Michigan State Football
Head Coach Mark Dantonio
Postgame Press Conference
vs. Penn State – October 13, 2018
Opening Statement
Big win for our program – program win. You come up here and you're banged up a little bit, we didn't bring any guys with us. Obviously eight guys that usually play are out, but we talked a little bit about overcoming some adversity as we came up here. It was going to be a great environment to play in and that did not disappoint – what a great environment. We just kept banging. We had a couple big plays go against us in the first half, but I thought we rallied back with the big fake punt and the halfback pass after that to get us the touchdown. Seems like it took us forever to get it in from the one, but we got in. Very, very proud of our football team. I asked them to play like we were 5-0 and I think we did that. Penn State has a very good football team, a very good football team, and I am sure that will show as time goes on as well. I am really excited about the win and sometimes winning or losing – whether we won or whether we lost – at the end of the day it's not always about winning or losing it's about how you play and how you come with it and how you hand together through tough times. We've had a couple tough moments here this season already, but we rebounded and pushed back, and I was very proud of our team.
Q: Was this a character revealing moment?
A: I would say we had character all along. There has never been any doubt in our character. I've always believed that we have a good belief system, we have good chemistry and we just have to keep playing. Things aren't always going to go our way but that is part of life. Things don't always go that way, but I'm very proud of how we've played through things. Once again, we played hard.
Q: You made the decision to do more zone than power running today, and it certainly paid off. Was it something you saw from Penn State, or a decision that with your personnel you thought you needed to do today?
A: No, we needed to simplify. I thought we needed to simplify, and our coaches felt like that; simplify a little bit and spread people out. We probably ran more RPO's today than we had. But I thought Coach Warner did an outstanding job calling the game. We go down the field in a minute-whatever, and at the end I was beating myself up – should we not have gone for it on fourth? Should we have gone for it? Should we have punted? We took the sack so a little extra time ran off so it wasn't good, but we got the ball back. I thought the defense played very well, especially in the second half. I think we gave up three points in the second half. Had two big runs against us. Played well against the pass. [Trace] McSorley is a tremendous football player, so is Miles Sanders, and they've got others. He's going to buy time and make you sweat it out on every single down. Great drive at the end; Laress Nelson – we were about ready to redshirt him, looks like we won't now. I'm not sure how many catches he had, but he had a couple huge catches on the last drive, maybe the last two drives. Just very excited for our football team. Again, we talked about these type of things, how we were going to have to come into this environment and play. It was going to be a tough environment but one of those games that we just keep hanging around, just keep hanging around. Good things are going to happen, and eventually that's what happened.
Q: Why did you punt? That's the kind of decision you used to see a lot 10 or 20 years ago, but with two minutes to go, what went into that decision?
A: Well we had just taken a sack, so it was down fourth-and-10. We did have three timeouts left, and I felt if we could stop them they were probably going to run the ball and use the clock and their timeouts, and we would get the ball one more time and have another shot at it. So, we did it the way we practiced. We practice those type of situations, and it worked out. You can always point to that and say it's one way to do it. I guess you could look the other way and if we had been on fourth-and-seven or fourth-and-10 I felt like the game was over if we didn't make it because they were too far down the field.
Q: Felton Davis gets hurt on a few plays the last game, he talked about he knew there was no way he could not be in the game. Can you talk about the way he played there?
A: He played very well. We tried to move him around a little bit to get him targeted so he would have opportunities to catch the football. I'm not actually sure how many catches he had, but he had a couple big ones. Again, on the third down play with a couple seconds to go, I knew we could line it up and kick a field goal and go into overtime. Coach Warner asked me what we wanted - do we want to run it here or do you want to throw it? – and I said why don't we just throw a touchdown pass and go to the end zone. So that's what we did.
Q: What did you think on the fake field goal call and also the two [trick plays] that worked in the first half?
A: I felt with the fake field goal, I didn't really want to play for a tie. We worked on it, and I thought it was a 'Little Giants' deal. I thought Ray [Reaquan Williams] had a chance to make it, and they defended it well. Lewerke put it on the money and we got it out, but we are just going to keep playing. We are going to play to win. They didn't want to play to line up and tie it. Quite honestly, I felt like Penn State was too explosive, and McSorley creating too many loose plays, and eventually they would find their way back down the field. At least it put them in a different mode of operation with four minutes to go. They still threw it the first couple times, but I just wanted to play to win, and I thought we had an opportunity for it.
Q: Getting back to Felton, he said that you guys play a little tighter, a little more focused when there are doubts and questions outside. Do you agree, and why do you think that's so?
A: Cary Wallace said you have to bring that chip mentality back and bring a poker chip with you to the game. So, anybody got a poker chip? We walked in we slammed it down. It's a source of commitment
Q: There used to be a lot of games like this in this league 10, 20 years ago. Are you comfortable with this kind of football? Do you miss it?
A: Well, I'd rather win 50 to nothing, if that's what you're asking me. We're two good football teams, playing good defense and that's just the way the game goes sometimes too. There weren't a lot of turnovers. I think they had one and we had one. We were just playing the way they come. If you win with a high score that's great; if we win with a low score that's great too. If we play hard, we do everything we can do, and we lose we can handle that too.
Q: With pass defense, through the course of the year you've sprang some leaks here and there, but today you guys have obviously been working on that.
A: We made some plays. I want to look at the tape, but football's a game of inches. I keep saying that over and over. It's a game of repetition, it's a game of inches. Sometimes you find those inches and sometimes they find them. I thought last week they found them a couple of times. I still go back to the two losses we have. I don't like those, but we deal with the reality right now. This is what we are – we're 4-2. We're very excited about that, and obviously a big game next week. That will be another challenge.
Q: You went with one offensive line. That's kind of rare for the last couple year. What did you see to make that happen?
A: Well we have guys out, so that made that happen. We had one guy that we really would substitute in there and that had started for us before. I'm not sure how much [Luke] Campbell played but I thought he was in there some.
Q: That being said, that run that La'Darius [Jefferson] had it was the one thing you looked for.
A: We had that bust-out run. He had two big plays. He had that bust-out run – I think that's the time we went down to fake the field goal, and then the next time I think we hit Connor Heyward on a swing and he got down the sideline for a pretty big gain as well. I can't say enough about our football team, our guys and our players. That's what keeps you coaching to be honest with you. Moments like this you see people gear up and get themselves ready to go. I can't describe it to you, but I am very proud of our football team and how they handled things and how they went forward and just kept playing. We weren't perfect, that's for sure. I looked up and Brian had 40 yards passing because we hit a halfback pass. There were a lot of things going on.
Q: You guys were really beat up, as much as you ever have been that I remember, and they had a bi-week. Did you even address that, or do you just act like it doesn't exist? They're well rested and you're beat up.
A: We've got players. We have guys that are waiting in the wings for an opportunity. CJ Hayes played a lot today. Laress Nelson made some big catches. Cam Chambers had a couple big catches as well. Those are all guys that had not been at the forefront – Cam had played more, but Connor Heyward made a couple plays, you had La'Darius making some plays, Dotson had a big catch – so we spread it around a little bit. We talked about when you are at odds with things, rising up may be your biggest challenge, but it also might be your biggest triumph. That's very rewarding if you do things like that.
Q: How long do you get to enjoy this, knowing Michigan is up next?
A: Probably the flight home.
Q: What does this say for your defense, against a team averaging 46 points per game, you holding them to 17, just as a group?
A: I think our defense played very well. We gave up a couple big runs. Miles hit us. We were out of a gap and he made it all in the one run. You don't make five guys miss, six guys miss. So, they've got a football team, they've got good players, and take that to the bank. They are well coached, and at the same time we just snuck by, which is all we needed to do.