Check back here for live updates from Joe Paterno's press conference, which will begin shortly ...
On whether he'll return: "Yeah, you got something I don't know? I'm looking forward to it. We've struggled a little bit this year with youth, injuries and the whole bit. ... I think we can be a pretty good football team next year, and I'd like to be a part of it. ... It's been a good situation and I don't see any reason to leave it right now."
On Urschel and Farrell: "I think both Urschel and Farrell did really well considering neither kid played more than five snaps in games. ... I would doubt very much [Klopacz] is going to play but he's a tough kid."
On Mauti: "Mike is going to be in a green cross. ... A green cross, you can do some things. They have him in a green cross for today. I think after we watch him today we'll have a better idea of what he can do."
On Wisniewski: "He'll be at center as we did Saturday when the other kid got hurt. ... We had that problem with kids being late, so we couldn't play Pannell. Now we have Pannell. ... [Stefen] would go to center and who would play at guard, I don't know. ... Urschel and Pannell would compete for the guard spot Wisniewski would leave."
On Thanksgiving plans: "It's hard to do anything special for the team because it's a big game for us. We're playing a really good football team, and I'd like to see our kids go out there for 60 mintues and walk away from it feeling like they can compete. I don't know how you can do that and give them a full day off. If their families want to come up, we'll open up the training table and have dinner with the squad. We're going to do everything we would do, except for the fact hopefully we are aware it's Thanksgiving and we do have a lot of things to be thankful for."
On Wisniewski: "He has never allowed what he wants to do academically interfere with what he does on the field. His leadership qualities, although I think he's been so tied up with what he's wanted to do academically he hasn't been around the team as much as he might like, Brackett has filled that spot. His dad was a tremendous player. His uncle was an all-pro for years and played pro ball for a long time. Both those guys were great students."
On beating ranked team: "I think it is important. I think I alluded to that. We've got to go out and be able to play a full game against a good opponent and make some things happen for ourselves. Playing a ranked team such as Michigan State that plays a very intelligent game, they're very disciplined and very well coached, at this time of the year, we're a young team that has had to battle a lot of different problems, I think this is a very important experience for them."
On quality of Big Ten: "I think this is one of the better years. Your memory plays tricks on you, but a couple years we had some really good teams that didn't get the recognition they should've gotten. I think the quality in the league has been excellent. I think we have three or four teams that could play with anybody in the country and handle their own."
On Dantonio: "He had to make some tough decisions. He had to eliminate some players from the team for a period of time. ... They're an older team. They've got four or five fifth-year guys on defense and three or four on offense. ... I think he's done an excellent job, and he's really a good person. I've said this 20 times if I've said it once, I think there's so many good young coaches in this league right now, and Mark would be one of them. ... Mark certainly is one of the guys I've admired for the way he's handled some things. ... I think Mark is certainly one of the better coaches around."
On saying he hopes to return: "I didn't say I hope to. I'm gonna."
On whose call it is for him to return: "Oh, hell, I don't think it's entirely my call. I'm not running the university. But I would hope what I want to do would be taken into consideration and going from there."
On managing down time: "I'm trying to figure out a better way to practice. We have some kids who are having some academic problems and we set up a study hall for them. ... I am concerned. But there again hopefully we become mature enough we can handle some of that. ... They can't be walking around all over the place. They've gotta get some sleep, they've gotta do some homework as far as studying what Michigan State can do and what they're gonna do it. ... We've tried to work around it. Whether we're successful or not, we'll know Saturday."
On the senior class: "There weren't a lot of them. We probably have about eight kids who won't be back. The rest of the squad will be back. ... We have 59 kids who are freshmen or sophomores. We travel about 40 of them. The seniors have not been the dominant people. A couple of them have been good, solid kids, but they're not great players. ... We're gonna miss them all. They've been solid kids. There just hasn't been enough of them for me to tell you they dominated the squad."
On the opportunity for his team: "I don't mean to be evasive. ... I don't know. I just want to know who won the game and I want to know how Purdue did certain things. ... Purdue is right on the verge of being good. They do some things really well. They were on the verge of beating Michigan State."
On Dailey and Latham: "Andy and I talked this morning. He came over. He's a good student and wants to go on and get a Master's in hospitality in the business school. It's tough to get into graduate school on business. I told him just wait, there's no hurry. ... Let's play it by ear right now. He's a good kid and I'd like to keep him if I can. But whatever's best for him, we'll try to help him if we can."
On the guys who were late: "They got the order. I think the squad got the order. You have a responsibility not only to yourself but a responsibility to the other group. You've got 60, 70, 80 guys waiting while you decide to come over late, that's inconsiderate. ... I think we got the message across, and that's all I care about."
