Ep 1 | Paydirt with Matt McGloin and Tom Hannifan

you know when when joe is the head coach there he used to have the team managers go up and down the hallways in the dorm rooms blowing air horns to wait to wake everyone up and you know this is like 5 30 5 15 in the morning man and that time that is the worst wake up call in the world and an air horn welcome everyone to the very first edition of the paydirt podcast i'm tom hanafan he's matt mcgloin i am so excited about this first of all a huge thank you to the believe podcast network for giving us this opportunity uh we're really excited about this and uh we're actually recording this on friday the 6th because it's the first day of penn state football training camp for the 2021 season so uh this is really exciting and matt i'm really thrilled to dive into this with you and i'm just hoping that this season is better than last that's that's the way i'm looking at it yeah no doubt tommy look obviously we're excited to you know kick off this new partnership here with the believe podcast network excited to be working with you man and yeah man i am so happy football's back you know uh oh my god it feels like it takes so long for football to get here but then for some reason it sneaks up on you right training kicks off it's just we had some football on uh you know last night here with uh you know dallas and pittsburgh man so it was good to just be able to sit on the couch and and watch football man it was awesome dude so shout out to uh former penn state linebacker micah parsons looked great in the hall of fame game last night uh for cowboy steelers as you mentioned and uh yeah i was stoked because the canadian football league was on so i was like i can go back and forth between two games which is what i do the entirety of the college football season is just bounce around unless penn state is playing then it's just lock the doors and windows hey hey real quick you mentioned the cfl dude you heard that rumor cfl might be joining up with the xfl right yeah i saw that a couple months ago i think there were some talks in between the two leagues uh obviously the rock dwayne johnson played in the cfl at one point and is now part of the ownership group for the xfl i did see recently a statement from i think it was the cfl commissioner that they had good conversations but they kind of broke them off so from what i understand the xfl is not going to be returning until the spring of 2023 i think that's the way i saw it and then the cfl is obviously underway um first of all congratulations to everybody in the cfl 620 days without football so that's awesome but anyway enough about uh canada my my passion for the cfl let's talk about penn state football um but more importantly matt i want to dive into just kind of for people who are joining this podcast that don't know your story as former penn state quarterback nfl quarterback xfl quarterback kind of walk us through a little bit your time in state college oh man well this is the time time where you make your name known at whatever college maybe penn state ohio state michigan florida wherever it may be this time right now during training camp is where you earn the respect of players respective coaches around you this is where you can make an impact and get your chance to play on saturday afternoons and for me tom obviously has a preferred walk-on and you know for those penn staters that are listening now they're familiar with my story preferred walk-on didn't have any major division 1 scholarships penn state gave me the opportunity to play i took that opportunity and ran with it tom and and thank god i did because you know it was a tremendous experience a lot of hard work obviously but very fortunate and blessed to be given that opportunity and again i made the most of it because of what's occurring right now in state college and and all over the big ten and all over the country and that's in training camp uh you know i enter scholarship uh a year later and you know when i'd become a starting quarterback for a few years at penn state tom but uh but again man this is where that happens in training camp this is where unknown players make their name and this is also unfortunately time where players who four star five-star recruits have these really high expectations this is where you find out what they're made of and you know sometimes those players just can't deliver time and one of the things i've learned throughout my entire career whether it be at penn state in the xfl or in the nfl is that something that players have trouble with is consistency they can't do it every single day they can't be that same person every single day they can't stack good days every single day it's very very hard to do and a lot of guys can't do that yeah and if there's anybody who knows about hard work and that respect when it comes to training camp and just period it's you you're being very modest you were the first to walk on uh to be a starting quarterback at penn state that is no small feat you were also you earned the trust of joe paterno to be the starting quarterback when coach paterno was still the head coach of the program and then obviously you were a part of in my opinion two of the most important seasons in the history of the program obviously controversy abound but you were forward facing along with some of your teammates like michael marty and zordich come to mind as guys who had to take that on and then also were part of the group that stayed and it's something you and i talked about on a podcast that you used to have but it was it meant so much to us as me a student who graduated a year before you and then was obviously a fan dating all the way back to the times when i was a kid and i saw levar arrington play against antoine randall l playing quarterback for indiana if you remember that the black helmets was wild but um it was so important to us as fans because there were players that transferred um and there were players that stayed that kind of what you mentioned it was like okay some guys were big recruits etc but you literally started from the bottom you were somebody who walked on you earned your spot and you broke a lot of records as a quarterback and then um to your eternal credit went undrafted in the nfl and you had plenty of success with the oakland raiders and i and i was a big fan of yours obviously when you were in school and then to see what you did with the raiders was spectacular um you bounced around to a couple of the teams and then um when you got to the xfl that's actually how you and i kind of started talking in the first place yeah you're right yeah i think you reached out you know about how big of a fan you were going to be of the xfl and i said that the guardians should send you some gear i don't know if they did or not but it never happened they never happened if they didn't man i i have a t-shirt and a hat for you the xfl guardians it might be worth something now yeah who knows that the league is no longer around uh yeah and i i can't wait for it to come back and um just for people again who don't know anything about me or matt i used to work for wwe for about nine years as a broadcaster so at the time the powers that were running the xfl were also the powers that were running wwe so i was very very excited about the xfl i was somebody who was interacting with the people that were actually making these things happen and learning about what they were doing some of the new things they were implementing so i was really excited and then to see uh mcgloin being the guy in new york i was like this is super cool so you and i started talking and then uh i got to hop on your podcast and then you and i have kind of had um our shared experiences in that like i remember texting you during the ohio state penn state game last year and the two of us like and that's not a pleasant memory for a lot of penn state fans but us just kind of going back and forth and uh that was uh that that last season as you look back on it now what do you take away from the 2020 season well i try not to look back at it right i try not to no i mean really because look everything about football is moving forward right last week is last week the previous game is the previous game i understand last year was difficult on everybody it really was so if i'm penn state you have to look past that you have to put that in the rearview mirror and move forward and expect to do great things this year here's where i struggle a little bit with thinking how you know great penn state can be this year or how you know we talked a little bit about you know during the week tom about these preseason rankings and penn state being ranked i mean to be honest with you i don't know if they deserve to be you know nationally ranked right now i mean expectations are always high right you know as former penn staters and as fans right now we expect to win every single year we expect to be in the big ten championship picture we expect to be in the national spotlight with the alabamas the clemsons the ohio states the michigans whoever else um you know is out at the top of the food chain there penn state should be there we expect them to be there but what i struggle with tom is that offensively this is now your third different coordinator in the past three years for your quarterback and sean clifford that's not easy to do again i said it earlier i understand last year was difficult you're not on the field you're not getting all those reps that are necessary to understand and learn an offense you're not communicating with your offensive coordinator and quarterback coach last year on a daily basis because you're meeting over a computer i get it that's very difficult um but now you bring in a completely new offensive coordinator and a guy named mike yourchat who i think mike georges is a fantastic head coach i think or in fact excuse me a fantastic offensive coordinator i think he'll be a great head coach one day but to ask your quarterback and your offense to learn a completely new system again in such a short period of time is very difficult tom and i just i say that because i know from experience when learning a complex offense like bill o'brien's in 2012 how difficult it was for us to just get comfortable with that i mean we lost the first two games of the season in 2012. we didn't hit our stride until mid season with that offense tom i remember the days early on i'm standing in front of a mirror with note cards in my hand just you know reading plays off just so i can go in the huddle and say the play it's hard man you know just spitting out the verbage spitting out different terms and different verbiages and you know it takes time and it really does so i think penn state has their work cut out for them but again we talked a little bit about training camp at the start of the podcast that's when everything like that happens that's when all those details get ironed out and you really really find um you really find what you're good at um you know so this is important for penn state right now they really need to dial in and focus this training camp and find what they're good at and stick to that early in the season especially in those first three weeks yeah and we're going to dive into some of the position battles that are absolutely going on starting today and will be going on for the next handful of weeks because uh there's a lot of positions where you have an idea of who might be the starter or the starter solidified or nothing is really solidified and it's kind of an open competition so we're going to dive into that at a handful of positions later on here on the show but i do want to ask you what are some of your fondest memories or just more interesting memories of training camps past because because as you mentioned you were not the dude who was like five-star recruit we got to roll out the red carpet for him like you had to earn everything from day one so what are some of your memories oh man well obviously you know dude when i think of training camp i'm getting nervous already because we're talking about training camp you know i mean i'm getting that feeling in my stomach like i have to go out and practice twice today or go to meetings and lift all day you know but i remember your uh you know when when joe was the head coach there he used to have the team managers go up and down the hallways in the dorm rooms blowing air horns to wait to wake everyone up and you know this is like 5 30 5 15 in the morning man and that time that is the worst wake up call in the world and an air horn being blown throughout the entire you know dorm room floor man and you know when you wake up and your eyes open and you know what lies ahead of you for that training camp day man it's it's a tough feeling man and that's like go ahead who was bl who was blowing the air horn first of all because that guy i feel like would just be yeah like public enemy number one who was that we had you had a bunch of team managers you know team managers equipment managers guys like that man who um you know without those guys tom and i'm going off topic here a little bit but i have to mention this without those equipment managers without those team managers and like you cannot run a practice you cannot function as an nfl organization as a college those guys do everything for the football team man they they do fantastic work but yeah i can't imagine having that job early in the morning you know waking up 115 players with air horns in the dorm rooms man but you know going back to what i was saying man when you do wake up you know it's like you see in those tv shows or in the movies you have like the good version of you sitting on your right shoulder the good version of you sitting on your other shoulder and the one saying to you matt you're a walk-on bro go back to bed what are you doing you don't belong here man and you got you got the good version of you saying matt get your ass out of bed get over to that facility and bust your tail today compete work hard and attack the day and like time after time man like you just continue to get out get out of bed man take one step forward one step forward walk into the facility and work hard day in and day out you earn those days off man and that's what i talked about earlier with that consistency if you're somebody that can do that day in and day out be consistent work hard you're gonna have a chance yeah and because you worked your butt off that's why you're one of the most important quarterbacks in the history of penn state football and it's why you made your money in in the nfl and the xfl so dude yeah congratulations on that that's that's awesome but um yeah thinking about um so this team obviously we mentioned today's friday so um training camp kicked off today as of right now um no earth shattering news that we're aware of so that's fantastic i guess you just want to make sure everybody's healthy etc um you talked about kind of the mindset going into these camps but um it's also that mental grind of you mentioned two a days you mentioned the heat you mentioned being around your teammates and a lot of competition what do you think james franklin is trying to cultivate specifically at this training camp before we continue on with this episode of pay dirt i need to tell you folks about today's sponsor which is bet online if you're into online sports betting bet online is where you should go to win money today whether it's live bets during games or futures for who you think will win a championship bet online has all of the latest odds news and information for all of your online sports betting needs visit their website today or use your mobile device to join and receive your 50 welcome bonus on your first deposit so before the next big game head on over to bet online and start playing today bet online your online sportsbook experts again i think they're trying to find what they're good at especially offensively right right now kind of iron everything out where are we being successful at here as an offense throughout these first few days where do we need to improve on defensively where are um positions where um guys are competing guys are fighting for jobs day in and day out you know how are we splitting up reps here for these guys because you got to remember tom for as much as training camp is a grind you have a season to play as well so you really need to you know take care of your bodies trying to prevent injuries um doing some stretching getting your conditioning in as well all that stuff matters all that stuff um is important but you know and this is easy to say but it's the truth it really is this is where you come together as a team tom right you find out who wants to be there there's plenty who's willing to sacrifice um you know who wants to be a part of the team right which guy is doing whatever it takes just to play you know whether it be offense whether it be defense whether it be special teams tom and you mentioned the 2012 team earlier that i was a part of and what was so special about that team was in days like this and days like training camp nobody cared what their role was big or small everybody just wanted to be a part of it everybody just wanted to contribute and take that field on saturdays man and i think that's what made that team so special and i think that's why we were able to do some of the things that we did um was because guys just wanted to be there man they wanted to wear the penn state helmet they want to lace up the spikes and help out in any way that you can and uh that's what makes special teams and i believe that is kind of the vibe coming from this team going into 2021 um the theme this offseason has been penn state's dominance on the recruiting trail now you and i have talked about this before uh we even dove into this but like i just don't put a ton of stock in recruiting because as you mentioned four-star five-star guys come in with a ton of hype they don't always live up to expectation it's great if they do that just doesn't always happen and some of the guys that really matter to your team whether it's wins and losses or just important players to the fan base kind of come out of left field so the way i look at it is like great all this information about recruiting the the 2022 class we're number one supposedly that's awesome i'm going to wait until signing day when they actually sign on the dotted line because i.e we all remember a guy named justin fields who bounced around from penn state to georgia to ohio state and congratulations he's with the chicago bears now but like everything can change in a heartbeat the transfer portal now with nil existing um obviously covid being a major factor last year and potentially a factor this year how does the ncaa handle that do they give extra time to players again that's something that was introduced last year so there's so many things that can happen when it comes to recruiting it's like great i think there's momentum within the program and the players seem to be motivated i saw a player recently i forget who it was tweet oh yeah penn state's gonna win a national title in the next five years and it's like that's a great you know that's a great goal that's a great attitude personally i want to see a national title in my lifetime i was born in 1989 and the two titles happened before that so it's like okay great like that'd be awesome if we got to that but let's just pump the brakes and take things one step at a time training camp is first and then diving into what is going to be a brutal schedule in september um at least two of the four weeks and then the rest of the year is just kind of trying to redeem themselves from last year and it was something i said thank you first of all to mike poorman our mutual friend from penn state in our days of students at statecollege.com i said to mike i have expectations that this team plays angry and motivated and i hope that starts from james franklin and works its way down do you think that well let me start with the recruiting that you mentioned because you know how i feel about this i couldn't care less about the recruiting process i don't care why time because they've done nothing yet i understand recruiting is a massive part of playing major division one football i get it but these kids have done nothing yet and we hype it up so much dude that it's to the point where expectations are so high for these kids that they just they they can't deliver right a majority of them are going to struggle a majority a majority of them are going to be consistent enough and majority of them aren't going to play well majority of them just aren't going to pan out right and it is that it is what it is tom because you can't teach talent you can't teach size everything's based off that everything's based off potential this guy's got a lot of potential that guy's got a lot of potential that's great but if he does nothing with it and guess what if you don't do nothing with it as a coach what the hell's the point of talking about it you know what i mean like that's like and that's probably i probably feel that way because i wasn't a big recruit you know and i've just i played with a lot of guys tom that were four-star five-star recruits that had 50 offers 40 offers whatever it may be um and they just they couldn't do it they couldn't get the job done day in and day out so and the last thing i'll say about recruiting for me you know to play at certain schools to play to penn state you know to play at an ohio state play to florida list goes on and on wherever it may be i think it takes a special person to play at certain schools and for me it takes a special athlete to play at penn state not everybody can play for penn state right and you know i think any more these days it's just about getting the best possible talent that you can possibly get and saying okay great we'll make somebody or we'll make you know something out of this kid will make him into a great player tom and a lot of times it doesn't work right give me a great football player and a good athlete over a great athlete you know i mean just a good football player right i want football players you know i want penn state type football players who are loyal to the program who are going to grind who are going to work hard each and every day who are going to be good teammates that's what i would want throughout a recruiting process and that's who i would want to bring into my university um in terms of playing angry man like you know do i think they're looking back on last year and trying to you know overcome that and and and make up for for that last season yeah i mean use it as motivation right find something to use as motivation day in and day out um do i think they can should continue to look back no do i think they should look back and learn from what happened last year yeah absolutely yeah and think about how weird last year was and uh it was highlighted very much during the uh the white out game against michigan and it's like nobody's in the stands or the white out game against ohio state excuse me um no one's in the stands and it was like that had to be so eerie at beaver stadium and then i think something that can't be underscored enough is that james franklin for the safety of his family because of covid was separated from his family for the bulk of the last year and i don't think you can underestimate how much of a toll that would take on any human being that we and mental health has become such an important issue um globally but also in the sports world specifically that i don't think you can underscore that and i think seeing the drive in james franklin and his entire staff you mentioned mike ursuch being implemented from texas this seems like there's an extra force behind this team this year so i'm i'm hoping that turns into uh some wins uh we'll see what happens but i do want to go back to something that you mentioned uh a couple minutes ago is that some of the early rankings came out earlier this week um espn uh has penn state ranked at number 20. cbs has penn state ranked at number 17. um what do you think about that i don't think they i don't think they belong there i think they belong the top 25 right now tom like they're good football you do not think they belong in the top 25 uh i don't i don't um i don't think they belong in the top 25 right now they're a good football team right and judging off of what happened last year and the way that season went for them it'd be hard for me to put them in that position i understand there's talent everywhere offense defense there's talent everywhere man but that doesn't matter if you can't put it all together and i and again i talked about earlier and i go back to it new offensive system new offensive coordinator and quarterback coach right you know it takes time to learn that stuff and what doesn't help them we haven't talked about this yet tom what doesn't help them is that early portion of the season especially opening opening up in camp randall and in madison wisconsin that is one of the most consistent teams in the big ten offensively and defensively year in and year out they're similar for me to like a northwestern time in a way that they're not going to do anything to beat themselves they're going to be well prepared on both sides of the football they're not going to make mistakes they're going to run the ball whenever they want to run the ball and use play action off that you know one of the things in wisconsin had a tough year last year as well uh but one of the things i think they can take away um from last year wisconsin is that graham mertz who i think is going to be one of the better quarterbacks in the big ten this year and then moving forward he's gonna be one of the better quarterbacks in all of the country he got to experience the ups and downs of what a big ten football season is like last year and i think that's going to help him tremendously this year i think he's going to take that next step forward here in 2021 wisconsin's gonna be a tough team to beat in the west um i think they'll challenge iowa in the west um you know to to be the team there this year man but to open up there with a lot of question marks especially offensively is very very difficult time it's very scary it's a scary game yeah and and wisconsin only played a fraction of their season due to a myriad of covet issues so um hopefully for the sake of the health and safety of their program and their people that they do get to play a full year and uh enjoy all that and then graham mertz is maybe the first wisconsin quarterback um maybe since russell wilson that you really feel like oh this guy's a game changer i think wisconsin is often kind of oh they have the game manager at quarterback and guys who rarely make mistakes to their eternal credit but graham mertz feels like a guy that if he were to really show out could he jump into the heisman conversation this year i don't know maybe next year you know you have to see how things play out but anyway we'll dive into the schedule as we get closer and closer to september um obviously training camp is just getting underway um and looking at some of the different positions i want to get into those in a moment but who are a handful of players that you're especially looking at this august as who's an up-and-comer for the nittany lions yeah right well i think it's huge you look at defensively tree castrol fields has such a veteran presence on that football team defensively especially in the secondary man and having him back for another year is huge for this team but you look who's going to play opposite him right who's going to play that other quarterback position seems like it's going to be joey porter jr who has a ton of talent man and one of the things i always give penn state credit for especially defensively is that they do such a good job of getting all those guys reps right through throughout a season throughout a game throughout a year um and porter's played a lot of football so i think he can be um you know the next big cornerback at penn state i think he could do some pretty pretty uh good things for for penn state this fall and you know i want to just touch on the running back position here real quick tom you know top to bottom down the list i mean how deep is the penn state running back room this year with uh you know noah kane devin ford uh transfer john lovitt key von lee kazaya holmes man i mean any one of these guys can be starters right so i mean if if i'm sitting here now tom we're talking about what's the game plan here for week one and i know i'm looking weeks down the road man it's i'm relying heavily on that run game and i'm relying on that depth just to get comfortable just to get going um because the talent's all over the place there man they just got to use them properly you know what's gonna be tough though man is like is keeping those guys happy right transfer portals things like that guys wanting carries guys wanting reps so it'd be interesting to see what they do um there with giving those guys reps but that's that's a great competition to look at this year um and who is the number one two three and you know down the list and on the depth chart i i do want to address the running game because in 2020 the bane of my existence as a penn state fan was the running game because it was the quarterback option just put it in the belly and then it was just one or two yards and a cloud of dust right up the a-gap and we must have run that oh i don't know 50 times a game and granted it's a different offensive coordinator this year i think there's a lot of penn state fans that are excited about this um you mentioned noah kane and keyvon lee is probably two of the front runners um and then also last year sean clifford if many penn state fans recall coming into the season there was this narrative from the coaching staff that it was like oh we're working on his running do you want to see that this year no i don't i want to see him run when it's necessary i also want to see him take big hits i don't want to see him take the hits that he took last year man get the first down and slide if you have a chance to create then maybe create take the hits when necessary but don't take unnecessary hits right get out of bounds run out of bounds i just talked about the collection of running backs that you have rely on those guys time use those guys week in and week out to rely on the running game and and you mentioned sean clifford and the running that he's done last year the amount of hits that he's taken in years past you don't have a backup quarterback anymore like a will levis or like a tommy stevens that you can throw in there now and create these wildcat packages for or even you know take sean clifford out of the game for a few plays you can't do that anymore and james franklin even talked about that tom at the penn state media day he's you know all in on sean clifford fully committed to sean clifford um i forget what the exact quote was do you remember no i did not see it but i think uh they're definitely committed to him because frankly looking at the guys behind him uh it's christian value who is the freshman from canada that people are excited about which is great and then taequan roberson who uh robertson however you pronounce it forgive me um but you know there's a lot of questions about okay it's not necessarily a quarterback uh controversy or anything there's not one guy that jumps out as like oh they're going to push sean this year it's is this going to be the sean clifford of 2019 when he was pounding around with kj hamler and everything seemed like it was right as rain and a lot of people saw that nice following from the trace mcsorley era right into the sean clifford era it felt really clean into 2019 and he was a guy that was at one point being considered maybe the best quarterback in the big ten last year things went completely sideways so do they change that up this year and get him back to throwing the ball because again you and i texted during the ohio state game i don't need to revisit how bad of a game that was for penn state but you were convinced and i remember your quote exactly like he can throw the ball that's just not the plan right now let me tell you something dude with a guy like mike your church and where he comes from university of texas oklahoma state ohio state man they're not going to be just inching their way down field this guy's looking for explosive plays in the past game he's going to want to take chances here and there they're going to throw the football down the field he sean clifford has all the tools to be able to do that week in a week out he has accuracy he has arm strength he has great mechanics he's got great footwork he's a very very good quarterback you know what i mean you just you have to give him to the answers you have to give him the answers to the test before he takes the field that's your job as a coach to do that week in and week out don't send them out there and and make him be uncomfortable make it don't make him guess second-guess himself and that's what we saw a lot last year from him it just looked like he was unsure right i don't want to see that this year from the penn state office i don't want to see that you know from sean clifford um you know so again mike george's james franklin they need to prepare this kid to play well every single week because guess what tommy as you talked about there is no one behind him james franklin talked about being fully committed and all and invested in all in on sean clifford you better be because you had you don't have again you don't have a little will levis or tommy seems behind there's nothing behind him we you can't pull him out one week and put somebody else in and this week this isn't the year to experiment this is the year to win we'll see i'm excited man i'm excited to talk about some of the people that no no i'm excited too because again i i come back to the theme of especially if sean clifford isn't motivated it's gonna be a problem but i don't expect that i believe sean clifford definitely like the way i just talked about looks back at 2019 and then like wow that was a great year for me i can do this and maybe he's motivated again and so let's talk about running back great that you've got a lot of different guys you can use i'm curious to see if it's running back by committee does noah kane kind of jump out we're going to see how august progresses and i'm really curious to see what the reports are coming out of camp of who separates themselves people talking about there being a thunder and thunder kind of background with uh back uh backfield excuse me with lee and kane you've got love it a lot of different options back there but let's talk about some of the guys that sean clifford is going to have at his disposal in the passing game um this tight end room is ridiculous what do you think yeah i mean somebody's gonna need to step up to to replace friar move right it's gonna it's gonna be have to be somebody in that room you're gonna you need a number three guy somewhere whether it's at the titan position or at the wide receiver position tom who's gonna step up um you know outside of jahan dodson right parker washington had a good year last year um but who could be that number three could it be cam sullivan brown could it be daniel george two guys that have a ton of talent ton of potential but really haven't done much when given the opportunity somebody needs to step up man and again we're talking about training camp here right now obviously training camp kicks off today they need to figure it out within the next few weeks because they're not guess what they're not playing villanova week one not playing kent state week one you don't have two or three weeks to figure out well who's playing well here who's playing well here who else should we incorporate in the offense who should we try to get the football to once this big ten season kicks off when we start playing some real competition you don't have that you don't have the luxury let's not forget week week three we host auburn fyi so just a heads up again week two is a tough game that's a good football team right so you don't have the luxury of waiting to see who shows up on game day and then deciding from there these answers these questions need to be answered within the next few weeks tom well and especially the way last season went i i'm somebody who watched the maryland game and was like we should beat maryland and then talia tagovailoa beat the brakes office so i don't think there's any gimmies on the schedule however i do have a really high expectation i predict eight and four but like let's see what happens we could lose every game i don't think so we can win every game a lot could happen and that's the unpredictability it feels like is surrounding this team um i i want to come back to some of the receiving threats so we all know jahan dotson is going to be there and so does every other team that we're going to be playing um brenton strange is somebody that there's a lot of expectations um the tight end room looks really good on paper and the measurables are unbelievable what theo johnson has put up in terms of like combine s numbers i think he ran a four five one and he's six foot five 250 pounds as is brenton strange as is tyler warren you've got some freaks at the tight end position so that's great that you have the size there but then when you go to the wide receiver room it's okay you know johan dotson's going to be there and then you know parker washington is going to be an excellent slot receiver so that's an interesting combination so who's that third and fourth guy is it the law firm of sullivan brown and lambert smith is it somebody else we aren't expecting because there's not a ton of size in the wide receiver core yeah i mean you're right tom look i don't know who i don't know who it is i really don't like and that's that's and i guess that's okay right because what did i talk about the start of the show right guys you expect a real training camp to step up sometimes they can't do it guys you don't expect to step up they sometimes doing like we need to give this guy a chance we start gotta start giving him more reps give him more opportunities to go catch the football incorporate him in the offense here a little bit more and go make plays for us and tom this is something that penn state has now dealt with for a few years you know who is the number three guy on the wide receiver spot who's the number four guy that can go up and make plays it just it hasn't been there they they haven't had one um this is the time to find one they're gonna need it this year look everybody in the big ten everybody in the nation knows about jihad datsun they're gonna do everything they can real coverage to him you know double teams things like that to to try to take him out of the offense and force you to go somewhere else with the football um i expect mike gierchus to use motion with jihad datsun you know full motion short motion um you know things like that put them at the z put them at the x put them in the slot right put them all over the offense um you know try to get him the ball in different spots of the field um you know we'll see is all i can say man yeah no it feels that way and then that will see kind of thought process when you look at the defense it feels even more so in that respect and again there's talent all over the field i'm really i'm really excited about the potential of so many guys but the defensive line is something that you know you look at okay you've got guys like mustafer tangelo who came from duke abercady who is a transfer from temple some guys that are going to come in that you have some expectations for and you hope that they step up in the places that shakatoni and otify owe have have left um defensively we talked about some of the corners uh jaquan brisker is obviously going to be leading the defense you and i talked about this yesterday the linebacking corps you feel surprisingly good about you don't feel like oh my god it's the greatest linebacking core ever assembled at linebacker u but these guys across the board lukeda brandon smith and ellis brooks this is a solid unit great football players who have played a lot of football as you mentioned yeah jesse look uh lukeda uh ellis brooks brandon smith man like there's you know the thing about penn state football as aside from the quarterback who else gets the most recognition i think it's the linebacker position right linebacker you who is the next dan connor who is the next paul posny you know the next sean lee you know all these guys who's the next mike maudy everybody looks for that year in a year out but you have three very good guys at linebacker position will mike and sam man they all play the position well they're all good football players so i think when you look at it they make up for one tremendous football player they really do and i mean that's that's the staple of of the penn state football defense is that linebacker position i think those guys know that they're tough they're smart players um you know they play well together um yeah they mean that again you mentioned the d-line as well they've got a good front seven they really really do i think they need to tighten things up a little bit in the secondary find out who can replace um you know that veteran presence that lamont wade had that leadership that he had um but again what penn state does you know well defensively um is they give those guys a lot of reps they get them experience they prepare them to play defensively um you know which which a lot of teams don't do a lot of teams struggle doing that tom i gotta ask you this you and i are the same age how old do you feel when you watch joey porter jr playing knowing that joey porter wasn't playing that long ago in the nfl yeah there's a few kids like that that are playing now that you know have the same name as you know their their father you can call them kids now yeah and like yeah it's like i'm like that's crazy and you know i mean how great of a player joey porter was and like you said how tremendous of a talent his his son is now at penn state um like imagine like how that you know how that works out too your dad was this great football player and you've become now this is this this great talent you know at penn state on the defensive side of the ball man um it's it's you know it's it's cool in a way man i think it's cool and it's cool because i have i have a son you know what i mean so right i'm hoping yeah one day my son plays at you know penn state or somewhere that would be awesome that would be marshall mcgloin i think will be that sounds it sounds great doesn't it sounds like a quarterback i hope he plays golf or something like that though man but we'll see oh yeah keep it keep the knees and the shoulders intact and just golfing god i hope to god he's a better golfer than both you and i because first of all thank you for inviting me to your charity golf tournament i am the worst golfer that ever lived and you're better than me but i don't know if that's really saying a ton for either of us we're pretty terrible at it yeah we're yeah we're absolutely terrible at golf thank god we had doc and and bob on our team you know to carry our golf round there all day they played great we played terrible i don't even i might have pulled out the driver once or twice man but i hit irons for most of the day and poorly it got to the point you know for you guys listen it got to the point i wasn't even chasing after the golf balls oh yeah best ball and just but we got a couple minutes here so we'll wrap up in a second but just uh shout out to dr carl who at one point said to me you know tom there's no reward for hitting the ball the shortest thanks 81 year old man the best the guy could put the ball wherever he wanted um so we got a couple minutes here and i i just want to wrap up just kind of uh this is something you and i have talked about is my expectation for 2021 um i have a very different perspective from you and i love being able to talk to you about this because you ground me as a fan and as a student or a former student excuse me that's a long time back um but here's the way i'm looking at it i wonder what you think in 2018 we lost by one point to ohio state and famously after that game uh coach james franklin was pretty ticked off in a press conference and he went on to say something to the effect of we've been a good football program we're a great football program we're not an elite football program yet it's been nearly three years since he said that is this program closer to being elite than when he said that i don't know if you're like my answer tom they have to get back to being great first right because you know when you look at last year and just how disappointing it was for penn state right i don't think you stay great after that i think you kind of need to rebuild yourself in a way where it's like okay how do we get back on track here how do we find ourselves how do we find what penn state football is all about right how do we become this team that we once were how do we rebound right are guys still thinking about the on five start are they still thinking about the way we played at times last year um and i think you saw that you know as that losing streak continued tom guys thinking about plays in the past dwelling on plays um thinking about turnovers you know i think it became a mental thing for penn state right so here in 2021 they have to get tougher mentally can't dwell on plays can't look in the past let's move forward let's become great again and work towards becoming elite um i think that's where they're at right now you mentioned them playing angry it starts with james franklin i think that's what they're gonna have to do they have like they have a chance and i know i'm looking past training camp here which i don't like to do but they have a chance to send a huge message not to the bit not just to the big ten but to the country in week one with going out on the road camp randall fans are back um listening to jump around in the fourth quarter which that song makes me sick now by the way after we got beat down there 2011. oh but uh but man look what look the way this again weeks one through three one through four can make or break 20 21. yeah you're right uh well listen we got to wrap up here first of all i want to say a big thank you to the guys that believe braun jesse joe brian who's helping us out with this the entire staff has been fantastic thank you for giving us this opportunity uh this is episode one of what we hope is many um we're really excited about the future of the paydirt podcast um like subscribe comment uh share it uh any link that you're looking for to whatever platform you're trying to listen or watch us on is available in my instagram and twitter bios i believe they're in yours and if they're not i'll get on you about this after we're done here uh but uh tell the people matt where they can be seeing you in the very near future yeah you talking about for the podcast no no you're doing stuff on sirius oh yeah yeah yeah yeah you're right of course all the people where they can see it yeah doing some serious xm espnu big ten radio channel 372. um do that a few times a week uh which is fantastic work with a great group of guys i'm really enjoying doing that you know breaking down the big ten conference um you know and i have some media opportunities you know here in the fall man so uh again looking forward to the big ten football season looking forward to the college football season glad it's back man because we're glad it's back to normal because you know we've certainly missed it oh you're telling me um matt thank you for today thank you all for tuning in and we'll see you next week on pater

Channel: Paydirt with Matt McGloin and Tom Hannifan

Views: 723

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: penn state, paydirt, paydirt podcast, matt mcgloin, mcgloin, tom hannifan, hannifan, bleav, bleav podcasts, bleav podcast network, football, nittany lions, nittany lions football, big ten football, big ten, podcast

Id: fElXTZypDNE

Length: 46min 24sec (2784 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 09 2021