Post-Game Quotes: Maryland

Michigan State Head Coach Mark Dantonio

Opening statement…
Exciting football game. Went down to the wire as many of our games do. Credit Maryland; played hard. Had opportunities early in the football game that sort of wandered away for one reason or another, but we hung. We kept hanging in there. We said we needed to play through things; that this would be a game that would be an emotional swing at some points in the game that we needed to respond and continue to stay within from an energy perspective.

When you look at the football game, two big drives at the end of the game, really actually to kick field goals, but two big drives when we needed them. Big plays by Jacub Panasiuk in the game. I thought that Tre Mosley with eight catches responded. We throw for a lot of yards, need to run for more. We got some different things going on the offensive line. Some young freshmen that provide us with some different looks and things of that nature. We probably struggled with it when we watch the film, a little bit. But some big plays by our receivers; Anthony Williams gets involved and has probably his biggest game as a Spartan thus far. On the defensive side of the ball, big stop at the end of the game – big caused fumble. I guess that would've been at the end of the third quarter. I think in the third quarter or so. Big fumble recovery. Big plays by them really accounted for their points. (Anthony) McFarland hitting the big one and then (Dontay) Demus hitting a big pass on a double-move early in the first half. Touchdown saving tackle I think was by Xavier (Henderson) on McFarland again and then we hold them and they kick a field goal. They were 1-of-14 on third down (and fourth down) so we did do things very well there. Won the possession time. But tight game, tight game. Program win. Much like we talked about coming into the game like we had in 2012 – program win. Opportunity to win six and move us forward. We'll go bowling and we'll take it from there.

On the significance of giving the players hats that say, 'Program win,'…
I think it was about a four dollar hat; a floppy thing. I felt like, hey, you need to have something to hang onto and point towards. They didn't get the hats until Friday but we did that in 2012 and I hung that hat in my office up where I put a bunch of stuff up there. That hat had significance. That '12 hat had significance because it was a must-type win, it was a must-win. Sometimes when you're working for a must-win, you press a little bit. We got it done in '12 and I thought that this was a must-win for our football team and our program, just to get back to .500. It's not been an especially enjoyable year but it's been enjoyable being around our football team and our players.

On his confidence in Matt Coghlin and his performance today…
I've got as much confidence in him as he does in himself and he has tremendous confidence in himself. Just because he misses one, he doesn't get shaken; he stays the course and he comes with it the next kick. He believes in himself very, very much and I appreciate that and I want to echo that sentiment every time. If you don't believe in your players, that's at any point you stop believing in your players, then I don't think you have any chance to be quite honest with you, because you have to instill belief in them and you have to raise them to a higher standard and help them overachieve. Matt did an outstanding job of… the second one was just flat, but hey, like he told me, 'hey, I got it in Coach.' Then the last one was right down the middle; a great kick. He had a couple of great kicks earlier in the first half. You know, he could hang. Same thing I thought with (Brian) Lewerke. He threw two interceptions; one was a great play by them, one was probably a bad throw. I thought that he continued to push forward and he throws for 340 yards, I guess. 342. So not an unproductive day. I'm sure he wishes he had some back, but not an unproductive day, and he made throws to a variety of people. Good job by (Jake) Hartbarger averaging 47 yards a punt. He had the one returned slightly but still a great day by him and his punts.

On if where the team is headed for the bowl game matters to him…
No, I'll be excited to play. I think we'll have a Power Five opponent and an opportunity to win seven and tilt the ledger this way a little bit. I'll be excited where we'll go. Every bowl experience we've had, every single bowl experience we've had has been a tremendous experience for our players, really for our fans, the ones that are there and for our football program and team. They have all been positive experiences and they've all helped us get better. At the end of the day, we need to continue to work toward getting better.

On Devontae Dobb's injury and if that changes his redshirt decision…
It's a short-term, I think, injury. But he couldn't practice, he couldn't dress all week. Probably would depend on a lot of things; who else has the ability to play. We've been banged up. I think we have played six left-tackles this year. It's one of those types of things. So you've just got to deal with it. A.J. Arcuri went the whole day today so I think if we were to do that, you know what, I'm going to play him for two plays but if he plays for 30 plays that's another story. We'll see where that brings us. We should get some guys back. I'd hope that we would get some of these guys that are injured would be able to get back. Certainly Darrell Stewart should be back. I'm not sure on Kevin Jarvis or not, possibly. Matt Allen could've played tonight but we held him out; just felt like he wasn't quite ready but he was suited up and could've played in an emergency situation. He would've been the seventh offensive tackle – left-tackle. So we've got some guys banged up but we'll get them back and we should be as good as we've been in the bowl game in terms of an injury perspective.

On the motivation going into tonight's game…
I think that our football team had been locked in ever since, we've been locked in all year. I've said that over and over to them that I'm very impressed in terms of how they've approached practice, how they've gotten ready for games, how they've come out in football games. We've never come out flat. They may fall down throughout the game obviously but the beginning of football games we don't come out flat, we come out enthusiastic and energetic. You've got to maintain that through a game. In a football game like this, there's a lot of ups and downs and momentum changes and emotional changes in those games. We've got to be able to withstand that, continue to push forward but I'm very proud of them, I said that earlier. They wanted to play in a bowl game and we showed up and played hard, I think we played hard. That's as important as anything.

On the development of his younger players…
There's a lot of debate, but you always have the redshirt in your pocket if you don't redshirt. Right now the reality of the situation, we had three freshmen tailbacks, three freshmen running backs. One tweaked his ankle, #24 tweaked his ankle so he was about 70% and Anthony, he needs to be stronger at the point of attack I think at running the football. It wasn't a situation where we were coming into the game saying that, Hey Brandon (Wright), you weren't going to play. I think that when you play a guy and you practice a guy and you're practicing him and he's getting reps, I mean he took every rep this week in practice. He was very close to being a starter tonight that when you get to a point like that you have to play guys and they have to be prepared to play. If you don't play them then you can try and hang on to the redshirt. You don't know if somebody's going to get hurt next year so it just sort of goes with it, but when you're practicing and you're up with the varsity and you're wearing a green or white shirt, you're not on scout team, we expect you to have to play in situations. I don't want to burn guys' redshirts, but we're trying to win a football game too. And the bottom line is, can he help us win a football game now, and when you're talking about a program win then, program win, it's a big ask but I think there it's also a gold bar on the side of every freshman that doesn't get redshirted because at the end of the day, at the end of the time they're going to say hey were you redshirted your freshman year? No, I played as a true freshman, no, no I played as a true freshman. They didn't redshirt me and that's a status symbol I believe, and they carry that forward.

On the struggling to get points on the board…
Anytime you don't score a bunch of points it's concerning, but at the same time you've got to execute, you have to execute. You can't run an inside zone and turn a guy loose and make a tackle at the line of scrimmage. All I can tell you is that you look at what we call and those type of things, but it's execution, it's repetition, it's a combination of a lot of different things whether it's play call, execution, repetition, them making a good defensive call, them having the right call structurally, a mental error, a physical error. All those things go into it so it's hard to sit there and say we didn't score points because of a coach not making a call. It's easy to sit there and say why didn't he make the call, but it's a lot harder to sit there and say okay well what happened? The game of football is as complex as you can make it and it's as simple as you can make it. It's about moving that guy in front of you out of the way. It's about running and making the right cuts. It's about the right call, so I'm not getting out of the game and not taking responsibility for that, but football is a team game. For it to be a team game, everybody has to work in the same way going forward together. That's all I can tell you and when the play works usually people say run that play again, that worked, but the time you run it again they've got to defend, and this is an excellent league. A very high-defined league I think that has excellent coaches. Jon Hoke is an excellent defensive coordinator, has been in the NFL for the last 15 years. People do their job, they do their work, they get themselves ready to play and momentum swings in. It's an emotional game, it's a physical game, it's an intellectual game. It's probably why it's one of the most popular games in the country, but there's a lot of questions that I can understand how everybody asks. I can understand that, but we did the very, very best we can.

On Tre Mosley's performance…
I had the same conversation with Tre, same conversation about redshirting or not. I had a conversation with Devontae about it when he got hurt. He catches, I'm not sure how many he's got for the season right now, but he makes eight catches in the game and he's an integral part. We tried early on with Darrell Stewart when he was still playing, we tried to hold a redshirt with him, but when Darrell went out that sort of went out the door too. He's been playing and he's getting 30-35 plays a game. I'm not sure how many he played tonight, but he had 32 last week and you got to play on. I think he's a money player. Guy has great hands, great skill set. He's very level like this as a person. He doesn't get too high or too low, very mature for a young freshman, got things to work on, but he can catch the ball. He can catch the ball when he's usually where he's supposed to be. So much of it always when you have young players, the timing of everything on the outside also becomes a factor. Does a guy break his route off short? Does he break his route off long? What's the timing of everything? What's his split? All these different types of things, where he's aligned, is he aligned where he's supposed to be? We had five missed alignments today where guys aren't lined up at the right place. They've got to move over to where they're supposed to be so like I said, it's repetition.

Michigan State Senior Quarterback Brian Lewerke

On becoming bowl eligible and how both sides of the ball played…
Obviously, it wasn't the greatest game. It should have been a game that when we had opportunities in the red zone again, we should have had some more points on the board, but at the end of the day a win is a win and it's our sixth win and we are going to a bowl game and that's the minimum standard around here. We want to make sure we reach that, so a win is a win.

On the frustration of red zone offense…
There is no other word I guess to describe it besides frustrating. There is not much else to say I guess.

On what was working early for the offense…
We were running the wheel route to the boundary with the running back. I thought they were going to cover it after the first or second time we hit it, but they didn't so I just threw it in there and just got an easy 12 yards and Tre (Mosley) made a great catch on the sidelines. I had a little bit of pressure and just kind of almost thrown it away, but he got his feet and made a great catch, but I think the O-Line played great today. I had tons of time to throw the ball and I wasn't really pressured and when I scrambled it was because I felt like I was back there so long that I had a little bit of pressure.

On Tre Mosley stepping up…
He came in early, so he has been here for a while, so sometimes I don't believe he's a freshman, he seems older, he acts older, he plays like an older guy. He stepped up today big time and he had eight receptions, so he had a fantastic game, couldn't be more proud of him.

On coming off the field for the last time…
Like Kenny (Willekes) said, we have had our ups and downs. We've had fantastic moments I think we have left our mark on this program in a good way. Obviously, things didn't go well the past couple years but there are still memories that I look back and I am very proud of when I'm here and memories I'll cherish for a lifetime and I try to get as many handshakes in on the field as I could before I walked off, so I tried to enjoy walking off the field.

Michigan State Senior Defensive End Kenny Willekes

On (Mike) Panasiuk's aggressiveness during the game…
That was impressive, you know. It was winding down; it was a close game in the fourth quarter, and someone needed to step up and make a play and he just wanted it more than they did. Him and his brother both played a hell of a game, you know he was just running all over, you love to see it.

On becoming bowl eligible and how both sides of the ball played…
Obviously, it wasn't the prettiest win but I'm proud of the guys the way we kept fighting and kept battling. It is kind of the way the season has gone, a lot of ups and downs, but to be able to come out and get that sixth win and continue to battle even after we gave up a couple of plays or we got down late in the game, you know continue to battle and to come out with a victory that means the world.

On becoming the all-time tackles for loss leader at MSU…
Obviously, that was on my radar a little bit, but the most important thing for me was to get a victory, but to have my mark in Michigan State history is really cool to me, it is an honor.

On coming off the field for the last time…
It was a little emotional, but it is a good feeling getting our final win at Spartan Stadium. Obviously our career, our season has been full of ups and downs but you know to get that final win at Spartan Stadium, you know see the fellow seniors, our coaches, our fellow teammates, you see their faces and see the joy, and there really no other feeling in the world and it will be something I remember for the rest of my life.

Michigan State Junior Placekicker Matt Coghlin

On confidence throughout the season…
Well, I'd have to say after the Arizona State game I felt like definitely I could of done something to change the outcome of that game. I only try to think about it for about a day, and then just go onto the next one. I think during the whole time, I had a couple of misses, I think I tried to stay positive, just go into the next week trying to not let it affect me. Trust that I was a good kicker, trust that I could make them all. Just kept chugging along and finally seen it go through a little more.

On the margin of error being smaller this season..
I try not to think about it too much, I just got out there and try to make every kick. Obviously, I'll see the score and know how important it is. Trying to always think about the next one, you know, if it does not go in not to worry about it too much, just go to the next one. Luckily today I got two more chances after the miss, so that was good. Like I said, go to the next kick and try to make them all.

On the go-ahead field goal at the end of the game…
That's a big kick. Obviously, one I should have made, so I was happy to see that go in. More along the lines of the seniors and the whole team, getting to a bowl game, giving us some more practices, some more time with the seniors. A big team win, I was just happy to kind of be the one to kind of put it through at the end.

Michigan State Freshman Wide Receiver Julian Barnett

On getting this sixth win and going to a bowl game..
It actually feels good to see everyone happy, because I didn't want to come to college and not get a bowl game in my first year. It feels good to help out the team and everyone that is around me.

On what the seniors have been saying all week leading up to the game..
It's not even them saying anything, it's just been fun. They've been just practicing hard, we are out there having fun, we are laughing, all that. Before today, we wasn't really laughing, now the seniors was all into it and stuff like that, and I love it. I love the atmosphere they brought.

On him and Tre Mosley making plays..
The crazy thing is, I be hyper than Tre (Mosley) do when he make plays. I love seeing him make plays, that's my suitemate right now, I like seeing him make plays. I like seeing myself make plays.

Maryland Head Coach Michael Locksley

Opening Statement
I am proud of our team today. I thought we played for 60 minutes, which we haven't done in a few weeks and so I thought our guys showed a lot of heart, especially our seniors. I can't thank those seniors enough, 16 guys that have played their last game as Terps for the leadership that they displayed for a tough year. There is no doubt that we have a lot of work to do. We close the chapter to this season and look forward to getting this thing fixed and heading in the right direction and we won't shy away from the work.

On positives in the game…
It starts with them, I mean we haven't been in a lot of games the last four or five weeks in the fourth quarter where we had opportunities. I think the last time we played a game like this was against Indiana, so in between the Indiana game and this game to see them comeback and you know, not play to our circumstances. Obviously, we weren't playing for a bowl game and I really thought that the energy showed today. Today, I thought our guys played with pride and I thought our seniors did a really good job of leading today.

On rushing the ball well…
We got talented backs, going into the year that was the strength of our team. Anthony (McFarland) made some big plays for us today, he is probably as healthy as he's been. Javon Leake has been a big play threat for us all year long, so just getting that production out of both those guys. I thought they both played really hard. Obviously, our offensive line did a good job to help us get those yards, but I thought both those two guys played well and beyond their ability today."

On the future…
We will close the chapter on it, we got end of the year meetings coming up, first day tomorrow morning over the next two days we will be meeting every player on our team and give them a plan and as to what they need to do to improve, fix some things that we need to get fixed on a cultural stand point with our team. We will meet with all of our coaches, we've got our team banquet coming up, so lot of things to put an end to this year, then also start our preparation for next season.

On the play of quarterback Josh Jackson…
I thought he was up and down, you know, the turnovers continue to kill us and we have to get our quarterback to play with better understanding of protecting the football. We had the ball in the red area and across the fifty a couple of times and we took sacks and turned the ball over, but he did make a few plays down the field. Like the perfect strike to (Dontay) Demus, but the consistency in that position is something that we got to improve on.

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Players Mentioned

Matt Allen

Julian Barnett

Matt Coghlin

Kevin Jarvis

Brian Lewerke

Tre Mosley

Jacub Panasiuk

Kenny Willekes

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