Post Game Quotes Vs. Utah State

MICHIGAN STATE

Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio

Opening statement…
Great fourth quarter comeback by our football team again. You know, another opening game that's tight. Got to clean up some mistakes, obviously. You take points off the board a little bit with some penalties inside the five and those should be touchdowns so that's disappointing.

Give Utah State credit; I thought the quarterback played extremely well. Stopped the run but he made some throws and there were some catches. Hey, we found a way to win the football game. I thought Felton (Davis III) came up big with a couple big catches. Lewerke comes up big as well; Had some mistakes, obviously, but the ability to run the ball in the second half I think helped our cause a little bit.

I'll just take questions but Coach Perles used to always say 'they all count one' and that's what I'm basically building on this one. We'll take steps to try to correct some of the problems but hey, 1-0 right now and again, I thought Utah State played very well.

On the momentum picking up throughout the game…
Yeah I think the late stop obviously was huge, you know, great play by Joe Bachie; he sent pressure. I think it was third-and-one at the time so big play by our defense. You know, our defense played pretty well at times, but you got to give them credit; they got the ball to people that they needed to get to. I thought they had good play selection and he found the guy – he found the open guy and run after catch a little bit. There are always going to be challenges when you play a Utah State team, from last season on when you watch them, when you watch number 10; He threw a very, very good ball and he was poised in the pocket. They create some situations for you with some unbalance and things like that but we'll have to correct those things.

On the resiliency the team has shown in close games…
Well I really think that if you go back over the course of our program here, we've won a lot of close game, especially opening games. That's just been the nature of it. I can't sit there and say why but we've won a lot of close football games. We've won 18 I think maybe, in the fourth quarter, or something like that since 2007, somebody told me. We're able to play down the stretch, we've got experience to be able to do that, there was no panic in our offense. It was a three minute drive – we got the ball at five minutes so it was a three minute drive. We had to come back out there on defense and get the stop but we certainly make it interesting. I wish we wouldn't but that seems to be the trend sometimes. It is tough to win. I'll say it again, it is tough to win, every single football game. Everybody has a plan, everybody has a good plan and everybody has good coaches and some good players. Very few people are really run off the field. I'm telling it like Utah State would create some problems formationally and they're on with their offense. They're snapping what, every 12 seconds sometimes and that's as fast as anybody that you're going to see so they did a nice job with that. Their offensive coordinators, one of their offensive coordinators was the offensive coordinator for Gary Pinkel at Missouri, a lot of that is from that, I think.

On the impact of Felton Davis' big plays…
Well I mean it was third-and-two when Cody (White) got a big catch and turned it up and I think it was a second down play for Felton. But yeah it was a huge catch; It put us down there in field goal position so we could run out the clock, kick a field goal and win it or possibly score a touchdown and then he has a big two-point conversion catch as well. He's a player; He's made some big catches last year and he'll continue to do that. I thought we got some catches from the other two guys as well; Cody White and Darrell Stewart. We just got to clean up some of our mistakes that are correctable and there were a lot, I don't know how many or what our yardage was for penalties, but too much. Too many. Some of them you might argue with or argue against but it really doesn't help out on the field; You've got to play through it.

On Tyler Higby's performance tonight…
You know Tyler, well it's hard to say because you can't really, I can't see him out there, but Tyler can play any other positions on the left side. Cole Chewins was out as you guys probably know. He can play any of those positions - left guard, left tackle, center. That's a definite advantage. (Luke) Campbell can play on the right side and play left tackle as well so that's an advantage and I think we work toward that. I'm not sure what the rotation was there as the game went on but early on I thought it was tough sliding in there running the football, during the second half he ran 100 plus yards. There were some positive things there to work on.

Michigan State Defensive Coordinator Mike Tressel

On the last drive defensively…
We played a little bit soft in coverage at the beginning and thought we had a sack that would have kept the clock running. The quarterback got rid of the ball and got the intentional grounding call that did stop the clock. So when we got near the 50-yard line we started to be a little bit more aggressive, particularly up the middle where we thought we could get some hands up in the quarterback's face. Joe Bachie made a huge play. Bottom line is we got a little more aggressive and our kids were ready to be more aggressive.

On being surprised about anything regarding his defense…
I think I was a little bit surprised, I think we're all a little bit surprised how fast Utah State was able to run their offense. I mean they really did a great job. We thought we were going to be able to sub if we were right on top of it. Obviously it caught us on the first drive and we had to stop doing that. That was difficult, but the quarterback, he's a good player. He hit some small windows, we adjusted and started playing a little bit more man to take away those windows and he was still able to complete some balls. Not many big plays down the field, but they impressed me with how consistent they were being able to dink and dunk it and put together 12, 15 play drives. We need to do a better job of turning those into field goals.

On pressure being put on the defense when you can't substitute...
I don't think our guys panicked, I don't think they were overly tired. Maybe the defensive line is where it was the most difficult not being able to substitute. When they do go that fast it does simplify the calls you make. You can't bring as complex of pressure schemes, you have to keep it simple. As the game went on we handled a little better being able to audible ourselves. But yeah, we'd like to be able to keep fresh bodies in there no doubt.

On what to take out of this game…
You always hope your biggest improvement is going to be from game one to game two. You roll into game one with a high level of confidence, but not really knowing what to expect. I was impressed with Utah State and their consistency offensively. They did a very good job. They were able to string together drives without explosive plays. Usually an offense needs an explosive play or a penalty within a drive to score if you look at the stats, and they were able to do that. Obviously we need to make a big play here or there or do better on a third down. Our guys will look at that and take that challenge.

On Joe Bachie's play late in the game…
I mean what're you supposed to say, that's big-time. That's big-time. I don't know about you guys, but it felt like after he got up in the air and tipped that thing it felt like the ball was up in the air for days. I felt like our defensive line was spinning around looking at that thing forever and he came down with that as well. Those are the type of plays Joe can make. We talked before the game about not pressing. You know, people are talking about him a little bit. He doesn't need to press to make plays. If he just has the same expectations he had last year and plays within the system, his experience, work ethic, and what he's done since last year will bring him all over the place.

Michigan State Co-Offensive Coordinator Dave Warner

On the run game tonight…
I'm disappointed with what our run game produced. You maybe look at it and misinterpret the rushing because those last couple plays we ran the option and got some big chunks right there. You take those plays out of it when we're trying to bang L.J. (Scott) up in there, a little bit of Connor (Heyward) up in there and we didn't get much movement. I'm not sure what our run average was there, we just didn't have any consistency. So, I'm disappointed in that absolutely.

On seeing things they didn't anticipate and making adjustments at halftime…
I'm not sure we had to make any adjustments at halftime. I mean we started to move the ball and put some points on the board. We decided at halftime we needed to continue with a little bit of our inside zone and try to get a little more of a push inside. It still didn't happen in the second half. We had opportunities in the first half to get the ball outside and we screwed up some signals, some motions...we shot ourselves in the foot a couple times.

On the option pitches…
We felt they would be open from watching film, but we tried not to run Brian a whole lot. Obviously that became the situation there. We tried to find ways to get the ball outside throughout the course of the game, some jet sweeps and so forth.They looked good, but then you'd turn around and they were three or four yard gains. Not what we want or what we needed. That being a critical situation there the first option we ran, I figured it would be pretty good. Then the last one looked really good. We scored. You always worry about pitching it when you're in field goal range, but Brian did a great job of executing it.

On gaining confidence in the offense tonight after scoring 38 points…
A little bit..a little bit. Not much. You throw a pick-six and leave two touchdowns. We're on the one-inch line, get a penalty and move back. We're inside the five the other time, get a penalty and move back. You just can't do that. You can't do that in the conference. We need to address it and we need to correct it.

On Brian Lewerke in late-game situations...
That's his makeup. He's extremely cool, he's very competitive, but he's not a guy who shows his emotion a whole lot. Obviously he threw the pick-six and that upset him a lot, but you don't see that. Connor Cook was similar to that. You wouldn't know that he just did something like that. I think that's just his makeup and having a lot of confidence in his own ability.

Michigan State Running Back Connor Heyward

Opening statement…
Utah State was a really good team; a win is a win. We came out in the second half, and we just battled. We've got to go back and correct a lot of errors a little bit, but we'll take it.

On scoring the final touchdown…
Brian (Lewerke) made a good read on the option and usually he keeps those, but the way it was setup he just pitched it and the receivers made some good blocks, the O-line and it was just clear as daylight.

On how important it was to get this win…
I don't think it was just important for me, but everybody wanted to start off the season on the right foot, but I wasn't expecting this it just came. But you can't be satisfied with this. You got to go back Monday and prepare like this didn't happen.

On if he thought he scored too soon…
No, not really because I believe in our defense, and I know late in games they finish their games out.

Michigan State Quarterback Brian Lewerke

Opening statement…
I feel like it was a pretty sloppy game, could have done a lot of things better obviously but glad to get the win, and Coach D always says it's hard to win so you can never be disappointed about a win so I'm glad we got it.

On if he expected a little trouble on the O-line…
No, I mean I don't think they really struggled that much. I just thought their number 10 (Love) for Utah State was a great player. He's fantastic; he's very quick off the edge. They brought a lot of times more people than we could block, just numbers wise. There's a lot of times where I had to get the ball off quick, but I thought the O-line did a good job today.

On what it was like leading up to that final touchdown…
You've got to stay calm, can never get down. I have confidence in myself and all the guys around me that there's no reason we can't drive the ball down and score every time we're on the field and whenever we don't. It's because of us shooting ourselves in the foot but, it was great to get that touchdown.

On what he expected versus what he saw from Utah State…
We came into the game expecting a lot of blitz which they did. They like to blitz a lot and bring two or three guys, not just one when they do, and I was anticipating a lot more cover too. They ran a lot of cover for, obviously we were expecting cover and they did that, but at halftime I mean coach really had to run a lot of cover for us. We didn't have in the game plan as much, so we had to insert a couple of those plays.

On his offense coming together throughout the game…
It took a little bit to get going obviously, but I think once we did there were times where it was good and times where it was bad. The o-line just started working together better as a unit as the game went on and obviously I can't have an interception and that fumble. This was a dumb play by me. I was throwing it away, but the ref interpreted it as a fumble so just can't do those things.

On if he thought there was a time they could have put this game away…
Definitely we realized when I think we were up 13 and then we had the pick-6 that put us only about six. It was disappointing for me just because I knew that was a point in the game that we could have put it away if we scored that drive, but you know things happen. Obviously our defense did a great job of keeping them out.

Michigan State Linebacker Joe Bachie

On playing at this tempo of a game…
Yeah you know there was definitely fatigue throughout the game a little bit, and you know we prepared as hard as we could. I'm not going to knock us on that at all. We prepared hard this week, and you know they had a great game plan. They attacked us very well. Their offense with that quarterback being able to run the ball put us in some stress, but their pace is hard. When a QB plays with tempo it's tough and we've got to adjust; we've got to be better. We're going to go back and watch some film, but that tempo is definitely difficult to play with, but we'll be better next week when we play again.

Michigan State junior offensive lineman Tyler Higby

On his performance tonight…
I felt like it was good. It was just nice being out there in different colors. It felt good to be good to be with the guys talking through things. It was fun.

On the performance of the offensive line as a whole…
We're still growing obviously, we still have stuff to learn, but it was a good starting point. New guys getting in like Blake Bueter getting his first reps, it was fun to see people getting excited for him. We've got a long way to go, but a good start.

On the line not having a consistent push…
I thought the second half was better. We made an emphasis to run the ball and leave gaps sound and do what we were talking about doing all week we didn't really do in the first half. In the second half we kind of buckled down and did what were supposed to do and I felt like it would open things for us.

On if he can tell when it's not happening for the line collectively…
Obviously in the first half we could tell we weren't getting a huge push some guys were falling off blocks and making tackles in the hole where they shouldn't be.

On if the line was losing one on one battles, or was it just the way they played defense was causing issues…
They're a good defense, it was kind of a combination. I mean myself included not staying on blocks the whole time, but also them doing what they were supposed to be doing on defense. They're a good defense.

On how good is USU vs the rest of MSU's schedule…
I think it was a good test for us. They gave us all different types of looks. It was a tough defense to go against for the first game. But it was a good growing spot for us and we'll learn a lot from this game.

On if that's where they want to be or do they want more guys involved…
If more guys can step up and coach feels comfortable putting them in, then more guys will obviously be better, but it's whoever coach feels comfortable putting in.

Michigan State junior defensive end Kenny Willekes

Opening statement...
In the fourth quarter, our program workouts that we do all summer, all winter long, it all pays off from all the hard work we put in throughout the offseason, all the extra... the long days and the early mornings, it all pays off in the fourth quarter.

On preparing for the game and adjusting to the game…
Yeah, it's definitely difficult to adjust. They came out prepared, and they were making us work for what everything we got.

On the play of the defensive linemen…
I feel like just being upfront as a defensive lineman. You are banging every play, so you know you get worn out. But we have a lot of definite DL; we got a lot of guys that we can trust that go to the play and having that is wonderful.

On being pressured tonight…
Yeah, I felt like everyone played really well on the defensive line. We were pressured all night. Obviously, he threw the ball pretty quickly, and the quarterback #10 (Love) he's a great player. He was able to get the ball away, but I felt like our pass rush has improved immensely.

On the opponent's tempo...
They just came in ready to go, and they knew what their game plan was. They knew how they were gone try to beat us, and they came ready to play.

UTAH STATE

Utah State head coach Matt Wells

Opening statement…
First of all, congratulations to Coach (Mark) Dantonio and Michigan State, that's a really good football team. They are going to win a lot of games, may win them all. I'm very proud to be the coach of the Aggies. I'm very proud of my guys, I thought they fought, I thought they were really physical and I knew we would find out real quick about this team. I think we've got a very, very physical football team because I know the guys that we just went up against are very physical. I have a lot of respect for this program and for what they've done over the years and how they've done it. My hats off to Michigan State for finding a way to win it. Again, we came in here to win the game. I'm proud of these kids and the way they fought, came back from a two touchdown deficit there early in the second half and to take the lead. We were playing to win and had we scored in the last series we would've gone for two. I'm just proud of those guys.

On cutting it close at Wisconsin last season and showing that their team can hang around then and tonight...
I think it was something that we talked about briefly and we knew that we did it for a half last year. You've got two similar type programs in a similar type environment. We knew, I knew, that we had a better team. This program did that last year and this team is different than last year and I think we have a better team. We are more physical, we're a little bit more experienced, a bit more talented. Some of that's recruiting, some of that's development, but I thought we had a chance to get it in the fourth quarter, give or take. That was our goal, get it to the fourth quarter, give or take a score. I think we were down a field-goal if I'm not mistaken. Going into the fourth, we knew we had it right where we wanted it.

On accuracy of quarterback Jordan Love...
I think he had a real good game. Until you see it I'm not sure, was it great or just real good. I think he played real good, he was poised in a tough environment. I thought he was fairly accurate and I thought he took care of the ball decently. Obviously, a tip there and a pick at the end is going to happen to quarterbacks but I thought he did a nice job of managing the game, getting us in and out of the right plays. He had some good checks, we put a lot of the game in his hands and I thought Jordan (Love) did a nice job. Coach (David) Yost did a nice job preparing him.

On this years team and what tonight shows...
Well I hope, it's only game one. I hope what it shows is that we have a more mature team. Maybe we know how to prepare for a game a little bit better. I had that feeling last night, I said it to our strength coach this morning but you still don't know. I hesitate to say that to make any more predictions. We'll see in the next few weeks really where we are at coming early October.

On Michigan State wearing out the defense with rushing in second half...
I mean, you're going against a really good running back. He's going to be an NFL guy, we held him down under 100-yards rushing. If you would've told me that yesterday, I would've said I'll take it. Stopping the run is a big key for our defense this year. I would probably say that we did an adequate job at it. They broke off some and I think we missed some tackles in the second half. That's going to happen when you play a really good team and a really good back.

On receivers having a really good game...
It's a really good secondary and we thought that's maybe where our better match ups were. It's good that we were able to throw the ball and make touchdowns, get catches and that. There's still some catches that we left out there. I don't like the way we threw the vertical ball and I don't like the way we held the line with our receivers. We kind of got edged down a bit, that's a good secondary we were playing and I would've liked to see the vertical ball on the outside a little bit better. I do think we threw inside verticals very well tonight.

On Brian Lewerke and his ability to escape...
Well, he got outside a couple times and we had a missed assignment on one of them. We've been preaching it all summer. He is an excellent quarterback throwing the ball on the run and especially to his left. It's very unique to see a young man throw it so well to his left while being a right handed quarterback. He's a very good passer, very accurate, poised, you could see he didn't get rattled. He's a very good quarterback.

On Aaron Dalton injury...
It was a game time decision from an injury standpoint.

On duration of injury...
To be determined.

On benefits of playing high level opponents...
I can't comment to all the rest of those, all I know about is tonight. I commented already about the Wisconsin game last year. First thing is we will take some confidence going out of this game. That's a very good football team and a program that has been consistent for a long, long time and I have a lot of respect for them. The way Coach (Mark) Dantonio has done it, kind of watching from afar. To be able to play the way we did and have a chance to win at the end, I'm proud of our guys. Don't misconstrue that to say that was a moral victory or anything like that, I did not say that, so don't misconstrue it. I said, we'll take confidence going out of it. Hopefully, we will hold our head high and our chest will be out, we'll be very humbled, and we'll go back to work Monday morning and get ready for New Mexico State. We'll be a physical football team, but I thought our guys physicality stood out tonight and I was very, very proud of them.

Utah State sophomore quarterback Jordan Love

On Utah State's offensive performance tonight…
I mean, I think the offense played really good. We prepared all week for this, for their defense. We knew what they were going to do. We were able to attack them in the passing game and still did a pretty good job running the ball. They're a great defense but we prepared for them and we knew what they were going to do, and we did a good job tonight.

On preparing for the challenge of Michigan State's tough defense…
They're a really good defense and we knew that coming into it. They've got a really good front seven and some good DB's out there. We knew they were going to be good, they're just a good team that's all I can say really. Just came down to the end and they made more plays than us.

On throwing interception off batted ball in 4th quarter…
I was just trying to throw a slant, and the D-lineman jumped up and got a hand on it, so he did a good job.

On accuracy struggles in the second half passing game…
I was just finding my receivers. We've got playmakers out there and I've just got to get them the ball, I just try to do what I can to get them the ball. We started off really hot. I think the tempo was getting to them at first, so we started off really well I think.

On the effects this first game will have for upcoming games…
I think it just shows us that we've got a really good team this year. We came up a little short but you could tell this is a different team than last year's team. We're ready but we've just got to keep getting better every week. This is a good team we played, but every other team we play is a good team, so we've just got to prepare every week for them.

Utah State senior safety Gaje Ferguson

On Utah State's defensive performance tonight…
I think we played pretty solid. We need to clean up a few things in our pass coverage and some communication errors that hurt us early in the game. Other than that, I thought the effort was phenomenal, really. I thought our poise, keeping our head in the game, staying after it, and playing to win, is what we did. We played to win and I think our guys did a good job. I'm proud of them.

On if he was surprised with Michigan State's inconsistency in the run game…
Coming into a Big Ten school who runs the ball well, is known for running the ball well, has a really good running back and a returning offensive line, yeah a little bit. I mean I knew we were going to do well with the run, but I think our guys up-front played their tails off, and I think that just comes from emphasizing that and working so hard to be a better run-stop team, and kind of restructuring the ways our team plays defense to be a run-stop team. We've got to figure out how to stop their guys up front, they took care of business out there tonight.

On his pick-6 in the third quarter…
When teams get up and they get a little momentum, you've just got to slow down the game and your mind and just remember to do your job. We're going to make plays within the framework of the defense by doing our job, by communicating with the guys. I saw that play coming, it's a play that I studied on film all week every day, and I saw myself picking it off. I told myself I was going to pick that off, and the opportunity presented itself. So I picked it, and it obviously was a great feeling. I've never had a pick that sounded so quiet before but it was awesome. It was good to get back into the game.

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Players Mentioned

Joe Bachie

Blake Bueter

Cole Chewins

Connor Heyward

Tyler Higby

Brian Lewerke

Cody White

Kenny Willekes

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