Michigan State University Athletics
Big Ten Kickoff Coverage
8/3/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 3, 2007
Junior Safety Otis Wiley:
On Coach Dantonio:
Coach D has a great personality: he is stern, he is wise, he is disciplined. He doesn't say one thing and then do another. He does what he says, and he speaks truth. He speaks bluntly that you might be doing something wrong, he cares about your feelings, but he cares about you being developed as a player; mentally, physically, and your character.
On Coach Dantonio's comments about using Michigan as a measuring stick for the program:
My thoughts are that we have been an underdog, for I don't know how long. That's what people say, and you really kind of pay attention to them ...We need to stop paying attention to what everyone else says. It boils down to when we play them, that we compete on their level, and we compete and we play our own game, and we play hard, and at the end the best man wins. I feel as if we need to play like that, and we need to not ignore Michigan the name, or the Wolverines, and not back down just because of the name or the players that they have.
Coach put that arch-rivalry back into place. It's fun to go into Duffy and see that the clock says `Beat Michigan.' It was in January where he put in a clock that says the numbers, days, the hours, so you get fired-up, because we never established that until he came.
I have a lot of anticipation (for the Michigan game), but I don't want to look so far forward to the game, that I forget about the other teams. But I am ready for it, both mentally I am ready for it and physically I am going to get ready. I have friends on the team and all that I am cool with, it's just that we want to build back up that rivalry by having Michigan and Michigan State football battling it out.
On Coach Dantonio's defensive coaching background:
With Coach Dantonio being a defensive-minded coach, it's an advantage for us. Just knowing that he is defensive minded, he knows what's going on, what's to be done, and what call should be called. I feel as if it is an advantage for us, because if we stop the ball, and our offense can get back on the field that's an advantage and we can win more ball games than is expected of us. So I feel as though since Coach D has come in, he has won a championship at Ohio State, he has all the statistics, all the accolades, we are just realizing that we can achieve what he has achieved, with him leading us.
I feel that if I don't know what I am doing, he can tell me exactly what I am doing wrong, or he can tell me if I am doing it right. He is grunt and he tells you. He doesn't hold anything back, and he doesn't sugarcoat anything. He tells you if you are doing it wrong, and I respect that, because it helps me out.
On team discipline:
I feel as though in the spring we established that we need to be disciplined, because in the past we haven't put a lot of game situations into practice. With Coach Dantonio he puts a lot of game situations there in practice to where you know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, and how to handle things. During practice we might get into a little scuffle but he will throw them out, because that is a game situation - you might be thrown out of that game, so you are out of practice. It's these game situations we are adapting to, because if we handle things wrong, we might be on the bench, and no one wants to be on the bench. So, as a team, we are establishing with people that he's talked to, or handled with situation wise, that Coach D is about his business, and he knows what to do in those certain situations.
I think it's about staying mentally focused on what the task at hand is and taking it one game at a time. He has emphasized that because mentally we weren't there fully as a whole team during games or going into games, during opponents we were picked to lose to, instead of accepting that challenge and going in and playing hard.
On defensive line:
They (the defensive line) are into attacking that quarterback, and getting pressure on him, making him throw the ball quick...It makes it way easier (to cover), to where the quarterback is not holding the ball so long, where we have to cover a guy longer than we should.
On Coach Dantonio's comments regarding Michigan State will not have a soft defense:
I think that it's great to hear. I have heard the rankings, and that they have us picked pretty low, but they really forget about how our offense compliments the defense, and that is something that we were lacking last year. So I feel that we are rock solid, and that our offense will compliment us real well. Coach D is getting us fired up, because we are going to be versatile.
