Post-Game Quotes: Nebraska

Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio

Opening statement…
Great environment out there today. Congratulations to Nebraska on what they were able to accomplish there. Exciting atmosphere for our players to play in. When you really break down the game, we were down in the red zone I think twice, maybe three times. The drops, we had too many drops. I felt like if I had to point to one thing in a football game, you have to look at the dropped passes. I thought (quarterback Rocky) Lombardi played pretty well. You've got to make some decisions on what you're running, you can't run it all. I thought he played pretty well.

Nine out of 20 on third down in the game, 35 minutes of possession time, so there's some good things. Ran the ball 35 times, 36 times or something for about 150 yards, but at the end of the day you've got to put the ball in the end zone and in the red zone. Defense played outstanding, had a sudden change and they stopped (Nebraska). Also, we had two drives where they had the chance to kick the field goal.

So, disappointing but I'm proud of our guys in terms of their energy and their competitive spirit and their toughness. At the end of the day, you've got to get it done for a win. There's such a difference if you win the game 9-6 as opposed to losing the game 9-6. There's a complete flip, it's just like another dimension between winning and losing, and we've got to win.

On scaling back some offensive plays…
I think you've basically got to have a wind play, the wind was blowing out there probably 20 (MPH), maybe more. It was a decisive factor in the game, although sometimes it would swirl in there. Then, it started snowing in the end so the footing got a little bit worse. The wind and the weather was definitely a factor, but I think you scale it back with Rocky (Lombardi) a little bit, he's a redshirt freshman. You want to limit some of the things that you're doing.

I think we did some good things as far as throwing the ball down the field. In terms of explosive plays receiving the football I think we had two, both were to Connor (Heyward). One was a broken play, one was a wheel route. Other than that, we had a couple drops, and they're going to affect you. Two drops in the end zone would've resulted in two touchdowns.

On the decision to go with quarterback Rocky Lombardi…
I feel good about Rocky. He's played in bad weather before, he's from Iowa and the wind is going to blow out there and everything. I thought he was prepared for that. As far as when we made that decision, I just felt we needed to rest Brian (Lewerke) until he was able to settle himself a little bit and settle his shoulder. He could've played though.

On the dead-ball penalties and what he contributes those to…
I contribute that to losing your composure, I would say. I couldn't even see some of them, but they didn't help us. I thought we overcame them for the most part, but they put us in a tough situation. They hit the one pass right after one of them and we held them down there. I can't remember which ones were which, but I know a couple of them just didn't need to happen.

On frustrations with the offense…
I would think if there's a level of frustration, I think it would come from the head coach, too. So, yeah I'm frustrated about points. But, play calling was fine. We've got to execute. There's an execution factor that's involved here. Now, some of it's weather, some of it's them playing, making plays on the ball. Some of it's us. So, you've got to be able to sort it out and look at it and see what the underlying factor is here. But, you've got to score points. We're all inclusive in that, which means it's a football team. We're not keeping score of the offense and defense, it's a football team. We either win together or we lose together. There are teams out there losing 42-41. They're going the other direction in frustration. We're playing good enough defense to win, we got a couple turnovers. We got one turnover and had to move it back because of a penalty. You've got to deal with those things, but again I go back to our effort and our toughness and our energy we bring to the game. I keep saying it to our players, the difference between winning and losing is so small you really can cut it with a knife sometimes. It's also the difference between joy and frustration, and there's enough of that to go around.

Nebraska head coach Scott Frost

On happiness on today's win…
Good teams figure out how to win any kind of game, and that's a different kind of game that I have been a part of as a coach, winning a game with no touchdowns. I am so happy for the seniors, so happy for the Blackshirts. Some of these games we've won, we've been winning on offense, and it was great to see the defense step up today.

On difficulties with wind and injuries…
Basically, it was one play away. That was not a good day for offensive football. That hurt both offenses. They're really good on defense. We had a lot of stuff, kind of, game planned for them. We couldn't run a bunch of it, especially in two of the quarters when you're going into the wind. They're really good against the run. It's hard to sustain drives against them. But, we knew going into halftime, with the score what it was, it was one play somewhere to get us down there. I thought it would be a touchdown, ended up being three field goals. Give a ton of credit to them. They have a disciplined, well-coached team that plays their butts off. They've been bit by the injury bug and certainly aren't as complete of a team as they could've been. That's November football. We have a couple hurt too, but I give a lot of credit to Coach (Mark) Dantonio's staff.

On team's grit and grind…
Every week I have been coaching them, I think there is a little more fight. Today was certainly the most I've seen. I haven't seen these guys quit. I've seen them keep practicing better and better. I've seen them keep playing harder. I've seen them come together better as a team. That's a hard game to win. It would've been even harder to lose. Our guys had to stick with it. Offensively, we had to keep grinding and the defense had to keep coming up with stops. They found a way to get it done.

On Barret Pickering and Isaac Armstrong…
Two of the unsung heroes, I don't know if it's unsung with Barret (Pickering), but two of the heroes today were Barret Pickering and Isaac Armstrong. Some of the punts that he hit into the wind made a difference in field position. It was a field-position game. Barret hitting the two field goals, I had enough confidence in him at that point to let him go out and try a long one, and he buried it. It turned out to be the difference. So, you could pick about a dozen guys on our team that have gotten just infinitely better as the year has gone along, and those guys are kind of representative of our whole team.

On toughness…
Toughness is mentality I think. It's also easy to be tough when you care more. I think both of those things have gotten better.

On realizing when wind became a factor…
Probably warm ups. I laid in bed last night with my fingers crossed and hands folded in prayer, hoping that we'd be able to throw it. Going into the game, I think they were giving up 270 a game in the passing game, or something, 70 yards rushing. I knew it would make it harder on us if we weren't able to throw. We tried to come out in the first drive and just run our offense. It was pretty obvious after that, that we had to flip the script on our game plan. Again, a lot of credit to them. That's as good of a run defense as we're going to play, and on a day when it's tough for offenses, that's not a team you want to play.

On the team's improvement…
I told the guys in the locker room if from a coaching standpoint, or pretty much on everything, I guess, the team could've started the season where it is right now, that would've been a funny act. Some of the growing things we had to go through were necessary, and I'm crushed for the seniors we couldn't get that done quicker. This team has been through so much and to be where it is right now and have the second half of the season it's been having, it makes it really special. And I think the seniors will probably look back on this and think it was a pretty special season after all.

On senior running back Devine Ozigbo…
Devine has been that guy for us since the Purdue game that we can hand the ball to, and he'll get tough yards, he's going to make plays… we needed one first down. And we were in that situation a couple of other times particularly at the Northwestern game, we didn't get a first down, and we had to punt and lost the game. The offensive line did a great job blowing a couple of holes open and he got it. I thought (freshman running back) Mo (Washington) ran hard today, made a couple of big plays for us. The guys are just playing with more courage, more toughness, more passion and that's a lot of fun to coach.

On Michigan State's playing style…
I kind of thought going into the game it'd be a throw-to-run game, not a run-to-throw game, just because of their style. We just kind of had to keep grinding, and particularly in the first and third quarters, when we were against the wind, we just kind of had to bide our time and try to get where we could open up a little bit. When the fourth quarter hit, we took a few chances and tried to throw a few shots on them, hit a couple and that led to some points. Again, I've got a ton of respect for them. They're not who they want to be on offense right now because they've had so many injuries. It'd have probably been a different game if everyone was on the field, it would've helped them… certainly would've helped us and some other guys. But that's a really good team and a well-coached team.

On a tough sequence in the fourth quarter and kicking the ball against the wind at half…
Yeah, definitely. Those are decisions you have to make, and I thought it'd be a close enough game that we'd want to win in the fourth quarter. I knew we had to survive the third (quarter), and then (freshman kicker) Barrett (Pickering) came out and kicked it to the end zone into the wind. That was a big way to start the half. So, sometimes those same decisions work out, sometimes they don't work out.

On the pre-game ceremony and former Husker Sam Foltz…
The pre-game ceremony was touching. I didn't know Sam, I know his family well now. I was actually in Western Nebraska with a couple of friends when the news came over on the radio, so I was back in Nebraska when I heard. Boy, everything you hear about Sam is not just how good of a player he was, but how good of a person he was. Coach Mark Dantonio said the same thing about the other young man (Mike Sadler). Lives that end too soon, it's a tragedy. So, we're sorry to see that happen, but it was pretty special what they did for him on the field today.

Michigan State junior linebacker Joe Bachie

On focusing...
We are here for a reason, all of us players, and it is because we can make those plays. You look at the game and you could point fingers at anyone but you just point the thumb at yourself for not making the play. Maybe in the defense, you bust your coverage, that is not on the coaches. Offensively, if you drop a ball that's not on the coaches. You make those plays that we have all done before, we have all made them before so there is no pointing fingers here. Own up to it.

On the defense...
At the beginning of the year we talked about it and we wanted to be a great team, a great defense, we have to be clutch. You will see us out there in those situations and we will just kind of raise our fists and that just means that we are together, we are one unit and let's get this stop.

Michigan State senior safety Khari Willis

On the frustration of the game...
I think you've just got to look to improve next week. We have to look at the things we did well. We had some opportunities where maybe we could've scored some points or had a few more turnovers, so you look at those opportunities and you go from there.

On the key to slowing down Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez...
I thought our front seven did an excellent job. One of their top receivers (JD Spielman) is out, so that helped us. But, I think our front seven did an excellent job knowing when he was going to pull it, knowing when he was going to try to run it. He scrambled on us a couple times.

On the quick changes...
"I think we emphasize sudden change and red zone. We don't want to give up a touchdown. If we're put in the red zone, the team should come out and force three points, and that's if we don't block the kick, that's our mindset. We always want to get the ball back to our offense and get it to them on the other side of the field. Field position plays a big role, and we understand sudden change is part of that.

Related News

Players Mentioned

Rocky Lombardi

Khari Willis

Related Videos