Michigan State University Athletics
Post-Game Quotes: Illinois
10/10/2026 8:26:00 PM | Football
Opening statement…
Thanks, everybody, for being here tonight. Really appreciate you covering our squad.
I want to congratulate Illinois on a hard-fought win. We ended up making it a game, and I'm proud of our guys. They were resilient. We had a bunch of guys go down in that game; for the guys to step up and fight the way that they did, I'm really proud of them.
Now we've just got to clean up a lot of mistakes. Just a lot of mistakes. And not to discredit Illinois, they came out, they had a really good plan, took advantage of some of our things. I thought Joe (Rossi) adjusted well. I thought we got the ball and we were able to move it. But at the end of the day, we ended up one play short, and that's my call. I stood up here about six or seven weeks ago and said, "Scared money don't make money." So, we felt good about the play, and credit Illinois, they defended it. So good for them.
So, with that, I'll answer any other questions you have.
On balancing resilience and expectations while navigating growing pains through the season…
Well, the growing pains are happening, so we've got to coach through that. That's on us as coaches. We've got to get guys to play and execute fundamentally and technically. We need them to play with discipline, and then we need to execute within the moment. At times we did today; at other times, it hurt us.
A game like this should hurt. This is a game that we had every opportunity to win. And they made the last key play to win the game, so congratulations to them.
On the play design and decision on the two-point conversion attempt…
Yeah, I mean, we've got a bunch that we have ready. That was the one we decided to go with.
On channeling the team's response and keeping momentum moving forward after coming so close…
I learned a long time ago the analogy of priming the pump. I've got a well now at my house in Okemos, so you've got to let the water run a little bit. You've got to prime the pump. You don't know how deep that water is, but you've just got to keep pumping and pumping and pumping, just like we're trying to do right now to find a way to get that water to flow. That water is indictive of winning games.
I'm just really proud of our guys' resiliency: to see the number of guys that went down on defense and to see the number of guys that stepped up, I'm really, really proud of them and thankful for them. Now we've just got to coach them and get them ready for next week.
On whether he considered going for two earlier when cutting the deficit to 31-30, and the offside explanation on the onside kick…
No, I was not close to going for it there. I was more close to going for it when we cut it to what would have been 14—I was thinking about going for it there when you've got two possessions left. Not a big fan of going for it on the last possession, kind of analytically, when you study that, that's not the time to do it unless there's under 20 seconds; that's kind of the analytical approach to that. I think there was a little over a minute left in that situation, so that was kind of an easy decision. We were just so beat up on defense, to go for two at the end—that was a no-brainer, frankly. We made that decision pretty quickly.
And then from a standpoint of the explanation, I prefer to talk to the Big Ten officials. I'll talk to them. My vantage point: we were not offsides. My vantage point: we recovered the ball. My vantage point is that it was one of the more confusing plays I've ever seen officiated.
On whether the offside call on the onside kick was reviewable…
I was told that you couldn't review the onside kick—you couldn't review being onside on the kick. That's what they told me.
On conversations on the sideline when trailing by 14 in the fourth quarter…
Just stay the course. Just keep swinging. Big Ten football games are 60 minutes, and to the guys' credit, they did.
At the same time, I lost my cool at times. I've got to be more disciplined for our team to be more disciplined. That starts and ends with me.
But I really appreciate our fans, man. They brought us back into that game, and we're going to need them next week and moving forward for the rest of the year. The students were awesome; they were here early. Appreciate that, and same with our entire fan base. Just stick with us. We are going to get this thing going in the right direction. But I hope you're proud of your Spartans tonight. Those guys stepped up, they fought their tails off, and yeah, we didn't get the win, but we're seeing growth. Now we've just got to keep the pedal down and keep priming that pump.
On sustaining defense with extensive injuries, including multiple true freshmen cornerbacks and backups at linebacker…
Yeah, I mean, again, we're getting a PhD in "next man up," right? And they're all in-game injuries. As a coach, you look at your practice schedule and your routine to see if you're getting soft tissue issues—we don't have any of those. These are just in-game injuries that are happening, and it's football. It's a violent sport.
I'm proud of our guys that stepped up. My heart breaks for the guys that are injured, because some of these guys might be off for the whole year. But the guys stepping up, I'm really proud of them, really thankful for them, and now we've just got to coach them up.
On addressing the team after the negated onside kick and getting the defensive fourth-down stop right after…
I think Spartan Nation talked to the team. If you were down on the field, you heard Spartan Nation in the stadium, and that's who talked to them—I didn't have to say anything. I was a little preoccupied with not being very happy with some people in stripes.
So, the fans were unbelievable. They were the ones that talked to our guys and got them going, and we appreciate them more than they'll ever know. And they kept battling—part of the resiliency. We've just got to find a way to get two more points. I thought it was good coverage, but they call us for pass interference on a two-point play—just a mind-boggling night tonight, to be honest with you.
On sixth year tight end Carson Gulker's increased involvement and impact…
I'm not going to answer that question because it's schematic. But I will say that he's been working his tail off. We're really proud of him. He's been banged up—you see him in a cowboy collar. This is a guy who's been through a lot, and we're just very thankful and grateful he stepped up, and we look forward to watching him play the rest of the year.
On the design, execution, and timing of the onside kick…
Great, great job by Coach (LeVar) Woods and the staff. We had been saving it for when we thought we could get it, number one, and then number two, when the right moment presented itself. Just really good execution by Liam (Boyd) and Samson (Gash). It was just perfect. You've got to use every blade of grass on that play, and we used every blade of grass. The coaching point is to make sure you're onside. We were onside. We were not offsides. And so that is what it is.
On the offense's slow start and only having three possessions in the first half…
They executed their plan. That's Bret's (Bielema) ball: he wants to squeeze the air out of the ball. We knew that.
First play of the game, we've got two guys wide open; we don't get them the ball. So, we're just not there yet. I thought it was a really good idea by Nick (Sheridan) and the offensive staff. We've got two guys that were open there, we just double-clutch and get sacked. That was a little indicative of the start: we mistargeted something, we mistargeted another thing, then settled down and settled in. The coaches did a good job trusting them; we trust and believe in our guys. We've just got to get them to play and execute cleanly. They've got to trust themselves.
That's what jumps out to me: tackling question, some other things—in the moment, we're not executing the fundamentals that we work day in and day out. As coaches, you don't stop; you just keep driving it home. We got some turnovers today, right? We had a chance for a couple more. I sat here last week saying I'm tired of watching us not get turnovers—well, we got a bunch today, so thank you for the question about creating turnovers.
On redshirt senior running back Jaziun Patterson scoring three touchdowns and having that workload pay off…
Jazz is exactly what you're looking for in a player. He shows up every day with an unbelievable attitude. Everything he does, he does with urgency. Everything. You just see his appreciation for his role, and I'm just really proud of him. He's a joy and a treat to coach, I'll tell you that, man. He's really stepping up.
On whether there is a disconnect between practice execution and game execution…
It's football, right? A lot of things happen. For some guys, I think it's just trusting themselves. I really do. You get in the arena, and that's a different deal. Especially as a young player, as a young starter, there are times when you watch yourself on tape and you almost feel like you're having a little bit of an out-of-body experience, because you look at what you put on game tape versus what you did in practice, and it's just a little disconnected.
Typically, my experience in coaching is these guys are trying to do too much, or panic. It kind of falls into those two camps: "Oh my gosh, I've got to go make this play," but my eyes are bad, my angles are bad, I don't run my feet when I go to tackle, I jump in the pool instead of running my feet and taking another step, right? Those are things when you're panicking a little bit. And then the other side is you don't do your job because you're trying to make a play, because you just don't trust yourself, or maybe you don't trust the guys around you. It's hard to have that kind of trust, especially defensively with the amount of guys we're shuffling in and out. But Joe (Rossi) and his staff, I thought, kept those guys together, and we gave ourselves a chance to get back in the game in the second half the way our defensive kids stepped up, and the way Joe (Rossi) called the game.
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On self-inflicted procedural penalties like false starts and offsides…
That kind of goes back to my previous answer: I just think the guys are just not trusting in themselves. Not good enough, obviously.
On how Illinois' in-game quarterback change affected defensive adjustments…
It's part of our staff's weekly routine: you scout the backups, you see all the reps that they run, and you have an anticipation of what they're going to do. Really no change there; more our own personnel dictated any changes schematically defensively, just trying to give the guys the best opportunity to go out and execute and play. Some of those guys were on the twos reps this week, they didn't even get reps in the game plan—that were out there in the game, so I'm really proud of the way those guys stepped up.
On the use of tight ends and heavy sets resembling a return of the super-back role…
Yeah, I don't know about that. Tight ends are going to be really important for us. You've seen the way that we've used them throughout the entire course of the year. We've got guys that are banged up and we're trying to use the whole roster. A guy like Gulk (Carson Gulker) stepping up today making some plays and doing some really fun things, we've just got to keep building. Use every ounce of talent we have to go out and be successful in the game.
So just again to wrap it up: congratulations to Illinois on a hard-fought win for them coming in here and winning the game. Congratulations to them, and we look forward to getting back here next week.
Thanks, everybody. Have a great night. Go Green.
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Michigan State Redshirt-Sophomore Quarterback Alessio Milivojevic
On the two-point conversation…
We had a few calls we were thinking about…but this is the one that had been on our mind, and we have been talking about. The entire week you go through two-point plays to win the game. There is always one you have on top, and we thought that play was the one that gave us the best chance. They played it well; props to them.
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On the fourth-quarter turnaround as the leader…
This team has never-ending fight. I think we showed it out there today. One thing we do is we believe; we believe at all times, no matter how much we are up and how much we are down. We believe we are going to win the game. That is what I felt on the sideline the entire game, to be honest; not only the fourth quarter it was the entire game. It was that feeling.
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On the feelings coming out of this game…
The loss is going to sting for sure. Losing any game is going to sting…but in a tight game like that it is going to sting even worse. One thing about this team is we still understand there are six games left. No one is waving the white flag or throwing the towel. There are six games left. We are going to get back to work. We work our butts off every single day to win games. One thing we see is to go win games. We have the defense, we have the offense, and special teams to go win games, and that is something we are going to continue to work on.
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On the first snap of the game, and what the team saw in the last three quarters…
The first snap was a little cloudy for me to see. Just coming back from catching the flea flicker like that. I saw Bryson (Williams) kind of get grabbed at the top of his route. He got off of him, but honestly, looking back at the film, he got grabbed and kind of stayed running. Looking back, I want our guy to have a chance to go make a play and score a touchdown on the first play. Just resilience…the team is not going to back down; we are going to continue to fight and continue to pound the rock. Like coach was saying, we break, and I think I saw parts of it breaking today, but we just need to go ahead and finish on that two-point conversion.
Thoughts on Jaziun Patterson performance...
Jazz (Jaziun Patterson) played amazing today. He ran extremely hard. The o-line gave him awesome holes to run through. I think it was a full front six, front five effort. Just allowing him to get those blocks, and then go score the ball. He ran really hard. I was really proud of him.
On mindset/body language of going for the win on final play...
We knew going into the first OT that when we scored, we were going for two. We had discussed it. It was 100% something that was going to happen. We're going for two, and we trust our guys to go win that game. We believe in ourselves to go for two and win that game.
On fourth down attempts helping the aggressive mindset...
Yeah, when you have an aggressive nature team, that's just something you expect. You expect to go for fourth, and however long you need. Two-point conversions are expected. We're always going to expect to go and get those conversions, and we're expected to get them.
On difference between first three offensive drives and rest of game...
I think we had looks in the first and second quarter to do exactly what we did in the second half. We just weren't executing at a high level. Maybe it was timing issues, or we misread something, or something like that, just like any player in general. I think it was just a lot of little things we were missing in execution. We went in at halftime after a scoring drive and said we can score on these guys. We know we can. We're just going to do us, and that's what we did in the second half.
Thoughts on creative playcalling creating an advantage on offense...
Anytime you can give a defense a different look, it's an advantage for your team. There are multiple different personnel we added in today, multiple different trick plays. Just having different looks for the defense to see is tough for them to keep up with where the ball is going. I think it's a huge advantage for us, and it's going to continue to happen as we go forward.
On the process to fix mistakes made on the field...
I think it's just reps, reps, reps, reps, reps. That's all you can do is to continue to go back to work in practice. Every play in practice, you have to play it like it's a game rep. Obviously, you'll train your brain to be ready to when it shows up in the game, because the coaches aren't just giving you random looks in practice. They're giving you looks you're going to see in the game for a reason. I think if you continue to just work, work, work, and look continue to practice like you're going to play, it's going to continue to get better.
Michigan State Graduate Edge Kenny Soares Jr.
Defensive halftime discussion after starting down 17-0...
We've been here before. Just keep going. Nobody can put their head down. You just have to continue to push that's all you can do.
Big takeaways that they can use for momentum during last half of season...
I think at the end of the day it is the loss. There are no moral victories, we don't do moral victories over here, we just continue to play spartan football. That is our number one goal. We have to continue having each other's backs and being great teammates and continue to practice hard every single day. We have six more games, which means six more opportunities. Especially for the seniors, it is the last six games of their careers, so we just have to keep going.
How team has addressed keeping it simple and not letting passion take away from execution...
That's just the reality of life. Everybody wants everything. You just have to do your job, as you are one out of eleven. When you're in the real world, that's how the real-world works. Sometimes things don't go your way. Sometimes things aren't going to be perfect. But at the same time, you have to continue to pick your head up and keep taking steps every single day, and that is all that matters. We don't want to play with people who put their head down when they are losing. We want people who are going to keep fighting no matter what. When we are seventeen down, we need to keep going. We need to believe we are going to come back and win this game because that is our standard.
Michigan State Redshirt Junior Defensive Lineman Eli Coenen
Defensive halftime discussion after starting down 17-0...
Games not over, down 14-0 most of the half, it's time to go. We have to keep fighting, and keep going, which I thought we did.
How team has addressed keeping it simple and not letting passion take away from execution...
You just have to do your job as one of eleven. You have to trust your guys around you. You can't do too much because then maybe you are out of alignment. If everyone trusts each other to do their job as one of eleven, that translates to success on the field.
With so many guys getting injured how do you prepare and get better to deliver on the field...
You just have to prepare like you are the starter. Something I like to tell the other guys is that you never know when your time is up. Today we had a lot of guys go down, and the next guy stepped up. That's why you have to prepare like you're a starter.
Illinois Head Coach Bret BielemaÂ
Yeah, I've been coming here for a long time. I think the last time I was here, 2013, lost on a hail mary that went to the review. Seemed like it was a review for ages, and I think we beat that record today. I've never seen a review go and then come back and review it again and change. So, always going to be exciting when you play Michigan State up here. Super excited for our kids. Put in a lot of hard work. Our coaches. You know, just on Tuesday, I made a big point to our guys. 'Hey, as we get deeper into the Big Ten season, I don't know who, I don't know how, I don't know when. I just know it will happen, that somebody's going to get called into action that doesn't know it' and to have Michael answer the challenge the way he did was absolutely awesome. Obviously, don't have a lot of information on Katin (Houser). I do know he had something broke in his hand, so we'll try to gather information as best we can there. Didn't say it was out for the year, but he'll be out for obviously a considerable amount of time. But next man in, and I thought (Offensive Coordinator) Barry (Lunney Jr.) especially did some really good things with the quarterback. Just even for the first time being in that environment and in a hostile environment, getting a call was even just something unique and different and challenging. He just hadn't gotten a lot of reps of that in that live moment. So super proud of him. Even Carson (Boyd) popping in and getting a read zone that he kept and popped, and then they had a face mask call. That was a really big play. So super excited that he took advantage of that opportunity. I thought, offensive line, we joggled some things around up front, like the results. Obviously, when you win, it makes it a little easier. But I thought some positives there. I thought Kaden Feagin showed up. I thought Brayden Trimble showed up today. Javari Barnett, even though we just got to keep finding ways to get him the ball, I think when we got Michael (Clayton II) in there, he just didn't want to have two young guys in there with that crowd noise. So that part, I thought our defense — you know I walked off the field on Tuesday, felt good, went and watched the film and told our defense, I called them back in, I said, 'Hey, man, that's the best I've felt in a long time on Tuesday's practice.' Just going and doing the right things. Guys having a little bit of confidence. Made some negative yard plays today. Guys were attacking. Guys were playing with some energy. And sometimes everybody just needs one play. And I thought Xavier Scott at the end, just a super high football IQ play. They flex the quarterback into the boundary. They're a flat and left team in those two point play scenarios. They love the flat and left, and Xavier (Scott) knew right where he's at. He saw that thing coming the whole way and blew it up. Just an absolutely really fundamental good football play in that exact moment. So you know, a lot of different things happening. I think this bye week obviously we'll take a week to get healthy. But to have a bye week right now, couldn't ask for a better position to get out of that and have six games remaining. Obviously, nothing more important than Oregon, but I thought our guys really doubled down this week, put a lot into it, invested a lot in it. My first goal that I gave them on Sunday night was to plan, prepare, and execute to win a Big Ten road game, and it wasn't easy, wasn't pretty, but obviously a lot of good things happened. So it's really easy sometimes to realize when things are going well to just keep them going in the right directions. But when you had a bump in the road, it's really hard sometimes to revert the course. And I thought our guys did that, and then did it several times within the game today. So I'm super excited about that.
On Illinois freshman quarterback Michael Clayton…
I think three things. Michael, the guy that we got to know during recruiting, is the guy that's been there every day since he showed up last January. Super explosive arm. I think probably, in my opinion, one of the most dynamic arms, just purely as a quarterback that I've recruited and been around. Said that since he showed up on campus, so I knew when his time, chances, and opportunity came, I knew Barry (Lunney) wasn't going to hold back because he knows you got a thrower, a little bit of a gunslinger. I think the second thing that Barry really did a good job — you could tell it was a really hostile environment — just covering up and getting the call. We put mics on our guys during fall camp, and really the genesis of that was Michael (Clayton) and Carson (Boyd). Like, Katin (Houser) is a very demonstrative, hard, intense play caller, and those guys when they got in the huddle, they just weren't as demonstrative, and we could hear that with the mics, so I'm super appreciative of that, Josh. They weren't that expensive, but we had to get approval to get that, and it showed up today. It wasn't great, but it was definitely — I don't think it would have even been anywhere close if we hadn't had those mics. So I just give a lot of credit to our coaches. That was (Quarterbacks Coach) Artur Siitowski's suggestion, and just really, really played up today in the most positive way. And then the third thing is just the confidence in the play calls. So, we're getting down the first overtime, and we run a little, basically a dual read. And Barry said, 'I think the nickels coming, nickels coming,' and then that was the rip, and that was excellent execution, excellent play call, excellent execution by the quarterback, and then just a fundamental throw and catch, and then Huddy (Hudson Clement) to break a few things through to put that position was awesome.Â
On the decision to go with Michael Clayton…
Well, the first part, Katin (Houser), I can't say enough about what he's done. He's also, in my opinion, really kind of monitored and built up Michael. I know when Katin first got here, his place wasn't ready, or maybe it was Michael's place wasn't ready, and they lived together for about a month. And I'll never forget that. Like, I saw him walking in one day. My office looks out the back of the stadium there, and I saw those guys walking together, and I knew that they had showed up together. And I just, at that point, I remember I said to Michael, I said, 'Hey, man, like this guy's been through a lot. He's played a lot of football. The more you can absorb from him,' and I think he's done that. So to see that manifest today was absolutely awesome. Katin gave him a huge hug in the locker room, there to know what that meant as a young quarterback to have that moment's cool. We really had a kind of a plan, really going from Game One to where we are now. Obviously, this was Game Six. Each game, I would say, 'Hey, who are we going to first?' I remember in the first couple games that we thought if Katin had a cramp or those hot games, we're like, 'Hey, if he cramps up, and we got a play that we need to get somebody in there for a series, who are we going to go with, right?' And at one point it was Carson (Boyd). Then it went to Michael (Clayton), and then I remember we had a scenario where we said, 'Hey, if he's in, if he's knocked out of an end of half, end of game, and we're throwing it around, we probably want to go with Michael.' You know, I press our guys pretty hard on what's going to happen and how you're going to be ready for it. So Barry had a plan, kind of a call sheet to go to with Carson and Michael, and went out there and executed today. I'm just super proud of Barry Lunney, man. That stuff just happened, that was really good today.
On moving around the offense…
Honestly, just getting guys healthy. We really hadn't. I made a big deal about (junior offensive lineman) Brandon Hansen got his first start. I said it in front of the team on Thursday night, my travel meeting, because he had started a couple games, but it was because the guys in front of him got hurt. We actually thought he practiced and competed really well the last two or three weeks, and he took that moment. And then when those guys got healthy, I didn't want to like just put him to the bench, and he really did some good things. So we popped him in at right tackle. Nate had done really good at right, but he had always felt better over at left, so that's why we did that. (Senior offensive lineman) Christian Martin has continued to grow, but we wanted to press him a little bit. So I got to do a lot of things, but this week in Week Six is my bye week. Now I really take a mid-year break here, but starting probably two weeks ago, myself and (General Manager of Football Personnel) Pat Embleton have really looked at our roster on retention, removal, and acquisition, and retention is going to be critical. And offensively, like I started going through it, we got like basically everybody back in theory. Except for obviously Katin would be gone, and we could possibly, obviously, have some guys that have to make decisions. But, we got a lot of good players that come back, and in that offensive line, those guys are scrapping to get out on the field. We do have a lot of talented guys, and I think that showed up today.
On defensive plays…
I literally said that on the phone, on the headset. I'm like, 'hey, there's the break.' Like Juice came up and made that play happen. I thought the one down there at the end. I mean, we must not have put enough money in the kitty. That last one right there, probably four to half, that popped out down there, and it's bouncing around. But yeah, we made a couple, made a couple, you know, plays today defensively. I thought we had some TFLs. I thought we subbed in and out really good, and took advantage of some personnel stuff. I give Coop (Inside Linebackers Coach Roger Cooper) a lot of credit. I kind of appointed him and (Outside Linebackers Coach) Archie (McDaniel). Archie's also kind of been in that co-coordinator type moment. I think those two guys. I can't say enough about (Defensive Backs Coach) Corey Parker too, man. Like he's taking that DB room in, and (Assistant Defensive Backs Coach) Robbie Hauck. Those guys meet a lot together, and to have the that secondary respond the way they did and play the way they they did, I thought was been really, really awesome, and I thought continue to see (junior defensive lineman) Joe Barna, (senior defensive lineman) Pat Farrell, and (junior defensive lineman) Will Holmes kind of pop in there today, and it was fun to see that.
On overtime…
We practice overtime. We do it during the spring. We do it during fall camp. I think Brett said we 5-0? You know what I mean? Like, like threw that in there, right? But I think those moments come from living the moment you're in, but also understanding what happened. So I grabbed (senior wide receiver) Collin Dixon, just said, 'Hey, we want the ball on defense, and if we got to go down, we're going to go down to the end zone that we came out of.' Collin said, 'I got it coach' and just hopped out there, made the call, and did what he needed to do. And then offensively, Barry knew exactly where he wanted to go. That was the only call he made. That was the only call he had, and obviously it was a touchdown. So I can't argue with that. And then defensively, told him it's quatro. They had a four down every way all the way through. And unfortunately, let them in the end zone. But I told them before they took the play, I said he will go for a two point play, like have your two point call made, and obviously that worked out as good as you can have happen. So I give a lot of credit. I haven't given credit. I give a lot of credit to Michigan State to Fitz (Michigan State Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald), a very very good football coach, a great friend, a guy that I love and respect in this business a lot. Have two former players, LeVar Woods, their special teams coordinator, a guy that I coached and recruited at Iowa. Was really close with him, and then Brian Wozniak is a tight end coach over there. I recruited him. He played for me and coached. Just kind of fun. I mean, I'm getting really old, but they got a good staff over there. Got a good football team. They'll get better every week.Â
On a game like this creating momentum…
I think anytime you have success, it breeds other success. I think sometimes just a guy needs a play. You know, just a play. Like honestly, I've been doing this a long time, and obviously the last two or three weeks haven't been a lot of fun. I just told our guys to stay focused. We can control the narratives in our building. I can't control the narratives when they leave. I don't know what their family is telling them. I know social media can be very negative towards them. It's easy for me to say ignore the noise, but it's really hard for them. Like people say things that they think they're funny and quick and got a great little social media click to it, but it's very personal when people hear things. So to be able to persevere and come on top, those are fun moments for those kids, and hopefully can make them better. And this is a really big week to get ourselves right. I can't worry about anything else other than just getting ourselves right.
On the initial offsides and play that was reviewed…
Three things. I thought that kid had been offsides. So I'd been in that refs ear a little bit. So the way the officials work is we get two on our sideline and they switch at half. And I was a little bit upset at the end of the first half. We had a wheel route to (fifth year running back) Aidan Laughery, they kind of went over his fingertips, and number one grabbed him when he was running by him. And I just kind of said, 'Hey, man, that's like, I appreciate it. We, you know, please look at that because that's a touchdown, right?' And so I think the part that I was on those guys, and I said, 'I know they're coming over to our sideline, right?' So when I came over, I knew I was right in what I was saying. So I kind of said, I said, 'Hey, just make it up, right? Like, make it up.' And I'm not saying that's what happened because that wasn't the same guy. But I'm like, oh, he's offsides, he's offside. So I saw the flag go, and then I saw the pop-up, right? So I knew it was going to be — and then I swear I saw him land on the white. I don't know where his feet were, but he caught it, and I know that the ball is retained by where you land. So I have never seen anything stop, tell us something, and then come back. I've never, never seen or witnessed that, but I got a lot of confidence in the Big Ten office. I'm sure what they saw is what they saw. They told me they found another angle. I don't know if someone phoned a friend. I don't know if iPhone sent somebody in, and I don't know how because the review was long already, right? Like I mean, holy cow! But hopefully they got it right. I did know that if he landed out of bounds, it was going to be our ball there, plus five, and if he was offsides, we were going to have to re-kick. And obviously, that's the way it kind of played out.
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