Post-Game Quotes: Penn State

Michigan State interim head coach Harlon Barnett

Opening statement…
Another disappointing loss, obviously this was the last game of the season, wish we had performed better, was hoping to compete and finish better than we did, it is what it is. I still love these guys, a gritty bunch, a resilient bunch, they will always have my love and respect.

Message to the team after the game…
I told them, in life things will happen to all of us and you guys will look back on this season when adverse situations in life hit when they do, keep pushing, because at the end there's something better, but you have to keep pushing through, you can't stop, you can't give up. People were asking me early on in this process about what it felt, and I said, 'you can't stop,' you'll have to kill me to stop me, you all have to have that mentality, that's a dog mentality, when you talk about Spartan Dawgs, that's a dog mentality, you can't be stopped, I'm unstoppable in everything I do. You operate like that then the sky is the limit.

On offense second half struggles and how Penn State defense played…
What they did, and I didn't mind being honest with you, they were still coming at us late in the game. I personally have no problem with that, they're playing football, trying to get better, they were playing ball. We must execute, we understand what they were doing, we have to understand to keep playing as well.

What would he call the book be on this season…
That's a good question, just off the top of my head right now, 'The season of adversity,' you can read the book and be like, 'what, that happened and then this happened,' season of adversity.

On things he learned going forward in the future…
I been through adverse things in life, I know how to keep pushing through. One of the things I had to get comfortable with, is talking to the guys after a loss; the one that really got me, was the Rutgers game, 'what am I going to say,' and the words just came. Like I told you all before, I'm a natural encourager, I'm a positive person, so the words just came out, that was tough. Then to go on a six-game losing streak and have to go in there and keep encouraging them. It must've worked because they kept coming out working and playing hard in practice and in games.

How do players get refocused on upcoming change…
They got a whole new deal starting up, everybody when the new year comes think, 'we have a chance,' whatever happens, whoever you are, everybody is going in next year thinking, 'we're going to be really good, this is what we're going have to fix,' go through our off-season strength and conditioning program, spring ball, summer program, fall camp, and go from there. If you're any kind of a competitor, you're thinking, 'we're going to get this right for next year, and get it done.'

On what he would tell the next coach about MSU…
Well, I'll be looking in the mirror, and I'll say, 'Michigan State is a great place, you've known that since 1985, you know there are a lot of great people here, you know you got to love the student-athlete above everything, you got to be all for them.' Everything else will come, they'll play hard for you, do whatever you ask them to do. You got to touch their life and know you truly care, 'they don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.' I care for people, that's what I'm taught to do, from what I believe. That's what I'm about, results will come after that.

On how quick the program can get back to bowl game and national championship competing quality…
That's a great question. You're going to think I'm crazy, but I think it can be fairly quick based on a few things; retaining a few guys that are in the locker room now, getting healthy and then going out and bringing in more talent here to help them out. And so, I think that's very crucial, and then you have to sustain after that, obviously staying healthy and all that. I don't think it's as far away as others may think, I think it can be turned around fairly quickly, I don't want to put a true time on it, but I don't think it's way, way, out there where you can't get it back fairly quickly.

On his assessment of the development and recruiting of the athletes…
Yeah, we tried our best to, other than guys getting injured and all that type of stuff. A lot of coaches in there, so we definitely tried our best to develop guys and make them the best that they could be. That's the type of program we've been. I like to say 1985, but that's who we've been. We haven't really been a school that goes all over the country and gets guys all over the place. There has to be a connection otherwise, our deal is a five-hour radius; Michigan, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Indianapolis, and then you go down to the DMV, and Jersey a little bit, then you go to Georgia and Florida. That's Michigan State. And then you build from there. And it's been pretty good I think over the years. And then as you build a consistently good team from doing it that way, then maybe you can get out further away and all that kind of stuff. But you want tough, fast, physical football players and we've been able to find those type of guys over the years that I've been a Spartan in those areas that I just mentioned.

On his next steps and interviews…
That's a great question. It's going to be day-to-day for now because we're still trying to figure out who the coach going to be… Harlon Barnett… but we're still trying to figure that out and once that gets figured out, then it goes from there, to be honest for you. It's day-to-day.

On athletes sticking around and not transferring…
Pride for me is a dangerous word, but I do understand what you're saying. Yes I can look back on that, because it wasn't all me, it was all of our coaches that helped the guys stay and stay engaged and to be happy to be here. So, I can't sit here and say, 'look at me, that was all Harlon Barnett doing that.' But I do feel like I had a part in it, obviously, and I'm happy and a little bit proud that a lot of those guys stayed and didn't leave because it could have been a mass-exodus. We could've not played some games; it could've been that bad. And thank God that it wasn't, and guys kept playing. It wasn't like they just stuck around, but they stuck around and played with everything they had.

On how he would assess his season…
How would I assess myself? First of all, I'm hard on myself. Any athlete, when you're a player you think about the plays you messed up as opposed to the good plays. When you get the play on film, you're sitting there, 'here, go off on me,' but you already went off on yourself. So, I did O.K. My mindset was that we were going to win every game that we played. That's what my mindset was, and it isn't going to change. I thought we were going to win tonight, and you've heard me say this before: I could take a lie detector test for every game and you'd be like, 'he really believes he's going to win!' And I do. That's my mentality, that's how I've gotten to where I'm at. And so, to assess myself that way is to look at the losses and go, 'it's all your fault, blah, blah, blah, this, that, and another,' it still doesn't feel good, and my name is attached to it. So, that's why I need an opportunity to do it my way from the start and then let's see, now let's see what it is and what it looks like. I know that it will be a truly different result, I know that without a doubt in my mind. It is what it is, no excuses. What was it, 2-8? 2-8! That's terrible, but we're going to get it changed.

Penn State Head Coach James Franklin

Opening Statement…
Like always, I want to thank you guys for coming out and covering Penn State football. I want to give Michigan State credit under some challenging circumstances this year. We have a lot of respect for them on film. Their coaching staff has done a really good job. They've battled all year long, so I wanna pay them some respect. Playing here in the dome, I talked to their AD and head coach before the game and thought this was a real positive for both programs. It was a home game for Michigan State, but I thought there were a lot of positives about it.

On the production from the running backs…
I think both our backs had great years. The run game in my mind matched the expectations. In the run game and the pass game when it comes to protection, they both clearly got better this year as overall running backs. I think there been some other games where we probably could've gotten more yards, but we got them out and managed to keep that situation healthy. Seeing them both finish with 100 yards and get into the end zone was cool. I know it's something our offensive line takes a ton of pride in as well. When you study the tape as complete players, they both got a lot better this season.

On if today's victory changed the narrative surrounding the offensive struggles…
Again, we won 10 games this season. There's very few programs in the country that are able to do that, we've done it in back-to-back seasons. I'm very proud of what we've done. Do I understand and embrace that this place has very high expectations? Nobody has higher expectations than the players and the coaches. I'm proud of this team and how we played tonight, and how consistently we played this year. Obviously there's some steps we need to take. I'm confident we will take those steps and be aggressive. As I mentioned in the preseason, my confidence comes from our leadership.

On quarterback Drew Allar's play tonight…
I thought he played well. I thought he missed some throws on the run that I think he normally makes. But, overall, I thought he played well. We talk about criticisms, I mean how many touchdown passes did he throw this year? And how many interceptions? I think if you just took that statistic and told the 132 coaches in the country that their quarterback would have those stats before the season started, I think everyone would take it and run. As a first-year starter I thought he did some really good things. Obviously, I thought we did some good things tonight in terms of emphasizing the tight ends and running backs. I thought we did that the last two weeks. We were able to take some shots as well, we've been more explosive. I think he's played really well. I think he's played really well all year long. I think there's been some areas that we need to get better as an offense, and some areas that Drew needs to get better at. I think when you are looking at the overall picture, I don't think there's another coach in the country where if you could take those statistics at the beginning of the season, everyone would take them and run.

On dominating without players putting up gigantic numbers…
Again, I think there's a difference between buying into statistics, and buying into really good football. One of the things I think happens sometimes, a guy maybe doesn't have a certain amount of catches, or a certain amount of tackles. I'm still a big believer when true football people like you guys and scouts are studying the tape there playing the game the way it's supposed to be played. There's a ton of times where you are a defensive lineman and you are the penetrator, and the guy who is looping the twist gets the sack. Well, the penetrator caused the sack and real football people who study it understand that. Our guys have bought into that on offense, defense and special teams. The reality is when you do your job, and his teammates does his jobs, the plays that are supposed to come to you will come to you. We've played really good defense, I've been fortunate since I've become a head coach.

On what was learned from the receiver core…
I think there's some talent there. I think what we have done a good job of specifically the last two weeks is sometimes as coaches you focus on things guys can't do, rather than saying here's something this guy does really well, lets allow him to use that and have success there and build on it. We probably rotated more guys. It's interesting. I think last week you guys asked me why certain guys didn't get touches, but actually we are playing and rotating more guys. The biggest thing is we got some guys who can do really good things. We play to their strengths and use that with some confidence to build for the future.

On how this season will be viewed a year from now with an expanded playoff…
There's data if you go back how many times had there been a 12 team playoff, how many times would we get in. Just looking at that statistic and where we are gonna finish this regular season depending on the college football playoff rankings, I think we'd be in again. We are playing kind of our best football now, so it's good to be kinda trending at the right time. This year we played good enough to win 10 games, and hopefully get into a new year's six game and play well in it. That's probably more challenging than it's been in the past, with all the different things changing in college football over the last five years. But yeah, I'm proud of it.

Michigan State graduate sixth year linebacker Aaron Brule

On his last game of college football and overall takeaway of his time at Michigan State...
I'd say I don't regret anything. I don't regret ever coming here, I don't regret meeting the people that I've met. I've met some of the best people that you could ever meet and I'm sure those relationships will maintain. I mean, being around great people, man. I think my teammates, the linebacker room, Coach Hazelton, we've all got a really close-knit relationship. I definitely see big things for this program in the future. I'll be in and out, I'll be around helping in any way that I can with whatever anybody needs. Young guys, older guys, anything. I haven't necessarily come to the conclusion that I'm done with college football yet, but I'm sure it'll hit me probably on the ride back to campus. Right now, I'm just kinda numb to it. I really wanted to win today. That didn't really go our way. Right now, I'm still fighting against the feeling of losing. Once everything settles down and I talk to my parents and things like that, I'm sure it'll settle in. We'll just go from there.

On something he learned about himself and his team that'll help him in the next chapter...
As far as myself, I've learned that I've got to be patient. This is the closest thing, well this is for myself and my team, this is the closest to real life we're gonna get with the unsure things that go on with coaching, and obviously expecting to have two big seasons from last year and this year. Things not going your way, that's what life is. You can have five to ten years in real life besides football, us playing college football was a privilege for us. I think everything from here on out is not guaranteed so I think through football I've learned that. I've had a great group of guys, my parents, and coaches and things like that. They've done a really good job of making us understand that things are much harder in life. People have had it way harder than we've ever had it. After football, we can struggle for five, ten years. There'll be things that'll knock you down for the rest of your life outside of football that you really have to deal with. I kinda take a lot on myself as far as football, but I know that in the rest of my life, I've got to make things happen for myself, my family, or whatever the case may be.

On the job that Coach Barnett did stepping in and his lasting imprint...
Coach Barnett wants to be the head coach here. So, he never stops being on us about anything. I think he has a great opportunity. He's definitely a fighter, he's a Spartan Dawg so I mean, even if he didn't want to be here, I'm sure he wanted the program to look good. He was doing whatever he could to fight. It's not easy to step in and take that job. I think he did a great job.

On when it started to wear on him and the team and things changed after starting the game with some stops...
I can't necessarily remember when it started happening. I noticed that we were on the field a good bit, but there's no excuses. They still scored points on us. That's up to the defense to get those stops. We can't necessarily blame anybody else for it, for what we gave up.

On if he enjoyed playing in Ford Field or if he would rather have it at Spartan Stadium, speaking on behalf of him and senior players…
No, this is awesome. I'm 19 hours from home, so I think actually being able to play in another NFL stadium - I played in the Super Dome maybe once or twice out in Louisiana - but this is
definitely nice. I mean, we watched the Detroit Lions. I've been watching them since I was a kid also. I think this is a great opportunity for the guys that are from here, and the guys that played
for the guys that are from here, that's not from here. I mean I love it. I think this is a good idea. It was a pretty packed crowd, it looked like it was a lot of people. I was looking, I couldn't really
see, because it gets dark in the stands kind of, but the more you look up I didn't see too many empty seats. I mean, I think it's a great idea.

On why he thinks so many players stuck around…
I mean, we're a greedy group. It's a group of guys that I think really really love each other. We fight, we practice as hard as we can for each other every day. In the midst of whatever goes on,
I think our focus was just to win the game. Obviously, results may not have been what we wanted, but we will say we definitely learned and the guys have stronger throughout this whole
situation.

Michigan State redshirt sophomore running back Nathan Carter

On one thing that he learned about himself and his team this season…
I think that the ability to persevere, that's probably the word I would say, not just for me, but for the team. Obviously, no one expected what we went through to happen, and I would never have
wished for it to happen, but we pursued and preserved through the entire season. The coaches and players persevered and we did our best to stay unified and finish this thing out strong. At
the end of the day, it's a life lesson and as a man there are things that you are going to have to go through. Whether it's your job or your family, it's good that we went through this adversity
because life is going to get a lot harder than this and it's going to teach us a lot more about how as men we can still endure and persevere in a world that's full of suffering.

On how curious he is about the future of the program is going to look…
It's definitely exciting for me. It's funny because when I was at UConn, I kind of went through a similar process as this after my first year, going through a coaching change and now I'm going
through that same thing here again. So whatever happens, I'm just trusting God and understanding that his plan is going to work out. I'm excited for whoever they are going to bring
in and we have a lot of good talent here. We have a lot of guys here who want to fight and show perseverance through the season and I have high hopes for what is going to happen next
season.

On where the team is at after an emotional roller coaster of a season…
I feel like spirits are high, I really do. Coach Barnett did a great job of keeping us unified as all the stuff happened, and the word that he continued to preach to us was "finish" and obviously we
didn't finish the way that we wanted to, but as far as a team, staying unified and fighting for this program, I believe that we finished well. Obviously, the score may not show that, but you can
look at the hearts of the guys in that locker room and go out there and practice, grind, and do the right things amidst all of the adversity we were going through, those guys finished hard. I
believe that all of us really learned life lessons from this and we are going to grow to be stronger men in the future.

Penn State sophomore quarterback Drew Allar

On when he started feeling better and like he could play today...
I started feeling better every day, there was no doubt in my mind that I was gonna be able to play today. The training staff did a good job with me.

On how his 60-yard throw felt...
Yeah, it was definitely a great throw. Omari [Evans] did a great job of tracking it in like a dome setting that we haven't been in this year. Tracking the ball with the light, especially with how high it was. He did a great job with just coming down with the catch. It was just a great route by him too.

On how he thinks the regular season went...
From the team aspect, it's definitely maybe not where we wanted to go, but again, not many teams have won 10 games back-to-back seasons and there's many programs around the country that would want to be in the shoes, the position, that we are in and I think that personally, I've definitely done a lot of growing throughout this year just from a physical, playing standpoint. Mentally, the coaching staff has been unbelievable, not only with me, but with the whole offense as a whole and the quarterback room. I think it's just been a great season and there's been a lot of learning opportunities.

Players Mentioned

Aaron Brule

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