Post-Game Quotes: Penn State

Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker

The way the defense played today, it put you in a position to at least be in the game, especially in the second half. Can you talk about the way they played overall that kept you guys in the game?
Guys played hard. They've been playing better for the better part of the second half of the season. So, we're chalking up today to just playing hard.

Looking over the totality of the season and you look at how things transpired, how you kind of assessed what happened over the course of the season?
Now is not the time for me to do that. There's still a chance that we may play another game, so we'll have to see. At some point, I'll assess the entire season, but not right now.

Michigan State Redshirt Junior Quarterback Payton Thorne

Can you try to sum up the way that the team fought today? You were still in the game there in the fourth quarter, can you just talk about that mentality overall?
We fight until the end, that is something that we do as a program, and our guys have bought into that. We have come back multiple times in games since I've been here. We have examples of coming back and it didn't happen today.

Can you compare the pressure from the defense today to the rest of the season?
They [Penn State] are good guys up front. They have some really talented guys with really good athleticism, and they work different pass rush moves. You can see it on film. They did a good job getting pressure today. I thought our offensive line battled, but they were able to produce some pressure. We saw the looks, they didn't really bring anything that we hadn't seen on film. I haven't watched the film myself obviously, so I'll see where the breakdowns were on film.

Michigan State Graduate Senior Safety Xavier Henderson

I want to hear about resolve and resiliency because obviously this team, not just today, but throughout the course of the last few weeks, had a lot of stops and starts with different personnel situations. I am wondering how you guys have managed to keep it together to even be in the game.
Well, we knew we could win the game. We knew that going into the game. We did not execute as well as we could have. We had a mishap on their first touchdown, and they ran a trick play on the second touchdown. But other than that, we were playing pretty decent football…We didn't think the game was ever out of reach or anything like that.

Penn State head coach James Franklin

Opening statement...
I just thought we played really good complementary football. Offense, defense, and special teams all made plays when we needed to early on in the game. I thought their punter was kind of the MVP, swinging field position, but we were able to make some adjustments offensively. We did start slow, but we were able to finish strong. We made plays when we needed to, and we were able to mix the run and the pass defensively. We continued to make plays all year long and played very, very consistently. Special teams obviously, the turnover late was big. Our tight ends had a big night for us. That's been a theme pretty much all year long. I thought [Sean Clifford] did what he typically does, he manages the game extremely well and gets us in the right runs, gets us in the right protections and makes the plays when he needs to. It was also great to see [KeAndre Lambert-Smith] have a big night, big touchdown catch and obviously a touchdown throw, I thought that was a big-time throw. Overall, good night for us. I'm really proud. You think about where this team started, in terms of how people talked about us in preseason, to where we finished, I think inside the top 10 at the end of the regular season and then we still have one game left to play. We're looking forward to seeing where we'll end up so again, appreciate you guys.

Additional Penn State quotes available here.

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