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Pat Narduzzi hopes his team is ready for the challenge on Saturday at Penn State. Here's what he had to say about that and more on Thursday.

NARDUZZI: Three really good days. Tuesday was really, really, really good. Yesterday was - I told the kids this morning, it was a high-average practice. And today was a winning practice, really. It was much better. I got after them a little bit. We went out there in shoulder pads and helmets instead of what we call ‘spider’ pads; we went a little bit heavier today. And we hit quite a bit, because it’s going to be a physical game and we want it that way.

DO YOU NORMALLY NOT HIT AS MUCH ON THURSDAYS?
NARDUZZI: It kind of goes back and forth. Last week, we were in ‘spiders’ and it was a softer practice; you know, it was a long camp. But we’re good.

HOW MUCH OF A CHALLENGE IS THEIR TEMPO GOING TO BE, CONSIDERING THE CROWD NOISE AND EVERYTHING ELSE?
NARDUZZI: We’ve practiced tempo. As a matter of fact, we had a 10-play tempo on Tuesday against our offense, so I think that’s a good period. So we’re ready for the tempo. It won’t be as loud when their offense is on the field, of course, but there will be some buzz in there, of course. And we’ll find out what they want to do tempo-wise, but we’re prepared for both.

They like to line up slowly and they like to go no-huddle, so we’ll find out the tempo.

DID YOU PRACTICE INSIDE FOR THE NOISE THIS WEEK?
NARDUZZI: Noise, part of it, yeah. Part of it. You know, there’s a lot of hills, you know? Lot of hills and windows, you know?

HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU THAT THIS SATURDAY YOU’RE GOING TO GET THE FIRST-HALF TEAM THAT YOU HAD AGAINST YOUNGSTOWN, AS OPPOSED TO THE SECOND-HALF TEAM?
NARDUZZI: How confident am I? You know, as a coach, if I could guarantee you that, I’d be somewhere else - probably in heaven somewhere. But there’s no guarantee what you’re going to get. We need to have the first-half team; they know that. I think it’s easier to get it when you know you’re playing the No. 4 team in the country. I think it’s easier to get it. I think it comes natural that you kind of go, ‘Oh, we’re going to be fine; this is easy.’ I think I mentioned it in Monday’s press conference that we even had someone on the headphones say, ‘Hey, do you think we should get this guy out and this guy out?’ It was two guys to get out. I was like, ‘No.’ But every mind thinks a little different. Everybody thinks, ‘Hey, let’s protect and don’t get them hurt.’

But it’s a game, and we’re going to play, like I told you, with all our guys.

AS YOU WATCHED THE FILM OF SALEEM IN HIS FIRST GAME AT MIDDLE LINEBACKER, HOW DID HE DO?
NARDUZZI: Saleem did well. I thought Saleem had a solid game. Again, would I say anybody played good enough to beat Penn State? No. But they didn’t need to beat Penn State that day; they just needed to beat Youngstown State. But the way he operated, the way he executed, the way he communicated in there - he does not have an easy job and he did a nice job in there. He really did.

WHAT STANDS OUT TO YOU ABOUT PENN STATE’S DEFENSE?
NARDUZZI: Their front four. I don’t know if you watched the game or watched the videotape - it’s even worse - their front four just demolished Akron’s offensive line. They’re good up front. Their two 300-pounders inside, they stay square, they’re physical. Their linebackers are solid as well, really good. Manny Bowen, I recruited him and offered him in the past. Cabinda’s a good player. So they have players everywhere. They recruit, they’ve done a great job recruiting and their fourth in the country. They’re good everywhere.

GIVEN THAT NUMBER-FOUR RANKING OF PENN STATE, WILL YOU USE THE ‘SHOCK THE WORLD’ THEME IN YOUR PREGAME SPEECH?
NARDUZZI: No.

Next question.

YOU WON’T BE SHOCKED IF YOU WIN?
NARDUZZI: No. Will you? I guess so. Don’t even answer. I don’t want to know.

OBVIOUSLY YOU’VE ONLY BEEN PART OF THIS RIVALRY FOR A LITTLE BIT OF TIME, BUT YOU WERE PART OF ONE AT MICHIGAN-MICHIGAN STATE. THERE ARE SO MANY OF THESE GAMES BETWEEN BIG TEAMS EARLY IN THE SEASON THAT ARE BEING PLAYED AT NEUTRAL SITES OFF-CAMPUS; DO YOU FEEL LIKE THAT MISSES PART OF WHAT MAKES THIS GAME SPECIAL BY DOING THAT?
NARDUZZI: You mean playing at a neutral site like D.C. or New York? I would say for sure. I mean, for the city of Pittsburgh, you want to have it here. For State College, you want to have it there. And I think that’s what makes it special, for sure.

WHAT SEPARATED TYLER SEAR? YOU HAD HIM ON THE FIELD AND USED HIM IN A LOT OF THIRD DOWNS AND CRUCIAL SITUATIONS.
NARDUZZI: Tyler picks it up well. He moves well. He’s different from some of the other guys. And I’ll tell you: Charles Reeves is right there, too. We didn’t play him last week, but gosh is he a good looking fellow and he can run. I mean, he runs like, whoa. He doesn’t run like a future offensive tackle but he looks like one. He’s going to be a guy for the future, for sure. We’d like to hold him if we could; who knows? You don’t know what’s going to happen the next day.

But Tyler, just mentally and I guess where we needed him, I guess - he’s smart and he knows what to do.

LAST WEEK YOU GUYS HAD SOME COMMUNICATION ISSUES ON DEFENSE; HOW DO YOU CLEAN THAT UP DURING THE WEEK IN PRACTICE?
NARDUZZI: Substitution periods, we did a lot of that today. That was just freshmen. That substitution error we had was just - I think we put Stocker in for a series, so Stocker’s in and then we go to our nickel package, and when we go nickel, ‘Bricen you’re the…’…but it changes, you know, first time he’s ever done it and he wasn’t off the field. So that was the only time he’d ever done that and I don’t think we’ve practiced that situation so you can put that on us again, but sometimes you don’t get it.

The bad part about it is we didn’t have a timeout, you know? That was the poor thing. Because I’ve seen openers where you had that substitution error and you can kind of do this [motions a timeout]. But we got lucky.

HOW IS BOOKSER STEPPING BACK INTO THINGS?
NARDUZZI: He’s a little rusty, but he looks good. He’s Bookser.

HAVE YOU PUT HIM AT RIGHT GUARD AND ALTERNATED HIM WITH HODGES OR ARE YOU CONSIDERING DOING SOME OTHER THINGS ON THAT LINE?
NARDUZZI: Bookser can play right tackle, left tackle, left guard, right guard, center; he can do it all. In camp, we made him do it all because it was kind of, ‘He’s banged up a little bit so you go play over here.’ That’s how he got his reps because we weren’t giving him a lot of reps because of his situation. That’s part of the penalty, I guess.

But he’s gotten a lot of reps. He was cramping up on Tuesday; put it that way. He had a cramp on Tuesday. I looked over and I thought he had a knee problem; he went down like, ‘Oh no, what’s going on?’ But it was a cramp. But he was holding his knee and the guys yelled at him like, ‘Don’t hold your knee when you get a cramp.’ It kind of scares you when you see someone clenching for their knee. But he’s gotten his reps and he can play anywhere we need him to.

YOU MENTIONED THE FRESHMEN AND NEW PLAYERS YOU USED AND COMMUNICATION ISSUES; IS THERE AN EXTRA CHALLENGE GETTING THOSE GUYS READY TO WALK INTO AN ATMOSPHERE LIKE PENN STATE?
NARDUZZI: Yes. You don’t know what you’re going to get there either. We’ve practiced the noise and all of that, but it will be a different chaos. We can’t simulate everything. But there’s all details that you forget, whether it’s getting a backup in the game and all of a sudden going to a different package or how guys are going to respond. You can’t possibly cover them all. You try to get them all, but it’s tough.

DO YOU EXPECT TO HAVE CHAWNTEZ MOSS ON SATURDAY?
NARDUZZI: I don’t know. Chawntez could have gone the other day, too. But I think he’s much better. Let’s put it that way. I feel good. We have 48 hours. And counting.

IS THIS FUN FOR YOU? THIS GAME?
NARDUZZI: Every game is fun.

WHAT SPECIFICALLY - THE RIVALRY, IT’S CLOSE, YOU HAVE GUYS THAT ARE PLAYING AGAINST THEIR HIGH SCHOOL TEAMMATES -
NARDUZZI: Yeah, that’s not fun for me. I don’t get all into the high school - I didn’t get to play against them. It’s no different than the Ursuline-Mooney rivalry - it’s a rivalry game. For a coach, every game’s fun. I mean, if we didn’t have fun playing every game, I’d only get fired up for one game; as coaches we enjoy every game. I should say, as a coach, I enjoy every game except openers. I don’t really like the opening game of the season, to be honest with you.

I can actually say, yeah, this is more fun than last week. I told you Monday that I was relieved the opener was over with, because you don’t know what you have, even with an experienced team. But definitely more fun than last week. Openers are awful, I think, for everybody around the country.