Post-Game Quotes: Michigan

Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio

Opening Statement…
Obviously, you come down to Michigan to play, it's a big game for us. We approach it that way and will always will approach it that way. Hung in there initially, I think the third quarter hurt us with the first interception and then at the beginning of the fourth quarter, I guess the blocked punt at the exchange there, the third and fourth quarter, blocked punt sort of turned it. We obviously had a very ugly fourth quarter. Too many situations. Credit Michigan, they played extremely well on defense and offense. I talked about them having shock, we had a play to respond with that same type of shock and explosiveness. They got after the quarterback, pressured the quarterback. We were unable to run the ball effectively enough, at all. Thought we hung in there, a little bit there, as we went forward. Defensively, gotta stay on our feet and play the bubble screens, the RPO's. Too many third down opportunities when we have a chance to get off the field, but we do not. Some credit to them, some discredit to us in terms of coverage played or whatever. Disappointing opportunity lost as we go forward. We got to recollect ourselves. We lost Josiah Scott early in the game, so we'll recollect ourselves and get ready to play our next one. That's the focus, our focus will always be on what happens next, what happens next after this particular game. That will be our focus and we'll move forward. Disappointing, but we'll rally back.

On the defense giving up big yards the last four weeks…
Got to make a play. There's cover one, which is man coverage and middle of the field safety. There's cover two, there's two deep, five under. There's drop eight, simulated things. There's zone pressures, we did not hit quarterback enough today. Did not sack him – as I think about it, maybe we sacked him once. Got to make plays on the ball in the deep part of the field. That's part of it and you've got to have guys that can go up and make it on the offensive side, and obviously they did that. Third-and-20 or so, gotta make a play on the ball. That's not to sit there and say it's his players or coaches, it's all combined.

On lack of discipline on the penalties throughout the game…
Disappointed in those, because we talked about keeping our composure. I think the game was called close, it was called close by the referees, by the officiating crew, due to everything that goes on in this game, so I think it was called close. I'm not sure until you see the film. I know the one series, I think we were down on the 40-yard line or so, we get a holding call plus a taunting, which I'm not sure I saw that, it's right on our sideline. That's a 25-yard penalty. When you have opportunities, you have to make good on your opportunities. We had too few of opportunities, so the percentages need to go up, when we have so few opportunities.

On the amount of true freshmen playing…
Yeah, you know, we got a lot of guys out. Got a lot of guys out. That necessitates younger players playing at times, other times you have an opportunity because of what they've done. Yeah, we got young players playing, but it's the only way you get better. I said that last week.

On sticking with Brian (Lewerke) late in the game...
Because he continued to compete at that point in time. The game sort of went from 24-10 to 31-10 to 37-10, and then boom. Very quickly from there. I just didn't want to go that direction, to be honest with you, I just felt like I wanted to keep banging forward and so that's what we did.

On status of Jalen Nailor…
Yeah, I think he'll play next week. Just didn't want to, didn't feel like, we sort of left it up to him but felt like he hadn't practiced but really Thursday's practice. He was able to run this week, but not practice until Thursday. Too few practice reps, he hadn't been touched yet or hit yet. We just wanted to keep him safe and ready.

On if the loss will reinvigorate him…
Well, I don't like losing to these guys, if that's the question. I don't think you have to reinvigorate me, I don't like losing, period. Got to get ready for the next one, got to get ready for the next one. Lot of disappointing things that we need to correct. I'll continue to hold our players accountable in how they play, but also in how hard they play. And I think we are going to play hard. We will play hard, we'll get ready to play. Our chemistry I think is good and I think that our work ethic on the field on game days is solid. We'll come to play and compete. Got to play better though. Do things better.

On being outscored by a large number over the last four of the last five games…
I guess you even up the score. Common sense would say you just even it up, got to play better. That's how you take things forward. When statistically there's an imbalance, whether it's running the football, passing the football or scoring production, then you got to even it up. How do you even it up? You got to make plays. There's not magic to that. You got to make plays sometimes. When the balls in the air, you've got to make a play. Got to call the right play, call the right defense. It's all inclusive. That's why they call it a team, it's all inclusive. We'll stay together as a team, not point fingers, (but) point thumbs. But don't point too many fingers and say it's this or it's that, you collectively get on the same page and move forward. That's the only way we've ever tried to do this. So that's what we'll continue to try and do to even it up.

On not winning since September taking a mental toll on the team..
I think success breeds confidence, I really do. I think that happens, when you are successful you get hot you get on a roll and those type of things. That's going to happen and what has to happen is the leader, myself, coach, player, somebody has to be able to turn the switch too. You have to be able to turn the switch and keep moving forward. You got to flip it. We've had some tough games, last week's game was a tough one to stomach. We played four good football teams and we should be able to compete with them.

On why the team has struggled the last few games...
Because of turnovers. My feeling is you've got to be able to make a big play, gotta create explosive plays and then negate explosive plays. You got to win the turnover margin. From my perspective, I don't think we've won the turnover margin in any of these games since we were 4-1. When we put the ball on the ground, it makes things even more difficult. When you look at the game, we had 13 opportunities to get off the field and they had 13 opportunities to get off the field. I believe they were 8-for-13 as I look at this, which is far too much. We got to get them off the field on third down and you've got to win the crucial situations. You got to play situational football, you got to understand the situations, which some of those are universal. When I say universal, when it's third-and-20, they're not usually going to throw the ball for a 3-yard route, they're usually going uptown. Or there are certain things that are orchestrated throughout the week to say 'this is a universal one.' When they do such and such by formation, this is what they do. These are the things you have to defend, these three things. Conversely on the other side of the ball, you look at things and say the same. We got to win the turnover margin, I would say that's the biggest thing. You got to be able to run the football and stay balanced on offense.

On what he didn't predict at the beginning of the season…
Well, I didn't predict that we'd have five offensive linemen out. I didn't predict that we'd have three wide receivers out, two of our better receivers out. We've had a lot of injuries on the offensive side of the ball. We've stayed pretty much intact on the defensive side of the ball. I didn't anticipate that they would throw the ball as effectively as they have. Pretty much had the whole secondary back from last year. I would say it was a top-10 defense as a whole. Right now, we aren't performing to that level as a group. There's a lot of things that go into that and I think we're talking in bigger pictures right now than relative to just this game. There's a lot that goes into it, and some of it is confidence and those type of things.

On moving on after the outcome of the Michigan game..
We work on this game all year long, to some degree, because it's an important game. After it's done, whether you win or you lose, you must let things go and you must move to the next challenge. That's what we've always tried to do and that's what we've done in the past and that's what we'll continue to do. Have to be able to do that, otherwise things start to weigh you down. You got enough things to worry about. A person, or us, or whoever. We got to go. There's no time to waste around and shuffle around and talk to reporters (smiling), you got to go. That's the way we handle things, and that's what we'll do.

On what has to be done from a leadership standpoint to continue strong this season..
Well, we're playing good football teams, I think we're playing good football teams. It's highly competitive in this conference. When it is competitive, you have to win the turnover margin, you have to be able to run the ball, as I said earlier, you have to be able to defend the big explosive play. We've got guys with good ball skills, got to make the play. They got guys too, so that's part of it.

From a leadership standpoint, you must stand vigilant, I think that's what leaders must do. You must stand vigilant, you must take responsibility, but you must stay the course too and you must be strong. I keep asking ourselves, just like I ask our football team and I didn't ask them after this game, but how strong are you? How strong are you, can you weather storms? If you can't weather storms then this might not be the situation you want to put yourself in. Who weathers the storm? That's whether you are a leader on this football team internally, as a team member, or collectively as a coaching staff or as the head football coach. So I'll weather the storm.

Related News

Players Mentioned

Jalen Nailor

Josiah Scott

Related Videos