From The Lockerroom
8/30/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 30, 2003
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Michigan State vs. Western Michigan
Spartan Stadium - East Lansing, Mich.
August 30, 2003
Michigan State Head Coach John L. Smith
Opening remarks
"It was the first of many. That was good, and I am proud of the kids who played today. We definitely had a chance to work on some things, to make corrections. We got to work on hands; we got to work on just about everything today, which was good for us. So, that is going to make us better. We just have to correct a few of those things. We felt that if we had not made a few of those mistakes in the first half, it could have been a lot different, but that's us - we are going to have to take care of ourselves and we are going to have to do a better job. In the first half, particularly, we were racing the ball and we can't afford a blitz if we aren't covering anybody. That is not very good. We made some mistakes there, but we will learn from those things and that is good to see. For the most part, it was a good win. You have to give those guys (Western Michigan) credit. They are a good football team and they fought hard, but it was our game today and it looks like we made it through."
On Jeff Smoker
"He did some really good things tonight, some great things - making a few checks and going to the right guy and coming down the back at times. There were a few things that he maybe should have gotten us out of, but he didn't and he will next time. He has been through a lot and it was great to see him. I don't know what the numbers were and nobody really cared, but I thought he performed pretty darn well for the first game."
Western Michigan Head Coach Gary Darnell
Opening statement
"I know I'm bound to state the obvious, but Michigan State played well enough to win today. This is one we didn't win, but I will have the opportunity this season to coach a very good football team. The things that you take from the game - they really came out poised for the first time. Michigan State might have been a little more poised from an offensive standpoint.
"The other thing that we needed and had thought we could get one or two big plays on special teams, but that didn't really happen. If we could have gotten just one or two out of that. We gave some guys some really big holes, but one guy that did really good for us was Adam Anderson. That was his top performance.
"If you compare to where we were last year and think that we're ahead. I think we have a team that is very aggressive. There are a lot of new faces and names that might not be so familiar to you."
WR Agim Shabaj
On his first touchdown:
"It felt so good. Last year, being hurt, I never got in the end zone. Today, I had no pain going into the end zone."
On the new offense
"We can make so many big plays, but we have to make sure we remain consistent. Every big play we managed is because the whole team did it. It's an 11-man game."
DT Matthias Askew
"It felt pretty good. We have a new season, a new coach, everybody felt good coming in and getting off the ball...We made some adjustments on the sidelines, once we did that, Coach filled us in on some little stuff and we just turned it on."
On wearing down the WMU offensive line
"We worked out all summer to prepare for this and it paid off. We have to come and play a little better (next week) and cut out the mistakes we made and rebound next week against Rutgers."
LB Monquiz Wedlow
On MSU's defense in the second half
"Personally, I thought their receivers were coming off a lot slower and we started hitting them a lot. I think some of the big hits we had broke a lot of them up and I guess they just stopped running on a lot of their routes. I think our defense did a real good job, their receivers were not running their routes as hard as I thought they should have because they thought they weren't going to get the ball because our defensive line did a great job today getting to the quarterback."
On the play of MSU's defensive line
"I think the d-line really wore their offensive line down because we were coming and coming all game."
QB Jeff Smoker
On pre-game jitters
"Honestly, I wasn't anymore tight than I would be on a normal game day. You always have the pre-game jitters, a lot of people thought I may be a little more nervous. To be honest with you, I really wasn't (nervous). I took it as any other game."
On running the new offense
"It was fun, Coach Smith likes to throw the ball a lot. Every quarterback likes to throw the ball, it was a lot of fun to spread the ball around to different receivers and do a lot of different things with the ball. It is a lot of fun out there, it's a great offense, any quarterback would like it."
On the second half
"We were trying to play a little bit more ball-control, which may actually not be our style. We were trying to control the ball and they started bringing more people down to stop the run. They made some adjustments at halftime and we made some, the defense played good and held them, I thought. That is one thing we have to work on, coming out in the second half and putting teams away. We can't leave anyone in the game like that."
