Postgame Quotes
9/19/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 19, 2009
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COACH MARK DANTONIO
COACH DANTONIO: First of all, that was a great football game. It went back and forth. I'm very proud of our football team coming back, continuing to play extremely hard. We came down here focused and played with a lot of energy. I don't want any of our players to hang their heads.
I continue to say this over and over. This is a game of inches here. Whether it's a blocked extra point that later on all we have to do is kick a field goal with 30 seconds to go to win the football game from the 20-yard line or a missed interception they later go down and score, it's thrown up for grabs, like in the backyard, or an interception at the end of the game where we get pressure over the middle, getting the on side kick and not doing anything with it, or getting the ball stripped out on the screen play for a fumble. We made some plays, but we also left plays on the field. We can't do that against a good football team. We can't do that in an away game.
I was extremely proud of our football team. We go to Wisconsin next week, so there's no time to feel sorry for ourselves. We start Big Ten play next week, and we'll be excited to do that.
The main thing we have to learn from this is that it takes everybody (to win). Everybody's accountable. But at the same time, there's no one person to point the finger at. It's on all of us.
Again, I'm proud of our football team. Congratulations to Notre Dame. They played hard. I'm not taking anything away from anyone else. We'll push it forward.
I'll take questions.
Q. Talk about Mark Dell's performance in his first game of the season.
COACH DANTONIO: He had eight catches for 121 yards, so he played very well. He dropped the first one, but then got back into rhythm. (Kirk) Cousins played well with the exception of the last throw. Cousins certainly played well. Keith Nichol came in in the second quarter and took us down for a touchdown. So he did some things very well as well.
Again, our quarterback play was very good. We can't turn the ball over at the end of the game, obviously. No one feels worse than Kirk does. But that's the game, too. The game is played in a very tough situation sometimes, with a lot of energy, a lot of pressure, a lot of things going on out there.
Our quarterbacks played well, and our young players played well too. (Larry) Caper played well; he did some nice things.
Q. Talk about how Notre Dame's offensive dynamic changes with (Michael) Floyd out.
COACH DANTONIO: He went out, but I'm not sure what his injury was. They kept us off balance throwing the football, from empty sets. We were down 13 3, but we bounced back. Floyd is obviously a very good football player. Armando Allen played very well, and the quarterback (Jimmy Clausen) played very well. Notre Dame also got some big plays from Golden Tate. You can see the experience on this football team. They have 10 starters back on offense and you can see that at work. They protected the quarterback pretty well, as well.
Q. Can you talk about that last play? What did you see on the last play, the interception? Did you get any chance to talk to Kirk (Cousins) after the game?
COACH DANTONIO: Yeah, he got pressured, and I'm not sure where the pressure came from. They forced him out of the pocket. He tried to make a play throwing late over the middle, but it was a little bit blind. So I really don't know if he knew what was happening. I think it was a second down play, so he probably just needs to ditch the ball. We line up and kick the ball if we can. We go to overtime if that's what we have to do.
> I also want to point at the other things. It was a great play by Notre Dame blocking the extra point. It was probably the play of the game when you really look at it. If everything else unfolds as is, we're kicking a field goal to win it. We're not getting down the field without Kirk Cousins. He did an outstanding job, and no one feels worse than he does about this. He will rise again. He will rise up.
Q. (No microphone.)
COACH DANTONIO: Notre Dame played pretty well against us and kept us off balance. That's the thing that I felt that their offense did, sort of kept us off balance. They went to wildcat stuff and (Armando) Allen did a pretty good job with it, and hit the touchdown pass.
(Jimmy) Clausen threw the ball effectively. You could see that he was physically hurt a little bit. He kept playing, played through it, so he showed some toughness out there. He also made some pretty good decisions. Other than the one deep route that should have been picked, he made good decisions. His ball was on the money, he played pretty well.
Q. Did you get a good look at the one where he overshot Caper?
COACH DANTONIO: The (pass) one that went through the back of the end zone - I'm not sure how close that one was because I was on the opposite sideline. You've got to come up with the play. There's no secret there. You got a lot of people in this room. You got a lot of media exposure. But you got to come up with the play.
Again, I go back to what I said to our football team. I'm extremely proud of our guys because we came to play after a tough loss last week, and we came together to play. We had energy and we have to have it next week (at Wisconsin), as well. It has to be a consistent thing.
Q. You haven't got to see the film, but two weeks in a row the defensive backs have struggled. Is this something you can coach out of?
COACH DANTONIO: We're playing them all, and we've got to keep coaching them. A guy has to make a play on the deep ball. That's what has to happen, and we can't blow a coverage. Notre Dame did some things in the flat, just bubbles and things of that nature.
It's tough to answer that question without seeing it on film. There will be a lot of talk, a lot of instruction. Again, it's disappointing. When you pressure, you've got to get there and play coverage if you don't. We had our opportunities defensively, as well.
We've got to make plays. But again, the energy level was there. The intent was there. The toughness was there. We've got to make the play.
Q. What was your message to your team at halftime?
COACH DANTONIO: We've got the lead, so let's keep playing and finish. Finish. We came out for the second half ready to go. This is all a little bit of a blur to me, but did they go down and score? I'm not sure. I think they did. Yeah, they did very quickly. So must not have said anything good, okay? (Smile.)
But we responded. We came back, and that's how I evaluate our players. Can you bounce back? There's going to be a winner and a loser in this game, but can you bounce back? Those are life lessons. We're teaching life lessons here, too. Nobody wants to hear that when you lose a football game. But can you bring it back? Can you get your momentum back? Can you reestablish a lead? Can you drive it down the field the last two minutes of a game? Can you make a stop and get the ball back? Can you do the things that you have to do from a mental standpoint to be successful? And we'll continue to work on that.
But we'll continue to grow with these things, too. We have players in positions of leadership that are relatively young, such as quarterback. So there's a growing process. We have to grow as well, too. As I said before, I'm very proud of them.
Thank you very much.
COACH CHARLIE WEIS
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Weis.
Q. How does this feel, getting a win like this?
COACH WEIS: I tell you what, after last week, how badly everyone felt last week, in a very similar situation, ending of the game, you know, to make a play to change the outcome in favor of us, I'm really, really happy for those kids in there.
It's really nice to see how genuinely excited they are and I feel great for them.
Q. How important is it for you to win a game like this?
COACH WEIS: Well, I think it was just win a game, period. However you won it, just win a game. Michigan State is Michigan State. They never give up. They're a hard nosed team. They're going to play hard. They got down, didn't phase them. They kept on playing. Came back, took the lead. We came back, took the lead, then they came back and took the lead, then we came back and took the lead. They're driving at the end of the game with an opportunity to either tie or win. We made the big play at the end.
That being said, you know, I'm just happy for our guys because one went our way.
Q. Do you know much about (Michael) Floyd right now?
COACH WEIS: I think he's got a broken clavicle. They told me clavicle. All they told me before I walked out is clavicle. I'm assuming that's what it is. I haven't talked to them yet. I saw him on the sideline; Didn't even go over to him because I had too many other things to worry about at the time.
Q. I'm sure you don't want to have to rely on your offense to bail you out every time, but if it's going to come down to that, just how good is your quarterback?
COACH WEIS: Well, good enough where I let him sing the fight song today. The kid got banged up a little bit himself in the second quarter. He wasn't full speed the rest of the way. He had a toe, I believe. Even though he was hobbling around, he's really evolved from not just a good football player but a leader of the team. And you just watch it. He has that confidence in his own ability that he's bringing some people along with him.
Games like this, if you need to score 33, that's what you need to do.
Q. As a play caller, do you have to amp up your aggressiveness going into the game if it appears your defense isn't going to be able to shut people down?
COACH WEIS: You have to be ready for it. I'm always ready for it. We started off the game in no huddle, spread them out. It was a very easy explanation for that. For four years I've been here, we started off slow against them every time, just playing normal football. Then we've rallied. When we have rallied, we've rallied spreading them out. So I just figured we'd take the opposite tack and spread them out early. You have to be ready in case that's the way the game plays out.
Q. Were you watching the last stand by your defense?
COACH WEIS: I got to watch a lot more defense than I have the first couple games. But when that ball went through (Gary) Gray's hands, flipped off his hands, they got it for a first down. Oh, no, go from interception to quite possible field goal or touchdown. I did have an opportunity to watch that.
Q. Seemed like today when (Michael) Floyd did go out, your other guys really stepped up. Can you talk about that?
COACH WEIS: Yeah, we had different modes planned for the game. We had different modes. When Michael is in there, he's heavy involved in the schematics of play call. When he's not in there, you have to kind of throw that stuff out. Not that you're shunning the backups right there, but go more to the stuff that's geared towards getting the ball in the hand of the other guys, letting Armando (Allen), making sure he got his touches. Here is another guy that came on and off the field, he ran great, I'm going to have to hear about him throwing for the next month now.
Q. The wildcat formation was effective. How long has Armando (Allen) been campaigning for a pass?
COACH WEIS: He's been throwing it in the dirt most of the times we practiced it. But today was in an exact situation where I wanted to call the play. We've sprinkled it in the first few games. Going against Michigan State, who is a four cover team, you have to be concerned with them having double fours, which they have by nature. You end up playing minus one football, which means they got one more guy than you do when you're running the ball. The wildcat allows you to even up because now the quarterback, somebody has to cover him when you go out there, because the guy with the ball in his hands now is the runner, you can play even up and have an opportunity to run the ball. That's what the plan was.
Q. (No microphone.)
COACH WEIS: It's a different team than I've had. In the past, what might have happened is when we went down in the second half, it might have been deflating, but not this team. This team just expects they're going to come back and make a play and win. We drove some first. It wasn't just a 70 yard touchdown pass. We drove some, go down there and score. A couple of possessions and Kyle (McCarthy) makes the big play at the end of the game.
Q. After last week and the way the game unfolded, did you find yourself drifting back to last weekend?
COACH WEIS: No, I was actually getting ready to call time out. I still had timeouts left. I was getting ready to use my timeouts so I had a minute left on the clock. We had three timeouts left. I was waiting for the time to go ahead and utilize them because I wanted to make sure we had enough time, if they did score, give us enough time to go down and score ourselves.
Q. The defensive penalties today...
COACH WEIS: I'll just have to wait and see. I'll just have to wait and see them. I really prefer not to comment on the penalties or the officiating at this time.
Q. 30 more points from Michigan State. Are you comfortable getting in these shootouts every week?
COACH WEIS: You prefer not to get into shootouts every week, to be honest with you. But I think one thing that's important, what Michigan State did today, they're running so many people on and off the field, if you watch them, it was a constant substitution pattern. A lot of times it was one for one; A tight end for a tight end, a receiver for a receiver. So they were causing some confusion just by the substitution pattern, not because we don't know who their players are. Normally when you send a wide receiver on the field, it's not just to exchange for a wide receiver. A lot of that happened in this game. They did a nice job of putting us in those situations and I think that that led to some of their production.
Q. Without having seen much of the defense, a lot of people suggest this be a more conventional offense to go against. When they get 449 yards, is that a matter of concern?
COACH WEIS: No, I'm sure it is. I'd be remiss if I didn't say that was an area of concern regardless of what we were going against, yes. It wasn't just running the ball. The fact they threw it for over 300, you know, I think that we did a much better job on the day in the running game. But they didn't run it as much as they normally do because they figured, hey, Notre Dame is going to sell out and go try to stop the run, so we're going to throw it a whole bunch. That's a good strategy on their part.
Them throwing for over 300, that's definitely an area of concern and we have to continue working on the run game.
Q. Great first quarter, second quarter mistakes, quarterback hobbled. What was the message at halftime?
COACH WEIS: Score in the first possession and regain the momentum. The reason why you take a chance, as much confidence as I have in our offense, I like to take the ball every time we win the toss. We started off the game, we won the toss, we deferred. We get them off the field. We go right down and score, so the first quarter started the way you'd like it. Really the message was very clearly we need to come and score in our first possession, which we did. By scoring in the first possession, we flipped the momentum back in our favor.
Q. The win streak was something you said you were going to talk to the guys about. You snapped it.
COACH WEIS: Yeah, I think that's two streaks we've been talking about. We had that Bowl streak that they were getting drilled on that they got out of the way. They got this one out of the way. There's a lot of football to be played. But I think there's a bunch of happy campers in there today.
Q. You went a little deeper today in personnel, especially defensively. Was that a plan?
COACH WEIS: That was the plan that I felt from watching the tape after the Michigan game. Remember, it's been well documented; I don't get to see everything that happens on defense because of some of the adjustments I'm making on offense. One of the things I felt at the end of the Michigan game, our frontline players, some of them, weren't getting any production. Could be for one of two reasons. They're not playing very well or they're spent. One of the plans today was to make sure, regardless where it was in the situation, we were rolling people through there.
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