Check back here for live updates from Joe Paterno's press conference, which will begin shortly ...
On Crawford and Latimore: "Latimore, I'd be doubtful if we get anything out of Eric the rest of the year, although he may be ready for a game or two. Crawford has not done anything yet. ... I doubt if he'd be ready this week. Crawford might be ready next week."
On possibility of moving Lynn to safety: "The secondary's a little bit, I'm not quite so sure people understand how they have to react to each other. ... We were just starting to get better when we lost Nick. Rather than disrupting the whole business, we're going to go with one of the younger kids and see what happens."
On Brewster: "I'm sorry to see it. I liked Tim. He's an easy guy to be around. I worried about him in the sense he built up expectations for the Minnesota people, and I think he underestimated how long it would take. I feel sorry for him. I think he's a really good person. He's got the makings of a fine coach. After watching him play, you couldn't say they were a poorly coached football team. I think that would be inaccurate."
On enthusiasm yesterday: "We don't have a laugh meter or enthusiasm meter on the field. You just don't know. A couple things happened yesterday. The kids seemed to be a little more relaxed. But we'll see."
On whether there's too much pressure to win right now: "I don't know all the details with the Minnesota situation, and I don't want to be critical of either side. I don't know the cast and characters who made the decision to let Brewster go, but I do know it's tough. I don't think there's any question. I think the way Bobby Bowden was handled was the result of some alumni. I think Brewster, without having read anything about it, I would imagine the fact they built that stadium and put a lot of money into it, were expecting wins. Football's gotta pretty much carry the whole thing. But I would not put fingers at anybody without knowing what I'm talking about."
On evaluating himself: "Well, we've got a lot of holes in the wall right now. I didn't do a good job in the sense of the little things. The makeup of the team has been changing every week. It's been a tough job. I never quite got ahold of the group. We knew we'd have troubles with Iowa and Alabama away, but I felt once we got that under our belt, I felt we could get a little more swagger, and I didn't get that across. I just didn't get them ready. We were flat. We didn't have a lot of enthusiasm. I don't know where else you can place blame but with the boss."
On morale: "I thought we'd play better against Illinois than we did. ... It's been a tough season for a lot of these young guys. I'm hopeful they'd have a chance to back away. ... I'm hopeful we're gonna come out there and play with a lot more enthusiasm than we've played with, but there again, we'll have to see."
On Minnesota: "I had forgotten we had played a couple clubs where their coaches were fired. Michigan State let a coach go in the middle of the year one year. Nobody really knows how they're gonna react. You don't know the relationship of the players to the new coach. I don't think we can worry about that. I think we have to worry about Penn State. We have to make some plays, and we have not made some plays. We have not done well enough in that area. I'm more worried about us than anybody else. I can't tell you what the relationship will be with the team and their new head coach."
On health of linebackers: "Hodges practiced yesterday. I think Hodges will be ready to play. He's a little rusty. ... We're hopeful he'll be OK. I think Mauti and Gbadyu will be ready."
On whether this is a must-win game: "I think we've got to play well. We've got to play better than we've played last week. A lot of things can happen in the football game, some of which you don't have control of. We've got to make some things happen for ourselves. Until then, we're gonna struggle. I'm not looking to get into a situation where we must win this game. We gotta play better. Period."
On personnel: "We came away with the Illinois game with the idea, hey, we had some problems. But after looking at it, the offensive line is more maligned. We were going to make a couple switches, but after looking at the Illinois game, we decided not to."
On the Rutgers injury: "No. 1, I told him what a great job our doctors did with Taliaferro. ... I said the only thing as a head coach I think you can do is to make sure you're available. ... It would be different if it was something they can do to make it not happen, but it happened. ... Greg called me Saturday night. I talked to him a little bit about it. ... Adam had a marvelous recovery. He's a lawyer, getting married in about three weeks. I gave him the positive part of what might happen, but each one of those things are different. It'll be tough for him and the team no matter how you twist it."
On Sean Stanley's drug charge: "Next question, next question. I'm not gonna get into that nonsense."
On Rutgers situation: "You're not dealing with inanimate objects. The makeup of the football team, the team we had when Taliaferro was hurt, the makeup of that team was different than if something happened to our football team this year. ... Obviously, it's going to take some leadership on the team as well as the coaching staff. ... I think they've got to face the problem and some people have to come to the front and put it behind us. ... Again, each tema is different. You're dealing with 19, 20 year old kids. They're not indestructible."
On dissension among staff: "The assistants are great. They're doing a great job."
Whether there's infighting: "Oh, no. ... Don't imagine things, alright?"
On Minnesota's offense: "I think they're dangerous. They do some things very well. Their backs run tough, they run a good scheme, they don't make a lot of mistakes. They don't put the ball on the ground carelessly. I hope we're better mentally."
On Powell back to defense: "Powell came to me and talked about it. He wasn't playing as much offensively as I thought he might play ... He asked if he could go back, and I said yeah. So he's back at corner."
On Bolden: "He's a true freshman. Again, I keep going back to it, we didn't have him in the spring. Everything that comes up is new. We've had to kind of bring him along. He's getting at that stage where now he's a guy who's gotta make some plays, too. He's played enough football now that he's got to make things happen, and I think he will."
On agents in college football: "We talk about it all the time. Sometimes you guys get upset because I keep practice closed. I don't want a lot of people around that I don't know. That doesn't mean I can't keep them going to the dormitory. I'm not nave enough to think we've got some kids who have never talked to an agent or maybe even taken some things. I'm not pointing the finger at anybody. I think we're OK. It's going on all over the place. I hope that our guys are not getting involved. But if you asked me, are you 100 percent sure it's not going on, no, I'm not 100 percent sure."
On evaluating players through injuries: "I think that's something that goes on when you have a lot of guys who haven't played a lot of football. ... The injuries have certainly made it tougher. ... We're not the only team that has lost players. We may have lost more, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse. We have to have some guys rise to the occassion, and that'll happen."
On Powell: "He's gotta make a spot for himself. I thought I said he came and asked if he could try it on defense because he wasn't playing as much as he thought he would on offense or as much as I thought he would. ... It was his idea. I didn't go to him."
