Post-Game Quotes: Penn State

Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio

Opening Statement
Big win for our program – program win. You come up here and you're banged up a little bit, we didn't bring any guys with us. Obviously eight guys that usually play are out, but we talked a little bit about overcoming some adversity as we came up here. It was going to be a great environment to play in and that did not disappoint – what a great environment. We just kept banging. We had a couple big plays go against us in the first half, but I thought we rallied back with the big fake punt and the halfback pass after that to get us the touchdown. Seems like it took us forever to get it in from the one, but we got in. Very, very proud of our football team. I asked them to play like we were 5-0 and I think we did that. Penn State has a very good football team, a very good football team, and I am sure that will show as time goes on as well. I am really excited about the win and sometimes winning or losing – whether we won or whether we lost – at the end of the day it's not always about winning or losing it's about how you play and how you come with it and how you hand together through tough times. We've had a couple tough moments here this season already, but we rebounded and pushed back, and I was very proud of our team.

Q: Was this a character revealing moment?
A: I would say we had character all along. There has never been any doubt in our character. I've always believed that we have a good belief system, we have good chemistry and we just have to keep playing. Things aren't always going to go our way but that is part of life. Things don't always go that way, but I'm very proud of how we've played through things. Once again, we played hard.

Q: You made the decision to do more zone than power running today, and it certainly paid off. Was it something you saw from Penn State, or a decision that with your personnel you thought you needed to do today?
A: No, we needed to simplify. I thought we needed to simplify, and our coaches felt like that; simplify a little bit and spread people out. We probably ran more RPO's today than we had. But I thought Coach Warner did an outstanding job calling the game. We go down the field in a minute-whatever, and at the end I was beating myself up – should we not have gone for it on fourth? Should we have gone for it? Should we have punted? We took the sack so a little extra time ran off so it wasn't good, but we got the ball back. I thought the defense played very well, especially in the second half. I think we gave up three points in the second half. Had two big runs against us. Played well against the pass. [Trace] McSorley is a tremendous football player, so is Miles Sanders, and they've got others. He's going to buy time and make you sweat it out on every single down. Great drive at the end; Laress Nelson – we were about ready to redshirt him, looks like we won't now. I'm not sure how many catches he had, but he had a couple huge catches on the last drive, maybe the last two drives. Just very excited for our football team. Again, we talked about these type of things, how we were going to have to come into this environment and play. It was going to be a tough environment but one of those games that we just keep hanging around, just keep hanging around. Good things are going to happen, and eventually that's what happened.

Q: Why did you punt? That's the kind of decision you used to see a lot 10 or 20 years ago, but with two minutes to go, what went into that decision?
A: Well we had just taken a sack, so it was down fourth-and-10. We did have three timeouts left, and I felt if we could stop them they were probably going to run the ball and use the clock and their timeouts, and we would get the ball one more time and have another shot at it. So, we did it the way we practiced. We practice those type of situations, and it worked out. You can always point to that and say it's one way to do it. I guess you could look the other way and if we had been on fourth-and-seven or fourth-and-10 I felt like the game was over if we didn't make it because they were too far down the field.

Q: Felton Davis gets hurt on a few plays the last game, he talked about he knew there was no way he could not be in the game. Can you talk about the way he played there?
A: He played very well. We tried to move him around a little bit to get him targeted so he would have opportunities to catch the football. I'm not actually sure how many catches he had, but he had a couple big ones. Again, on the third down play with a couple seconds to go, I knew we could line it up and kick a field goal and go into overtime. Coach Warner asked me what we wanted - do we want to run it here or do you want to throw it? – and I said why don't we just throw a touchdown pass and go to the end zone. So that's what we did.

Q: What did you think on the fake field goal call and also the two [trick plays] that worked in the first half?
A: I felt with the fake field goal, I didn't really want to play for a tie. We worked on it, and I thought it was a 'Little Giants' deal. I thought Ray [Reaquan Williams] had a chance to make it, and they defended it well. Lewerke put it on the money and we got it out, but we are just going to keep playing. We are going to play to win. They didn't want to play to line up and tie it. Quite honestly, I felt like Penn State was too explosive, and McSorley creating too many loose plays, and eventually they would find their way back down the field. At least it put them in a different mode of operation with four minutes to go. They still threw it the first couple times, but I just wanted to play to win, and I thought we had an opportunity for it.

Q: Getting back to Felton, he said that you guys play a little tighter, a little more focused when there are doubts and questions outside. Do you agree, and why do you think that's so?
A: Cary Wallace said you have to bring that chip mentality back and bring a poker chip with you to the game. So, anybody got a poker chip? We walked in we slammed it down. It's a source of commitment

Q: There used to be a lot of games like this in this league 10, 20 years ago. Are you comfortable with this kind of football? Do you miss it?
A: Well, I'd rather win 50 to nothing, if that's what you're asking me. We're two good football teams, playing good defense and that's just the way the game goes sometimes too. There weren't a lot of turnovers. I think they had one and we had one. We were just playing the way they come. If you win with a high score that's great; if we win with a low score that's great too. If we play hard, we do everything we can do, and we lose we can handle that too.

Q: With pass defense, through the course of the year you've sprang some leaks here and there, but today you guys have obviously been working on that.
A: We made some plays. I want to look at the tape, but football's a game of inches. I keep saying that over and over. It's a game of repetition, it's a game of inches. Sometimes you find those inches and sometimes they find them. I thought last week they found them a couple of times. I still go back to the two losses we have. I don't like those, but we deal with the reality right now. This is what we are – we're 4-2. We're very excited about that, and obviously a big game next week. That will be another challenge.

Q: You went with one offensive line. That's kind of rare for the last couple year. What did you see to make that happen?
A: Well we have guys out, so that made that happen. We had one guy that we really would substitute in there and that had started for us before. I'm not sure how much [Luke] Campbell played but I thought he was in there some.

Q: That being said, that run that La'Darius [Jefferson] had it was the one thing you looked for.
A: We had that bust-out run. He had two big plays. He had that bust-out run – I think that's the time we went down to fake the field goal, and then the next time I think we hit Connor Heyward on a swing and he got down the sideline for a pretty big gain as well. I can't say enough about our football team, our guys and our players. That's what keeps you coaching to be honest with you. Moments like this you see people gear up and get themselves ready to go. I can't describe it to you, but I am very proud of our football team and how they handled things and how they went forward and just kept playing. We weren't perfect, that's for sure. I looked up and Brian had 40 yards passing because we hit a halfback pass. There were a lot of things going on.

Q: You guys were really beat up, as much as you ever have been that I remember, and they had a bi-week. Did you even address that, or do you just act like it doesn't exist? They're well rested and you're beat up.
A: We've got players. We have guys that are waiting in the wings for an opportunity. CJ Hayes played a lot today. Laress Nelson made some big catches. Cam Chambers had a couple big catches as well. Those are all guys that had not been at the forefront – Cam had played more, but Connor Heyward made a couple plays, you had La'Darius making some plays, Dotson had a big catch – so we spread it around a little bit. We talked about when you are at odds with things, rising up may be your biggest challenge, but it also might be your biggest triumph. That's very rewarding if you do things like that.

Q: How long do you get to enjoy this, knowing Michigan is up next?
A: Probably the flight home.

Q: What does this say for your defense, against a team averaging 46 points per game, you holding them to 17, just as a group?
A: I think our defense played very well. We gave up a couple big runs. Miles hit us. We were out of a gap and he made it all in the one run. You don't make five guys miss, six guys miss. So, they've got a football team, they've got good players, and take that to the bank. They are well coached, and at the same time we just snuck by, which is all we needed to do.

Felton Davis III | WR | Sr./Sr.

Q: Start with the injury on the sideline and how you came back from that. What happened on that play and what happened on that touchdown?
A: On that play it was just another go around. He gave me a chance to make a play on the ball and I came down on my hip a little awkward and I was in a little pain, but at the end of the day you just gotta suck it up and keep playing football. On the last play, in the huddle, I told Brian [Lewerke] I'm going deep, no matter what he does, I'm going deep. I told him just throw it up and give me a chance to make a play and that's what he did.

Q: So many receivers are getting hurt, how much of you was saying that you can't be out of this one?
A: That was the first thing that went to my head when I landed on the ground. I was trying to get up instantly but it was hurting too much, but I got up, sat out a play. Laress [Nelson] made a big play and got us a first down.

Q: On that last play when you scored, what percentage were you at?
A: Like 60, but I was just trying to make the play for my team. Everybody wanted this game, everybody played so hard. Special teams, defense, offense, and I just couldn't let them down and I didn't want to go into overtime. So, I had to put the team on my back.

Q: Could you sense the outside, when people are starting to count you out. Do you feel that and was that motivation coming into this game?
A: That's actually how we like it sometimes. A lot of times when we play on the top we haven't played as well and we play better when we got the chip on our shoulder, the attitude. We go into the weight room with our shirts that have a chip on the side of them, that's what we carry with us all the time. We go to work and that's how we like it. Everyone wants to doubt us, but we keep going with it.

Connor Heyward | RB | So./So.

Q: Can you talk about the appreciation of the offense for the defense that you guys have?
A: We appreciate everything the defense does for us. They make the games easier on us and we kind of play off of them.

Q: Talk about that fake punt and then the fake pass three plays later, that's a lot in one little short burst.
A: We practiced the fake punt this week, we just put it in and when coach [Dantonio] said that we were going to run it, I believed him but I didn't really know if we were going to run it or not but we just had to stay ready. The fake pass, we ran that in practice once, we ran it on the one defense and I almost threw an interception and I didn't know we were gonna run it. I could've ran it for like forty yards, but I decided to throw it up and I guess they believed in me to make a play.

Khari Willis | S | Sr./Sr.

Q: Lets talk about those last couple drives. With the post/fade and the punts. It puts it on you guys. Is that how you guys want it or what did he say going into those next drives?
A: [Coach] made the call and when he made it we told him we got his back and we were going to come out and continue to play good defense. For a team that's putting up 40-plus points a game, three points in the second half is tremendous job across the board defensively, so I think that's how he kinda felt and he went for it. Chances make champions and we came out with the win

Q: With a top scoring team in the Big Ten, what was the key today when you gave up the big long run early, how do you bounce back from that?
A: It was one play and both drives that they scored there was one play that popped, they've got explosive players on the edge and obviously in the backfield. So we just try to limit those explosive plays and put ourselves in the best situation.

Q: Tell me about the Penn State wideouts. They've had some big games. Were they able to get separation on you because sometimes you can't watch the whole field?
A: The wideouts, KJ [Hamler] in particular, that's their guy, he's very, very explosive. I give credit to them. I think upfront our guys did a pretty great job of closing the pocket so he couldn't see as much further down field and I think we did a pretty good job covering him. I think there was around 200 or so yards passing against the team, which I think the overall defensive effort came through for us.

Q: When coach made the decision to punt that says a lot about what he thinks of you guys as defenders. What's it mean when your coach has that much confidence in you?
A: Coach [Dantonio] is going to take chances. He's a champion. He has championship DNA. We are going to back him up, that's our guy. We go as he goes, and he had the confidence and felt like we had the opportunity to make the play and we did and we came back out there, we had to play another series. Its football, it's fun, there's nothing to it. We follow our head guy.

Q: With a 3-2 start, a lot of people are writing you off already. What was the reaction like and what does this demonstrate today?
A: I think this demonstrates the heart and character of our football team. We had a couple adverse situations that happened in the first few weeks that some people didn't expect, especially not us, but we were able to come back and bounce back to an excellent championship worthy opponent and I feel as though this shows the heart and character of not only us defensively, but offensively. Going on the field with a minute to play and coming out with not only three points, but seven points. So, I think that it shows a collective effort. It shows the heart that we have and the things that we are capable to do as a football team.

Penn State Head Coach James Franklin

Opening Statement
First of all, I want to thank the fans for coming out and supporting us each week. They have been unbelievable, I think there was 106,000 people at the game. Getting into the game, we had a chance to put away a proud program and a good program and a very good football coach. We had a chance to put them away several times on offense, on defense, and on special teams and we didn't do it. We let them stay in the game. They were able to run the ball especially on first down which hurt us. They hadn't really been able to do that consistently all year long. They were able to get into second and six, second and five, second and four situations too often.

For the fake punt, we could not have worked on fakes more than we did all week long. The one obviously on the fake field goal was a huge play but the one on the punt we had a guy in position to do his job, he started running out for the punt return and by the time he recovered it was way too late. We knew it, and we couldn't have worked it more. Obviously, we need to work it more but we spent a lot of time on all of those fakes and critical situations in the game.

We ran the ball well against a team that hadn't been giving up more than 33 yards per game but we weren't able to throw the ball well against a team that had been giving up a bunch of yards all year long. We weren't able to protect consistently. We when needed to run when it mattered most in the four-minute offense, we were able to get them to burn two timeouts but we weren't able to get the first down and put the game away on our terms. We had an opportunity to do that and we didn't do it.

I was told on the lateral play, by the officials during the game and by people after the game that the rule says that if the arm is going forwards, whether the ball goes backwards or not it's an incomplete pass. That doesn't make sense to me. From the time I was in little league, if the ball is going backwards it is a lateral. So, it went from second and twenty to second and ten. A huge play in the game, I'm not questioning. I'm just saying from my perspective, it doesn't make sense to me. From the beginning of time, since I was in 65-pound football at Assumption CYO, if you throw the ball backwards it's a lateral. It was a big play in the game.

Overall, we have to give Michigan State credit. We didn't do what we needed to do to win the game. We lost in too many critical situations. We won the drive start battle, and were even in turnovers which we can't be even in turnovers. We put the ball on the ground way too much. The ball can not be left on the inside arm. We had a fumble where the ball was in the inside arm and they had blown the progress dead, so that's never a play that can be overturned. We didn't need to get up and snap the ball quick. If they blow the play dead it's over, that's not a reviewable play. Either way, the ball cannot be on the inside arm, it must be towards the sideline. That's something we've coached since day one. Whether you get hurt or nicked up or not you can't drop the ball. We have to protect the ball at all times.

Then penalties, they only had three and we had six for forty-one. Obviously, the one on the goal-line stand. Our goal-line stand was as good as it gets, and then we give it to them with a penalty. We lost the explosive play battle, we lost the penalty battle, we were even in turnovers and we won field position by a couple of yards. You don't win that way when you don't put people away and you don't win the critical stats.

Q: Amani [Oruwariye] has made some really big plays for you, but it looked like he was emotional after the game. What do you say to a kid like that in that type of situation?
A: I love Amani. He's made huge play after huge play after huge play for our program and will continue to do that. I love Amani, and I wouldn't trade him for anybody. Richard Sherman is a great player but I wouldn't trade for him for Amani Oruwariye. Same thing I told the players in the locker room, we get great support here. I wanted to make sure that every single one of those players knew, whether they have had it in their lives before or not, they got it from me; unconditional love no matter what. They are stuck with me for the next fifty years. I love Amani Oruwariye and I love all of our guys. We'll get closer from this and we'll get stronger from this. We're going to stick together. We have great fans here, so I know they will stick with our guys as well but I love Amani and I always will. I wanted our team and our players to know that whether they've experienced unconditional love in their lives or not, they have it from me and the coaching staff and they'll have it forever.

Q: Every game and situation is different, but for as much progress as this program has made, this is now five losses by a combined 12 points and you've had the lead in the fourth quarter of all of those games. What would you say to the people who are pointing to that as a major obstacle for the program before to take the next step?
A: I think we need to find ways, but we have won a bunch of games all the way back to year one in fourth quarters with situational football. We've lost some, obviously here, late in the last two, there's no doubt about it. But, for everyone that you've shown me that we've lost, I can show you example after example of ones that we've won like that. Obviously, all you can focus on right now is the present. What happened out there today, I get that, we've got to be able to finish. We've got to be able to finish on offense, defense, special teams, all three phases and we didn't do that today. I'd rather be in situations, although they are painful, I'd rather be in a situation where you've lost five games by 12 points than other places that are trying to figure out how to not lose games by larger margins. Our margin of error is small, our margin of defeat is small and we've got to get all those little things corrected. Same way that I saw today, there are things that are showing up on Saturday, that we do not do during the week. We need to make sure that we are approaching Sunday through Friday game-like. If we do something all week long and then on Saturday, we do it different, and then we've got to get those things corrected.

Q: Two-part question: Why were you unable to throw the ball downfield until the fourth quarter and secondly, you said this week that the team had its best practice of the year, were they ready mentally for this game?
A: Obviously, after seeing the results the first thing you question is did we get over the loss from the previous game? Obviously, you're going to question that. I didn't see signs of that during the week, during our preparation. But, let's be honest that was an emotional game, so I think we need to question that and I think we need to look at that. I don't think there is any doubt about it. I think we had some times early on in the game, I think you saw the one play Trace [McSorley] goes to throw the ball, pulls it back and throws right into the lineman. We didn't run the route we've been running all week long, all week long. We've had opportunities, but you've got to be able to make those opportunities. But, on offense, defense and special teams we've got a few mistakes and a few mistakes end up losing a game like that. We've got to get those mistakes cleaned up, there's no doubt about it. We're making too many of them that are self-inflicted.

Q: Are other teams starting to take Trace from the run or are you guys relying too much on him trying to make something happen with his feet and on the play where he ran out of bounds, I'm guessing you did not want that?
A: I think the issue isn't necessarily the running with Trace today, because this team again they only gave up 33 yards per game (prior to today). The issue was that we weren't able to throw the ball against a team that people were having a lot of success throwing the ball. That was the issue.

Q: Jake Pinegar, you guys weren't able to get him more opportunities in the beginning of the season, it didn't happen, how do you assess that position moving forward?
A: Obviously, we're not kicking the way we need to kick. That is all of it, that's protection, that's snap, that's hold, that's execution of the kick. We'll revisit that we'll take a hard look at it. Our percentages in practice are really good, but that's not showing up on game day. We all know coming into the season that we have inexperience at the kicker position. In practice, we are hitting at a real high percentage. We've got to be able to do it under the lights, pressure, consistently at this level.

Q: The amount of emotion that was put into the past two weeks, is it possible, do you double down on that? How do you handle it, because I know there was a lot of emotion from you after that game and that carried into the preparation for this game?
A: We play an emotional game, a passionate game. The fans are that way, the coaches are that way and the players are that way. I believe in investment in anything that you want to do, that you want to be special in. You've got to invest. I think the natural thing to do is, especially when you're young, is when you invest in something and you don't have the success that you think you should have, a lot of people start to pull back because that hurts. When you invest a lot in something and you don't have the success that you should have, a lot of people, a lot of organizations, invest less. I'm a big believer that, that's actually when you invest more. You continue to invest more and you drive through those situations, you drive through those circumstances. I don't know what profession, I don't know a career, and I don't know a game where you can have a high-level of success without a high-level of investment. We're going to continue to invest a high-level of effort, a high-level of emotion, a high-level of passion; we're going to continue to invest.

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Felton Davis III

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Laress Nelson

Khari Willis

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