Post-Game Quotes: Illinois

MICHIGAN STATE

Michigan State Head Coach Mark Dantonio

Opening statement…

Extremely disappointing game. The game was under control in the first half. When you look at it, it was a tale of two halves. In the first half, we were in control and ran the ball effectively. We moved the ball pretty well. Two big turnovers at the end of the half take points away, whether it's 35 or kicking field goals, you gotta figure you're going to get one of them at least. Right before the half, they got a 50-yard play with nine seconds to go for a touchdown, we've got to make a play on the ball and prevent defense and be able to make it. So, that makes it 28-10.

In the second half, we came back out and I believe that we went down and kicked a field goal early. But, one turnover becomes a touchdown and they had three long plays. When you look at statistics, the one big factor that sticks out is that they had 4 turnovers and we had 2, so being +2 in turnovers (for Illinois), it's tough to win. Statistically, they ran for 30 yards and passed for (369) and most of it was in long chunks. 4th down and 17 was a backbreaker, but we still held on and brought pressure. We hit the quarterback and it was a back-shoulder fade and the receiver made a nice play so you've got to credit Illinois. They kept playing and made plays on the deep ball which we have to make.

Extremely disappointed, nobody's more disappointed than our players and coaches. One of the tougher games we've experienced, certainly. I thought we were ready to play and we were ready to play, but we've got to play through. I'll say the same thing that I told our football team last week, and I'll say that now publicly, 'How strong are we? Are you strong enough to measure up? Are you strong enough to push through?' That's part of life. I say this all the time when we lose, but it takes on a whole new meaning when you experience something like this. So, the message to our players is to get back up, we've got a big game next weekend and we've got to rally back.

On what seems to be going wrong in the third and fourth quarters…

They started playing cover one as I saw it. We hurt ourselves with some different things, we had opportunities to score. Football is a game of technique and execution. When you execute, in the first half and you're doing the same type of stuff. You run power, gap schemes, inside and outside zone and throw the ball down the field in all different ways you can think of. But you've got to make plays too. That's not to lay it on our players. We moved the ball effectively, we had 500+ yards, but you can't turn the ball over and give up big plays. If you take those two things away, you win the football game and you walk away.

On if MSU was in single coverage for the touchdowns and the end of the half and the end of the game...

No. In single coverage on a deep ball, you can't put two guys deep in third. On the first one with nine seconds to go, we rushed three and dropped eight in a three-deep zone. It looked like the corner got turned around a little bit, but he wasn't playing well with his back to the sideline, I do know that. Playing through the sideline is more difficult when you don't have vision on the ball. The one on an unbalanced set was an over route and they put a guy in front of our corner and our safety had to carry the guy back across the field. He made a good throw and it was a good catch and they outran the guy.

On Josh Butler's pass interference…
Josh's interference; I've said pass interference is a very inconsistent call right now in the Big Ten Conference and across the country. I didn't see it as pass interference. I thought both players were trying to play the ball and both players were pushing off somewhat. They made the call – they got to deal with the call. They got to measure up to calling their area and go in their arena - the officials. I'm not going to whine about it but we put ourselves down there - they got themselves down there against some of the things that we were doing.

On having a 25-point lead in the second quarter…
It's another missed opportunity there. There's a lot of different things going on in that game and we're down, as you said, on the 1-yard line. The quarterback gets his foot stepped on coming out because of penetration by the defensive linemen. Then he fumbles and we're lucky to get the ball back and kick the field goal. If we're on the 1, if we score a touchdown – we should score... We're on the 1, like I said. Very disappointing in that capacity. But you can look at that game, when we go back and look at that game, there's going to be some very somber moments there. We have to deal with it.

On if Brian Lewerke was feeling okay after being hit…
He seemed to be. We checked him.

On the younger players seeing playing time…
We had injuries so we started four true freshmen on offense. I think, probably, I'm sure you're going to see some things where they did make plays appropriately. They did make some mistakes but I thought they played pretty well. I don't think Lewerke got sacked and we ran the ball pretty effectively. Tre Mosley had I think four catches maybe; three catches for 32 yards. Cody White obviously had a big game. I think it was a questionable call on his deep ball that he got for pushing off. But whatever; keep playing. We played those guys because we've got some guys injured. Darrell Stewart is out. C.J. Hayes was out. Jalen Nailor was out. Matt Allen was out. Luke Campbell has been sick all week; hadn't practice all week except one time since Penn State. Same with Mike Panasiuk; practiced one day in two weeks. Everybody's affected by that. Illinois had some guys out for sickness reasons as well. We got to man up and get busy on that. I thought our guys played pretty well, our young players, in a big moment.

On if it's Lewerke's decision on whether to call a sneak or not…
No it's not. We were running the power play. We were getting up in there on the power play. We had run a sneak the play before and almost fumbled the football. He went to his left and he almost got in. Then we went power play to the next play and I'm not sure who it was who got knocked back onto his foot, which negated his ability to turn and hand the ball off and he fumbled it. We were lucky we got it back; kick the field goal. Disappointed on the execution.

Michigan State Senior Quarterback Brian Lewerke

On what happened…
Turned the ball over. That was a big thing. They score points quickly, and then we had turnovers.

On what happened to the snap that went past him and the pick six…
You know obviously it's a snap. It's catchable, it was a little fast, but I still have got to catch it.
On the pick six, the corner was dropping so I was trying not to lead him a ton.

On having opportunities to win…
Yeah, we had plenty of opportunities. Like I said, the turnovers, and some mistakes that were made.

Michigan State Junior Linebacker Antjuan Simmons

On the last drive reminding him of the Arizona State game….
No, I don't think so. Every game is different, and every team is different. They did exactly what we thought they were going to do. We just didn't make plays. We kept fighting though. We kept playing.

Michigan State Senior Defensive Tackle Raequan Williams

On where you go from here…
We go to the film room and see what the mistakes were, and we have to fix those mistakes because we got to. We got a big one coming up.

On execution…
They out executed a few plays on us, and they made us pay.

On what the huddle was like towards the end of the game…
We were hype. We have a period like that in practice, so it was like, make them play one more play, that was everybody's mindset on the goal line, so we practice situations like that so no nervousness or none of that. We felt we were ready.

On Coach Dantonio telling you to bounce back, what was the locker room like…
There are a lot of guys in there that are feeling pretty hurt by this one because we had this one and we let them take it from us, but we know we got to learn from those mistakes. Teams can't out execute us and that's what they did tonight.

Redshirt Freshman Running Back Elijah Collins

On the number of younger players out there…
We're playing a lot of young players right now. A lot of people are out, a lot of people are hurt, and so people have to step up and make plays...We've got to learn how to finish as a unit.

On the change in the second half…
It's the flow of the game. We weren't making as many plays as we were, but we were still trying to get every inch that we could, and they came out a little bit hotter than us. That's what led to the result.

On his run after the pick-six…
Definitely to me a big run like kind of jumps plays and usually leads to touchdowns. With that being said I was hoping that we could score a touchdown at the end of the drive, but we made mistakes and stuff happens. It's football.

On the mood in the locker room after the game…
We've just got to come together and push forward. We've got a big game next week, so we can't sit around and be sorry for ourselves. We've got stuff to do, we've got things to correct. We've got to come out and fire in all cylinders, next week especially.

On this being the toughest loss for him to be a part of…
Yeah, it's one of them. I mean to be up and close then letting them make big plays like that. Ultimately losing the game is always tough when you're up and you think you've got the win secured, but you can't be complacent. You can't let teams rally back like that. You just got to keep pushing on the gas and carry it out.

Senior Safety David Dowell
On his vantage-point of game winning touchdown…
We were in man coverage. They did a roll-out like a dash and for me personally I kind of got caught with my eyes looking at the quarterback. I was thinking the tight end was still behind him. He kind of sat down then the quarterback found him.

On how to fix their execution…
You know you can do it 100 times in practice, but if you don't do it right in a game then nobody's going to really care. That's all you can do. Like I said last week you can't just fold, you've got to keep doing things right and then hopefully it'll eventually start translating into the game because we haven't been doing a good job of that as a whole team, as a defensive back field and as a defense.

On how the team is doing mentally…
When you pile up all those losses together like that you kind of get everybody down, but me being a senior and the seniors in our leadership council it's all about keeping guys engaged. That's what we're all trying to focus on and what we're trying to do. Like I said before we've got a big opportunity this week going down to the Big House. We've got to re-group as a team, make sure everybody stays engaged together and then again, it's all about executing when the lights come on. That's the same goal as it was this past week, we didn't do a good job of it and we have to do a better job of it next week.

On the importance of the Michigan game…
I think it's a game we can go 1-0 in. That's our focus, obviously this one means a little bit more, but at the same time it's all about executing what we've got to do. It doesn't matter who lines up across from us. If we don't do our job do our 1/11^th then we won't come out successful. We didn't do a good job of that today and we've got to attempt to do a better job of it next week.

On the confidence level in a rivalry game…
It's huge, I think the confidence level and the emotions are going to be there because it's a rivalry game, but just kind of focusing on what your job is. That's something that we haven't done a great job of and there is going to be tons of emotion, everybody's going to be up, but can you focus on your job and can you focus on your 1/11^th each and every play and that's kind of going to be my message to the team and my focus moving forward this week.

ILLINOIS

Illinois Head Coach Lovie Smith

Opening statement…
We're going bowling. Just pumped up for the guys. So much has gone into us being in this position. We always talk about starting fast, but it's about the finish. We've been down a few times. I think that's the largest comeback in school history. That's awesome. In a tough environment like this, but the guys just kept battling. Defensively, Jake Hansen is back in Champaign, Oluwole Betiku. Milo Eifler went out in the first couple of plays. Those young guys just stepped up, Dawson DeGroot, Khalan Tolson, guys you don't know an awful lot about. It's always about taking the football away. Sydney Brown getting his first touchdown. All those plays were big. But we were behind and needed to score points. I thought Brandon Peters was outstanding throughout. Josh (Imatorbhebhe), Caleb Reams, Donny Navarro. We put Donny Navarro on scholarship this week. Based on just plays the guy has made. I can talk about everybody. Thought Coach (Rod) Smith did an outstanding job bringing us back with his call. You can imagine the excitement in our locker room. It's just a feeling that everyone should get a chance to go through. Pumped up for the football team and all we've accomplished, but we know we're going bowling, somewhere. We have two more games to go and so much still to play for.

On special season…
Going into the season, we felt good about you know. But I know there was a period of time where we were 2-4 and a lot of people were jumping off the bandwagon, doubting what we could do. We had Nebraska down to 14 and played Michigan tough, and came back. The guys know how to come back. Even last week against Rutgers, we had to play better ball in the second half, but we've seen signs throughout of us being able to play good football. I don't know exactly when but those times totaled.

On Josh (Whitman) …
I mean this is a lot of excitement, I mean Josh, of course, has been outstanding. He's pumped up on a couple of different levels. One being a former fighting Illini player, to see our football team come back, and being our leader. I mean everything we've asked for he's given us. Supporting throughout and continuing to believe in us. There's a lot of people who continue to believe in us but you want your boss to be the main one and he's been that way.

On Brandon Peters performance…
Coach talk is always about how you finish. Brandon will be the first guy to tell you he'd like to have that ball back. We got another opportunity to do something special and that's what you judge quarterbacks on. How do quarterbacks play when the game is on the line and you're down, and you have to make plays. He's been outstanding.

On "clutch catch" …
It's hard, I mean the game's over, it's no bowl games, no celebration. If the line doesn't block, Imatorbhebhe doesn't make the play, of course, Brandon doesn't get it there I mean it's special. One for the memory book for sure.

On the drive to get TD towards the end…
Again, I'm going to say it's how you finish. You gotta keep fighting. It's always about the next play, there are some disappointment but there were a lot of disappointing moments in that game. But you don't have time to harp on it, you have to move on to the next play as it turns out we didn't give him an opportunity to get the ball back. So it all worked out the way we needed it to.

On who lifted him in the air…
No I can't remember an awful lot about it, I just remember that there was all kinds of excitement there, my family, my grandson Jackson was there, he's going to remember this forever. So I just know that the excitement and if you just see our players. The faces and how much joy. They know what they've gone through to get here, to this point. I mean for some programs, getting to bowl game may not be that big of a deal but for our program and where we are right now. We needed to cross this huddle to take some more big steps.

On building character for a team that doesn't quit…
I think an awful lot goes into that, you just don't build it. There's a long time of building this football team-up. I'll say how we wanna portray ourselves, it's who you want to be. It's always about character and what you do and what you say when no one is looking. Say we definitely have character. It's a special group, hard to say how exactly a group comes together and you have a special season, except for these guys have been through an awful lot. A lot of them have stayed, it's a special senior group. We have five captains that lead by example and do it the right way. I think some people deserve to win, we have a bunch of guys that deserve to win.

Illinois Running Back Dre Brown

On if this game was everything he wanted from being at Illinois…
I mean it is everything honestly; it is the reason I stayed. Through all the injuries, coaching changes, this is the reason you stay and complete your fifth year. And I am just proud of our guys, they just fought, we never thought we were out of it and you see the result.

On if he thought they were out of it at some point…
No, honestly no. We knew that one play could honestly change the game. We say that, our strength coach says that, one play that's all it takes. Everybody says that.

On what play was the "one play" that changed the game…
The pick six honestly. That happened, and I knew that we were going to win this game. It wasn't, we might keep it close, it was we are about to win this game.

On what it felt after the missed extra point…
Everybody was shocked. We kind of looked around like, what just happened, because I've never seen him miss an extra point not even in practice, so everybody was shocked but hey adversity hits, and we just gotta find a way to win.

On when the team got the mindset of keep pushing when adversity hits…
Over the summer, there would be situations where we would be running and someone would mess up early, and we would have to restart the rep and it happened in this game multiple times. We were doing something well, and we gotta reset. Guys on this team are getting older so they understand you can't just quit when times get tough. We are a senior/junior led team; we aren't young anymore. We still have some young players but I think the maturity of our team is very high.

On what it means to have the largest comeback win in school history…
It is insane. We keep adding to the accolades. Wisconsin and this game are probably two of the bigger wins in Illinois football history, so to be a part of that is amazing. I'll be glad to be watching it on BTN classic someday, and it'll be a lot of fun.

Illinois Center Doug Kramer

On how the comeback win feels…
Unbelievable. It still hasn't sunk in yet. I am speechless right now.

On not making plays early…
Halftime helped a lot. The defense helped us out to get momentum, we had a few big plays and the rest is history. Obviously, we didn't have the start we wanted but we just kept preaching, just keep going and keep fighting it'll come.

On big plays from Imatorbhebhe…
I love having him on our team and love playing with Josh. You never know when he's going to have an 80-yard play or something like that, you love players like that. Having big explosive plays, that's what a receivers supposed to do. He does that every day in practice so it shows on game day".

On the composure from Brandon Peters and if he was flustered…
I wouldn't say he was flustered. We were trying to figure out what they were doing and trying to figure out how to adjust. The fourth quarter you saw we made those adjustments and it finally paid off.

On if he has checked out any bowl lists…
No, not at all. No shot. Not until the end of the season. We still have two more games, so we are focused on those before we worry about what bowl game we are in.

On where program was when he came and where it is now…
It's unbelievable. So many people have come before me and come through here. The Nick Allgretti's, the Joe Spencer's, they were a part of this too. They helped set the foundation and that started when I was a true freshman redshirting.

Illinois Quarterback Brandon Peters

On what he said to his team in the huddle when they were on the goal line…
I just told them we need a good push here. Everyone's eyes were as big as a quarter, maybe bigger; we just had to execute. I kind of messed up and fumbled the snap, but we got it.

On what point they thought they had the chance to win the game…
The second quarter drive to end the half. That put an exclamation point to start the comeback. Our defense came out and force turnovers which helped us too.

On what being in a bowl game with this team means to him…
It means a lot to see Coach Lovie and the seniors who have been here a long time, just seeing how excited they were. But we know it's on to the next phase.

On coming from Michigan and helping Illinois to bowl game…
I am just happy to be here and to have the opportunity that I have. It is has been a long road, but I am just grateful for the opportunity that I have had.

Players Mentioned

Matt Allen

Josh Butler

Luke Campbell

Elijah Collins

David Dowell

C.J. Hayes

Brian Lewerke

Tre Mosley

Jalen Nailor

Mike Panasiuk

Antjuan Simmons

Cody White

Raequan Williams

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