Champs Sports Bowl Practice Update: Coach Dantonio Quotes
12/24/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 24, 2007
ORLANDO, Fla. - The Michigan State football team arrived in Florida Saturday and completed its third practice in Orlando Monday afternoon at McCracken Field, located on the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium complex. Prior to Monday's practice, head coach Mark Dantonio met with reporters, talking about Boston College's run defense, the team's focus, and how the players will be spending Christmas.
On focusing on the game:
"We had a great time at Disney World yesterday, some of the players were there for probably five or six hours. We practiced pretty hard yesterday and also went a little bit on Saturday. Our guys are focused - we know what we have to do. It will be a great challenge against BC and we are excited about it.
On how the players will spend Christmas:
"Well, we have to do a little bit of practice on Christmas Day but not much, it will be light. They'll have Christmas morning to themselves. There will be a service, and there will also be a service tonight. They'll be done at about 5 o'clock tomorrow, we'll just work them a couple of hours in the afternoon, it will be very light. I want them to have a great Christmas. A lot of players have family traveling down or will be away from their families, so we want to make it special for them. They will have time with their families. We will have a special Christmas dinner this evening.
On the weather:
"It's nice, very nice out here today. It's not too hot at all. We sort of expected this, and our players are soaking it up.
"We had our indoor building up to 85, 86 degrees for seven or eight practices, so I think we're acclimated. But it's playing the game again, so the bottom line will be how we're conditioned. I think we're in condition, but we'll find out on game day."
On who will be returning punts:
"Devin (Thomas) will return some punts. We want to get a guy back there with game-breaking ability, and he's got that. He's done a nice job of catching the football, so we're excited about that opportunity."
On senior running back Jehuu Caulcrick:
"We've taken one fundamental everyday that we attribute to winners and talk about them. One of them yesterday was enthusiasm. Jehuu brings that to the game. I look back at our Michigan game and our Penn State game and how he played in the second half of those games, he gets excited. He's done great things as far as leadership on our football team this year. He has fun with it. He has fun playing, and I think that enthusiasm carries over. He plays on energy, and he's done a great job. He's been a total team player."
On keeping the focus on Boston College:
"I think it's just showing them game film. We're playing against a team that has won 10 games. We have to be focused - we've been working on this for some time now. This a great opportunity for us, a great opportunity to win eight games. We haven't had that problem all year, we've been focused in every single game we've played, and I expect that to be a tradition here."
On running the ball against Boston College, the nation's top-ranked rushing defense:
"We're going to do our normal (game plan). We're going to be balanced, and I think we're had great balance this year. We rushed for about 2,500 yards (actual: 2,404), we've passed for about 2,700 yards (actual: 2,711), we have 19 touchdown passes and we have about 30 rushing touchdowns (actual: 29), so we've maintained balance and that's what we need to do. We need to run the football and throw it. Even if we get off track a little bit in the first half, or second half, or one quarter or the other, we always need to return to what's got us here, and that's been being balanced. We want guys to know that if they come to Michigan State, they're going to have an opportunity to catch the ball, throw the ball and run the ball."
On why BC has been successful against the run:
"I think they're a very well coached defense. They have a lot of different looks. They pressure the quarterback as well. They're very, very disciplined. They have a big play guy at safety in Jamie Silva who gets down and makes a ton of tackles. They also have good linebackers. They're a good football team."
On how BC uses Jamie Silva:
"They're going to use Silva various ways down in the box. They bring him down in that front seven a lot. He also does a great job in terms of reading things in run-pass (situations)."
On if teams get away from the run when playing BC:
"I think it stands to reason where people are in college football today. You look at certain conferences, and they're a little bit more run oriented, you look at other conferences, and they're going to spread things and pass things. It just depends on what type of concepts that they're playing against. But they have played against some run teams and have shut them down as well, so they're pretty good."
On assessing the team's toughness when he took the job:
"Well, I didn't question our team's toughness level, what I questioned was how we handled some things when things went wrong for us, it would unravel a little bit. I felt like we had to address that issue. It wasn't so much a question of the coaches addressing it, our football team had to address it and acknowledge it and move forward and change it. When you recognize a problem, you have the chance to change it, and our players have done that. I thought we had a sense of resolve all year long in terms of how we played. That comes from our players and we've had great leadership from our seniors. I think we've done a good job in that area."
On why the players responded so well to his call of answering adversity:
"We asked them. I asked them what was the problem. I think when you empower people you know you're going to have the chance to get them involved and help solve the problem. We fought through some tough times, and we'll have to do continue to do that, but we'll measure up."
Was there a time when you knew the players were going down the right track in terms of facing adversity:
"After every game. While disappointment set in (after losses) because we didn't get the right play or didn't finish it, we were within one or two plays in every single game, and that's how close this game has become. I've said all the time it's a game of inches, and it was this year."
