Post-Game Quotes: Purdue

MICHIGAN STATE

Head Coach Mark Dantonio

Opening statement...
I was walking down the hallway and walking over here. Coach Samuel made a statement that stuck with me there: "What a response." That is what we had today, a response. Really came out with the idea that we were going to attack. Offense, defense and special teams and have momentum and keep momentum which is exactly what ended up happening. Purdue has got a good football team and very explosive football team. I thought that on the first end of the spectrum we controlled Moore, number four, we sort of kept Blough in check and didn't allow many big plays. Shut the passing plays down deep. So they had the one touchdown drive, so we played very well on the defensive side of the ball and came up with three turnovers with big ones at the end. Two really big ones in the fourth quarter. I'm not sure if we blocked the kick or not but something happened on the kick so we defeated that play as well. Then offensively, I thought Rocky played a tremendous game, Rocky Lombardi. For a guy coming in there on his first start, it was a big game, really big game. I thought he was poised, I thought he ran the ball effectively when he was asked to. I thought he was pretty much on the money throwing the football. Had some very big plays out there, missed a couple by inches but it is a game of inches. I thought he played very well, Nailor answers at the end of the game, I wish he would have really got down and just ran the clock out because that is the coach for you. I guess it is exciting to run for 50. I can't say enough about our football team. Last week at this time, there were a lot of things going on throughout the week, a lot of distractions. They stayed focused, they stayed committed and that is what this program has been about.

On confidence level in Lombardi...
I think that anytime you get a guy out there and give him a fresh start and see what he is able to do and is doing well, yeah your confidence is growing. I know Rocky, he has been here for a year and a half really, so he is a competitive guy and a leader. He has got great leadership skills and is a tough guy, he is a great athlete. Multi-sport athlete and champions in a lot of different athletic areas. If you ever golf with guy, he will drive it to the green. He is an amazing athlete and he produced today. It was exciting to watch him and was exciting for him and his family and this football team. It was a great job, outstanding.

On Lombardi's preparation…
Dave [Warner] does a great job. Rocky is a guy that is going to come in and study extra and be in there. He is a workaholic. He is a guy that actually comes in and breaks down the film, last year. When I say he breaks down the film he is in there breaking down the opposing team's film. What they call things, going through it meticulously. Not as a quarterback, but as almost like an analyst. He is that type of guy who is going to have those answers, but now is going to need to put those answers into play but he is going to know what to do. He is going to be confident in himself and you saw that today. He was very confident and did an outstanding job. Big moment, really a big moment and I can tell you that I guess, I don't know, 105, so that is 105 and this could be as rewarding of a win maybe in our time here. We need to get up off the mat and five wins, one more puts us to a bowl game. When everybody was sort of selling us short, we got up and went. That is sports and that is athletics and that is what makes athletics so unique to everything else. There are the intangibles that are difficult to measure.

On the defense performance…
We are doing a great job coaching, Coach Tressel is doing an outstanding job. Our players, we have got good leadership. We are still a young defense really, which is exciting to see. We have always played good defense here, we really have. If you look back through the years we have played good defense and we sort of rise to a moment sometimes or to a challenge. You saw that happen today, I am very proud of them. Big play at the end of the game by Matt Morrissey, big play by Tyriq [Thompson]. Wish he wouldn't be dancing in the corner, but there are some things to frustrate the coach but huge plays in the game. They are driving with the opportunity to either tie or go ahead in the fourth quarter with I think about five minutes to go.

On balancing the receivers and quarterback injuries…
Cam Chambers I thought had a great game. The one bounced off his cast on his thumb which should soon be off hopefully. I thought he had a big game and made some big catches. Darrell Stewart Jr. bounces back because he is finally healthy a little bit and played well. Nailor obviously has some big moments. We will get Cody White back next week I believe. Sowards had some big catches. We have got a lot of different guys playing and a new quarterback playing so challenging, very challenging. I think the belief system is in tact and you saw that at work. Our guys, I keep saying over and over, we have good chemistry. Usually when there is something that happens, if you come together as a family and have good chemistry you can get good things done and I thought that is what happened.

On how Khari Willis played and slowing down Rondale Moore…
I thought Khari played very well, he was isolated on him in man coverage a lot. We played some nickel, we played dime, we played base. Rondale had 11 catches, but I think 74 yards maybe, I'm not sure, but it was a great week for him (Khari) as well and I thought we pressured the quarterback. They hit the tight end on the deep over a number of times, we didn't get home, but other than that I thought we sort of contained four (Moore) to some degree. We wanted to at least control him, he's an outstanding player.

We lost our punter, Tyler Hunt, on Thursday in a non-contact deal. Blew out his ACL so he's done for the season. I don't think I've ever lost one punter, been on a team that's lost one punter, let alone two. Bryce Barringer punted, did a nice job, he was ready to punt. The fourth is Will Przystup if that comes to that, but it was good that he (Barringer) had a great game. I thought our punt game, we limited his (Moore's) returns as well, had the one big kick-off return.

On what the game plan is with Rocky Lombardi moving forward…
What's the game plan with Rocky? Well he played pretty well so the game plan will expand. We'll see what happens.

On what he saw from Rocky Lombardi at the end of the first half…
Huge, huge. At 6-6 for the game we pin them down there, keep them down there, and get the ball back. Guy (Purdue punter Joe Schopper) hits a huge punt down to whatever the 20 and we go on a two-minute drive all the way down the field and it was orchestrated picture perfect. He did an outstanding job so we go in at halftime I think 13-6 I believe. So huge plays in the game, you know you don't win without that drive really. It's tight, it's tight out there guys. I don't know about you, but it's tight. We just kept playing, kept momentum on our side and we enlarged our territory a little bit today. That came out of nowhere, but we did, we did. People took notice today. People all across the country took notice that the Spartans got up and played against a good football team that just had a huge win last week.

On if the quarterback job belongs to Brian Lewerke when he comes back…
You know we're not talking about injuries as we always don't. I'm just excited that have two quarterbacks playing at a high level and that's what's exciting. Those decisions can be made at another time, but first thing we have to do is get him (Lewerke) healthy. We'll see, this week I know he was better than he was last week when he played.

Co-Offensive Coordinator Dave Warner

On first impressions of quarterback Rocky Lombardi…
First of all, I was very impressed with how he prepared. It was obvious right from the start and going all the way back to two weeks there was a possibility of him playing. He prepared as if he was going to play, he did it again this week, he prepared nonstop all week long. Obviously, his performance was very good today. I thought he kept his cool, he was in control. That's the biggest thing, he was in control. Nothing's ever going to be perfect out there. There were some screw ups, but he was always in control and never looked flustered and made plays. I'm excited about what he was able to accomplish today for us.

On what the game plan for Rocky Lombardi was in his first start…
We may have pared back a little bit, but not much, because Rocky's been here and he's a gym rat. He's up in our offices all the time. He learned our offense very quickly and has been through it. Obviously minus the game experience, but he ran our offense today. There wasn't a whole lot that we held back today with him being the quarterback, and he did it well.

On second guessing not starting Rocky Lombardi against Michigan last week…
Oh, we've probably second guessed that a bit. We were second guessing that a week ago today. Brian, we probably put him in a bad situation by playing him without practicing, without going full tilt all week. I think Michigan was a fantastic defense. I think these guys were a good defense as well, and I just thought we probably had a little better plan this week and executed better. They sort of fit what we do best. This defense sort of fit a little bit better as compared to Michigan who is just a ton of man and press coverage.

On how ready Rocky Lombardi was to play against Michigan…
I think he was ready to go last week. You never know until you get out there and the lights come on, but he had a good week at practice last week. Really no surprise right there. I think he continues to move along with his knowledge of the offense, and his performance, and obviously now when you get a chance to do it out there in game situations he's proven himself a little bit more.

On when the decision was made to start Rocky Lombardi…
I'll let coach Dantonio refer to that as he comes in here.

On having Jalen Nailor back, a healthier Darrell Stewart and Justin Layne at receiver…
All three of those guys were big for us. Justin just presents a different dynamic there with his speed, and Jalen the same. As those guys continue to heal up and get closer to 100 percent I think, even though obviously were going to miss Felton, we can still be a pretty good passing offense and be able to win downfield with those guys. It's great having them back. Jalen was big, was really big having him back.

On his thoughts on Cody White and Brandon Sowards…
Brandon does a good job for us. He's just a blue-collar type guy. He's not really flashy, but he's been a consistent guy for us throughout the year and we're happy that he's been able to stay somewhat healthy and get out there and play on Saturday's. So we were fired up about what Brandon did. Cody, hopefully he comes back as soon as possible, but that was a surgery deal and doctors are sort of in charge of that one. We'll take him back as soon as we can get him though I know that.

Defensive Coordinator Mike Tressel

On the defense shining against a potent offense…
I'm real proud of them, there's no doubt about it. You watch Purdue on film all week and it's scary. They are explosive, obviously Rondale Moore is a great player, and the quarterback has been playing awesome. A whole bunch of trick plays and gadgets, they're very explosive. I'm real proud of the guys. When they sling it around like that and pass it 50 times, what we've been saying is we need to come up with some big plays following those. We had three interceptions, and one to end the game, so yeah, I'm proud of the performance.

On creating turnovers today…
That's what you need to do against Purdue. I think in terms of yards, we played significantly better in the first half, but you know they were going to come out and keep doing what they do. Eventually they're going to gain those yards. We needed to come up with big plays. That's what we needed to do, and the guys got it done.

On what the main job was defensively…
We felt like the last couple games we gave up too many rushing yards, and that's not in our DNA, that's not who we are. We actually went back to step one and step two, what they've always been, and that's stop the run and harass the quarterback. Then create turnovers. You turn on last week's film and see how many points and yards they put up against a highly ranked Ohio State team, and you know the challenge is there for you. Our guys were excited about the challenge, and especially after last week, how difficult that was emotionally. It was good to see our guys minds and emotions in the right place.

On the play of the front seven…
They changed the tempo on us in the second half, which took us a minute to adjust. They didn't show a whole bunch of fast tempo going into this game. They're no huddle, but they haven't been fast tempo, so we had to adjust. I think we did a good job of keeping him in the pocket. He's a guy that scrambles better than you want him to. You see a lot of third down long yardage situations on film where he scrambled. He's not a super tall kid, so if you can keep squeezing the pocket and make him have to see over our big boys, hopefully in the long run the ball ends up in your hands.

On the play of Khari Willis and containing Rondale Moore…
Khari has been a great player this year. You watch the Spartans play this year, and Khari has played his best football. That's what you need. Coach Dantonio always says your seniors need to play their best as seniors, and Khari's been phenomenal this year. He had the challenge when we went in nickel and dime of being the guy who matched up with Rondale Moore. He's going to get his catches, but it didn't result in a bunch of touchdowns, which was the key.

On the play of Rocky Lombardi…
Love Rocky as a competitor, love Rocky as a competitor. Coach Warner and the offensive staff, I had no idea on what the plan was in terms of using him. I know he can bowl people over. He bowled us over. And especially when you get him moving around and allow him to have time to find those targets. You guys should have heard the Rocky chants in the locker room before I came over here. The whole team. ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY! It was awesome. Very proud of him, but I knew that was the type of competitor he was.

Michigan State redshirt-freshman quarterback Rocky Lombardi

On what it is like to walk in the locker room after your first start and hearing your teammates chant your name…
It is a good feeling to know that your teammates have your back. Obviously, I don't have a lot of game experience and for them to come in and support me like that, it means a lot to me.

On the impact Coach Warner has on him…
Especially this year we have gotten to know each other better. He is also my mentor, we talk about life and it helps me get closer to him. I was up in the office this week asking him 'what do you see here?', 'what can I do better?' Little things that will help the team win.

On how he would compare his feeling confidence on taking the field today compared last week…
I felt my preparation was good. I've been confident in both games. I was prepared to start last week just like I do every other week. I've talked about this before; I am ready to go every time. Every time I step on that field, I am confident in myself, I am confident in my teammates and my abilities to win.

On when Lombardi felt locked in…
Kind of the first drive. Took me a little bit to get in a rhythm. There's one out route where our linebackers sink under it. I was a little nervous and threw it high, but really, it took about two passes for me to really get in a rhythm and be like alright this is football. I've played it since I was this high; it's the same game.

On the last drive of the first half…
We had to drive a long ways. I don't know how many yards it was exactly, but being down in your own territory is a little bit intimidating going out there, but I think that my teammates had the confidence in me and I for sure had confidence in my teammates. Coach Warner did a great job of calling routes that I was comfortable with, getting me in a rhythm and once I got in a rhythm. We just kept moving forward and kept moving forward which led to that touchdown.

Michigan State junior defensive end Kenny Willekes

On the effort to slow down Purdue's fast-paced offense…
Obviously, Rondale Moore is an incredible player, and they have a lot of playmakers on offense overall. It speaks to the resilience of this defense, because we also have playmakers all over. We had to stay disciplined and focused. We prepare well, so we know what teams are going to throw at us and we just have to keep our eyes on our keys. We had to come out and have the mindset of Spartan dawg defense, playing fast and physical and swarming to the ball. We felt if we did that, we could get the job done which we did.

Michigan State senior linebacker Andrew Dowell

On how the team was able to bounce back after last week and stop a team like Purdue…
Coach D always talks to us about, win or lose the Michigan game; it's all about how we respond next. We got to keep pushing week in and week out. It's a huge win for us, because it gets us back on track which is exactly what we need. Hats off to Purdue, this was a big win for us.

On how Lombardi helped the defense…
It was a great game for Rocky (Lombardi) and the offense. We saw him take leadership on both sides of the ball. He would come over to the defenses' huddle before we went out and told us to go get the ball back, and they will go make something happen. He stepped up and did great job today.

Michigan State junior wide receiver Darrell Stewart Jr.

On what Lombardi showed going into his first start…
He's very confident in every practice each week. He was fired up and wanted to show everyone that he could step up and be a leader on this team, and I think he did a phenomenal job today. He took initiative in the huddle and was a real leader all the way through.

On the resilience of this team…
Coach D told us, that as Spartan Dawgs some people will doubt you and some people will count you out. But at the same time, you got to be able to trust your family which is our team and come out and push hard and go get the win. That's exactly what we did today.

Michigan State junior safety David Dowell

On how the team responded after last week versus Michigan…
Yeah, I just think coming back from the adversity last week, we had preached it all week. Just to be able to come and win and get back on the right track, I was really proud of that.

On playing for Felton Davis, Brian Lewerke, and other injured players …
Yeah, definitely. Felton had surgery yesterday. Some guys FaceTimed him, I texted him and made sure that he was good. He told us to "go out and ball tomorrow!" And we were able to pull out a win for him.

On how they imitate Rondale Moore during practice…
We use a number of our quicker and faster receivers, some of our running backs and mimick anything that he has done in games throughout the week. We just continue to rep it over and over again so that we have it in our heads, so when the game comes around, it is like second nature to us.

On the Michigan State's mentality against Purdue …
My mentality was to contain their top guys, if we contained them and let our other guys make big plays, we would have a big game and we knew we would have a chance to win.

PURDUE

Head Coach Jeff Brohm

Opening Statement…
Coach Dantonio and his staff did a great job of getting his guys ready to play. They deserved to win. They executed better than us. I thought they played harder and made fewer mistakes than us. It is a good learning experience for our team. That's why we say it's a one-game season. We did not get ready to play this game and come out and do the things necessary to win. We have to go back and fix those and play better next week, but I have to give credit to Michigan State and Coach Dantonio. They did a good job.

On Michigan State's Defense…
Well, we knew they had a good defensive team. They have had that for years and this year is no different. They have a lot of good players that are well coached. They disguised quite a few things on us. They changed their looks, and there was movement up front. It was hard for us to block that, and we did not do a good job of blocking the movement. It hurt us and a combination of all those things. We weren't able to execute as well, and the credit goes to them.

On preparing for Michigan State's quarterbacks…
Well, I think both guys are very similar. They are both controlling the football and they run their system really well. They mix in the run and they will escape the pocket if they have too. I don't think it had to do with not knowing who was starting. I think the quarterback stepped in and did a very good job. He made some big throws, made a lot of one-on-one throws, and made a lot of one-on-one catches. He executed very well. I thought that it wasn't a great game by any stretch, by our team on offense or defense or special teams. When all three units aren't playing well you probably aren't going to win and that's what happened.

On Rocky's performance…
I thought he did a great job. He had great composure, great poise, made throws up the field, and took one-on-one matchups when they were covered fairly well, and he hit them. He executed the offense and made plays with his feet. He was in charge. I thought he was outstanding today.

On Michigan State's defense limiting your offensive plays…
They did a good job. We knew going in that it was their strength. They have been good on defense all year and even before. What they did to us was that they disguised quite a bit. They moved after the snap, they showed one thing and did the other, and when we checked, they checked. They created a lot of movement up front for our offensive live and we had a hard time blocking sometimes. We did not win any of our one-on-one matchups. Credit goes to them, they did a better job than we did. They executed and kept us off balance. They did a good job.

On evaluation of special teams…
You would like to be able to make some kicks, you would like to be able to get down in there and make a kick. I think there was some penetration, I don't think it came off his foot well, but I could be wrong. We were good at some returns, it helped us. We had a false start on that one field goal which I think we would have made. We were up there too long, in my opinion, and we jumped offsides. The second one we have got to find a way to hit that when we had a chance, and we did not. A lot of small things that add up and we are not good enough to not do all those small things right or at least right most of the time and it cost us.

On the decision of the blocked field goal…
We wanted to kick the field goal and get the points on that one.

On offense playing elite defenses…
We have a lot more steps to take. I know we have been putting up some points. This defense challenged us. They gave a lot of different looks, they disguised things, and moved at the snap. They pressed us on the outside some. When this happens, things are not going to go well. We have plenty of work to do and we have got to find ways to get better. We have a tough schedule and tough teams coming up and all we can do is learn from this and prepare for Iowa, who is very good on defense as well, and we will have our hands full.

On evaluating the team…
I see us right where we are at. I know we beat Ohio State at home and I think everything fell into place and everything worked. It was one of those days. I understand where we are at and we have a long way to go. We got to work up the ladder and there are a lot of good football teams in this league that win every year. Every year they go to a bowl, every year they do a great job of winning the games they are supposed to. We have not been able to do that. We knew this was going to be a tough game coming into Michigan State. They were going to be hungry and angry and they came out and played very good. We have a lot of work ahead of us. We have some tough teams on the schedule that if we don't do all the small things right, we aren't going to have a chance. We have to get back to working hard, trying to improve, creating stops, and getting turnovers. All the small things didn't go right today, and it cost us.

On your quarterbacks' performance today…
I don't think it was one of his better days. He did a decent job. He made some throws and he had some pressure at times and pressure is going to affect it. He forced some things because of the pressure. He scrambled on the first interception and I though he had enough room to run it, but he tried to force it in there. Last pass of the game, I told him to throw to the other side, but he went the other way. Those things happen and it's something he will learn from. Playing quarterback, you get hit and a lot of people are coming after you, you just have to hang in there tough and trust what you practiced, and they did a good job on us. I think he will be disappointed, but he will bounce back, and I know he is a fighter and a competitor, and I think he will work hard and improve this week.

Purdue center Kirk Barron

Evaluating the play of the offense …
We came up short when we had two turnovers, we had three or two... way too many turnovers. We almost became one dimensional at times throwing the ball and that's on us as an offensive line, to either keep David (Blough) clean if you saw him his jersey was a mess, and that's on us. We need to be able to run the ball.

Overcoming the game….
We weren't trying to make excuses about how good they played or what their level was or what their stats were; we were just trying to play our ball game. They were just another team to us, and they whooped our ass. But for us, we never look at defenses the same. I know they were second I think. They give up 70 something yards rushing in offense per game, but for us we need to play our ball, set our tempo. We need to be able to throw haymakers and bring the fight to them, and we didn't do that today.

Purdue quarterback David Blough

What did MSU do to stop you guys from making big plays...
First and foremost, it just didn't feel like as an offense and myself didn't play very well. That doesn't help when you have to create big plays to score. Obviously, we didn't do that very well. It's tough. They made some good plays, but it come down to us not executing and frankly me not executing and that's the honesty of it.

MSU trying to counter every move they were trying to make...
When that happens, they check one of their different defenses. It comes down to us playing base football, and we didn't do that very well. I didn't do that very well and when they check it was simple things that were missed. We didn't capitalize, and we weren't very good.

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Players Mentioned

Cam Chambers

Andrew Dowell

David Dowell

Tyler Hunt

Justin Layne

Brian Lewerke

Rocky Lombardi

Matt Morrissey

Jalen Nailor

Brandon Sowards

Darrell Stewart Jr.

Cody White

Kenny Willekes

Khari Willis

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