Mark Dantonio Bowl Game Announcement Press Conference Coverage

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio held a conference call with the media Sunday evening after Michigan State accepted an invitation to play in the Redbox Bowl against Oregon on Monday, Dec. 31 at 12 p.m. PT/3 p.m. ET in Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The game will be nationally televised on FOX.

The Spartans finished the regular season with a 7-5 overall record (5-4 Big Ten) and are looking to win their second straight bowl game, while Oregon went 8-4 overall and placed fourth in the Pac-12 North Division with a 5-4 conference mark. It will be first-ever matchup between the two schools in a bowl game.

The Redbox Bowl marks the 11th bowl bid in 12 seasons under MSU head coach Mark Dantonio, who owns a 107-50 record at the helm of the Spartans. MSU has won five of its last six bowl games.

Dantonio already owns school records for most bowl wins (five) and bowl appearances (11), including a school-record four-game bowl winning streak with victories in the 2011 Outback Bowl vs. No. 18 Georgia, 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl over TCU, 2014 Rose Bowl against No. 5 Stanford, and 2015 Cotton Bowl vs. No. 4 Baylor. The Spartans defeated No. 18 Washington State, 42-17, in the 2017 Holiday Bowl.

The following is a complete transcript from Sunday's conference call:

Opening statement:
HEAD COACH MARK DANTONIO: We're very excited about the opportunity to go to San Francisco, it's a place that our players have not been, and to play against an outstanding Oregon team, and an outstanding quarterback in Justin Herbert. Mario Cristobal is an outstanding coach in his first year out there, they're an 8-4 team and will be a FOX national televised game at Noon out there (3 p.m. ET), and to play in the (San Francisco) 49ers stadium, looks like a great place. I watched the PAC-12 Championship game this past weekend.

It's exciting, we've got a little bit of a history with Oregon, having played them in '14 and '15, so we're looking forward to the match-up and looking forward to the bowl experience. Our players will be ready to go and we'll start working on them (Oregon) immediately. I think they have an outstanding offense, from everything I'm reading about them in the last half hour, so I'll take some questions.

On playing in a bowl game in California two years in a row, and best case scenario for Spartan fans...
HEAD COACH MARK DANTONIO: We've got Spartan fans all across this county. When we played Cal out there in 2008, we had over 25,000 fans there, when we played Arizona State this year we had a lot of fans, and we had a lot in San Diego last year for the bowl game. They're all over, they're in Florida, they're on the East Coast, they're everywhere. So we're going to draw, I understand that. We're excited about the opportunity to go out West and play,and play in front of our West Coast Spartans. I know we have a large contingent in San Francisco as well. It will be exciting for our guys. A lot of our players have never been out there, and from my experiences, San Francisco is an amazing town and they have a lot to offer, and a lot of things to see for our football team.

On accomplishment of getting to bowl game again where it's become almost routine...
HEAD COACH MARK DANTONIO: I don't think it's ever routine, you've got to work to get there, and it's hard to win football games, and the margin of error is very, very small, in many cases. I think you could see that this year, and really when you look back at the past. So I don't take anything for granted in the respect, but I think it's always an accomplishment and it always is an opportunity to send your football forward in a positive way, whether it was after the 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl to head towards that one, or whatever, I just think it sends your football team out one year and into the next year on a positive vibe. So it's important that we have the opportunity to win and we'll work hard to accomplish that.

On preference for locale versus quality brand opponent when looking at bowl game against a quality opponent like Oregon...
HEAD COACH MARK DANTONIO: I think you're looking for a location where you have fans, which we've already talked about, we have a fan base there, and I think also the quality opponent, I think Justin Herbert could possible be a first round pick this year, and people have even said the first pick I've heard, so we're going to play an outstanding quarterback. Oregon has a national brand, we've got a national brand, so I think that matches up well, and I think we've had some great games against each other recently. When I look at locale, I really look at the city, what there is to do for our fans and our players; have we been there before; what kind of environment are we playing in and I think 49ers stadium is a first-class environment; where we're staying, I hear we're staying downtown at a very nice place, so all those things match up to me. If we're not going to the Rose Bowl or one of the big (New Year's) six games, you've got to try and feel it out. So there's always plusses and minuses to every aspect of everything that we do, but I've always looked at the glass at being half full, and I'm very excited to be going out there and be playing Oregon, it's a great match-up.

On Josiah Scott situation in playing against a pass-heavy offense like Oregon...
HEAD COACH MARK DANTONIO: We really haven't had a chance to think about that yet, that will be something that Josiah decides, but I don't have any thoughts on that right now, that would be a football decision at a later time.

On staying sharp and what the team will be doing in the long layoff between last game and bowl game...
HEAD COACH MARK DANTONIO: We're in the midst of recruiting now, so the next two weeks are heavy in recruiting. We've got to keep our players in shape, so we've been working starting last week on that. We'll practice this weekend, I think you need to stay in football shape, and then begin practice following exam week, school ends next Friday, so after the exam week we'll really begin practicing, but I think it's very important we maintain our conditioning level and start our preparation internally in terms of who they (Oregon) are as a football program and look at this year, and everything about them. I think that's very important to do as soon as we can.

On Brian Lewerke's status the past couple weeks and heading into the bowl game...
HEAD COACH MARK DANTONIO: I think he's improved. I think those are things he has to answer, because I think it's the type of injury where he has to feel comfortable throwing. I do think he's improved and he throws, so it's a matter of how well is he throwing. That would be my take on it, but we'll make those decisions later. I haven't seen him much this past week.

On importance of building momentum towards the next season with a bowl game...
HEAD COACH MARK DANTONIO: It's always important. You want to have a feel-good (moment) at the end of every season, you want to feel good about where you left it. Facing a quality opponent in someone that's beaten Washington, they've beat Cal, and others, and they're an 8-4 football team, it's on FOX national television at 3 o'clock Eastern Time on New Year's Eve, so it's a good time to play and has a lot of national interest. I think you want to feel good about where you left it as you finish your season, so we need to get ourselves ready to play and play our best football. That's as much as anything, we want to leave our season playing our best football.

On obstacles during season with injuries and looking forward to getting healthy and some good weather to help play some of that good football...
HEAD COACH MARK DANTONIO: I don't think there's any question that towards the end of the season we didn't play as good as we had maybe at other points during the season, whether that's injuries or whatever the reason, as you work through your season and come out the back end of it, you want to be playing your best football, quite simply at that, and that means winning your bowl game, and I think we've won five of our last six bowl games, so we'll prepare ourselves accordingly and get ourselves ready to go. It won't be easy. It's not easy to win as I've said earlier, and those are the expectations, but there's no easy games out there. I'm very excited about going out there and playing, I think it will be a great venue.

Mark Dantonio Bowl Game Announcement Press Conference Coverage

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