Michigan State Redbox Bowl Press Conference Quotes: Coach Dantonio

Spartan Football Redbox Bowl Daily Update

SAN FRANCISCO -- Michigan State football head coach Mark Dantonio met with the media Friday at a Redbox Bowl Press Conference at the team hotel in San Francisco to preview the upcoming Redbox Bowl against Oregon on New Year's Eve.

Michigan State is looking for its second straight bowl win and sixth in the last seven tries as the Spartans take on Oregon in the Redbox Bowl on Monday, Dec. 31 at 3 p.m. EST/12 p.m. PST from Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The game will be televised nationally on FOX, with Joe Davis, Brady Quinn and Bruce Feldman on the call. The Spartans finished the regular season with a 7-5 overall record and went 5-4 in the Big Ten, while Oregon went 8-4 overall and placed fourth in the Pac-12 North Division with a 5-4 conference mark. It will be the first-ever matchup between the two schools in a bowl game.

Now in his 12th season as head coach of the Spartans, Mark Dantonio owns a 107-50 (.682) record. He is one of just eight active FBS coaches to own at least 100 victories at his current school. For the fourth time in his career, Dantonio was named a semifinalist in 2017 for the George Munger College Coach of the Year, presented by the Maxwell Football Club. Dantonio has won the most Big Ten Championships (three) and bowl games (five) of any Spartan head coach and also ranks first with 11 bowl appearances. He is the only Big Ten coach to win multiple Big Ten Championships (2010, 2013, 2015), claim a victory in the Rose Bowl (2014), and coach in the College Football Playoff (2015).

The following is a transcript from Friday's press conference:

Opening statement...
We're really excited about the opportunity coming Monday for our football program, everybody has already talked about this a little bit, but two national brands, we've got a little bit of a history together. The Redbox Bowl has been tremendous, the city of San Francisco as well. Our guys are having a great life experience, and it all sort of comes to fruition on Monday, but the experience you have at a bowl game, if you can win it, that's a big positive thing, so we're looking forward to that. Practices have gone very, very well, and this has been a very well organized bowl game, so we're very appreciative.

On using two quarterbacks and not naming bowl game starter yet through practices so far...
Well, we wanted to let things take their course through bowl preparations and everything. Brian Lewerke will start the game, so he'll be our starter as we go through. He's taken all the reps through bowl practices now that we're in to number 10 or 11, or whatever it is, so we feel good about that. Rocky has done a nice job as well, obviously he's played a lot of football for us as well, and he'll have an opportunity as well, should things go in that direction.

On how much last month has given Brian Lewerke a chance to rest and recover from injury...
Well, I think it was relative to his arm strength, not so much his mechanics, as to his arm strength, and time has to heal that sometimes, so I think that's what's happened with him. He's back to being confident in that strength, which is a big issue, and I think he's ready to go. He's done well.

On playing home and home games with Oregon a few years ago and the similarities and differences between the players and coaching staffs...
I'm sure they have a few players that played in '15, much like we do, probably most are gone. Their coaching staff changed, ours has remained mostly the same, so maybe there's more similarities to what we did against them than maybe what they did against us. They are a 3-4 (defense) team predominately, although they differ in that defensively a little bit, a lot of cover ones and things of that nature. They have long players, I think the same type of players, long defensive players, with height and length to them and speed. Past Oregon teams have had good speed as well, very dynamic receivers, good quarterback, a different quarterback in (Marcus) Mariota in the '15 version. Different quarterback now (Justin Herbert) but a very, very good quarterback. I think they're very well coached. Coach Cristobal has done a great job there thus far, and you can see the discipline in his program.

On national brands between the two programs and how they've helped build those brands for each other...
I think both of those two previous games we played we early season games, both programs were ranking in the Top 10 or thereabouts, we were coming off a Rose Bowl in '14 and they were coming off a national final game, so to speak to that, I think both programs have been in a national spotlight where all eyes have been on them and I think that generates interest from across the country.

On both Raequan Williams and Brian Lewerke using the term "underachieved" and what his message has been to the team in the last month coming off the end of the regular season...
I think every opportunity you play, you have an opportunity to make a statement in the game that you play. We've gone through a lot of things this year with some injuries and some different things, and two quarterbacks playing. Anytime you have two quarterbacks playing during the season, there's a message there, I think whether it's relative to injury or other issues. We've played very, very well defensively and on the offensive side of the ball, we've had a lot of injuries, and those injuries have taken a toll on our football team, and with that being said, also, probably some execution issues as well and things of that nature, which goes along with football. We're playing good football teams, we're in one of the best conferences, I think, in the country and maybe as highly competitive of a division as any place in the country. Everybody in our conference is up against it week in and week out, we're used to playing high caliber competition and we're looking forward to that again on Monday. I think every year we go into the season saying we need to win a division championship and compete for a Big Ten Championship, and that's our goals and that's our mindset and while some other teams are excited about getting six wins, that's not really where this program is right now. We expect more and we expect more of ourselves, and that's the mindset I want our football team to have and that's what we'll continue to do.

On having Raequan Williams, who has started 28 straight games, announce that he's returning for his senior season and what it means to the defense and the team to have him back for a fifth year...
Well, that's kind of a Happy New Year's deal (smiling). When Raequan made that decision, it's the first of hopefully a number of guys to make that decision, but that's up to them. He's an anchor guy, he's a guy that you can build your defense around. We have the number one defense in the country against the run, and there's a big reason for that, we've got very big players up front and he's one of them. He's a dominant player for us and to have him return in a huge statement, not just for our defense, but for our program, in terms of what we're trying to do relative to graduate our players and things of that nature.

On all the condolences from the media and people reaching out about the passing of his mother...
Thanks, I appreciate that, a lot of media have reached out and a lot of people across the country have reached out, so this would be an opportunity for me to thank everybody that reached out about my mother's passing, so I appreciate that very, very, very much. Thank you.

On if he split up some duties, including game planning and recruiting, with staff to step away from football to be with family...
You know, my family, much like when my dad passed, he asked me 'what are you doing here, you've got a job to do,' so I took some time to be with my family and then went back to work. It was during the dead period, so we weren't recruiting at that time, so I stepped away from football for a short time. I've always considered Michigan State family, and we have a family atmosphere, so for me personally, getting back to be around our players and our coaches, really helped me move forward in the process, as much as anything that I've experienced, and I appreciate that very, very much.

On how much the staff continuity helped with that...
Our staff continuity is golden really, in terms of what we've been able to do, we can pick up and a lot of different guys can move the program in the direction that it needs to go in my absence. They've done a great job and we just keep hammering away.

On experience of playing a lot of up-tempo teams early in the season and how much those first three games helped the rest of the season...
We played tempo teams really throughout the course of the season, so we work at it, we practice it by running three huddles at our defense and things of that nature to help the tempo, to make it 12-14 seconds in between snaps. I think the main thing is, we can factor in and give our defense that tempo, but what we can't give them is that execution aspect that comes with the tempo that every team brings, and certainly Oregon will bring that to the game on Monday, and we're going to have to survive the script and then begin to play. Just like in any football game, I think the key to winning is catching the football, blocking the guy over you, getting rid of the football, and then tackling in space, especially when you haven't played in over a month, I think tackling in space is such a big issue. If you turn on the TV every night this last week or so, watching the other bowl games, I think you see that; the teams that tackle in space, usually win the football game.

On viewing this period with recruiting and early signing period, plus the bowl game with wrapping up the end of this season and spring-boarding to next year:
For me, it's the end of recruiting in February usually, and with this early signing period, it sort of does shift a little bit, so we won't sign as many guys, certainly as we've already gotten. It is a new year, it starts really new in February, I always sort of joke that it's like the Chinese New Year for us, it's a little bit different than the regular New Year because there's change and a lot of different things going on in February. Monday's game sort of signifies the end of 2018 and 2019 begins the next day. When we walk into the football building and our offices when we get back, the 2019 schedules will be up and in our meeting rooms, in our offices, in our hallways, and we start fresh.

On players earning Academic All-Conference, the balance of sports and academics and what expectations he has of the student-athletes...
I expect our players to come and graduate. We've got a very high graduation rate, I think we had 31 Academic All-Big Ten players, our grade point average for a full team is up there, 2.78 or something like that, so it's healthy. But I hope that our players have a great experience athletically, an opportunity to win championships, have a great experience academically and find a passion for what they want to do with their life, and that we can create some life moments that they're going to remember for the rest of their lives, not only with each other, but separately as well, whether that's an individual award or something of that nature. We hope for them just to come out and be better people and great representatives for society. Doesn't mean we're always going to be able to accomplish that goal, but those are our goals.

On the "Four years for 40" plan...
We talk about you're going to school for four years or five, really for the next 40. What you do, what your passion will be, will fulfill the next 40 years of your life. The NFL, while every one of our players want to play in it, once you get there, it's not for long. Very few players have a 10-year career, most is about three or three-and-a-half, and by the time they're done at age 30, they've got the rest of their life to worry about, so we want to fill that void with something. I think young people today, when they're done playing football, there's a hole there. It occupies so much of their time and passion, at the end of it all, you want there to be something to fill that void. So they've got to find something that they're passion about, that they want to do, maybe they'll be reporters (smiling), let's hope.

On challenges of facing defending Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert...
He's a very good quarterback, he has good control of the offense, I think it's well-designed to fit him. He has excellent receivers, (Dillon) Mitchell is a go-to guy for him, but he uses his tight ends and his (running) backs, and their other wide receivers as well. They've got a great running game to compliment that, I think they want to run the football and keep you off-balance. We're going to see some new things in the game that we haven't practiced for. But I think he's a dynamic player, he's got a strong arm, he can get out of trouble, he's a willing runner. What you really see, when he has incomplete passes, a lot of them are on the money, they're either well-contested by the defense, or they're bobbled a little bit, but they're on the money. He's an excellent football player.

On relationship with Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal and if they knew each other before Redbox Bowl...
We just met when we came out here (for the Redbox Bowl press conference on Dec. 6). We have some commonalities I guess, having both worked for Coach Saban, and probably know a lot of people that we both know, but this is the first time that I've met him, but I'm very impressed with him and his demeanor, his calm demeanor and the way he runs his business. When you look at Oregon, you see a disciplined football team on both sides of the ball, I think they're a program that's destined for greatness in the Pac-12.

Michigan State Redbox Bowl Press Conference Quotes: Coach Dantonio

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