Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio
Opening Statement…
First of all, a tough night. We turned the ball over. It is tough to win a football game when you turn it over. I think turnovers were 4-1 so we were minus three in the turnover margin, plus a blocked kick so it makes it difficult. We can't turn the ball over on punt on the 5-yard line. That's just sort of intensifies things even more so for us, but the way the game spun I think a couple things. One early in the first quarter we get a shut down, we get a holding call, a PI I guess for holding. They get the first down and they're able to go down the field I believe and score a touchdown. We didn't have an opportunity to get off the field. That's their points for the first quarter. Things sort of roll when as you go through and I'm looking at it and could never just get on track. Seeing this whole second half, we get bad field position and we punt it back to them and we needed to punt much better than we did. I think that was the first time we punted that bad and I'm sure the weather had something to do with it. Lewerke's balls weren't coming off his hand and there was no tight spiral and I'm sure again the weather probably had some effect on that. We never could really get anything going on the offensive side of the ball. I will credit our football team for not quitting and that goes with everybody in the program, but we need to do better, have to do better so we will recollect ourselves. We got some injured guys that went down in the game. We lost probably one, two, three receivers and one didn't play coming into the game and we lost two more during the game so it was a little tough in that aspect, but we kept playing.
On the struggle with special teams…
It tells you we didn't play well enough to win on special teams and that it can hurt you extremely. You know Jake (Hartbarger), I don't think Jake has ever punted like that in his career and he has been playing for quite some time. I'm not sure what was happening, but he wasn't connecting. As far as the field goal block, the right tackle needed to be firm and punch and they penetrated in that area. The punt return, I think he could let that go and it would have bounced into the end zone. For whatever reason he backed up on the ball, heels should always be at the 10 and he fumbled it. Conditions weren't great, but he fumbled it. Nobody feels worse than he does, but you've got to continue to believe in guys who've also done things for you in the past too. You cannot win a football game playing like that on special teams.
On where the offense needs to be…
Football is a tough game. Football is a highly complicated, yet basic game I would say. You can complicate it all you want, and it can be as basic as a guy catching a ball or protecting or throwing the ball. From my perspective we need to execute better. There are things that we can do from a call situation. We've got a lot of the same plays that other people run as well. Timing and who to go to and those type of things, but we will look at everything, we'll address everything, but then on the flip side of things too. I think we also have to understand that we played three teams that are probably three of the better teams defensively in the country. You look at them statistically and what they have been able to do. They've given up eight touchdowns in seven games, so they are tough to score on. They've got good players and they execute, and they play good field position. Their punter did an outstanding job pinning us back a number of times, punting the football so they found a way to do those things. Everything is looked at, nobody is more disappointed in production than the offensive coaches or the offensive players and we've just have to keep recollecting ourselves and move forward. We are 4-4, as tough as it is to say that because I know everybody wants us to be 8-0 right now, but we're 4-4 and we played four very good football teams and I think we should be a very football again too, but right now, we are not playing well enough to be that very good football team. We need to recollect ourselves and get ready for Illinois. Again we have another week off, so this is unusual that we play basically one game in three weeks or almost four weeks, but we'll use that to our advantage at this point in time and get ourselves ready. As I said to our football team in there, football is a game of toughness, it is a game of toughness. You have to block, tackle, and do all that kind of stuff and execute, but you also have to be able to withstand things in terms of things mentally and emotionally. Sometimes you are going to win, sometimes you are going to lose and sometimes you are going to be on the short end of the stick, and I would say we on the short end of the stick today.
On the frustration of penalties…
We're very much so, you know we jumped offsides. You know it's a long football game, I can't really remember everything; there's a lot going on, but the holding call. I think holding is one of the most inconsistent things I see across the country. Now if you looked at my expressions, I don't think I agreed with that one. The offsides is on us, we jumped off. The fourth and one that they went for and we didn't stop midfield, and they went down to score and again on the shallow cross, but that quarterback did a nice job. I thought their quarterback did a really good job of extending plays. His player progression he got outside the pocket or he stepped up in the pocket, he moved laterally and did a shallow cross or vertically and they drained us out on the other side, so you know nobody's there.
On Julian Barnett playing in the second-half and not the first…
First of all, the answer to the first question is C.J. Hayes didn't play because he had an injury so he couldn't play. We had to move Darrell Stewart out to the outside - Darrell and Cody (White) are the two number one guys. We played Darrell outside and Julian played on the inside slot. Laress (Nelson) played on the inside slot until he went down and (Brandon) Sowards played on the inside slot and that's when Julian started playing.
On Brian Lewerke going back in for Theo Day in the late drive…
We felt like we had two experienced guys out there and as far as the drive on the field, I didn't think he was performing very well. We had three plays and out. You have to be able to at least execute and operate. I felt like putting him in the game would give him his first chance to really play football for us on the field. We were trying to give him an opportunity to show what he can do a little bit and maybe spark us a little bit. But also give him a taste of all this. This was his first time in there and I'm sure he'll be better, but I didn't feel like he was going to allow us – he didn't give us the best chance to score. I really felt the way the game was going with 12 minutes to go, it was 28-7. If we scored a touchdown and get within two touchdowns and then get one more, you just never know. But we weren't executing very effectively.
On the message going into the bye week after going from 4-1 to 4-4…
Well, you have to play better; you can't beat yourself. You have to execute. There are certain things when you play a good football team that you cannot do. I would say this particular game, you can't do any of these things and beat anybody, in terms of you have to have a good punting game, you can't get kicks blocked; you have to receive, as Jack (Ebling) said over here on all those points, you can't turn it over on a punt return. Then you have to effectively stay ahead of the chains a little bit, in terms of getting situations where you can win on third down and not be stuck in negative situations too often. I think as much as anything recollect yourselves, stay positive with what we're doing. As difficult as everybody wants to say out there, you can't abandon ship right now – you can't do that. That does not work, I know that. You have to remain positive. We have to get ourselves healed up. We have a lot of guys who are banged up, nicked up; guys that haven't played. You got to try to get those guys back and you have to stay positive that we are 4-4 – that's the beauty in it, I guess, if there is any beauty there. The beauty is we're not 2-7, we're 4-4. We got to take that and try to build on those things and get ourselves ready for Illinois. The only way I know how to do that is like I said before - stay tough, stay tough-minded, stay positive; don't get negative on people, place blame and say it's your fault. Stay positive and build into people and keep grinding. That's the only way I've known how to do it and that's what we'll continue to do.
On the decision to play Rocky Lombardi and the quarterback position moving forward…
I felt like just like anybody in any major league baseball team that sometimes maybe you need to bring in another guy to see what he's got tonight. I think the fair thing to do at that point in time is to find out what he's got tonight; can he move us a little bit? Can he throw the ball in the wet? And those types of things. When that didn't work and I felt like the next step would be to come back and give Theo a shot because I think the game experience is as important as anything and he had not had any game experience. I felt like game experience would at least give him an opportunity to say, 'okay, I've been in the game, I've been in a situation where there's some chips on the table,' and let's see what he can do. Went back to the other guy because I felt like I'm trying to score a touchdown so went back to Lewerke at the end because I felt like he gave us the best shot. We're going to keep trying to go to different people and give them opportunities but they have to make good on those opportunities too. I don't think putting in Rocky (Lombardi) in there was the white flag in terms of our experiences with Lewerke. I still think he gives us the best chance to win football games, I truly do and that's the bottom line.
On playing more of the younger guys going forward…
Trying to balance a little bit but it's not going to take away from what is it going to take to win a football game. I think Tre Mosley went out there and caught the ball well in traffic, made some difficult catches – I don't think he dropped one and they were close; there were some 50-50 catches there. It was good to see and I'm sure there would some other things that will be good to see – I think Brandon Wright poured it up in there a little bit. He's getting experience; he's got a lot of talent. We could probably use him a little bit more. It became a little bit more of a passing game as things continued on. Even with the weather being as it was, Penn State is tough to run on.
MICHIGAN STATE PLAYERS
Senior Tackle Raequan Williams
On penalties and frustration..
It's very frustrating because you see how small that is and how this game can change. We got hit on a lot of those so it's frustrating and we have to watch the film and realize how to pressure stop.
On evaluating the defense…
They got in the end zone four times and they got more points than us. So, it's not good.
On turnovers…
That's what we emphasized coming into the season. That's not good enough. We've got to get more turnovers.
On team confidence going into games…
They give us a lot of knowledge on every single team we play so you feel like you can beat them going into every single game.
On execution…
We're definitely not where we need to be. You need to get out and out- execute and that usually tells you who wins and who loses and we got out-executed today.
On week off and being 4-4…
I remember being on teams where we were three and nine. There's a lot to play for. It's not over and that's going to be the message going into this week. We need to get healthy and we've got to respond. That's the message.
Junior Linebacker Antjuan Simmons
On turning around the season..
We just have to get better, we can't keep shooting ourselves in the foot. We made a lot of mistakes and left a lot of plays out on the field, so we just have to fix our mistakes and keep a positive mindset. We just have to keep playing. In the first half we were down but we came back in the second half and kept fighting.
On being 4-4 heading into a bye..
We just have to play better. There is no other way to say it or any other way I can put it, we just have to play better and keep a positive mindset. Come back ready to work, take this bye week and get better, come back to play Illinois.
On being eight games in and not executing like they should be..
At times guys are trying to do too much, make plays, we just have to believe in our 1-11, dominate our 1-11. We have to play as a team, play as a unit, keep fighting, and be thankful we are here. We are here playing, we get to be here and play this game, it doesn't matter how hard it gets. No matter win or lose we still get to come back, walking around, talk to our families and be with each other, and come back and play this game of football.
Redshirt Freshman Running Back Elijah Collins
On practice leading up to today's game..
We had a good week of practice. We had everything prepared for, we had everything planned out and laid out to be successful, and we came out with high hopes.
On moving forward after the loss..
As things go on, we just have to correct the things we did wrong. Try to make an adjustment and just move forward, and try to make plays.
On if Penn State did anything that surprised him..
No, nothing surprised me. The things that they did were things that we knew were coming, we just have to make plays at the end of the day.
On bye week after losing some games in a row..
I mean a bye week can go either way. You can look at it two different ways, it can be positive or negative. For me personally, I think it's a good thing for us. We get to recuperate and get healthy, and come back together as a unit and go forward.
On how tough it is to go through this type of season..
Of course it isn't the easiest thing to do in the world, nobody likes to lose. So when you string some loses together like this, it's tough but at the end of the day we have to come out of this tougher and make plays.
On if it is hard not to get frustrated offensively not scoring..
For me I am a pretty calm guy, a calm individual, so for me I just look at it next play. It is a game of inches. You could score on one play, or maybe its a drive, you just never know. You just have to keep pushing.
Senior linebacker Joe Bachie
On tonight's outcome…
I thought that we practiced very really well for five or six days with the bye week going into it. We've seen everything that they were going to do, but it just comes down to execution. We didn't execute defensively and when you do that other teams make plays. Especially a team with that talent and with how good they're playing right now you can't give them free plays.
On Penn State's first touchdown…
We've seen it on film. They've ran it against Pittsburgh, got PI but it was an interception though, so they got the ball back. They ran it against Iowa. It worked, they got down, they might have scored, or they might have been at the two-yard line, but we've seen it and we know exactly how to cover it. Just execution is what it comes down to.
On not being able to get off the field…
You look at the defense in the past two years, we're very good third-and-long. I think especially last year we were pretty good third-and-long and third-and-ling you've got to get off the field. I mean everything's in our favor right there we've just got to be on balance. The one time they ran the ball maybe I should have made an adjustment out there on the field knowing that between the forties, they had to go for it on third down analytically and we've just got to execute.
On how the defense is going to get their takeaways…
Just keep attacking the ball. We've got to be a little more violent with our hands. We train; every day we do something whether we're coming and punching at the ball, not so much breaking at it but we've got to come with a violent mentality. Especially on a wet day like this it's very possible to get the ball off them but we just didn't do it.
On what went wrong during the game..
Execution, that's what it comes down to. Everything they scored on I mean they lobbed the ball in the corner and we've got to make a play on the ball that first touchdown. The second one we're right there. We've seen it thirty times on film. They run a simple inside zone, we know how to fit it up. Tyriq (Thompson) thought he had someone behind him that was going to help him. They scored on after the missed punt, but we just killed ourselves.
Michigan State senior quarterback Brian Lewerke
On difficult weather…
Very. The ball was very wet, so didn't make it easy.
On the frustration level right now…
We're just focusing on what we can do right now to get better during the bye week.
On the upcoming bye week…
Keep guys motivated and keep the energy high in practice. Gotta make sure guys are still doing and staying happy and positive at practice.
On team's confidence…
I have the utmost confidence in our game plan every week. There's no reason not to.
Michigan State senior safety David Dowell
On what he's seen after playing the tough teams…
Just little plays here and there, especially in the red zone. Not only us as a defense but us as a defensive backfield having better eyes and having our eyes in the right place. Not getting them in the backfield. Like I said just little plays here and there that if we don't, can resolve in a touchdown, but if we do, they can result in turnovers. Those are the things we gotta focus on.
On the fourth quarter…
My mentality is when I'm on the field, I never want to play to the scoreboard. Whether we're up 21 or down 21. That's the mindset that I take when I'm going to the field and I think that a lot of guys take going to the field. We just gotta keep playing. I think we were down what 21-0 at the half but it's like you still got an hour and a half of football to play, you can't just stop playing. Every time you go out there you gotta be able to make plays, regardless of the scoreboard.
On his interception…
Just keep competing. One thing we always talk about on defense is when you make a good play, celebrate. Not just move on to the next play. We celebrated. It was a little bit of a momentum changer for us, getting some enthusiasm back on the sideline. That was my whole mentality.
On the mental mistakes…
We can't beat ourselves on defense. The only thing we can do on defense is to continue to work on those things.
Penn State Head Coach James Franklin
Opening Statement…
I appreciate you guys all coming out and covering Penn State football. Obviously, we found a way to get a win on the road in this conference which is tough to do. The other thing that I'm very proud of is that it's hard to win week after week consistently in this conference and especially on this side of the conference. Every week, you turn on the TV and you see teams that are supposed to win, and they don't. Fifty percent of the country is unhappy right now, so the fact that we're 1-0, I'm pleased with. We won the field position battle, we won the turnover battle, but we clearly didn't win the penalty battle. But, we won the explosive play battle and met our goal. Obviously, the field position led by Blake Gillikin was huge in the game. That was a real positive for us. We had a bunch of injuries, but I don't think that they're injuries that will be long term. But they were injuries that held guys out. So, we had to go way down our depth chart and see a guy like Marquis Wilson get his first interception was big. So, overall I'm pleased that we got the win in a sloppy game. It rained the entire game, I don't know how it looked on TV, but it was a sloppy game. We were able to score early on in the first half before things got too messy to get a win, so I'm pleased with that. The bye week is coming at a tremendous time for us. I'm looking forward to maximizing in the bye week and take the next step.
On if the game plan was to get Pat Freiermuth the ball…
No, I know a lot of times guys have that discussion on why isn't this guy getting the ball or why is this guy getting ball. It's just how it played out tonight. Obviously, we had our game plan and each week we'd love for Freiermuth to get the ball because he's a great player for us, KJ (Hamler) and Jahan (Dotson) as well, and I could go on and on. But it depends on what the defense does and what they do once we call our play. A lot of those ones to Pat were RPOs for us. We easily could've handed the ball off, but the way they defended to stop the run gave us some 1-on-1s down the field or on the perimeter. He was fortunate to execute them. It wasn't like we went into it with a different mentality than we have each week, it's just really how their defense played out against the schemes we were trying to run.
On Sean Clifford's performance…
I thought he played really well in the first half. There are things that pop up that as a coach I struggle with. I take so much pride in not just the wins, but more importantly in how we win and how we operate and how we manage things. We've done a great job at protecting the football. The interception that we had is not how we do things. That's not how we operate. So, that one bothered me probably more so because I have such high expectations with him with how well he's played this year in terms of managing the football. But rolling out to the right, throwing across the field to the left in a wet game, that's not who we are, that's not good football. But overall, I love the kid. The kid plays with his heart. Ninety-nine percent of the time, he's making great decisions, and he's growing up right before our eyes. This is a tough place to come win, especially in these conditions. Overall, very pleased with him. I thought the first half, he played very well and the second half, we just weren't as clean and some things showed up that are uncharacteristic of us.
On the performance of special teams…
Obviously, the way we were able to punt the ball and pin them deep was big. I'd love to score every possession, but if you're not, you want to pin people deep and we were able to do that pretty consistently tonight. I think the last two weeks, that's been huge for us. That's Blake, but that's also (Drew) Hartlaub, (Dan) Chisena and (Chris) Stoll. I think that if we didn't get that early fumble by KJ back, the game could've been different. I think overall our special teams are playing great. We need to eliminate penalties. We've got too many penalties on special teams that are eliminating big plays. We had a kickoff return for a touchdown by KJ last week that was brought back for a hold. That was unnecessary during a double team. And then tonight we get a punt return for a touchdown and get another penalty. So we got to eliminate the penalties."
PENN STATE PLAYERS
Sophomore Wide Receiver K.J. Hamler
On coming back to Michigan to play football..
It was definitely different. I was once committed to Michigan State and I had a good relationship with Coach Dantonio and Coach Salem so it was really different just seeing them guys and always communicating with them. It felt good to be back home, in my home state and I'm glad we came out with a win. Michigan State played one heck of a game even with the rain conditions and stuff like that but I think it was one good game.
On what this win does for Penn State's confidence going forward..
I think our confidence is still there now we have to go into this bye week and invest in this bye week. You know, watch film and prepare for our next opponent. So we are going to enjoy the win, go over our corrections when we get back to State College and move on from them.
On whether the win held more significance considering the history between the teams..
None of the old guys said anything to us, we just remember what they did to us the past few years. I think losing to them a couple times kinda brought us up and we got a win. Michigan State was a tough opponent so we just had to come out and finish.
On whether the team is looking ahead on the schedule..
Like I said, our mentality is 1-0 mentality each week so we just focus on the task at hand. We don't worry about who we got this week or the next week or stuff of that nature. Whoever's in front of us that week is who we are focused on. We'll watch film and that second half of practice we'll focus on whoever we got next.
On his performance tonight..
I don't really think I had success, it wasn't my best game. Dropping the ball in any amount of circumstances is bad to meso I know it's raining, I know it's pouring, but society doesn't care. That's what Coach Parker teaches me, he tells us a lot that society isn't going to care if it's raining or anything of that nature, if you drop the ball you drop the ball. I think I need a lot more wet ball drills and those type of catches. It was a tough environment to play in but still it's not an excuse to drop the ball so I don't think it was my best game.
Sophomore quarterback Sean Clifford
On his success tonight in a "trap game"..
We don't really pay attention to what everybody says about games, you can never get too high, you can never get too low on anything really. It's kind of in our motto, I know we preach 1-0 and I know people probably think it's cliché but that's what we talk about in our locker room. So honestly, that's just the truth. I'm just glad that we got this win today learn from it, get this bye week to recover and everything.
On whether he allows himself to reflect on the past few big victories..
It's a nice stretch to look at tape and get better, I mean that's my thought process. I'm very excited that we are undefeated still, that is the only goal I have had this season and I plan on going through the whole season doing that. But at the same time it's hard to get excited about what we've done so far when what we want to do and what we are trying to accomplish is not even close to being finished. So that's why I'm still not as amped as probably people would like me to be. But that's because we still have a job to do, we still have unfinished business to take care of and then at the same time, I still didn't play my best game and I'm not too happy about it.
On the bad interception he threw and how he responds to coaching..
Obviously, that was looking back on it, from peewee to now that was probably the worst play I've ever had in my college career. It was completely on me, completely my fault, I take all responsibility on that pick. I lost my mind on that play, and really just thinking about it makes me really angry. I'm not very happy about that, I thought I could've played better in the 3rd and 4th quarter to allow my team to have a better chance to put up more points but at the same time, we won the game.
On whether this victory meant any more coming against Michigan State..
No, it's the same. 1-0 that's all that matters.