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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 14, 2008

Joe Tiller

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Joe.

Q. Joe, as you look at the second half of the schedule, do you think there's a good chance to maybe make some hay; of course you'll only face probably one ranked team, and do you agree with that statement, and will you remind your team of that? And is that really what your team needs right now?
COACH TILLER: I made the comment to our team, I think I made it for the media also, that there isn't a team on our schedule that we're not capable of beating. And there's not a team on our schedule that isn't capable of beating us.
So I think the message is one of encouragement, but also one of caution in the sense that you don't assume anything. We've just played -- I was looking at the stats and I can't recall which is which, I think Ohio State is No. 1 in the league in pass defense and Penn State is No. 2; and when it's overall defense, Penn State is No. 1 and Ohio is No. 2.
So we've just played statistically speaking the best defenses back to back, and we don't expect to see that statistically again. But therein lies a problem if you make an assumption. So as I said earlier, it's one where we encourage our team and yet we caution them about making any assumptions.

Q. When you look at this Northwestern game, can you overstate the importance of it? I mean, from many aspects, they're going to try to break a three-game losing streak. Obviously you're starting the second half of the season and everybody knows you know you're going to need four to five wins to be bowl eligible. Just talk about the importance of the Northwestern game?
COACH TILLER: I think every game because of the number left certainly is a significant game. This one is important because it's the next one scheduled. It's also important in a sense that it's going on the road for the second week in a row and playing well on the road, which we haven't done to date, although we played well defensively last week.
We actually played pretty well offensively. We did some good things offensively. We didn't generate any turnovers defensively and of course we didn't score in the kicking game. Therein lies the difference between Ohio State and Purdue. Purdue actually had more yardage than Ohio State. It's not like we went to Columbus and laid a complete egg.
But the game's important. It's the next one scheduled. It's a conference game. There's a lot of significance in this game and all the remaining games.

Q. How optimistic are you about the second half of the season, when you look at the whole, the six remaining games?
COACH TILLER: Well, I have done a good job, I think, over the years of not getting ahead. And so I haven't thought, quite frankly, much past Northwestern. We come home for a couple of weeks and then I don't know where we go. I don't know if we go to Michigan State first and Ohio second or vice versa. So I'm serious in saying I don't look ahead and do any projecting.

Q. Would you agree the schedule is brutal in that three of your four losses came to top 16 teams and maybe in hindsight wasn't the kind of schedule that's conducive to maybe the kind of team you have, or how would you view it?
COACH TILLER: Couldn't have said it better myself.

Q. You're sitting here 2-4. I would imagine you're disappointed, upset, all of the above. How would you characterize your feelings right now about what's transpired so far for your team?
COACH TILLER: I think that we could be 4-2. I'm not sure, based on the team that we have right now, that we could be 6-0. I hesitate to say that because some blogger will say, well, he doesn't believe he can win, which indicates IQ to me, or lack thereof.
But realistically speaking, certainly there's a couple of those games that we could have won and would have felt pretty good about ourselves if we had.

Q. Coach, I want to ask you about Sester. How did he hold up last Saturday?
COACH TILLER: Sester held up pretty well, actually. He played the most plays he's played all year and held up. And he's going to have to because we won't have Garret Miller from this point on. He will have surgery this week. So the injury bug continues to hit the offensive line.

Q. You have Ken Plue listed as a starter, at least top of the depth chart. What has he shown to you that has made you decide to make that move?
COACH TILLER: Justin Pierce was hurt.

Q. Aside from that, what are we going to see with him? Do you feel he's a pretty good player? What are your thoughts on him?
COACH TILLER: Kenny Plue has really good feet and has a great desire to be a good player. I like his intensity, I like his work ethic, and he really wants to be a good player. And he has the physical skills to match that. What he doesn't have is experience.

Q. You might have answered this already at some point, but Curtis Painter of course has passed 10,000 yards passing for his career. It's something that I believe fewer than 50 quarterbacks have done all time at the Division I level. Can you put that in perspective for a guy to put up that many yards over the course of a career?
COACH TILLER: Curtis obviously has done some very good things at Purdue over the course of his career, and he's completed a lot of passes to get that number of yards. I didn't realize he had reached that benchmark of 10,000, but this is a player-friendly, quarterback-friendly offense.

Q. Looking back at that, you mentioned it was a schedule that may not have been conducive to the talent level of the team. Looking at that stretch with Oregon, Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State, how does that rank in terms of the toughest stretches of schedule that you've had in your time at Purdue?
COACH TILLER: I think it's the toughest of any time we've been here, the 12 seasons we've been here. I think this is the toughest go we've had in terms of the opponents and the quality of the opponents back-to-back-to-back type thing.
So I think it's been the most challenging of any we've had.

Q. We talked about it earlier this season that you kind of liked the mental makeup of this team. Do you feel that this is a team that can take advantage of being toughened through those games and turn it on the rest of the season while the schedule appears to be maybe a little bit less challenging?
COACH TILLER: Well, we think so. We hope so. Certainly we have a good group of seniors and those are the guys you count on. I tell every team the same thing. I always have for 18 years.
And that is, every team is as good as its senior class. And I think our senior class are good people and they're intent and they're interested in being successful each time they take the field.
So I like the way our team's thinking.

Q. You talked about Plue a little bit. And what does he do now or know now that he didn't know when he stepped on the campus?
COACH TILLER: Well, a whole lot, I hope. He came from a very poor football background. He's a good player, but he played on a high school team in New York that was a smaller classification and they only had two varsity coaches. So obviously he didn't have a lot of training before he came here. And then he went to prep school. And he is just a raw-talent guy, a huge raw-talent guy, but a raw, talented player and that's why we recruited him.
He has good feet. He has good foot quickness, et cetera. We saw the qualities in him as an offensive lineman that we look for, and that's why we recruited him.

Q. Are there things Coach Hope can teach him or is it just having to learn by being out on the field when the actual bright lights show?
COACH TILLER: Both. I think obviously there's drill work, et cetera, that you constantly work on and teach a player. But that only goes so far, of course. Once you get on the field, it needs to translate to playing conditions. And there's one thing about experience, and that is it's not something that you can manufacture and hand to a player.
You can put him through drill work and film work and mental work, et cetera, but as a coach you can't give any player experience. They have to walk a mile in the moccasins, so he needs to get out there and do it.

Q. And in terms of the defense, other than one quarter against Notre Dame, how have you seen the development and where is it really -- is it the defensive line that has really set the tone on the whole thing?
COACH TILLER: Well, I think Brock and the rest of the defensive coaches have done a good job keeping them together. We've certainly had some major adjustments that we've had to go through over the course of the season. But one thing that's been consistent is we've played consistently well in the red zone. I think our red zone defense is the best part of our defense.
And last week the defensive line was very good in the run game. We got three sacks. They were on scrambles. They weren't on traditional drop-back sacks. So that tells me that guys are hustling, playing at a high-energy level.
And I think that's pretty much summarizes how our defense is playing at this time. It's not the most talented defense we've ever had at Purdue, but they are playing with great effort level right now. And they're giving us everything they've got. And I don't think you can, as a coach or a fan or an observer, that when you see effort out there, you see guys are really getting after it and giving you what you got, it's hard to be critical.
It is for me. I guess other people don't have a problem criticizing, but I have a problem criticizing someone that's really working and giving you their all.

Q. Coach Rodriguez was talking about it yesterday about not letting one loss make you lose twice. How do you keep from letting a loss, the last couple of losses factor into this week against Northwestern?
COACH TILLER: I think that as a football team, you have to understand that although we live in a results-oriented society, it's much more important with regards to effort than it is results in the sense that if the effort level isn't high, the results aren't going to be there regardless of what happens.
So the real measuring stick is what type of effort do you give? Are you improving as a football team? And that's the measuring stick. We want to be better each week that we go out. And if we're not, we certainly don't want to slide backwards because of lack of effort.
So we think that it's less significant with regards to results as it is the process itself. How did you get there? You know, what value is there, what satisfaction is there if you are successful but it's a cheap win. It's almost like stealing.
So effort level is what it's all about. That's what we talk to our team about, and that's what we'll continue emphasize. And to date they've been giving us a good effort.
We've come up short because, quite frankly, talent-wise we're not quite the same of some of the teams we've played. But our effort level has been good and that will continue to be our emphasis.

Q. To follow up on the Plue-Pierce thing, did something new happen to Pierce?
COACH TILLER: Same thing.

Q. He was having headaches?
COACH TILLER: Yes.

Q. And we talked a little bit on Sunday about Chris Carlino. Can you talk about what you saw from him on Saturday and basically throughout the whole season?
COACH TILLER: Yeah, I was anxious, actually, to go watch the tape after I talked to you guys. On Sunday I visit with the media guys that are interested in the sense that they want to kind of a recap.
But I do that before I watch the defensive tape. I've watched the kicking tape. I've watched the offensive tape. I've had a team meeting. But I haven't had time, and we're on our way to practice, I haven't had time to watch the defense from a critiquing point of view.
So I was very curious to watch Chris and see if he was playing the way I thought he was playing. And he is. He's a natural linebacker. He's a good fit for us. He's a good fit for the position. I think he's always going to be a Mike, I don't think you'll see him move to an outside position.
But he just has a pretty natural feel. He comes underneath some blocks when he should. He goes over top of blocks when he should. And to me he showed us some signs that he's an instinctive guy and he's going to be a good player as a Mike backer.

Q. I think at the start of the year Brock made the comment that he has a take-charge attitude. How would you describe that? What exactly does that mean?
COACH TILLER: Well, I guess that means he gets in the huddle. I don't see that, because I'm not standing next to him like his position coach would be all the time. I think a signal caller defensively, whoever calls your signals, is very similar to your quarterback offensively, and that guy has to get people lined up, but he also has to get them to quiet up, too, and listen to the calls, et cetera.
And that's probably what he's referring to on Chris.

Q. Does he remind you of anybody you've had in the past at that position?
COACH TILLER: Not really. I get thinking when we came we had Willie Fells and Willie was a junior when we came. I think he was sophomore, junior. And we had him a couple of years. Then that was followed up by Gilbert for four years -- well, Gilbert one year in the middle and Niko. Probably close to Niko, but didn't run as well as Niko did. And then we had George Hall, and I think that Chris would be ahead of George, where George was at this time in his career.
So I don't see a guy exactly like him that we've had.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about Northwestern, in particular teams like defensively they've really improved this year?
COACH TILLER: Well, they're excellent against the run. They're a physical defense. I think that No. 99 is really as good a defensive end as there is in the Big Ten. Wooten, he's playing very well. He's a big guy. Six-seven, whatever. Too much. Six-seven too much.
But they're a physical front and their linebackers are physical and they take pride in being a physical team. Now, they play a lot of guys close to the line of scrimmage against Iowa many times or Michigan State, many times they had what we call eight guys in the box. In other words, eight guys from the tackle, they bring their safety down.
It's going to be hard to run against a team like that, I don't care who you are. And I think that's where they've improved in terms of their physical style of play. I see a much more physical Northwestern defense than I've seen in the past.

Q. The running back, Sutton, he's been good for several years, but what attributes does he have?
COACH TILLER: Well, he's quick and tough and fast and can catch. I think he's catching the ball this year as well as he ever has, and I think they're utilizing him more as a receiver. But he's got off to a great start as a freshman offensive player of the year and really outside the fact that he's been injured off and on he's always been an explosive back.
And there's no difference in him now except he's healthy. The only thing I see different in him than what I've seen in the past, not that he was a bad receiver, he must probably -- I'm not coaching at Northwestern, but he's probably has had good hands all along. But I just see him making a real conscious effort to get him more involved in the passing game.

Q. On our defining moment series, the Minnesota game in 2001, the kick there, what do you recall about those final few seconds of regulation?
COACH TILLER: Is that the one where we kicked the field goal to take it to overtime?

Q. Yes.
COACH TILLER: What I remember about that, there was, what, 16 seconds left or some unreal number of seconds left when we got the ball. And the very first play, our tackle, who was an engineering major, forgot the snap count, I guess, because he jumped off sides. So instead of having to go 93 yards, we then had to go -- or 92 yards we then had to go 97 yards if we were going to score.
But I remember hitting the pass and hitting a second pass and hoping that Stubby would get down so we would have a shot at a field goal. And of course he did that. I think Purdue is probably responsible for the tenths of seconds being added to the scoreboard because Coach Mason -- and I would have been too if I was on that side line -- was amazed that there was any time left.
But the clock stops on first down. We were able to execute what we call fast field goal. I think the beauty of that is every team I've been on for 20-plus years up to that time always practiced fast field goal. Never had an opportunity to use it.
Still practice it today. When I'm out in, Buffalo, Wyoming I'll call back and ask if they're still practicing fast field goal or not. We practiced it. We were able to pull it off. I really think we did it because we had a smart center, a smart holder, and a smart kicker. And kicked the field goal.
And I think, quite frankly, they were stunned as a team. Then we went down and scored on the first play, throw to Standeford and a good catch and a run, and then Stu made the interception. He did learn a little bit as he got a little bit older. He didn't try to run out of the end zone like he had earlier, so that was good.

Q. Back to the injury front. Do you expect to get anybody back this week, Adams or anybody?
COACH TILLER: No, I think everybody is not going to be available. I think the guy that we're going to get back first -- I'm hoping we'll get him back -- either this week or next week, and it doesn't look like it's going to be this week, but I would really, really be disappointed if we don't have Adams next week.
I saw Kyle yesterday in the weight room when I was in there riding a bike. He came in and rode a bike and he's running and doing the best he's done since he had the surgery.
So I would say he's closer. Although Jason Werner has been cleared to lift weights and sprint some, run now. So obviously he continues to progress. The next thing is to get him on the practice field.

Q. We haven't seen Justin Siller recently. Is that just a package that you decided to take out for Penn State?
COACH TILLER: Yeah, just didn't fit what we were doing, and the other thing is Justin is a sliding, slicing type runner, and we wanted to see what Ralph would do. We think Ralph is healthy right now, which he hadn't been earlier. Brings a little bit of acceleration and explosion to the position, we think. We won't know that until he demonstrates it in a game, but he shows it to us on the practice field.

Q. What is it going to take -- I know people have asked about mid season and the schedule you have left. What's it going to take for you guys to finish strong?
COACH TILLER: Play well this week.

Q. You mentioned Garret Miller, what happened with him?
COACH TILLER: I don't know what the injury is. But he has to have three screws put in his foot where he had -- the bones as they come back towards the ankle were off or whatever, so they have to pin them back. I've often wondered why they call a screw a pin. But they use the term they have to pin the bones. They do it with a screw.
So he's definitely having season-ending surgery on his foot. I asked him how it happened. Last night I was visiting with him. And I feel bad for Garret because his career has been one filled with injury. And he was emotionally distraught last night over this, because he wanted in the worst way to finish his senior year.
A good kid. His heart's in the right place. But it's surgical and as a result he's out for the balance of the season.

Q. I noticed you had Reckman at tackle last week. Was that a product of -- is he moved now to tackle?
COACH TILLER: No, he's been practicing a lot of tackle all fall, because, as you know, we've never really felt comfortable with our offensive line. It's always been a hit-and-miss situation throughout the course of the fall and it doesn't appear that it's going to change.

Q. What's your 1-2 lineup at Miller?
COACH TILLER: Couldn't tell you.

Q. Depends on this week?
COACH TILLER: Yes.

Q. And then also a clarification. You were talking about calling signals and the middle linebacker often being like a quarterback on offense. When you have a young guy, do you still let him call signals?
COACH TILLER: You do because they're all called from the sideline, you signal, and then all he has to do is look on his wristband and say it out loud.

Q. You mentioned a couple of times about the chess match between the spread offenses and defenses and how the defenses kind of caught up. And at one point you said that probably a key for the spread to stay ahead of the defense was to have a multi-dimensional-style quarterback and maybe some option. Do you still feel that way, or are there other factors?
COACH TILLER: Yes, but you have to have the personnel to do it. I think that that certainly is the next step. Because people -- they've seen it so much and they practice against it. As a matter of fact, Northwestern will be the closest offense that we've played since we've been at Purdue that will look just like our offense. The bubble screens, the option screens, our floods, three man floods, our combination routes.
I was watching tape this morning and they don't seem to be running option with their quarterback like they had in the past. I don't know if they moved on from that and feel like he can better execute what they want to get done offensively.
But, anyway, to answer your question I still think that ultimately -- unless you have a real -- I think to continue to run the offense, per se, as we have it, I think that you just need to have really superior receivers and a superior quarterback and you execute it no matter what the defense. But isn't that the same wherever you go? You have better guys than their guys, you seem to do better.

Q. You, like a lot of coaches, talk about it takes three or four games for you to get a real read on your team. I was wondering, since it's a halfway point and also because of the tough stretch that you've gone through, what would be your three- or four-game evaluation of your team now that you're halfway through the season? Is it kind of what it was a couple games ago or has it changed in your mind?
COACH TILLER: Well, one thing I tell all the players now: There are no more rookies, there's no such thing as inexperience this time of the season. Everybody's played that's going to play. We might throw a guy out there that hasn't played. And if we do it's because of an injury situation.
But, otherwise, everybody's played. And I think that our team, we probably had the misfortune of playing the No. 1 and No. 2 teams defensively in the league back to back. We just had a tough time. Our receivers, I thought our receivers were making progress. And I still do, because we did throw the ball and we had some success in Columbus.
But I think that our game in Columbus was the poorest our offensive line has played all year. And I think that we need to get them back to performing the way they were, and as a result I think that's really handicapped probably our offensive production more than anyone knows.
But overall, as a team, we're probably performing at probably our ability level in the sense that we've done some good things but we haven't been as consistent as we would like. And it usually starts and ends with one guy.

Q. Looks like you finally kind of settled in on your fourth repackage, not that you won't use nickel in certain situations, but settled in on that fourth read and you settled in on pretty much your starters. Talk about what a step that is or how important that is considering what you've been through?
COACH TILLER: It's nice to go out there two weeks in a row and practice the same guys. And you can do the same stunts. So you can get better. You can get more efficient at what you're doing.
So I think your efficiency level improves when you have the same guys and you know what direction you're headed with them and you're not trying to cover up deficiencies. So your defense can actually become more aggressive, and I think you saw some of that last Saturday, where you can afford to become more aggressive because instead of playing defensively on defense you're playing offensively.

Q. If memory serves, when you were here the first time as an assistant, was not Hank Woods on that staff at least?
COACH TILLER: No, he wasn't. He was on Coach Young's staff when I came. I can't remember if he was on Leon's. All I know is that when I came here, Coach Hank Woods was not here. I've known him. I met him before that. I met him while he was an assistant at Purdue. So I've known him a long time but never coached with him.

Q. Reading into it, has he made any real changes defensively doing anything different?
COACH TILLER: I don't see that in the tape. I've watched three games on him. And I don't see any real changes other than they're aggressive. They're physically a bigger team than they have been. And sometimes, you know, you get some guys that are seniors in there and they've been there for three or four years or five years, and they grow into their position and they can play a little more physical-type football.
But I just see them being more aggressive. Outside of that, I think structurally speaking, they're similar to what they've been in the past.

Q. How would you evaluate Kory Sheets' play so far?
COACH TILLER: Very good.

Q. Does that surprise you at all?
COACH TILLER: No. No it doesn't surprise me in the sense that we've known all along that Kory was a talented player. He wasn't as productive as he could have been. But he's really putting it out there. We certainly couldn't ask any more from him. He's given us great effort through this point in the season.

Q. Statistically, he's probably the best running back you've had in your time here. Would you say that the statistics are true in that, or is that one of the situations where the statistics maybe don't tell the whole story?
COACH TILLER: No, I think he's one of the better backs we've had at Purdue. As a matter of fact, I don't know who is better. Maybe we've had one. But I don't think too much about comparison of players, quite frankly. But he's doing well.

Q. Going into this game with Northwestern, I think a lot of people are surprised by their record. You've already kind of touched on anything in the Big Ten can be, with the talent level pretty close. Are you surprised going in that they're just a one-loss team? Do you at this point?
COACH TILLER: Not really, because they have a senior quarterback that's seen it all. And he's executing well offensively, and their defense is much improved in terms of their physicality, their style of play.
That's why I say it hasn't changed. But they're just playing very physical football. They're getting after it. And as a result it's hard to run against them. And Iowa, traditionally over the years, is going to run the football on you. Ohio University is going to run the football on you.
So they've gone against some teams that actually -- and even Michigan State -- Michigan State won the game but they probably have done the best job on Wringer of anybody so far to date. I haven't seen the Cal-Michigan State game, but any of the other games I've seen I think they've done as good a job against him. So when you watch him on tape, it's not a surprise.

Q. Back to Sutton, real quick, you say he's developing being a receiver, how much more dangerous does that make him as a play maker to be able to give him the ball?
COACH TILLER: I think you certainly have to be aware of where he's at. They like to run a lot of crossing or run routes underneath where they'll bring him out of one side the formation and cross the formation with him, but they might have a guy coming the other way.
And that's a difficult role to defend, number one. And, number two, it's even more difficult when you have a guy with the type of speed that he has coming across there.
But he's also caught check-downs and screens. So it just adds another dimension to their offense. And I don't think you can set your defense to always worry about where that guy is, because then you're going to ignore other parts of the offense that could get you in trouble.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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