Things Discussed

• Sean McKeon's blocking
• Nick Eubanks' big-play ability
• Eubanks' progress as a blocker
• Zach Gentry's potential

[After THE JUMP: Get Sherrone Moore a revenge tour shirt]

 

“How are you doing?”

 

Pretty good, how about you?

 

“Awesome.”

 

Jim (Harbaugh) has talked about Sean McKeon’s blocking quite a bit this year. How far have you seen him come in that area?

 

“He’s been outstanding. He allows us to do so many things from multiple positions. He just continues to get better every week with his focus, with his determination, drive. He’s been awesome. Done a really good job for us.”

 

What have you seen from Penn State’s personnel, in terms of what jumps out at you, their best players?

 

“Overall, as a defense, they’re fast. THey’re active. Try to cause a lot of confusion with all the movement. … They’re a good defense. We’ve gotta come out, we’ve gotta be focused and make sure we got our hat on those guys. Take it to the first level in the run game and then on the back end, they’re fast, they’re athletic. So, it’ll be a challenge, but it’ll be a good game.”

 

Anybody in particular?

 

“Oh, as a whole, really. I try not to point out one guy, just cause —”

 

Mess up your strategy?

 

“Yeah. Just make sure we take care of business and block each level. … Not really one guy, more so as a whole. They just do a good job with their whole defense.”

 

Seems like Nick Eubanks is kinda becoming a bigger threat in the passing game. Where have you seen him progress the most?

 

“Really, the crazy thing is, probably his run blocking. He’s done an outstanding job of developing his knowledge of the run game, but he’s always had the natural athletic ability to do those things. ANd he’s starting to show it more and more and more. And he’s just gonna keep doing it cause he keeps involving himself and really investing in the whole playbook. And he’s done an outstanding job of that. And every day, he just gets better and better. I told him that yesterday, so I’m excited to see where that goes.”

 

Where’s Zach Gentry right now, compared to where you see his potential being?

 

“He’s still got more room to grow. He gets better and better every week. Still gotta fix little fundamental things in the run game. And he does an amazing job when it comes to knowing what to do, being where you’re supposed to be and making plays in the passing game. He’s done that every week for us, so he’s been really good.”

 

You may not have anything to compare this to, first year, but are you seeing a singular focus among this team that each week — and how are they maintaining that?

 

“It literally is one game at a time. Nobody looks at anything else but that game. That’s the biggest game of the year, and it’s been pretty awesome to be a part of. I don’t have anything to try to ask the guys, if there’s anything different. They said there’s a different feel. Just the kids in general are focused on every week at a time, there’s no looking ahead. It’s, take that opponent as serious as you can. It’s the championship game every single week. That’s how we’re looking at it.

 

Cause it’s easy to say that. It’s easy to say one game at a time. But you definitely are seeing —

 

“Yeah, you definitely are seeing it every single week. Guys invest their time, whether it’s in the meeting or outside the meeting, there’s guys always around here, watching film, doing those things. Make sure they’re investing. You can see the focus every single week.”

 

It seems like Nick, every time he catches the ball, it’s like a 20-25 yard gain. Is that like a product of teams underestimating his receiving ability or is that his growth as a receiving tight end?

 

“Yeah, probably a little bit of both. When you have three guys, they’ve gotta deal with three different guys that can make plays in the passing game, in the run game. Sometimes he gets lost, then all of the sudden, he’s open or he makes a big play. He’s taking advantage of the opportunities. The ball is going his way, he’s going up and getting it, making big plays out of it. So, kind of a combination of both.”

 

There’s a lot of talk with bad blood, looking for redemption with last year’s Penn State game. Have you had to take an approach to sort of catch up to speed with that and match that intensity?

 

“No. I don’t even get into that. I’ll let the players deal with that one. I just take it as serious as I can. Every game, it’s another game and we gotta take it as serious as we can. Cause they’re a good football team. So, as far as last year, let the players handle that. Just make sure we’re doing the right things.”

 

Does it make it easier to motivate though? When you know they’ve already got that in their heads

 

“I think it’s — when you’re playing at Michigan, the motivation is enough. Just the pride and everything oyu have with the tradition here, it’s very easy to motivate these guys. Every week. They’re ready to go, so the revenge, all that, I don’t get into that. Just let the players play. And they’ve been doing a good job every week of focusing on every single bit of it.”

 

You don’t have a revenge tour t-shirt?

 

“No. I don’t even know what those look like. I just kinda roll.”