Everything FIU head coach Willie Simmons said about Penn State before matchup
Penn State will stay home this week to take on the FIU Panthers in Beaver Stadium — a program with a new head coach in Willie Simmons. Simmons led the program to a win 42-9 in Week 1 over Bethune-Cookman, but will face a much taller task in his second game as FIU’s head coach.
Here’s what Simmons said Tuesday at his weekly press conference about Penn State ahead of Saturday’s matchup.
FIU head coach Willie Simmons
On what stands out about Penn State
“I mean, really everything, you know, they’re big, they’re fast, they’re strong, they’re sound fundamentally, you don’t see a lot of chinks in the armor. Obviously you look for weaknesses, places to attack and exploit. You don’t really see many. It’s the first game with a new [defensive] coordinator (Jim Knowles). So we looked at a lot of things that Ohio State did in the past, but obviously Ohio State won a national championship last year. So same thing, you look for weaknesses, and you really don’t see many from the best team in the country. But they’re a team that they’re going to force you to execute on every single play. They’re going to force you to be disciplined, force you to communicate. And then when you consider the fact they have one of the largest stadiums in the country, it makes communication an issue. And so our guys have to be dialed in to the signals, clued in to what we have to key when the ball is snapped and play sound fundamental football to give ourselves a chance. Because if you don’t, they can hurt you in many ways. But again, there’s a reason why they were pre season number two, and by the time the rankings come out later today, very well, maybe the number one ranked team in America.”
On preparing for the Penn State offense
“Well, you got to be disciplined. They’re going to force you to be disciplined with [our] eyes, very similar to us. Lot of movement, pre-snap, trading tight ends, motioning, unbalanced formations, lot of window dressing, a lot of eye candy. ... We got to make sure that all that window dressing that we see, you can’t really pay attention to that. What is my key and when the ball is snapped, if I keep my eyes on my keys, if I do my job, if I’m a deep third player, I got to stay deep as the deepest, I tell the coaches, if they throw a hitch and catch it, we tackle it. Don’t say anything to the corner. He did his job. Let them catch a hitch, but I can’t jump a hitch in Cover 3 and let him get behind me and score a touchdown. So again, we got to force them to execute. Drew Allar is a potential number one overall pick in the draft. So he’s going to make some plays, but let’s force him to be the number one pick in the draft. Let’s force him to make play after play after play after play. And if we turn the film on on Sunday, and we were where we’re supposed to be doing what we’re supposed to do, how we’re supposed to do it, and he carves us up, guess what? Hey, guys, it’s the No. 1 pick in the draft. There’s not a whole lot you can do. But we can’t allow ourselves to give them opportunities by busting coverages, by doing things that we’re not supposed to do. So again, they’re a prolific offense, potentially, but you got to do your job. Stay on top, tackle the catch, get them on the ground, make them snap it again. And if they’re perfect, we’ll see what happens, but they probably won’t be. And when we have an opportunity, we gotta take advantage of it. And if we do that, we’ll give ourselves a chance.”
On preparing for the Penn State defense
“It takes the guys up front communicating. You got to make sure that we know where the ID is, that the running back knows which way the line is working in protection, to know where his keys are. We can’t allow guys to run free. They have a dominant defensive line. The defensive end is an All-American candidate, Butkus Award candidate, one of the best defensive ends in America. So you got to make sure he’s blocked on every play. Zane Durant, kid from right there in Lake Nona, Florida, big time football player. You can’t cut him loose at the line of scrimmage. You got to stay on the double team. And if their linebackers make every tackle, great, their linebackers make every tackle. But we can’t be quick to come off a double team trying to get to a backer and allow one of the best interior defensive linemen in the country to make plays in the backfield. And so again, if we stick to our game plan, if we do the little things right, we go in and give ourselves the best chance to be successful. But that’s football, right? That’s why you practice it. That’s why habits are important. And if we go in and play with great habits, I think we’ll surprise a lot of people. If we go in fundamentally unsound and make some of the mistakes that we made last week, then what all the pundits and people that pick spreads and all, we’ll make them right at the end of the day. But again, we got a few more days to practice and get ready. I’m looking forward to seeing what this team will do come Saturday at 12 o’clock.”
On playing in front of large crowds and at Beaver Stadium
“I had the opportunity to play at (Texas A&M’s) Kyle Field during my time at Prairie View, that was over 100,000 and as a player played in Sanford Stadium down at Georgia, they’re close to 90,000. I played at Clemson, which obviously 85,000 or whatever the case may be, played at Florida State. So been in some loud venues. It’s going to be loud. There’s going to be times where it’s going to be very hard to hear, very hard to communicate. But that’s where we have to make sure that we see the signals when we do choose to huddle and things of that nature. We’re going to use that to our advantage. And so we’re not going to do anything special. Obviously, we have the music at practice, and the simulated crowd noise and all those kind of things. But again, that’s outside noise. We got to focus on what we can control, and that’s how dialed in we are on the field. Our cadence is good enough. Our cadence works, whether it’s 100,000, 20,000 it works, but it only works if you pay attention. We had a false start last week in front of 18,000. Why? Because we weren’t locked in. So if we have a false start this week, it’s not because it’s 100,000+ people in the stands. It’s because we’re not locked in. ... We got to lock in and focus and make sure that we don’t allow the crowd noise to become a distraction for us.”
