Cam Brown | Linebacker | Jr./Jr.
Q. What do you remember about Michigan State's quarterback from the game last year and what have you seen on tape this year from him?
CB: What I remember is the fact that he can move well. He moves better than some of the quarterbacks we've seen. He likes to throw the ball, I mean, I don't know if they are always accurate, but his receivers just make good plays.
For us, it's the same as usual. It's like practicing against Trace [McSorley] again, knowing you have to worry about the run and worry about the throw at the same time.
Q. There are a lot of reps spread across the linebacker group throughout September, but by the end of it, you were getting a large percentage of that. How do you feel like you developed through those five games, maybe where you're at game six versus where you were when you hit the field for App State?
CB: Honestly, I feel the biggest difference in me is my conditioning. I feel I can go 100 percent the whole game. I feel like the guys around me are still supporting me and helping many me get better every time, like Koa [Farmer] and Jan [Johnson]. They help me with little things on the field. As a whole unit, I feel like everybody has moved forward very well.
Q. Building off talking about the whole unit, can you evaluate the linebackers as a position group? What do you think you're doing particularly well now? what are some areas that you need to improve upon?
CB: I think that what we're doing well is we're moving to the ball and we're playing fast, sideline-to-sideline really well. I feel like we have room to improve, like filling our gaps and being 100 percent sure on our run fits, but other than that, I feel like the guys are playing at a high level.
Q. Who has been the biggest surprise to you at linebacker so far this season?
CB: The biggest surprise, that's a tough question. I want to say Jan Johnson. His athleticism is showing that he's more athletic than some people give him credit for. I mean, I believed that he was faster and that he can make the plays that he's making, but to see it come to fruition on the field is a big thing for him.
Q. When you guys get into third-and-long there's a subpackage where you have four defensive ends on the front four. What's that like as a linebacker to have a guy like Gross-Matos as like a D-tackle? Kind of a scary thing for the offense but for you, what's that like?
CB: Oh, I know that the quarterback is going to be getting the ball out in a hurry. I know that up front, their pass-rush is ridiculous. That's pretty much the plan when you put four D-Ends in, to get that speed on the field. With them, it gives you a confidence boost that you can sit in your coverage and you won't be sitting there long.
Q. What was this bye week like for you? Were you able to watch some games? How did you reflect on, I know you've moved on from the Ohio State game, but how have you reflected on that and moved forward?
CB: It's been less reflecting and more so watching film on Michigan State and resting and perfect the things that we did wrong in the last game. But right now, we're just moving on and trying to figure out what we've got to do to stop these guys.
Q. What was said or done in terms of not letting this steam role go into another week? Who maybe stepped up and said, it's one game, you're moving on? How did the leaders on this team approach that?
CB: I feel like it wasn't one person. I feel like it's everybody. We're on to the next game. It's a mentality. It's kind of what we've been going with for the last two, three years, just the next game up. I feel like the team knows we have to move on and not let it be the end of our season, so we're going to come in and beat Michigan State this week.
Q. What about the weird lightning delay last year? What were you doing in the locker room in that time? As you look back on it, what sticks with you?
CB: We had a rough game. That's all I can really say. That delay didn't really help. We didn't come out as strong as we could have. I don't really know. There's not much you can say about a three-hour delay in a game.
Q. When you're sitting there in that moment?
CB: It got to the point where, when we kept hearing the delays going on, we were playing hangman in there and we would talk to the coaches here and there. It was kind of like we had too much time.
Q. Coach Franklin mentioned this striving for 1 percent better in whatever it may be, whether it's classroom, on the field, preparation throughout the week. What is that 1 percent for you what do you think that means for you individually?
CB: For this week, especially for me, it was recovery, just getting back to where I can run and play as fast as I could after that game.
Q. You said you watched film over the bye week. First three quarters, the defense looked great against Ohio State. Fourth quarter, a little bit of a lapse and a couple other times throughout the year. Is there a common thread when you have those kinds of lulls defensively? What can you kind of do as a unit to overcome that going forward?
CB: As a unit, we're moving on. We're trying to think of ways that we can fix the problems. It's not a continuous problem that's going on. I feel like each game it's something a little bit different.
Juwan Johnson | Wide Receiver | Sr./Jr.
Q. How are you doing?
JJ: Feeling great right now. Just had a bye week, so it's a good time, talked to the family, went to my friend's house, enjoyed time with them. It was a good time to just relax and watch a couple games.
Q. Last year, you guys fell to Ohio State by one point and then you headed into Michigan State. How are you using last year as a learning experience? Why will this season be different this time around?
JJ: Just taking it, as we always take it, one game at a time. We try not to flashback to last year or the years previous. We're just sort of trying to just focus on now; focus on what we can do this game to do better and work from there.
Q. Teams have had a lot of success throwing the ball against Michigan State this year. What have you seen on film that is allowing that to happen?
JJ: They are a great team. They fell a couple times, which any other team has, but they are a good team. Just fell to some great teams that they played.
Just watched the Northwestern game, but they played them well. I didn't watch the offensive side, but defensively they played great. They played the best they could, but they just fell short.
Q. What other games did you watch this weekend?
JJ: As you can imagine, I saw the LSU-Florida game. I saw the Mississippi State game. I was just watching games like that. Just able to sit back and watch games and be an actual fan of the game was fun to do.
Q. Weird seeing Joe Moorhead on a different sideline?
JJ: It's definitely weird, but you know, I was here before he got here. I was able to obviously watch the game. It's definitely different seeing him in another color but it's fun to watch him because you know you're in that offense and seems funny, you're calling out plays of what they have done. He's done an awesome job.
Q. How big is it to have K.J. [Hamler] on Saturday and in the game against Ohio State?
JJ: Well, we're not talking about that but when he's on the field, he's pretty electric. He gives you that confidence when you're next to him and we kind of feed off each other. When he's on the field, he's a big part of the offense.
Q. It was such a weird scenario last year with you guys in that three-and-a-half hour lightning delay. What do you remember about being in that cramped visiting locker room and what did you do for that amount of time?
JJ: To be optimistic about that day, it was a time where we kind of bonded and had our own little time together. You don't get too many times where you're in the game and you're just chilling with your teammates for three hours in the locker room. It was fun. We were listening to music. Some people were taking naps. Some people were watching Netflix. I don't remember what season I was watching, but I was definitely watching Netflix. We were just relaxing and, just kind of getting our minds off the game, but sort of having our minds on the game.
Q. Can you assess how your season has gone so far? You've made some spectacular plays, but then there's been some other plays that have gotten away from you. How do you see it?
JJ: I try to be optimistic about it. Being the bad plays that happened, you try to forget about them. Obviously, you don't want to reflect on what's bad. Think about the positive things that happen and feed off that, because the moment you start thinking about the negative things, you're going to start feeling a certain way and going to start getting into your head.
Only thing you can do is think about the positive things, like the big plays I made or the thing I do with my teammates or how we communicate and sort of work off of that, go back to the drawing board, whether it's film or things like that and work from there.
Q. You've played with Trace [McSorley] for a long time now. Is there a specific time when you just see him lock in where you're glad that he's not on the opposing team? When is he kind of at his best for you guys?
JJ: You can't really tell, just sort of when he steps on the field. He just never changes. I'm quite sure I've said that before, and when he steps on the field, he's just a different person. He's just always locked in. He's that word that we always talk about and he's always competitive.
When he steps on that field, I'm like, man, I'm glad he's on my team and we just sort of work from there, whether it's communicating from wide receiver to quarterback or whether it's off the field with film and stuff. He's always that competitive person that everyone always talks about.
Q. What was maybe said within the last week to reiterate to you guys that it can't snowball like it did last year from Ohio State to Michigan State? Who was leading those conversations and how was that delivered?
JJ: I guess what you probably heard, Nick Scott and Trace were the ones in the locker room talking, saying things like this happens and it does suck that we lost, but sort of just moving forward. I always talk about bouncing back and being resilient and us coming back, working on the little things and focusing on the details, getting back to the drawing board and doing what we do, and that's pretty much winning. Once we focus on that and focus on the game-by-game, then we'll be all right.
Q. James Franklin just spoke about the need for you guys to find that 1 percent, whatever it may be. What is that for you? What is that 1 percent you want to work on?
JJ: The 1 percent is just being the better me. Being better than I was yesterday. Whether that's stretching or whether that's watching or film, doing schoolwork, anything like that. It's just being a better me than what I was yesterday, and that's pretty much all I can do.
Q. When we talked after the game, you had not looked at your phone yet for your responses to the one-handed catch. What were some of the responses that you saw?
JJ: Everyone was like, that was a crazy catch, or that was insane. It's sort of like I work on it every day. One hand, I work on catching every day. It was nothing surprising to me. I know that I made the catch, but just sort of me just being me.
I've always either done it in practice or just playing around, catching the ball. When I caught it, I had never done it in a game before, but in practice or you know just seven-on-seven in summer, things like that. It wasn't really a surprise.
Q. Pat Freiermuth's now the outright starter on top of the depth chart. Can you talk about what you see from him working to get to that point? Can you add to what James Franklin said: The stage is not too big for him.
JJ: I agree, the stage isn't too big for him. He was kind of nervous getting into it because freshmen have those jitters, but he came in, and he came in confident. In the summer time I saw something in Pat that you don't see from a freshman. He was very mature, very cool, calm and collected. I was very happy that he was a starter. I have complete confidence in him and it was good to be beside him and taking those snaps and doing the things that he did this past Saturday.
Q. There's a few veterans as a result of his rise that are falling down the depth chart. Have you seen them maintain confidence? How do you make sure those guys are in the right place mentally?
JJ: Well, the players on our team, we aren't jealous people. The only thing we are going to do is be more competitive. If we are falling off or if some people are calling off; say if I fall off or one of the other wide receivers fall off, we're going to build off each other and going to get better. We're not going to lose that guy. We're just bringing that person with us and bringing him and making him better.
Q. Mentally, when you go through those first five games and you have the drops and stuff like that, how do you work through that in terms of trying to flush that and forget it? How do you navigate all that? Who helps you through that?
JJ: Well, I sort of really don't care about people's opinions. Whatever they say, I don't really pay attention to it. But for the most part, I sort of just go through it. I mean, life continues to move on. You sort of move with the clocks. You can't reflect on what happened. You have to move forward and keep on working.
Q. Do you hear from former players when you have a struggle here or there? What do they tell you?
JJ: Yeah, I talk to Mike [Gesicki] a lot and I talk to DaeSean [Hamilton] a ton. Those guys really helped me out, saying, like, "man, how's it going", and they are pretty much saying, "it's all good, it's all part of the process. You're going to have hiccups and you're going to have bumps." That's pretty much all it is. It's not going to be perfect.
