

Q. What were your impressions of him?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: He's another guy that we talked about with spring ball and training camp. In spring ball he really started to pull a little bit away from the pack, and in training camp, he's done nothing to disappoint on that. He's a smooth receiver. He's got good hands, and he's played much more physically than he did when we first got him here last year.

Q. I watched the replay of the game last night --
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Oohh, you're just a glutton for punishment.

Q. I saw that before Jimmy checked into the game, you shared a laugh on the sideline; what did you say to him before?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Whenever they go in there for the first time, I say something to loosen them up. And I do that -- I've always done the same thing. I did the same thing with Demetrius before the game, too. You just say something to loosen them up.
You know, I remember Phil Simms telling me the first time he went there, Parcells said, "Well, let's go out there and throw some interceptions." Just say something stupid just to make them say, it's okay, let's just go out and just have a little fun out there.

Q. Looked like it worked. He was laughing. What did you say to him?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: It's not important what I said. (Laughter) I might not be able to be quoted on that one, anyway.

Q. Are you planning on changing anything, X & O, personnel-wise, the blitz --
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: The sad part about it, and this is why I was so disappointed, with the exception of a couple weak safety blitzes that came from about 12 yards in depth, every one of those blitzes were practiced about 100 times. So obviously we should have practiced them 101, because 100 times wasn't good enough.
So we are ready for what they do. What they did last week wasn't the problem; it was how we did. So we're going to have to do a heck of a lot better than we did last week if we want a chance of winning this game.

Q. Referencing what you've been saying over the past two weeks, the team knows who the quarterback is, the team knows who the quarterback is; did they have a feeling this might be coming after the first week with Jimmy?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Oh, I think that they knew that if he was a full-go, that he would be a contender, okay. They didn't know -- they didn't know until last night that he was going to be the quarterback, though. Last night was the first time they found that out, but they knew he was a serious contender.
I mean, the team, how we talk about the quarterback situation going through this who is going to be the quarterback; the team is smart. They know. Players know. You can't get over on the players, now. They are too smart. They see right through those things. You can play all of the games in the world, but the players, they are smart. They can figure it out.

Q. How much of this week is about your team, and how much of it is about preparing for Penn State?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: No disrespect to Penn State, because I think that's a very fair question. But I think it's almost entirely about us. You obviously have a good team you're going against who is coming off a 59-0 win that is playing at home. And all of those things are true. We know how good they are on offense and defense, and we know about the specialists, both their returners and the kickers. But realistically, the bigger issue internally is us.

Q. And when you sit down and looked at the tape Saturday night or Sunday morning, is there any feeling of overwhelming because so many things went badly in that game; or, do you say, here the two or three nutshells that we have to crack in order to solve this?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Well, I think there was a lot more than two or three. But what I always do is I try to have all of the tape done before the coaches get here. So, you know, I had probably watched the offense and defense and special teams by about a quarter to 7:00. So when these guys rolled in here about 7:00-ish or so, I could go to each coach and say look at this, look at this, look at this.
Now, it might be five things for each guy, but, you know, we've got nine assistant coaches. So now you're talking about 45 or 50 things that you're telling them to look at as it pertains to their position.
But I think by the end of the day, after they have watched it, then you've met -- then we meet again later on, and you game plan all day Monday. Identifying the problems is really not the issue. It's fixing the problems; that's the issue.

Q. Is Penn State as predisposed to blitzes as Georgia Tech; is that their M.O.?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: It's not, but I would -- I mean, you think about it, there's always a phrase in football, you know, you do it till they stop it. Well, that works both ways now. Like if you're running the ball -- if you're running the ball on offense and they can't stop it, then just keep running it.
Okay, well, if people are bringing pressure and you're not showing your propensity to handle it very well, then why not keep up with the Joneses.

Q. You talked a little about noise. Is this a good week to be going away? A lot of times you say, "It's us against the world," when you're away. Is this a good week for that mentality?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Well, you certainly will have all of their attention and all of their focus because there's nothing else to do. That's the value or that's the way we treat a road game. I think that it gives you a venue.
Now, I could think of easier venues to go to than this one, but I think that is the positive part of going on the road where however many guys you've got, that's who you have. You're in that hotel and you're cooped up and all of your attention is focused on one thing and one thing only, and that's just trying to get ready to beat Penn State.

Q. Considering the defense was in such a bad position so often, would this be a game where you actually consider if you win the coin toss going on defense first?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: No. No.

Q. You would never, ever?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: No.

Q. And you frequently talked about not feeling the pressure; is this a week where you feel the pressure?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Well, if I just said I don't feel the pressure, why would this be a week that I do? (Laughing).

Q. Well, you say --
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: To answer to you? Sorry, Tom. Pressure is something that's self-inflicted. I'm very, very disappointed in my performance and our staff's performance and our players' performance. And I expect all of our performances across the board to improve.

Q. Do you feel more pressure on yourself this week?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: I worked the same every single week. I never change. I think that's one of the things of being a consistent coach is you never change. I don't do anything different this week than if we had won 33-3, because I think it's important as a veteran coach and a leader to not to have emotional highs or lows, okay. You have to be consistent. You have to -- it's got to be a level playing field. If you win 33-3, you can't come in and goof off for two days, well, we won 33-3. It's got to be the same all the time. You've got to stay consistent. Because if not, you're going to have highs and lows that you're not going to be able to overcome.

Q. Defensively in the first half, there was a lot of casualty, offense gave up field position and the football. Defense stepped up, obviously you've looked at offense and defense. What kind of a feeling did you have about the way the defense answered those challenges early?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Well, I think the best part was our red zone defense. Got it in the red zone five times, came up with one touchdown, three field goals and a blocked field goal. You would take that every game, every game the entire year. If you say a team got in the red zone five times and had a touchdown, three field goals and a blocked field goal, you would be very content.
So that was probably the one stat, like I said, you lose 33-3, there's no good stat. But that would be the one stat looking back and reviewing, you know, you would say, hey, like in the first half, they had shut them down on third down. He's 0-for-6 on third down and you look at that and you look at the red zone stops, and you're encouraged in certain aspects by what we did on defense.

Q. The second half it looked like you made some changes with the line splits, maybe a little bit tighter, was that --
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: No, that's not true.

Q. Other than Jimmy, in terms of your freshman, can you evaluate that group? You played nine in the first game.
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: We are very encouraged by a whole bunch of those guys. Some of those guys are just getting their feet wet a little bit on special teams. But I think that 40 years out, you're going to have a lot of guys playing significant roles on this team.

Q. I know you want to just talk about the No. 1s, but when you had Brady here, there was such a gulf between one and two. And now you have a couple of guys that really feel like they are pretty good players, too, and are probably not that far from No. 1. How do you keep them from sulking, pouting, kind of going into the tank?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: We had a game plan for that, too, because you expect them to be disappointed now. You would almost be disappointed if they weren't disappointed. So I think it's important for you to create an environment and a role where they realize that you have confidence; that you could end up putting them in a game and that we could win with them in the game.
I agree with what you say; it's not like from Brady to Evan last year. Now you have three guys that you can play in a game that you would think we would have a chance with. I think the biggest thing is being honest with them. I think that's the No. 1 thing. I think too many people don't like to take that route, but that's my -- that's the route that I prefer to take.

Q. You've already addressed the Georgia Tech defensive blitzes --
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: We are only going to talk about Penn State, though.

Q. Curious if they came at you with anything that you weren't expecting.
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: I said a while ago, I'll talk about the weak safety blitz from about ten or 12 yards depth that we didn't handle very well. Okay, they brought that a couple of times, once from the right and once from the left, okay.
But all of the blitz zones and the Michaels and the Sam Mikes, they were, unfortunately, they were what we practiced every day unfortunately. And the reason why I say unfortunately is because when you know what they are doing and you don't handle it, that's even a bigger problem than when you don't know what they were doing, because at least you can say, hey, we weren't expecting that. That's where I feel we had our biggest failure. So rather than sit there and blame the players for not getting it done, I blame me for not practicing enough to get it done.

Q. Curious what your reaction was when you heard about the big upset against Michigan; is that good or bad?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: I've got enough problems to worry about with Notre Dame. I can't be worrying for one second about Michigan. I'll be worrying about Michigan Saturday night at 9:30. That's when I'll worry about Michigan. But right now, I have to worry about Notre Dame and I have to worry about Penn State.

Q. Just wondering, you talk about watching film before the other coaches got there. When you were alone watching the film, what was going through your mind?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: I wanted to vomit. If you're asking me what was going through my mind, you know, the bathroom was close by. That's what was going through my mind.

Q. Penn State is expecting 11,0000 fans, white-out where everyone in the stadium wears white. Anything specifically that you would do with a young quarterback to prepare him for something like that in an environment like that?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: The only thing you could do is practice noise. You can't practice the environment. We'll practice noise on Thursday and any time he's calling a play on Thursday, no one will be able to hear him or barely be able to hear him. But as a player, as best you can, you've got to try to get him that tunnel vision and just worry about running that play and not being caught up in the environment.
You know, a lot of that environment is the hoopla that even takes place before the game. A lot of young players spend more time looking in the stands than they do just worrying about getting warmed up. I think it's really important for coaches to stay on their players and make sure they control their emotions and don't get caught up with the circus atmosphere that's on the sideline sometimes before the games.

Q. So you said when you watched the film, you felt like vomiting, and then you bring the players in and watch film with them. Is it a similar reaction with them? Are there some guys you have to drag out of the tank?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: Well, see, by the time the players have gotten there, you're already -- this is your multiple times you've gone through it. Just like when I get in front of you after a game, you know, and I think my M.O. has always been the same after a game is that I never believe in saying anything really derogatory or negative about players or coaches because I always feel it's my responsibility to have the team ready to go.
Now, when we get into that meeting and is behind closed doors, I share the wealth, and it's usually not very pleasant.

Q. And you've also said that throughout this camp, you have maybe bit your tongue more than you've had to in the past because it was a young team; has that changed maybe?
COACH CHARLIE WEIS: I didn't bite it Sunday, if that's what you're asking.

End of FastScripts

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