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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 28, 2008

Joe Tiller

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to week nine of Purdue football. The 2-6 Boilermakers will be hosting the 2-6 Michigan Wolverines at Ross-Ade Stadium this Saturday at noon. Coach Tiller's here, so let's open up the floor.

Q. Coach, what has the self-examination process in the last few days consisted of and what have you seen?
COACH TILLER: Well, obviously, we need to address our quarterback position. You know, it really begins with that, because before we can evaluate the rest of what we're doing offensively, we have to settle on that and whether Curtis will be available Saturday or not.
So we're starting out by saying we assume we're going to have him, but we need to prepare as though we're not going to have him. And, of course, we'll make some adjustments based on Justin Siller's ability and what he can do. Because it's really irrelevant for us to assume that he can handle the same offensive package that Justin or that Curtis can.
Defensively we want to continue to play at a high level the same as we have been doing.

Q. In terms of Siller and Curtis, how night and day is it in terms of what the most effective package is for them?
COACH TILLER: Well, there are similarities, of course, but there are differences in the sense that, you know, Justin is not the prototype drop-back guy, though he can throw the drop back routes and he has.
I think this week we'll be closer to having a similar package for the two of them because he'll have another week back into the offense. Though he's familiar with the nomenclature, and the pluses of putting him back at quarterback is that he's been in the offense and he understands, you know, the plays from a running back's position, but not necessarily from a quarterback's position.
But just the idea that he's been in it, and been part of it is really helping. We notice that as the days go by. As a matter of fact, Sunday he was better than he was on Saturday. That's not uncommon because one day at the position.

Q. Just talking about Brandon Whittington, in particular, the development over the years. He's moved around from offense to defense, and what's his development been? How have the moves impacted him, and where is he at right now?
COACH TILLER: He's at his more natural position, you know. We played him defensively three years ago now because of our desperate need in the secondary where we were, you know, decimated at the position, and we were desperate to find anyone who remotely looked like a defensive back.
We put him out there and we put Brandon out there, that's not his natural position. It's been nice that our secondary has come on the way it has so we can put him back on offense.
You know, he's having his best year because he's part of the offense, and he's not the forgotten man out there anymore. I think the quarterbacks look at him, and you know, I just think he's in a position to contribute really for the first time since he's been at Purdue offensively. And he's doing a good job with it.

Q. Might we see more of Siller at the quarterback position, regardless of Curtis's health, just to maybe throw a different look out there more often?
COACH TILLER: You know, I missed the first part of what you said.

Q. Might we see a little bit more of Siller anyway regardless of Curtis's health in terms of throwing a different look out there?
COACH TILLER: Sure, I think if we invest the time in Justin like we were this week, I know we're going to invest the time in him. I don't know how much we'll have Curtis for practice today. You know, he's much improved, so we'll see if he's improved enough to practice or not.
As you all know, we don't see them on Monday, so our first look at at him will be this afternoon. But my point is that let's say he doesn't practice today and he doesn't practice until later in the week. I think he's okay with that because, of course, he's a fifth-year player and he has a tremendous amount of experience for us, so we're okay with that.
The fact that we're going to practice Justin Moore this week would also suggest that you're going to see Justin no matter what the status of Curtis is.

Q. Very unusual to see Michigan struggling as they are. I guess, what do you see in them? Is this a talented team that maybe gets things going because of the new coach or as the talent down. What do you see in Michigan?
COACH TILLER: Well, I feel the same way about certain programs. I'll always feel that way. You can name them. Where I don't believe the talent level is ever down or certainly not significantly. Michigan's one of those programs. You could name the others. I would be willing to wager, though we can't wager, but I would suggest you know who they are.
Defensively, it's a veteran team. They're planning on starting a number of seniors defensively, and a number of upper classmen defensively. Granted, I think they're suffering most likely, and I'm not at Michigan so I can't answer this for Michigan. You'd have to ask Coach Rodriguez, but they're probably suffering because they have so many new faces in the offensive line, and just new faces in their offense, period.
They look to me like they're a talented players, but you know, they're totally lacking experience. That was an extremely experienced offensive team last year. I think nine of those guys were like three- or four-year starters. You know, when all that experience disappears and you have to start over from scratch, you know, you're going to have some growing pains.

Q. Is there anyone on the defensive side who has surprised you this season? Obviously, for the defense to make the jump that it has, some people have to be playing maybe above expectations. What are you seeing there?
COACH TILLER: Well, I always say no one surprises me. Because, obviously, when you recruit a player, you recruit them because you believe he can contribute. You know, help you in one degree or another. But guys have come through, I think would be more accurate rather than a surprise. It would be okay, who is delivering? Who has come through?
I don't think it's a surprise that Ryan Kerrigan's done what he's done. But given the fact he was seriously injured to start the season, his last three weeks, four weeks he's made a significant move.
Gerald Gooden's one of those guys we really thought was probably another year away just because of the physical status of him. He's an undersized defensive end. He's making rapid progress.
Mike Neal's been healthy all year for the first time, so I think you are getting a look at Mike for the first time, the real Mike Neal. So those are some of the guys, guys in the secondary. I don't think anybody at linebacker has surprised us or exceeded what we expected because we thought Anthony was a good player coming in. I think he leads our team in tackles.
I probably should read the stats more, but I'm not a stat guy. For some reason I'm avoiding looking at stats this year. But Anthony's delivering, and the move by Joe, I think, is historical in the sense he was a DB when this thing all started.
Anyway, some of those guys coming through. We like the way Brandon King's playing. We like the way David Pender seems to bounce back. The thing I like about David is he has a short memory, so I think that's important in the second.
Royce Adams is contributing, and we felt like Royce could like he finally is. So there are some of those guys defensively. Offensively, I could go through the roster again, but maybe we should go to the next question. But I can if you want, but let's go to the next question.

Q. This is a Game 2-6 team, how much is your team still talking about going to a bowl game this year? That's something Michigan at their press conference yesterday was still talking quite a bit about.
COACH TILLER: I don't think you're out of it until you're out of it. As a competitor, whether you're at the University of Michigan or Purdue University or any other university that has the opportunity to be involved in postseason play, you think about it and that is the focus of your attention.
I think people outside the program tend to make assumptions and jump to conclusions. But I don't think competitive people do that, so I would be surprised if the Michigan players are not thinking about postseason play. I would be disappointed if their own players weren't thinking about postseason play.

Q. I know of course you'll be retired, but when you maybe look in your crystal ball, do you look at the future as pretty bright for Purdue football, and what Danny Hope's inheriting? What is your take on that now?
COACH TILLER: I would be pretty optimistic coming back next year. Just the unit that Coach Hope's working with right now will be significantly better next year.
I was thinking about this as I was leaving church on Sunday why would I be thinking about this as I was coming out of a house of worship?
But I was thinking about the offensive line. I thought Kelly, we think is an outstanding prospect. Going to be a really good player. You've got Zach Jones back, you've got Kenny Plue back. So you have two freshmen, a right tackle and a right guard that have extremely bright futures ahead of them.
You're going to have Hedstrom back and Jones back on the left side. The only thing you're going to have to replace is the center. I think that will get done. We think that all three of the offensive linemen that we have that are true freshmen are talented guys and guys that are going to play immediately.
And our tight ends, you know, we graduate Jerry Wosikowski, but we'll have Adams back, you know. As the time ticks, it looks like he's headed toward red shirt. I'm not saying he's going to, because we'd play him this week if he was available. But he was our starting tight end who gets hurt in the opening play of the season, but he'll be back as will Colton McKey and Jeff Lindsay.
So I think the tight end position will be in good shape. And Taylor coming back as a running back, and Ralph Bolden maturing as a running back will bode well for the running back position.
I think the challenging -- I think Aaron Valentin's going to be a very good player. I think the challenging area offensively will be at the receiving position. You know, I wouldn't be surprised to see Purdue turn to the junior college ranks to recruit a wide receiver or what have you. Otherwise I think it's really good.
And defensively, 9 of the 11 starters are underclassmen. And the defense has had its moment when it's played extremely well. So I think you're going to have a veteran team back defensively and talent back offensively. You know, the quarterback thing will sort itself out between Joey and Justin. And that could prove to be very interesting:
You know, the only area, I think both your kicker and punter are back. So I don't know why I was thinking about this.
Really, it is the first time that I started going through our team and actually evaluating it in light of the question you just asked. What kind of a team is this going to be in the future? I want Purdue to be successful, just like I wanted Wyoming to be successful when we left there to come here.
And you know, I started going through these players, and I'm thinking, you know, touch wood, keep them healthy. But if you keep these guys healthy, I think they'll rebound dramatically next year. I'll be surprised if they don't.

Q. Looking at this year's season still remaining, at what point do you start playing for the future? Is that always tough to determine when you start making, I don't know if you want to call it a drastic move, but a move in that direction?
COACH TILLER: I think you make subtle moves in that direction. I don't think you just wave the white flag. I think you continue to battle and compete. You're walking a fine line. We don't have the biggest senior class we've ever had. But we have significant numbers in our senior class.
I think you owe it to that group to be your best and to be as competitive as you can be. You owe it to the current seniors on your roster that have been with you four and five years out of loyalty to the university and to the program. You owe them your best shot.
So you don't just say the heck with now, let's think about the future. I think you always stay in the present and compete now. Now do you play some of the younger players that might substitute him on to the field at an earlier stage in the game than you normally would? Yes. But do you make wholesale changes and put young players in there? I don't believe so.

Q. With this being the last month of the season, I think I asked you this on Sunday, but maybe you can elaborate. Does Danny Hope's role increase and grow as we near our way to the end of the year? Or what are your plans for Danny?
COACH TILLER: I don't think there's any change with regards to Danny. He actually, you know, his role has been different from the start of the season because I did it Sunday, and I've done it throughout the course of the year.
You know, when I can, without us hurting our team, I freed him up time-wise to do more recruiting. Outside of that one particular item, I don't see any change in his role.
But you know, Sunday we had our staff meeting, and we went through special teams, et cetera. And I allowed him to go, you know do some recruiting stuff. I think that's appropriate, and that's really the only thing that's changed.

Q. Can you just talk about what your offensive line might look like next year, but what's it going to look like on Saturday?
COACH TILLER: Don't know. Your guess is as good as mine right now. We're a little concerned about Hedstrom quite frankly, because he continues to injure that knee, that is the surgical knee. When I say injure, you know, it gets sore on him. And, you know, he loses some motion.
Now he's fine today, but this has been a reoccurring thing now for the last month. It's getting, quite frankly, to the point where we don't feel like we can get a full game out of him period. So that's an issue.
Sester's knee, is he going to be ready or not be ready? Danny made the comment to me it wasn't a sarcastic comment or a silly comment, but he said, you know, I probably am not going to know until warm-ups on Saturday whether or not I have Sean Sester for sure in terms of 100%. So that impacts the offensive line. That would have us looking very much like we did this week.
If Hedstrom has reoccurring issues with his knee, then swelling will play more at left guard. That is the only change. Last week we played Pierce more than Zwilling at left guard. But we thought that watching the tape, and grading the tape, we thought Jared performed better than Justin did, so we'll go with Jared.
But that would then move Jones back to right, and Reckman to left, and fluid at right, and Hedstrom and Zwilling at left, and Benton at center. But we may not know that until really late in the week.

Q. I don't know if you've tracked this or anything, but I looked it up. You've started five different variations of five guys in eight games. That's probably something you've never had to do before, is it? Ordinarily it seems like you found your five and stuck with it.
COACH TILLER: Yeah, we've always philosophically tried to have eight offensive linemen ready to play. Our thoughts are you had your starting five, and then you have a back-up center, and then you have one guy that can play both guards and one guy play both tackles. We haven't been close to that this year. So, yes, these are uncharted waters.

Q. Can you talk about the play of Lou so far this season? Has he been a pleasant surprise? First of all, is he holding up okay?
COACH TILLER: Watch that word "surprise." He's held up okay. I'm glad you added that. I thought he played really well a week ago against Northwestern.
As a matter of fact, against Northwestern, I didn't think our front played particularly well. But I thought he played well. However, he did a little back step on Saturday. He looked like a freshman Saturday. He didn't a week ago against Northwestern.
Now that's pretty typical of a true freshman where they might look good one week, next week they don't, one week they do. That's what happens when you put a guy on the field for the first time out there in the O-line.
So I think he's come through like we planned on him to do. We're going to continue to start him and continue to play him, and he'll only get better as time goes on.

Q. What do you like about him?
COACH TILLER: He has good feet. I like that he's 6-foot whatever. We like him a little lighter, but not significantly lighter. Because he carries his weight effectively, he has good feet, and he has good intensity. The game is really important to him.
I think, you know, he made the comment to Danny, Sunday, that he didn't think he played well Saturday, and he was embarrassed about the way he played. To me, that's a good sign. The guy knows he didn't perform as good as escapable of, and he wants to right the ship and get better.
It's those guys that don't play real good and don't seem to get that they didn't play real good. Those are the guy that's bother you. Kenny Plue's not that way. I think it's very important to him. As a result, I think he'll continue to improve as he matures.

Q. Chris Summers taking off on Saturday. What is that the result of?
COACH TILLER: Carson Wiggs has a pulled groin. Actually got it two weeks ago. It got progressively worse this past week. We backed him off on the kicking, and we didn't have him doing any kicking off later in the week, and we got him through the game.
We thought, hey, if he's going to kick for us, let's have him kick field goals, not the kickoff stuff. We'll see how he goes. But just talking to Carson, he says he feels significantly better today than he did two weeks ago, so...
I look for him to kickoff this week. I don't know if he will or not, it will be determined as the week unfolds. All I can tell you is the player himself says he feels better today than he did two weeks ago.

Q. On Orton's game on the defining moments Michigan State 2002 when he came off the bench to throw that 40-yard pass at Stanford, what do you recall about that play?
COACH TILLER: We were driving the ball, and you have that good feeling. We're doing good and positive things. We're doing in the last drive of the game, we're doing what we wanted to do in terms of moving the sticks and making first downs. You know, I thought we had a good route that we had hit against them earlier. I felt like it was going to be wide open and it was going to be a first down.
He went in there and he started to audible, and he changed the play. I'm on the sideline yelling no, no, no! Because I wanted a first down because I really felt like we'd continue to drive the ball and win the game.
You know, he backs up and throws the fade route to Stan afford, and I'm still saying no No, no, no! Yes, yes, yes! But John made a great catch on it, but it was a great throw, and a gutsy play. A demonstration of a guy that had an awful lot of confidence in his ability.
I think he had about three warm-up throws before he went on the field. He didn't -- Pierce got the wind knocked out of him. Wasn't like he was knocked into tomorrow, but the trainers go out, the rule is if they come out, you have to leave for at least one play. I think it was fourth down, too.
Anyway, that's what I remember about that particular game and that particular play. I think we blocked the punt in that game, too. Or did he? I don't recall. I think he did, because I think we had a big play in the kicking game, too.
Anyway, that play to me was one of those that, you know, as a coach you just never forget. It's so rare that something like that would happen. You know, between kyle and John and the front, they were able to pull it off.

Q. How much if Curtis goes or not is up to him or up to you? Is it up to the trainers?
COACH TILLER: It will be more up to the player than anyone else. He's the guy that knows how he feels. I can say, hey, you can play with this or you can't. You know, the trainer can say you can or you can't, but the player knows how he feels. And the player, you know, I trust Curtis and I think he's honest. I think if he can go, he'll say he can go.
If he thinks that he's going to handicap the team if he doesn't have velocity on the ball or some such thing, I think he's mature enough to say, hey, you know, I can't do this.

Q. Could they say he's not cleared to play?
COACH TILLER: They could. They could tell us before we take the field that he's not going to play today. But usually you leave it up to the player. They do a good job. It will depend how he recovers during the course of the week.

Q. When we talked in the spring you seemed like you really liked Justin a lot, and maybe he could be the quarterback. Now he's changing early in the year. Is he ultimately going to be a quarterback or ultimately going to be a running back?
COACH TILLER: There is a silver lining to every cloud. The silver lining to this cloud is we're all going to find out whether or not he can be the quarterback of the future.
I mean, if he's playing, even if Curtis plays on Saturday, we're still planning on playing Justin some. If Curtis doesn't play, Justin's going to play a lot. As Justin plays more and more and more, you'll get more answers.
The thing that happened in the spring we really liked him. But in training camp, he didn't look like he had progressed. He looked the same in training camp as he did in the spring. If your guy's going to progress, he needs to jump over the top of the guys in front of him, and he couldn't get ahead of joey. So that's why he was relegated to third.
Then, when Jason went down and Bolden was injured and we didn't have the speed, though Frank Halliburton is a running back, he's more of a fullback than a running back. And Jared Crank, who, by the way, I thought had a very good game Saturday.
In our staff meeting this morning I told the coaches I want to see him on the field tomorrow. But we just felt like we needed a talented running back. You know, in the spring when he played great, he'd take off running and looked like he might be a running back. That's why we made the switch to running back.
Now because of the injury of the two quarterbacks, you know, he's the natural in terms of who to go back to. At least he's been in the program longer than TerBush has, certainly, and he's a guy that we should be playing him.
Like I said, there's a silver lining to every cloud, and maybe the silver lining will be we'll get some answers about it.

Q. You know he's mobile. How is his arm? Is it just a young guy still working on all of that?
COACH TILLER: Yeah, yeah. He has some work to do there. That's why we'll go into the game with two different offensive backs.

Q. When you played Michigan last year they did a lot of things differently. Is this defense similar this season?
COACH TILLER: Well, they're like a number of different teams. That you see them evolving into more -- teams around the country not just in this conference, but, you know, I finally got a chance to watch a football game Saturday night on TV, and I watch it from start to finish, and thought it was a great game, but teams are evolving.
The 43 defenses are evolving into 34 defenses, and because you can zone blitz or even make it more confusing on the quarterback. The reason I bring that up is because Michigan has been a 43 defense, but they're also going to play more 34.
Who knows if we're going to see it. It's a different coaching staff, but they do have last year's game film.

Q. Community work, I know it's important to you, and to have the guys get out there. Are there any special interests that you see guys make a difference in a kid's life? Is there a player that always seems to say yes like Ryan Baker?
COACH TILLER: I was going to say, Baker can't say no to anybody. He needs something done, you can't find anybody else, you call Ryan Baker. He's, I would say over my years in football, I don't know if he's labeled as the most unselfish, but he certainly would be in a group that you would put on one hand. He's an unbelievable guy that way. Very, very compassionate young man.

Q. Can you talk about the on. (Indiscernible) for clarification do you put it at the 25 or the 20?
COACH TILLER: We put it at the 25.

Q. Does this count as a red zone appearance, so to speak if you put it there and you're on the 25 and it's third down?
COACH TILLER: Not really. We feel like we're in our red zone offense if it's first down on the 25 or in.

Q. What are your percentages that you look for as far as between touchdowns and field goals? What do you think is a good percentage of production in the red zone? And what percentage are you looking to score the touchdowns?
COACH TILLER: 100% on touchdowns, and 100% on field goals. But, seriously, you're looking to score every time, so I don't think you go into the red zone and say we're satisfied if we score 70% of the time touchdowns or on 60% of the time touchdowns. You're looking to get in the zone every time you're down in there.

Q. You know what I meant. Let's say you do score 100%. You're in there 25 times and you get the field goals, 24 of them have been field goals, you wouldn't be satisfied?
COACH TILLER: Right, that's why I said you're looking for a touchdown every time. You know, field goal is a fallback position, but it's better than a goose egg, so.

Q. There's no general percentage number that coaches kind of use?
COACH TILLER: 100% on touchdowns.

Q. What does it fallback, part of the problem in general on offense and accuracy on quarterback, is that the main reason you see? Because I know in the past you said you kind of struggle with the running game there, what would you pinpoint for the worst trouble?
COACH TILLER: Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy.

Q. I want to get a comment on you, maybe you've seen it on the basketball thing, kind of implying about the succession plan and the effect it had on him in his last year. Basically kind of implying that he, evidently, he felt that some of the players -- his message wasn't getting through. He implied that perhaps you're going through that now. Do you get that feeling at all where you can measure that the players aren't listening to me or is that a thing that's hard to term?
COACH TILLER: I think there is probably a percentage of players on any team where that's true but I think we have a very good senior class. Obviously, this is their last hurrah, so they grab ahold of whatever you give them.
I think our underclassmen are good about that, too. But, you know, human nature says that, you know, if you're coming back, that, you know, you're going to think about your own future a little bit more maybe than a guy that isn't coming back.
So I think it's natural. It's a human tendency, but you know, maybe that's a case I don't know, I don't think so.
But I do know I'm not foolish. This isn't my first rodeo. So I know that as your season moves on, that your underclassmen begin to think about the future and the like. But like I said, that's a human tendency. What concerns me is if it becomes disruptive. If it's over and I see it's disruptive, then that concerns me. And I haven't seen that in our team to date.

Q. Talking about your receivers, you talk about the good receivers don't mean to use the word surprise, but both Orton and Hardy are in the top four among receivers in both successions per game, and yardage per game. Playmakers from a year ago?
COACH TILLER: That's a good point. I didn't think about that, but I am a little surprised, quite frankly because I don't think that either one of them are having a light's out year. I think both are having good years. In my opinion in order to be on top of 8 or 7 or 6 or 5 or 4, you know, above the top 8, it really takes a light's out year to get there.
Now, since I haven't had the fact that I knew Decker had 59 catches, I don't know who else is ranked in there. Who is catching the football that much. I'm much more concerned about our guys than anyone else. What did you say they were ranked?

Q. Both in top 4?
COACH TILLER: If they're 3rd and 4 or 4 and 3?

Q. One category's 3rd and 4, and the other is tied for 2nd and 4?
COACH TILLER: That does surprise me. But you'd have to look at the conference, too, and maybe we don't have, you know -- I don't know what Beckham's doing. I know he's out for the year. So maybe there's been some falloff in the league.
Though I think our two guys are having a good year catching the ball. But I don't see them catching on 80 or 90 balls when it's all said and done. Normally, that's what it takes to be ranked that high.

Q. In the past when Kory's had problems and I think Saturday's fumble was his first of the year?
COACH TILLER: First loss fumble.

Q. Had he fumbled before?
COACH TILLER: Not that I know of.

Q. I mean, is it -- do you know why? I know a lot of time you say when a guy is fumbling, you don't necessarily know why. I know you said before, all of the improvement in that department?
COACH TILLER: I think he's made a very conscious effort to do that, and he's done a good job with it. I also think he's stronger. He's maintained his weight this year. That's one of the things I'm most anxious to look at.
Every single Tuesday night when I'm here at the training table, I go through every player's body weight. I get a list of the squad. I go through 100 guys body weights and have a running comparison. So I know what they started at in August, and what they are each week.
The thing I notice that's different about him this year than in past years is he's maintaining his weight. You know, he's right at the 200 mark, he's 203, he's 201, he's 202. But I don't see him down there at 191 or 189 like I've seen in the past. So I think he's making a much more conscious effort to maintain his strength, and I think that helps in holding on to the ball.

Q. Before Curtis went down, what was the explanation?
COACH TILLER: I can give you the on-the-field explanation, I can't give you the league's. I called yesterday morning bright and early, and was assured that it was going to be looked at and they'd get back to me. I haven't heard back from them yet.
I didn't think it was that much to ask them to look at one play, the third play of the game. It's not like you have to go through the entire game before you can find the play.
I'm sure they also called and would get the referee he's explanation, his explanation. What he told me is we had a late substitution, and he held the ball for the opponent to make a substitution should they choose to make a substitution. And then he held the ball for two to 3 seconds, and then started the clock.
On tape, I timed it from both the side and the end. In both cases the play was on tape for over 20 seconds, and at no time was there a substitution made. The shortest time I got him in was 8.79 seconds, and the longest was 9.23 seconds. So he held the clock roughly nine seconds. So to say two to 3 seconds is a lie.
To say there was a late substitution is a lie. There was no late substitution. I asked, you know, you can watch the tape so I'm not saying anything that's not true but the play was held up. They say if you're in the game long enough, you'll see everything, and if you're in it longer than that, you'll see it twice. But that's the first time for me in 43 years.

End of FastScripts

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