Everything Nevada head coach Jeff Choate said about Penn State ahead of the season opener
Penn State plays Nevada on Saturday, with the Wolf Pack traveling across the country for both team’s season opener. Nevada head coach Jeff Choate spoke to reporters Monday afternoon and discussed what he expects from Beaver Stadium and the Nittany Lions.
Here’s everything Choate said about PSU.
On James Franklin’s Penn State tenure
“We’re going in and playing a James Franklin-coached Penn State team that — as I kind of look at his trajectory and what he’s been able to accomplish there — I’m not sure he gets a full amount of credit. This is a team that’s gone from very good to elite, and when you look at it in all three phases, they’re a team that’s built for a national championship run.”
On Penn State’s offense
“It’s going to start with the quarterback. They’ve got a tremendous player, in Drew Allar as a quarterback. He’s a big dude with a big time arm. He’s an impressive guy. Can make all the throws. He’s obviously played a ton of football for them. You can see his leadership. They return three starters on an O-line that’s very athletic, very talented group, but the runners are the ones that stand out immediately. You look at [Kaytron] Allen and [Nick] Singleton, those guys are dynamic. They’re the 5-11, 225 pound guys that are tough tackles. Both of them play with tremendous amount of balance and vision. They’re both good out of the backfield. They’re willing blockers, they’re complete players. The tight end situation. I like [Khalil] Dinkins a lot. I think [he was] overshadowed by [Tyler Warren] last year, but he’s a really good football player. Plays with a great base. He’s physical at the point of attack. I’m sure that he’ll be highlighted more within their offense. ... Wide receiver is going to be interesting. Kind of a revamped room. They dug into the portal to to add some talent and depth at that position, but they’re going to have some guys that can go. We know that.”
On Penn State’s defense
“On the defensive side of the ball [defensive coordinator Jim] Knowles comes over from Ohio State, and implements his style and his system. But the thing that stands out to me from a defensive perspective — these guys have elite impact players on all three levels of defense. And I think if you’re going to be a big time defense, that’s what you got to have. Everybody’s going to talk about [Dani Dennis-Sutton] and he is a tremendous player, impact player as a pass rusher. But I think their interior guy [Zane] Durant, man he is twitchy, he is a problem inside. Very, very disruptive from an interior defensive line perspective. [Tony] Rojas, the inside linebacker, this guy’s excellent in zone coverage, high football IQ, makes every play supposed to make. You can tell he’s directing traffic out there. And then at corner, [A.J.] Harris and [Zakee] Wheatley, those two guys are, again, impact players.”
On Penn State’s talent level
“They’re on par with those types of national championship caliber programs like the Georgias and the Alabamas. You see the talent and the depth that creates an elite roster, and that’s really what you see. You don’t see a lot of drop off. Even on special teams, you see that a lot too where you can really identify the depth of the roster and the talent of the roster by the guys that are playing on core special teams, but not starting or they’re rotational players. And so I think to make a national championship type of run, you build a roster around a quarterback who’s elite and experienced, but then you’ve got to put the pieces together, and you can see. You got to really give them credit, man. This is a very good, traditional blue blood college football program, and Coach Franklin and that organization, they’re committed to winning the national championship. So they’re ‘what do we got to do? Hey, we’ve got to go out get an elite defensive coordinator to put the pieces together for us. We’ve got to go out and provide some some deep threats and some better wide receiver play for us.’ And so they’ve gone out through the portal or through making bold moves to do that. And so I think that says a lot about that program.”
On trying to stop Drew Allar
“He’s gonna make his plays. That’s the thing about this. What we don’t want to do is, we don’t want to give them any freebies. Make him earn it. If it’s a contested throw and catch, good for them. This guy’s got a lot of experience. He’s an excellent football player, and he can put the ball in tight windows. And so when we play tight coverage, we got to make plays on the ball, and if they catch it, you help them up and say, ‘Nice catch. See you next down.’ That’s kind of what it is. What we don’t want to do is have guys running naked down the middle of the field. That’s what I’m looking for — are we going to operate and execute our base calls to the best of our ability, down in and down out.”
On playing at Penn State
“I think there’s guys that are excited to play against an elite program like Penn State in an environment like that. I was telling somebody, if I told my 16-year-old self that someday I’d be in the same stadium that Joe Paterno coached in, I’d be pretty fired up about that. I know I’m excited about the opportunity and I think they are as well.”
