Jordan Norwood stood in Penn State's interview room after his team's win over Buffalo Saturday, talking with reporters like he does after almost every game.
In every corner of the room, the junior wide receiver's teammates were getting asked the same question over and over again, just phrased differently:
"Are you looking forward to playing Michigan?"
"How does preparation change, now that you're heading into the Big Ten schedule?"
"Has this team been tested enough so far to be ready to face the Wolverines?"
What the reporters wanted to know: Does this Lions team think it can go into Michigan Stadium and beat the Wolverines for the first time since 1996?
A lot of players will be asked those questions throughout this week. Some players will be more honest than others will -- no matter how they respond, though, every one of them has to be thinking about revenge. The players have to be thinking about how sweet it would be to end Michigan's conference title hopes -- and keep their own alive.
They just won't always come right out and say so.
Players have dodged the Michigan questions with tired sayings.
"You don't want to look in the past too much," senior linebacker Dan Connor said.
Norwood, however, was willing to let his guard down long enough to convey his true feelings about Saturday's game.
"I think we can beat Michigan," Norwood said. "We're playing confidently."
Norwood wasn't making a prediction, he was showing confidence -- something that this team is going to need when it heads into Michigan Stadium. You have to give him some credit for the glimmer of honesty that escaped his vocal cords, because yesterday, it was back to the same old lines.
"We have to be ready for a big-time football game," junior cornerback Lydell Sargeant said yesterday during a conference call.
Norwood's teammate, junior wide receiver Deon Butler, said he didn't know about Penn State's decade-long struggle against Michigan until this week's round of questioning began. But he doesn't blame the reporters for wanting to ask about it.
"You just realize that that's their job and they want to know about it," Butler said yesterday.
For a handful of players, Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the season means round after round of questions from reporters -- whether it's on a conference call or in Beaver Stadium's media room.
Jeff Nelson, Penn State's sports information director, along with other team spokesmen, are charged with talking to the players beforehand to prepare them for questions.
"We knew that there would be questions about the fact that they've won quite a few games against us in a row," Nelson said. "About playing out there. About the game two years ago, for the older guys."
Nelson also instructs the players on what to avoid saying to reporters. Obviously, there are things players should avoid saying to the press -- if they say something negative about their opponents, it could serve as motivation for revenge in the coming game.
Also, everything they say can and will be printed, blogged and broadcast to anywhere a Penn State football fan might want to hear it.
But the players shouldn't tread so cautiously through their interviews. If they think they can beat Michigan, why hide that confidence?
"You guys ask the questions," junior cornerback Justin King said. "I just answer them."
Kevin Horan is a senior majoring in journalism and political science and a Collegian football writer. His e-mail address is kjh5017@psu.edu.
