ORLANDO — Penn State offensive coordinator Fran Ganter and defensive coordinator Tom Bradley took some time out from preparing for the Capital One Bowl Monday to talk with the media. They discussed everything from the bowl game, to the season. What follows are exerpts from those interviews:

Ganter

Q: Are you pleased with the way the practices leading up to the bowl game have gone?

A: The time we spent in St. Petersburg [before coming to Orlando] was the best thing. We had probably four really good practices, we call them Tuesday practices which are the toughest days of the week. I think that set the tone and it carried over to Orlando. We had most of the tough stuff done before we got here.

Coach [Paterno] did a good job selling the kids on the idea that while we were in St. Petersburg that’s where all the hard work would be done and when they got to [Orlando] they’d have some fun.

Not to say this the wrong way but we’re afraid, as we always are at this bowl game, that they are having too much fun in that they are on their legs too much. It’s really hard to avoid, it’s hard to tell them to stay home from Disney or don’t go to Sea World because that’s part of the reward of coming to a bowl game but that’s a concern, at this bowl game in particular because they are on their legs so much.

Q: Will you tell them today and tomorrow to stay off their legs?

A: The last three days coach cut the curfew back and we are trying to get them in early enough. For the most part the older guys like Larry Johnson and Tyler Lenda they know how important that is and they’ll come home early but some of the younger kids want to go till closing.

Q: Are you happy with the job the seniors have done overall this year?

A: There are probably seven or eight guys that have all stepped up. It’s another reason we don’t pick season captains, it helps develop group leadership, four or five guys can step forward and they don’t feel funny saying something to the squad because this guys the captain, maybe I shouldn’t say anything.

Q: You guys threw the ball a lot early but then as the season wore on began to run more. Why?

A: When the head coach comes down and puts his hands on your shoulders and says, ‘They can’t tackle [Larry Johnson] run the ball,’ that’s what we did. It got to a point where they couldn’t tackle [Johnson] and to be throwing the ball if you don’t have to ... in the last game [against Michigan State] he could’ve had 600 yards rushing.

I think one of the things that happened too was that Zack did get bumped up and we didn’t want him to get hit, so coach said if we can go to the second half without running an option that’s fine with me, don’t do it unless you have to, I don’t want him getting hit.

Then the philosophy and the approach to the games changed. [Mills] hurt his shoulder and it affected the way he practiced. Now he’s 100 percent and the little time off we had from the end of the season until we got to Florida it’s like he’s his old self; he must’ve had a real serious bruise on his shoulder. We were really limited in what we were going to do with Zack and decided to bang it up in there.

Q: Are you going to do some more things with Michael Robinson against Auburn?

A: Maybe. Now there’s a guy who got a lot more reps at quarterback. [The extra practices because of the bowl] were good for him.

We got a point [during the season] when we put him in that we knew we were getting a little predictable. Everything we added for him that wasn’t at quarterback took something away from him at quarterback, so whenever we put him at another position or put in another gimmick play that’s more snaps and more things on his mind that take him away from being a good quarterback.

We stopped putting things in after the preseason, all the things we used at the start of the season we had in from preseason and then we started to add a couple things and we felt it started to affect him as a quarterback and then Zack got bumped up and so we said the heck with him playing wideout and running back, we have to get him ready to play quarterback. We didn’t want to give him anything else to worry about.

Q: Was it fun working with the offense this year?

A: It was fun but [the players] made plays. When they make the plays you keep on calling them. When we played well we took care of the ball, Zack threw it away, he threw it out of bounds, avoided sacks.

When we started running the ball more he pressed a little bit and wanted to make a play in the pass game but that’s a guess I haven’t talked to him about it.

Q: What’s the future of the backfield?

A: We haven’t talked about that, we have to get a real good look at these young kids in the winter program. The young backs, [Tim] Shaw and [Brandon] Snow and Donnie Johnson had a chance to get more meaningful work [preparing for the bowl game] and they did a good job.

We have two really good fullbacks too [Paul Jefferson and Sean McHugh]. Nobody has two like that; those guys are warriors. They love to hit ya and they wanna fight. I love those guys and Larry should too. They really have done a great job and might be the best combination of fullbacks we’ve ever had.

Bradley

Q: How important was the move of Anwar Phillips from wide receiver to nickel back?

A: That’s probably one of the things that has worked out the best since I’ve been around coaching. He’s really adapted well for a guy who missed all of preseason. We put him in [against Wisconsin] and he goes in makes a play and tips the ball. For a guy whose just a freshman to come over and do the things he has been able to do is really something.

The nice thing about him is if it happens one time it doesn’t happen again, he picks things up, he sees things. Fundamentally obviously he’s behind and he’s a work in progress but he’s a unique kid.

He’s a guy next year that defensively will fit into our plans quite well because he could go play corner and do different things. I’d like to tell you guys we knew it all along but no, we just thought here’s a good athlete who needs to play, I never realized he would do as well as he has.

Q: How much did the injuries at linebacker and in the secondary change what you would’ve like to do as far as being aggressive?

A: Yeah we have to do some things differently depending on what our secondary people can do. People say blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz and sure that’s great but you’d better be able to cover, cover, cover, cover too. We go after people a lot more than people think we do because we are a big zone blitz team.

We adjust to the personnel we have in the game.

Q: What will you do with Sam Ruhe next year?

A: With the way things have turned out at linebacker we’ve obviously got everybody back so what are we going to do with Sam Ruhe? Obviously you need to get him in a place where he can play and be a factor. It’s not rocket science, we lose a pretty good defensive end so do we put [Ruhe] at defensive end, could he go back to linebacker?

I’m looking at it and saying, we’ve got to find a place for him. He’s a 6-4 kid that can run that likes to play and we have to find a spot for him. He would obviously give us some more depth at that defensive end position and has played there and you’d like to get him on the field and having that experience at linebacker only made him better.

Q: Has everything that happened on and off the field this season made this bowl game a little more rewarding and emotional?

A: You sit there at Christmas Mass and start seeing some faces and some kids. It was hard to look at a kid like Eric Dare because let’s be honest that’s the first Christmas he hasn’t been with his brother.

Then there’s [Robert] Price (whose father died last month) and Frannie. It’s been hard to go these bowl trips without Frannie and Karen riding in my backseat and him saying, ‘Home James’ It’s different, George [Paterno] isn’t here and neither are a lot of people that are part of this family.

Q: How did Jimmy Kennedy grade out this year?

A: He graded out well every game. Is our scheme totally beneficial to Jimmy Kennedy? No, but he’s got to be able to do what’s best for that group.

If we had a different style of linebacker we’d play Jimmy differently, but we don’t so we have to do things a little differently than is probably best for Jim. Our scheme is not made for him as far as number of sacks or big plays.

Q: How tough has it been to recruit this year with so few scholarships to give?

A: It’s tougher when you have less kids [who you can make offers to]. With 12 kids it’s tough because you can’t offer too many or you’ll get the wrong guys and if you offer too few you’ll get burned.

It’s different and we are going to try to get the 12 guys that fit our needs.

Q: Will you over offer with the new Big Ten rule that allows you to give out more offers than you lose to graduation?

A: That has never been [Paterno’s] style. We ran into that last year with grayshirting some guys. He’s always been worried about pulling a kid’s offer and I never remember in all the years I’ve been at Penn State us calling a kid and saying, ‘Sorry you don’t have anything.’ You know it goes on at other places.

He tries to be really careful [with the number of offers the team makes] and I know [recruiting coordinator] Jay [Paterno] does a great job keeping track of that saying ‘Hey coach, we have this many offers out, we have to start asking people are you going to come?’ and get that number down.

When you have 22 scholarships it’s fun, you can get out there and fire away at a couple. But [with 12] you have to have a little pecking order.