COURTESY OF PENN STATE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT
Robert Windsor | Defensive Tackle
Q. James Franklin noted on Friday night how proud he was that the defense finished things off with the shutout, despite having third-stringers and true freshmen all over the field. What does that speak to you about the depth of this defense and kind of when you come to the sideline, when starters come to a sideline, the next man up is at a high level as well, it seems?
RW: Yeah, you kind of said it yourself. That tells us we have the depth and we have faith in the next guy up, so it's a good feeling to know that I can and a bunch of other starters can come off the field and have a good backup go in for.
Q. Adisa Isaac had a sack and a half and flashed out there. Has he flashed since he got here back in January? He's added 15 or so pounds. Were you surprised or anticipating when he got his shot that he would do that?
RW: No, I wasn't surprised. More than anything I was happy for him. He got his opportunity and took advantage of it.
Q. What are your thoughts on having HBO here for the past few days and what do you expect out of the episode that comes out?
RW: I think it's going to be fun to watch just because it's about us, but nothing's really changed. It's just another camera in the room. Everyone is kind of going about their business as usual.
Q. Do you ever get disappointed if a good player on the other team isn't going to play?
RW: That's a tricky question. Like at the same time, it's like, okay, he's not playing, SO that helps us. But another time, we're like, we want him to play and be able to stop him because that just shows how good we are. So it's like a double-edged sword.
Q. Who would be the best player that you've played against, do you think? Maybe specific to either your position or just a guy that you tried to tackle.
RW: That's a tough one. Who is the starting center from Ohio State? Billy Price. He was a good one.
Q. Before the season, you said that this was the best Penn State defense you've played on. Four games into the season, has your opinion changed at all?
RW: No. I have complete faith in my guys.
Q. What is it about this defense, has anything surprised you, positively in these first few weeks?
RW: The thing that's most surprising to me about these first weeks is how we swarm to the ball as a defense. There's the entire running back and they are surrounded by a bunch of Blue and White, so that's been really impressive to me.
Q. The HBO Hard Knocks with the Texans, the team held an imitation contest of Bill O'Brien. Is that kind of contest taking place this week for HBO with James?
RW: I don't know, but we can get that arranged. (Laughter)
Q. Who does the best imitation? RW: Antonio Shelton. (Laughter)
Q. As someone who has filmed you a lot, what's it like kind of constantly being filmed?
RW: You just kind of get numb to it after a while. It's just like, “oh, there's cameras.” At first, it's kind of weird, and you don't be yourself, but you learn to be yourself. It's like they are there all the time.
Q. Going against the O-Line every week in practice, how impressed were you with their bounce-back performance against Maryland and what do you see in practice that led to that impressive performance?
RW: Well, I was really pleased with it and they get better every week because we go hard. We do good versus good every week, and we are going all out. So I'm getting them better, and they are getting me better. I'm real proud of the guys for their performance.
Q. You guys are wearing those different uniforms this week. What's the favorite element of that for you?
RW: Looking good.
Q. What's the favorite part about it? Some of your teammates really like the shoes.
RW: We really like the white cleats. They really pop.
Q. Having faced four running backs, it seems like a rotation in practice, is there any difference between them in terms of styles, especially the freshmen, Noah Cain and Devyn Ford, what makes them more difficult or different?
RW: They all have their own style of play. Like Noah will lower his shoulder and Devyn will try to juke you. We have power backs and we have speed backs, so it's good to have both.
Q. If you feel like you haven't gotten to the backfield for sacks as much as maybe you would want to, can you explain to me, what is it that an offense can do or what is it that an offensive line can do that makes that harder for you?
RW: Well, one thing I think is that offenses, they know we have a good D-Line so they are prepared for it. One, they are getting the ball out quick, and two, they are max protecting. So I'm not worried about the sacks. I know they are going to come.
Q. What changes when teams are putting a lot of attention on Yetur Gross-Matos?
RW: When teams put a lot of attention on Yetur, that frees up either someone on the inside or the other defensive end because he's taking two guys, and one of us gets a one-on-one and we have to win those one-on-one matchups.
Q. Is it difficult to look at? Do you feel like there are some you could have won and didn't?
RW: I'm sure there have been some one-on-ones that we've not won but also ones we've won. We just go back and get better and we're going to continue to get better each week.
Q. Can you just discuss the challenges that Purdue's offense is going to bring this week?
RW: Well, as you know, their QB is out, their best wide receiver is questionable. But that's not going to change our approach at all. We're expecting -- we're just going to play how we play defense, hard-nosed defense and we're expecting a lot of passes.
Q. There there's been a lot of talk about the HBO people being around. Is Hard Knocks something that a lot of the players watch during your own training camp? Have you watched it over the years and how much are guys kind of fans of that show?
RW: I mean, yeah, guys watch it because some of our former teammates are on it and we like to talk about it, so it's a cool thing.
Q. A couple guys I know you see in practice, Ta’Quan Roberson and Michael Johnson at quarterback. What do both of those guys do to challenge you on a daily basis, and how are they different, those two freshmen quarterbacks and how they are able to challenge your first and second team defense on the practice field?
RW: They get us better every day by trying their hardest. They get frustrated sometimes being over there, the scout team, because obviously they want to be with the ones and twos. But they know their role and they are playing it.
Q. In that same regard, Will Levis was in that role last year. Was he as fiery in that role leading the scout team offense, as we see him in games when he's juiced up?
RW: 100 percent. Will is Will. The Will you see is the Will he was last year.
Q. You said former teammates on Hard Knocks. Are you talking about Carl Nassib?
RW: Yeah, an example, was Nassib.
Q. He was giving financial advice, wasn't he?
RW: He was. I don't know how accurate, but he was.
Q. Juice Scruggs, the situation he's been in, to see him getting back into football at this point, what has that meant to everybody else on the team?
RW: We're obviously happy to see our teammate get healthy. Putting in the work. That just shows if you play hard, it's going to pay off, especially even when it comes to injuries.