Notes from Pat Fitzgerald's press conference: Penn State

Notes from Pat Fitzgerald's press conference this week:

- Fitz said he think Nick VanHoose might have played the best game of his career this week.

- Fitz said Northwestern offered all three of Penn State's linebackers and none of them visited. "That should tell you how good they are."

- Collin Ellis and Ibraheim Campbell are day-to-day. Both left the Western Illinois game. Tony Jones is not on the depth chart. I wouldn't hold your breath on him, but we'll see.

- Fitz said he liked Miles Shuler's "aggressiveness" on punt returns in this game. Felt they didn't do enough in the first two games with Campbell back there, which is why they made a change.

- On the offense: "From a production standpoint, I'm more concerned about points than I am about yards."

- Re: Shuler: "It's a rule of thumb in coaching that transfers usually don't work." (Note: This was to say that Shuler is an exception. Sorry for any confusion).

- Fitz said Siemian struggled in part because of his ankle injury. But he also said Trevor Siemian needed to be out there. It sounded like if the offense was doing better, he wouldn't have played.

- Fitz seemed kind of angry at some of the holding calls that have gone against his team. He doesn't think the line has been doing anything wrong on some of those calls, and he noted that just because they knock someone down, that doesn't mean it's illegal.

- Fitz said he wasn't worried about the checkdowns from Siemian on first and second down, and he especially wasn't worried about Siemian checking it down because he was injured. But he did acknowledge there were concerns on checkdowns on third down.

- The players came up after Fitz and Paul Jorgensen did admit that they have "placed an emphasis" on putting more guys on the line and pounding the ball more.