Mark Dantonio Weekly Press Conference Coverage

Photo by: Matthew Mitchell

8/28/2018 2:58:00 PM | Football

No. 11 Michigan State Hosts Utah State Friday Night In 2018 Season-Opener

Game Notes | MSU Depth Chart

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio held his weekly press conference Tuesday inside the Izzo Family Media Center at the Spartan Stadium North End Zone Complex to review preseason camp and preview No. 11 MSU's season-opener against Utah State on Friday night at Spartan Stadium.

No. 11/12 Michigan State kicks off its 122nd season of football against Utah State on Friday, Aug. 31 at 7 p.m. in Spartan Stadium. The game will be televised on BTN/BTN2Go. The Spartans are looking to win their 20th consecutive home opener and improve to 11-1 in season openers under 12th-year head coach Mark Dantonio. Friday is also MSU's annual "Stripe the Stadium" game (even and student sections: green; odd sections: white).

Michigan State's streak of 19 straight wins in its home opener, which began in 1999 against Oregon, is tied for the fifth-longest active streak in the country (Florida, 28; Wisconsin and Oklahoma State, 22; Illinois, 20; Arizona State and MSU, 19). MSU is 100-21 (.826) all-time in home openers, including 11-0 under Dantonio.

Friday's game marks the first-ever meeting between Michigan State and Utah State. The Aggies are led by sixth-year head coach Matt Wells and went 6-7 last season, earning a berth in the Arizona Bowl.

The following is a complete transcript from Tuesday's press conference:

MARK DANTONIO: Opening game, opening night, Spartan Stadium, always very exciting. I think every place in America, a lot of optimism throughout the country. You look at Utah State, and you look at Michigan State and both programs, I think Utah State has the third most starters back in the country, and we maybe tie for first or so, so there will be a lot of experience on the football field Friday night, so it will be exciting.

I look at Utah State very quickly, I look at them as a total football team. Their special teams stand out, outstanding punter, and they blocked four punts last year, returned one for a touchdown as well. They make things happen on special teams.

Defensively, they were number six in the country in terms of taking away the football, 29 turnovers. They'll get after you, present a lot of different looks.

Offensively, no-huddle type thing. They're going as fast as anybody in the country. I've been impressed with their quarterback (Jordan Love). At tailback, he's from a JC, they just named him the starter, I think he is from (Northeastern Oklahoma A&M), Darwin Thompson. I think he's the guy that's got explosiveness and things of that nature. They've got some transfers playing for them, transferred in, a wide receiver from USC.

Remains to be seen, a couple guys we haven't seen on film. I'm sure they'll come here ready to play, so it will be exciting.

I'll take some questions.

Q. You mentioned after Andrew Maxwell came that one of the mistakes you felt with Andrew, you didn't develop guys with experienced there. With your two backups never having played, have you developed a plan on getting those guys reps looking back at mistakes in the past?
MARK DANTONIO: I think at that point in time, the games were sort of tight. When you look at 2011, as I remember it, the games were tight. You play to win. We're going to play our guys that are starters. Obviously, if there's an opportunity, we're going to get in our other guys. I think Rocky Lombardi is prepared to play, Theo (Day) is on his way. See what we can do, but bottom line is win the football game.

Q. Obviously you guys have a lot of restrictions on when you can practice, with two-a-days no longer and that kind of thing. Last year you were incredibly young. How much more prepared are you now than last year?
MARK DANTONIO: Well, we have a lot more game experience. There's no question about that. I think that's a big part of it. When you go out there and you play and practice, you have to put it out there on the game field. Obviously there's a difference.

We have that. Utah State has that. Coach Wells has done an outstanding job there. I believe he's in his sixth year. It will be interesting.

But to answer your question, I think it's easier, no question, but to go out there and perform at a higher level, you should be more prepared. Every game is different. I think that every play really in the game of football almost has a life of its own. Every player in that particular play has to perform, as well.

Q. (Utah State head coach) Matt Wells yesterday was talking about your front seven, saying they hope they can wear you down with their pace and tempo. Is it more challenging to face that week one versus week four?
MARK DANTONIO: I think first of all you recognize that aspect these days in college football. Most teams do that, so we're prepared for that. We practiced against that. We provide that type of up-tempo type of practice, really by running three huddles in our defense. We're snapping the ball every 10 or 12 seconds.

I'm sure that is something they do a nice job of running it, throwing the football, they have a deep ball threat, they run a lot of deep balls. I think their screen game is good as well, very, very good. I've been impressed with their tight end (Dax Raymond), and I'm very, very impressed with their quarterback, Jordan Love.

Q. There's only so much you can do to improve before game action starts. As you look back to a year ago when you broke camp to game one, what is the biggest improvement you can cite and chart to see where you're going from a year ago? Similarly this year when you break camp to right now, what is the biggest improvement?
MARK DANTONIO: I think it's a tough question because last year it was getting guys -- last year's camp, we had a lot of young players. I think we had 12 catches returning on our football team, and maybe nine yards of rushing. We had new guys, I guess we had LJ back, but we had quite a few new guys in terms of other than him.

Most important thing was getting experience, and we got that the first game last year. I think this year, getting our young players that may play get involved early in the season, allow them to mature a little bit. Again, start to build a foundation in terms of who we are. I think every year you build a foundation, who are the play-makers, who are the guys you can rely on, where is the team chemistry, leadership, those type of things. A lot of that has already happened last year, so I think that's the reason for optimism.

There are no easy football games. I think we understand that here. We need to come and play.

Q. How do you and your staff want to manage Brian's (Lewerke) running ability? Proved to be a weapon last year. How would you ideally like to manage that?
MARK DANTONIO: That's a tough one. Sometimes you need to run a quarterback. You have to create that threat. Other times he creates it by sort of ad-libbing a little bit.

You can't really forecast when that's going to happen, especially in pass situations. We've got to keep him healthy, I don't think there's any question about that. He needs to stay healthy. I hope all of our players need to stay healthy. Can't afford to lose anybody.

You're going to play the game to win. They all count one, as Coach Perles used to say, 'they all count one.' That's our focus.

Q. On the offensive line situation, Cole (Chewins) and Luke (Campbell) where the spot is at left tackle? You touched on the linebackers, what have Brandon (Bouyer-Randle) and Tyriq (Thompson) done in terms of trying to seize that job?
MARK DANTONIO: There's some competition at linebacker. We'll travel with 10 linebackers, and I really think that nine of them pretty much can play in and out. That's a good situation. I think Tyriq has had a good camp. I think Brandon (Bouyer)-Randle is much improved. Who plays, when they play, it's up to them how they perform in that football game.

They've both had points in the summer where you say, 'Wow, that is special.' So I'm excited to watch them because they're both young players, and this is their first opportunity in that area. But we got other guys we're going to play in there, as well. (Byron) Bullough can play over there, (Jon) Reschke can play over there, Noah Harvey has been good. So there's five linebackers that can play at the money linebacker position. Now, they have to play well, but there is depth.

Offensive line, really, all five of those guys, five to six, have a significant amount of experience. Matt Allen a little bit less, obviously. But five of the six guys -- five of the seven guys, six guys, I guess. We got experience on the offensive line, we can play guys around. Luke (Campbell) can play offensive guard, left tackle, right tackle. There's a variety of places he can play. Same with Tyler Higby. He could move around to different places, and I think that's an advantage.

Q. Obviously, game situation dictates to a large degree, how many freshmen might see action in the opener with the new rule?
MARK DANTONIO: We sort of looked at that. I think with the new rule, if a guy plays, you have to ask yourself, 'is he going to play continually or is he playing because of an injury to another player for a little bit.' Maybe this is his one game, or maybe this is at the end of the season.

We're not going to play our guys just to play them. There's going to be a process there. We have some guys we may want to hold till the end of the season where they possibly know the game a little bit better at this level.

But I really believe we probably have about, I don't know, seven freshmen, six or seven freshmen that could play this year. Now whether they play in three days, eight hours from now remains to be seen because I think we want to make sure we have them till the end of the year, maybe still want to try to maintain their redshirt throughout. We will take our time and see how that works.

Q. Some of your best defenses earlier struggled with the tempo. In recent years, that hasn't seemed to be such a problem. That focus over time, what have you done to make that not an issue in preparation over the last few years?
MARK DANTONIO: Experience helps, obviously, and our practice habits, and then also we've adopted some of that aspect of the game as well. We're capable of doing that with our offense.

The other thing is that we play against it so much more often. Players are playing against it in high school, as well. So they're seeing it, they're introduced to it at a younger age. It's just a matter of transferring that to the college level.

I do think there's always that you have to adapt as the game flows on, you have to be able to adapt to that particular football team that you're playing, the speed of the game.

We can replicate it as much as we want, we can go even faster than they do, because we have our numbers, we have 120 players here, but it's still not with the intensity or with the aptitude that Utah State is going to bring.

Q. Can your players ever get too amped up for an opener more than any other game, take a half a quarter to settle down?
MARK DANTONIO: You'd have to ask them that question. I just believe in total focus, and excitement and enthusiasm, but they need to have focus. They know what needs to be done, getting themselves ready to do that, quietly prepare.

Enthusiasm in the locker room, does that carry out into the field? 10, 15 minutes later you may see a great highlight film of them all amped up, they go out on the field and just poof (hand points down). Might be the opposite. I'm more interested in how are they at game time and moments as they play. That to me tells the story.

Q. I've asked you a little bit about Joe Bachie. When you think about the linebacker history here at Michigan State, going back to Greg Jones and Max (Bullough) and some of those other guys? Where do you think Joe sits in all that? What makes him unique? Where does he kind of stand?
MARK DANTONIO: He's only had a sophomore season, an outstanding sophomore season. Greg Jones was a two-time All-American. These other guys are great players as well, Max and Riley (Bullough). He's built a foundation. What he does on that foundation this year, and then the next year, will define him.

I think he has the mindset, the skill level, and the intensity to be as good as any of those guys. He's an outstanding athlete.

Q. Which side of the ball, offense or defense, do you feel better about right now heading into a game? Is it harder or easier for one side or the other to execute earlier in the season at a high level?
MARK DANTONIO: Boy that's a tough question, I can't tell you which direction that we'd go with that answer. I think we can perform at a high level on both sides of the ball. We're going to have to see. You're going to have to tell me after the game. I'm sure I'll get that question asked after the game.

Q. With LJ (Scott) coming back this year, any area in particular that you've looked at in terms of taking the next step for himself individually?
MARK DANTONIO: He's got to hold onto the football, I don't think there's any question about that. He was very good really the two previous years, I felt. He had some hits, some blocking assignments maybe not made, whatever the case. They're playing football on the other side of the ball. They're on scholarship, too. We play an incredible schedule, play against the best maybe in America.

But I would say that's it. I think his knowledge of the game has improved over the course of time, as a college player. I think he'll be ready to play. I think he's ready to play, so I think he is looking forward to this season. There's a reason he came back and is looking forward to it.

Q. With Reschke, I know it was kind of a process, with him knocking the rust off and getting back into it, I wonder where you've kind of seen him in the last couple days and what's the reasonable expectations with him?
MARK DANTONIO: We're going to play him as we play all of our players, really. He's been out of football for two years, but I think he'll show up on some special teams, different areas. He's done what he's needed to do. Our football team feels as they do about him. I've sort of continued to watch that situation. It sort of is what it is. The other two guys deserve an opportunity to play, the guys we talked about earlier, but I'm sure he'll see the field in some capacity.

Q. You mentioned every year setting a foundation. There's something special about the story of 2013, when you walked out of the Rose Bowl feeling about what that team was capable of. What feeling do you have about this year's team, intangibles, and how does it compare?
MARK DANTONIO: I think I got a feeling about our football team when I would watch them, I went to that early morning workout and I talked about 'HEAVE.' I just have a good feeling, and I've said it all along. I really don't come in here and try to con anybody. I have a good feeling for them as people, they care about each other. I think they're unselfish. You start with that. When you want to build a great football team, you usually start with something like that.

There's play-makers on the football team on both sides of the ball. We have some other areas we need to improve in, just like any other football team, and we're going to be challenged. We'll be challenged in every area. That will start with Utah State on Friday night.

Q. Where are you at in the return job with Cody (White) and Connor (Heyward)? Is there a juggling act you have to do as their role increased in the offense, also the long snapper situation, too?
MARK DANTONIO: Yeah, you know, we've worked special teams. That will be a challenge this Friday night, because I do really believe that Utah State brings a hungry football team in here, especially from a special teams type of perspective.

Cody is back there. He's done an outstanding job this summer. We've had four different guys return punts last year. I think all of our guys are very capable of returning punts. He gets the nod there.

And then as our snapper right now, Ryan Armour is the guy. We may use both, (Collin) Caflisch was back last year. It's very even. Both are very good. Heyward is our returner, but we can put Darrell Stewart back there, so we've got a lot of different ways to go with that.

We'll see where we're at as we move forward, but there's no question that it's a big part of the game. We work extremely hard on that aspect.

Q. Piggybacking on the idea that you don't come in here to con anybody. Aside from the chemistry and feeling of the team, what specifically do you like about the team?
MARK DANTONIO: From a tangible aspect?

Q. Yes.
MARK DANTONIO: We have a tailback back that could play in the NFL. Our offensive line is back. We've got guys up there (offensive line) that can bench 400 pounds across the board. We've got good wide receivers in there, caught about 150 passes, or 160 probably, so we've got a lot of catches back. We've got guys that have big games at the wide receiver position, whether it is Darrell Stewart, Cody White, Felton Davis, they have all had big games.

We've got a quarterback back, that accounts for 3,200 yards and 25 touchdowns. I think we're in a system and we have coaches on the offensive side are back, so there is a system so we can critique those things.

On the defensive side of the ball, we didn't lose anybody in the secondary. All our linebackers are back with the exception of Chris Frey, and we lost one player on the defensive front.

We have a lot of players back from a football team that ranked number two in the country against the run, and we played pretty well against the pass as well. With all that said, we need to play and tackle in space, do all the things we need to do.

On the special teams, our punter, Jake Hartbarger, is back. Matt Coghlin had a pretty good year last year, hit the crossbar, pretty difficult to do, three times. We really missed one. Inches away from making the rest.

I think we've got guys who run down on special teams with experience. When you look at our starters, it's not just that, it's our kickoff team is almost unchanged in a lot of ways, so we've got a lot of players back that have done these other things, as well.

Again, I go back to the intangibles, unselfishness, the experience, the knowledge of their position. All that sends a strong message you should feel good about it. But this is a new day; this is 2018. Like I said, there's a reason that I put my name (on my shirt) and I have everybody put their name on their helmets when we go to camp because we're all starting over. There are no guarantees. We need to play. We need to get ready to play and go about our business.

That's a pretty good scouting report though (smiling).

Q. Josh Butler is the number one cornerback with Josiah (Scott) being down. How has he responded to this and the guys behind him, Tre Person in particular? Has it been a competition?
MARK DANTONIO: Very, very good. Josh came here, we brought Josh here from Dallas, Texas. He was a highly recruited guy. Very good player. Reminded me a lot of Renaldo Hill, I've always said that. I coached Renaldo, he played in the NFL 11 years.

Josh has been waiting for these opportunities. Did a little bit last year as a redshirt sophomore. Now he's a junior. Now he's a redshirt junior, into his fourth year. He's experienced. He knows what to do and how to do it. I've been impressed with Shakur Brown and Tre Person as well, Kalon Gervin, who is a true freshman. Those three guys, and then Davion Williams and Chris Jackson are two guys with a lot of talent that are true freshmen as well.

We're going to miss Josiah out there for a bit yet, but I do think we have guys that can play out there with speed and ball skills.

Q. Last time you talked after a game of sorts, was the Green and White game, the first thing you said after that if I remember correctly, was kickoff didn't really play up to your specifications. It was a cold day, the football was cold that day, and so forth. But two redshirt-freshmen, Tyler Hunt and Cole Hahn are listed as either-or, at kickoff, and the game starts with a kickoff, and has that improved? What are your feelings about that now?
MARK DANTONIO: Matt Coghlin can kickoff as well, so those three guys. Two of them are inexperienced, Cole Hahn and Tyler Hunt. They have moments where they're kicking out of the end zone consistently, and then they've had their moments where they're a little less than that. They need to be more consistent.

Game time is different. That's a little bit up in the air as we go into game week, it always is, it seems like. Both young players, both redshirt-freshmen. Both young players, but both have talent.

Matt gives us the guy with experience. Probably not as great of a leg maybe, but he's got experience, hecan get it up. We're going to see what's going to happen. That's one to watch.

Good to go? Thank you.