Michigan State University Athletics
Pat Fitzgerald Weekly Press Conference Coverage
10/5/2026 2:54:00 PM | Football
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State head football coach Pat Fitzgerald held his weekly press conference Monday inside the Spartan Stadium North End Zone Media Center to recap the game against Wisconsin and preview this Saturday's game vs. Illinois on Homecoming.
MSU (2-3, 0-2 B1G) hosts the Fighting Illini (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten) on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 3:30 p.m. in Spartan Stadium. The game will be televised on FS1 and streamed on FOX One.
Michigan State head coach Pat Fitzgerald press conference transcript - Monday, Oct. 5, 2026
Opening Statement…
Good afternoon. Thanks for being here. Appreciate you guys covering the team, as always.
Spent time yesterday as a staff just going through the game, and there's no question that we need to play better in all three phases from a complementary standpoint. And then, like I said after the game, we've got to be more physical across the board, more disciplined in our technique and fundamentals.
Met this morning with the guys, presented to them what we saw as areas for improvement, areas they specifically as individuals need to improve, and that'll be ongoing through the rest of today—those meetings—and then, kind of what our plan is in all three phases. So, we know we've got a lot of work to do but turning the page and moving on here to Illinois this afternoon. Actually, started in earnest yesterday, as you guys can only imagine.
We only had one player nominated for Player of the Game—he was not a Player of the Game, but Devin Vaught was nominated for it, graded out well, and had seven tackles.
Our Practice Players of the Week: On offense: Cedric Williams Jr. On defense: Truth T.J. Umenyiora. On special teams: Charlie Baker. So, Charlie will take us out of the tunnel here this Saturday. Fired up for Charlie, he's a great young man, working his tail off just like those other two young men.
Looking forward to being back home for Homecoming. It's always special to have alums back and former players back, maybe the only time they can make it back to campus. Like us, Illinois is coming off a tough loss, and we know they'll be motivated and ready to go. But weather looks great for Saturday, so looking forward to getting out in front of our great fans in Spartan Stadium and playing four quarters of complementary football.
So, with that, answer any of your questions, please.
On whether roster depth in the portal and NIL era acts as an alternative to traditional high school player development…
Yeah, from a standpoint of our recruiting philosophy, we're always going to start and end our recruiting with high school guys. We're going to be a developmental program from that standpoint. When you bring guys in to develop them, for example, our D-squad (developmental squad) guys right now: the end of our Monday practice is a D-squad scrimmage. I think those guys got 10 or 12 plays today, kind of averaging about that every Monday. That's one aspect of that development, along with obviously dietitian, sports psychology, sports science, and strength and conditioning.
That's always going to be the foundational piece of what we do. And then you get to the end of the year after the season, and you've got the month to see who's going to stay and who you're going to retain, and then where you have to go and fill the holes appropriately for your roster. We're a long way from that—that's not until way down the road after the season, and we'll focus on that then.
But as far as development of your program and your specific players, no, I think that's critical for you to be able to get. You look at Wisconsin—I said last week, it's a credit to Luke (Fickell), right? They brought in multiple classes, he's been able to develop their culture.
And he's done a great job staying the course, and they're playing their best football, you could argue, of his tenure. So, I think it's essential. You look at Matt (Rhule), the same thing at Nebraska. And so, yeah, we're going to work diligently to develop everybody on the roster, for sure. It's a long answer, but I want to make sure I answer your question.
On what stood out the most after reviewing the game film from Saturday…
Yeah, well, if you want to be general, I'll be general: we've got to be better.
I mean, I'm not trying to be smart. Offensively, we had, I think, four or five drives of eight plays or more. We were cleaner: we didn't turn the ball over, which is a plus and a step in the right direction. We didn't have the catastrophic negatives; I think two of our negatives happened on our last drive of the three that we charted, so that's exponentially better than it was the week before. But we've got to score points. I mean, that's the bottom line: we've got to get across the 50 and score. Going into the game, we were very good on fourth down; we were not good enough at all.
Defensively, we just didn't fit some things properly. We had kind of a critical MA (missed assignment) on one of the touchdowns, so the guy was open. That we've got to coach better, and that's what we talked to the guys about today. And we just said, we didn't fit some things physical enough, in my opinion. On a quarterback draw, we've got two linebackers there and a 3-technique. That's exactly what I saw in the game: we've got to shed a block, and we've got to go knock the lips off of the two guys blocking us. I mean, the guy got through a crack that big, like, come on. And then our safety misses a tackle, so that's four issues on one play. Those things don't happen by accident. So, we challenged our guys: we've got to coach better, but they've got to freaking play better, too. They've got to play better. If we want to win, we've got to play better. So, it's all of us together. We've got great belief in our guys, but we've just got to play cleaner in three phases.
In the kick game, we were like one block away from some explosives on the kickoff return. We also have some young guys out there getting their first reps: a corner, some guys on the kick return team, punt team, kickoff team. A lot of guys are getting their first reps in college football out there, and we just see them continuing to work and get better. And then Liam's kicked it really well, and he's had a great day. So, there were some positives, but not good enough, not acceptable.
On the lack of explosive plays downfield and what needs to change offensively…
Yeah, well, number one, when you play some defenses that are going to keep the ball in front, right, you've got to be able to catch and run. And we've had a lot of catch and fall down. So, we've got to help out the quarterback with that, and we've got to help him schematically also.
And then, we've got to pick and choose our shots. There were more that we tried to take, and that's also been some of our more catastrophic negatives, if that makes sense—either interceptions or sacks. So, I don't fault Nick (Sheridan) schematically at all. We've got to execute it, so that's on us as coaches to look at the fundamentals and the technique which we are working on diligently.
Like the Bull (Rodney Bullard Jr.) play against Nebraska: he's open, right? We just overprotect, and the guy spins off, gets into space, and it ends up in a catastrophe—not only a sack, it's a sack-fumble, right? So just stay the course, and those plays will come.
It's like the lack of turnovers: we had our hands on the ball three times on Saturday and didn't get one of them. So, catch the ball, right? Catch the ball. The week before, we punched the ball out twice, almost three times, and we didn't get them. We've got to get on the ball. So don't stop what we're doing; just stay the course. Like I said a couple times, it's not fun, but there's no other way to do it. You've just got to stay the course.
On the fourth-down aggressiveness and going for it on fourth-and-7 across the 50…
Yeah, the fouth-and-7—that thought was, again, I am trying to score points. And again, we went into the game 8-out-of-9 on fourth down, so I kind of felt pretty good about that and our execution. The only one we did not pick up prior to the game was a fourth-and-1 that we just didn't block properly.
And then you look at some of the field position: they're all across the 50, they're all kind of in that no-man's-land, right? So, do you say, "All right, let's give up and just punt it"? Or do you say, "Let's be aggressive here"? On a handful of those, you convert two or three of those, now we might be talking about nine to 21 points. You feel pretty good about where we're at in that game if that happens. When you don't get any of them, you get the result we got.
I'm never going to be reckless; I'm going to make sure it's done all by research. And the plays that we ran, we had a couple drops. We just did not get it done on fourth down, but I won't deviate from being aggressive. I will never be reckless.
On whether the defense needs to bail the team out when failing on fourth down…
How about the defense just gets a stop? That's what I would say. It's not like this is new, right? I'm very clear on how I want to approach our games. You had the outcome that you had. I don't know why you didn't ask me about how we were 8-of-9 prior to that. You get where I'm going? The question is very fair and appropriate based on the outcome. If we convert half of those, I think it's a different game.
So, it's just a theme across the board: we've got to be better. But I'm not going to get scared away because we didn't have a great game.
On keeping the team motivated and not succumbing to frustration after three straight losses…
Yeah, I think when things don't go your way, that frustration has got to become motivation. It's the only way to approach it. I've been doing this for a long time: been in some great streaks of winning, and some tough streaks—a couple of tough weeks.
You want to get it fixed? Win. It's a really easy solution. It cures a lot of ills. So, find a way to win, right? You look at last game: find a way to pick up a fourth-down conversion, find a way to tackle the quarterback.
There was one play they had run—it was a good job by them—they had run kind of that tight end to the flat, and they ran a wheel route. Well, we had an MA (missed assignment) on that play that gives them a touchdown. We covered it all week. We may have been a little bit behind it, but at the same time, we had a missed assignment. So that's on us: why did that happen? What was your thought process? Where was your focus? So, we're having direct conversations with some of our guys about that.
On his message to fans to stay the course through a three-game losing streak and filtering out social media noise…
First of all, our fans have been awesome. I understand the Twitter-verse and the social media verse. I also understand and am mature enough not to worry about it and read it, so that's easy for me. My wife doesn't have social media—great for me, all right?
For the guys, they live on it, and it is rat poison. But they live on it. So, if you want to go down that hole, then go down that hole. It kind of goes one way: when you win, it tells you you're better than you are; when you lose, it tells you that you can't play, yada, yada, yada, whatever. I could probably write the tweets.
So, respect people's opinions. If we want to get it fixed, then we should win games. If I was a fan, I would not be happy with us, but that line starts behind me with not being happy. So, I'll see you Saturday. Cheer loud when we're on defense, and let's rock and get it going.
On the difficulty of playing complementary football when the defense hasn't generated sacks or takeaways recently…
Again, it's all three groups, right? We haven't had an explosive return. We had a blocked punt and we get a holding, right? It's all three phases.
You point the thumb. You don't point the finger; you point the thumb. You look at what you can do better individually, what your unit can do better. If you're an O-lineman, your line can be better, yada, yada, yada. But stay on your side of the ball and just stick together as a team. That's what they've done so far. Last week we were talking about playing cleaner, and we were back to one penalty again, so they got the message on that.
On whether the emphasis on ball disruption in practice is translating to game situations…
Again, we had multiple balls punched out against Nebraska—didn't get any of them. We had multiple times we had our hands on the ball on Saturday; we tipped multiple balls. Just don't stop. Just don't stop. We're working ball disruption, catching, recovering, punching it out every day.
On missed assignments against the read option and quarterback run game…
Yeah, the first one: our corner got forced. He's outside and our Will linebacker fits inside, and the corner jumped inside. Did you see that? I saw that, right? The next time, our Will is supposed to scrape on the outside, and he puts his head back inside, plays peek-a-boo.
So obviously we've got to coach them better. We've got to coach that position better. That's a heavy emphasis, to put it to you that way.
On players executing in practice and the film room but having breakdowns carry over into games…
Yeah, I mean, you can put together the best practice, and I think we've practiced very well. I think we've shown the guys. Again, that wheel route was a complement to the arrow. Good play by them, but if we have our eyes on our job, we should probably be able to run in coverage like Kenny (Soares Jr.). He did a great job covering the guy; he zone-turned instead of man-turned like we talked about, and he ends up being a whisker away from the ball.
We can fix those things, right? How do you win? That's how you win: fix those little details. All these little details get fixed, and all of a sudden, you find a way to win, and then you get momentum going in a positive way. Look at Wisconsin: they lost a lot of games that were tough, and they're playing very clean football right now.
You've just got to stay the course. You've got to make your deviations, your twists and turns, your personnel adjustments, and your schematic adjustments. All that's a factor. But from the macro level, you're staying the course, and that's what we're doing.
On the wide receivers creating separation for Alessio Milivojevic and younger guys pushing for playing time…
Absolutely. We've got to make more explosive plays. To us, that's a 12-person operation: it's us as coaches and it's 11 guys on the field.
On Saturday, there were guys open, but protection broke down, one man missed, a little bit too much push. Then we got protection, but guys were covered up and we weren't getting any separation. And then there were other plays where Alessio got the ball out of his hands, we dropped it, and every 50/50 ball it looks like we lost, right? So now we're in a position where we're not making plays for the quarterback. So, we've just got to keep going. These guys are going to make those plays.
Every position, not just wide receiver, every position when you're not winning is up for conversation. It's called competition, and we're expecting every guy who's not a starter to push those guys to take over jobs. And we're expecting the starters to be better and not let them take their jobs.
Practices matter. They always matter as long as I'm the coach, and guys have got to be cleaner in practice so that they can execute at a high level. I'm not a believer in "he's a gamer", I've never believed in that philosophy. Maybe a video gamer, that's fine. But you don't just show up on game day and be like, "Oh yeah, there he is."
There are inconsistencies in practice, and there are variables to that: guys who were banged up in camp coming back, guys dealing with nicks and things that aren't giving them an opportunity to be full speed. Our hope is we'll just keep getting more and more guys back as the season goes along, and that will add more competition.
On Illinois making a defensive coordinator change and what he expects schematically from them…
Bobby Hauck and I are very good friends; we've known each other for a long time, and I reached out to him a couple weeks ago just to let him know I was thinking about them. Bret (Bielema) is one of the best coaches in the country. I've known Bret for a long, long time. I have the utmost respect for the job he's not only done at Illinois, but his previous stops, and he's an unbelievable ambassador for us with the American Football Coaches Association. One of my better friends in the profession, someone I have the utmost respect for.
So, he made a decision he thought was best for them. He named Roger Cooper the play-caller. Obviously, Purdue didn't know that going into the game, but at a macro level schematically, there were a lot of similarities. Listening to what's coming out of there, they just tried to maybe tighten up what they were calling and lessen the menu. They were really close to a lot of plays, but credit Purdue, they made them.
On defensive tackle usage and relying heavily on Ben Roberts and Eli Coenen…
Yeah, Coach (Joe) Rossi and Coach Debo (Winston DeLattiboudere III) do a great job with them. They both played great at times. I think Ben is playing at an All-Big Ten level, I really do. I think Ben, of anybody on our team right now, is the most consistent player on our football team: Ben Roberts, without a doubt. He's playing physical in the run game, producing pass rush. Coming out of camp, this is the best condition that I've seen him in, and his care and concern for his teammates is unbelievable. So, we're really proud of him.
Eli is a guy that is just continuing to ascend and working really hard to get better each day and each game. But Derrick Simmons is getting more and more reps, Mikeshun Beeler is getting more and more reps, Carlos Hazelwood is getting some more reps. Those guys are going to have to earn those things in practice, and then when they get their opportunities in the game, just continue to improve.
Coach Debo (Winston DeLattiboudere III) is very conscious of the rotations in there, making sure we've got our best when we need it the most, and then getting some of those guys a little bit of time off when we can. Every D-line coach is kind of the same: you've kind of got your Alpha, Bravo, Charlie groups on how you want to put it together. That way you're not having wholesale shift changes where the twos are in and it's like, "Hey, let's go run it," right? You try to avoid that if you can.
On how the players responded to the staff's direct corrections in meetings…
Those are coach-directed to player. It'll be something in my staff meeting today that we'll debrief. When I met with the staff, it was: "We need to find solutions." When we break up, I want two sides to go create solutions for where we're at, where we need to go, and then do a self-scout of all your guys individually that have played. Where are the areas that they're doing well, where are the areas that need to improve, and put together an action plan for those guys specifically on what they need to work on and how we're going to go about working on it." Not, "Hey, we need to play with lower pad level", why is his pad level not low? Why is his footwork not where it needs to be? Fix it with a plan to correct it so we can be consistent.
The way the squad meeting went and the way we responded at practice was outstanding. I don't see a pity party or guys pouting. If they do, frankly, I'll just play another guy. We're not going to tolerate or accept that. Period. You get the privilege of playing at Michigan State, the privilege of playing in the Big Ten, the privilege of competing against Illinois. If you're not fired up to go do that, then you probably shouldn't play. I would give my left arm right now to still be able to play. I didn't grow up wanting to coach; I grew up wanting to play. My hips said no, so I don't get to play anymore.
We will coach the living you-know-what out of these guys until they say we can't coach them anymore. Love these guys, believe in them. They're working really hard; we've just got to execute on game day.
On maintaining the culture of earning playing time every day rather than just rolling out younger players…
Everything is earned. Everything is earned and re-earned each day, every day, by everybody.
I talked to them today about being a values-based program. At times on Saturday, I did not like our attitude. I asked the guys: "Listen, we value investment. What did you do last week that you felt like you did well? What could you do more of? Is it practice, film study, rest, recovery, nutrition?" Their character, to me, look at our special teams. Are we improving? Yes. Are we where we want to be? No. More guys need to do a better job there. A defensive end, we didn't recruit you to play guard on the punt team, but that's really important for us to win.
And then ultimately, trust in themselves. What jumped out to me in talking to some guys individually: I just feel like some guys are trying to do too much. Their eyes are doing too much. I don't question how hard we're playing; I question some of our physicality at times, and I question whether or not we're really playing under control mentally and emotionally so we can play physically. Sometimes you go too hard and you're out of control, or you're trying to do too much.
A lot of times in football, your footwork needs to be like a pianist: just real simple, feet apart. When you start seeing guys crossing over and trying to do too much, do your job. Do your 1/11th. It's my job to get them there.
On holding guys accountable for the small details like equipment discipline and locker room cleanliness…
Yeah, we're not there yet. We're not there yet, so it's one day at a time. The locker room in Madison was much cleaner than the locker room at South Bend, so I was happy to see that. There's a positive. Somebody asked me for a positive, there's a positive.
How you do one thing is how you do everything, absolutely, for sure.
On what Homecoming means and welcoming back Spartan alumni…
I can only talk about the culture at its peak from an outsider's perspective, and I would tell you it was an elite level, a Final Four level, championship level. That is what I saw and what you felt when you played those teams.
From all the Homecomings I've been a part of going back to grade school football: we used to have a fake piñata of the opponent we were playing and break it or run through a dummy and rip off its jersey. Whoever created Homecoming, it was a really good idea. At Loyola Academy, we had Homecoming for winter sports, too, like basketball, which was kind of neat.
Anytime you get alums back, it's special. For a lot of folks, they circle Homecoming every year: "If I can only make it back one weekend in the fall, I'm going to come back and see my friends, dormmates, fraternity, sorority, teammates for Homecoming weekend." It's always special.
This is my first one here in East Lansing, and if the first handful of home games is anything like what I anticipate Saturday being, the pageantry is what college football is all about, especially with the weather looking picture-perfect for football, tailgating, and being loud on third down. We've just got to play cleaner so we can give them something to be excited about, stick around, and sing the fight song together.
On the running back rotation with Jaziun Patterson, Marvis Parrish, and Brandon Tullis…
We believe in all three guys. I think I've said that since training camp: we like our depth there. Still, my heart is broken for Cam (Edwards) that he's not a part of that mix.
I thought Jazz (Patterson) and Marv (Parrish) from their first game on did some positive things. Run one was for seven, run two was for three, run three was for nine. We've just got to put ourselves in a position where we continue to run the ball and not be down two-plus scores trying to get back in the game, because our ability to run it is one of our strengths.
On facing former Spartan quarterback Katin Houser and the Illinois offense…
Didn't know a lot about him until my off-season study, and obviously very impressed with what he's done so far. Can make a lot of throws—again, another athletic quarterback. You look at last week: put together a couple of really spectacular drives with his arm and then extended plays with his legs. Explosive games against Southern Illinois and in the opener against UAB, and then they had a great lead against Duke. He played pretty darn clean in all those games.
Overall, defensively, they put a lot of pressure on you. Coach Barry Lunney Jr. does a really good job; they've been really good offensively since he's been there. They've had a multitude of quarterbacks, so I think he plays to the quarterback's strengths.
When you have (Collin) Dixon outside at receiver, he's a difference-maker. They've got multiple receivers, but he's a difference maker and one of the best, in my opinion, in the Big Ten. They're doing a really good job, and Houser is doing a good job spreading the ball around, but really focusing on big plays with Dixon.
Thank you. Go Green. Have a great week.
MSU (2-3, 0-2 B1G) hosts the Fighting Illini (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten) on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 3:30 p.m. in Spartan Stadium. The game will be televised on FS1 and streamed on FOX One.
Michigan State head coach Pat Fitzgerald press conference transcript - Monday, Oct. 5, 2026
Opening Statement…
Good afternoon. Thanks for being here. Appreciate you guys covering the team, as always.
Spent time yesterday as a staff just going through the game, and there's no question that we need to play better in all three phases from a complementary standpoint. And then, like I said after the game, we've got to be more physical across the board, more disciplined in our technique and fundamentals.
Met this morning with the guys, presented to them what we saw as areas for improvement, areas they specifically as individuals need to improve, and that'll be ongoing through the rest of today—those meetings—and then, kind of what our plan is in all three phases. So, we know we've got a lot of work to do but turning the page and moving on here to Illinois this afternoon. Actually, started in earnest yesterday, as you guys can only imagine.
We only had one player nominated for Player of the Game—he was not a Player of the Game, but Devin Vaught was nominated for it, graded out well, and had seven tackles.
Our Practice Players of the Week: On offense: Cedric Williams Jr. On defense: Truth T.J. Umenyiora. On special teams: Charlie Baker. So, Charlie will take us out of the tunnel here this Saturday. Fired up for Charlie, he's a great young man, working his tail off just like those other two young men.
Looking forward to being back home for Homecoming. It's always special to have alums back and former players back, maybe the only time they can make it back to campus. Like us, Illinois is coming off a tough loss, and we know they'll be motivated and ready to go. But weather looks great for Saturday, so looking forward to getting out in front of our great fans in Spartan Stadium and playing four quarters of complementary football.
So, with that, answer any of your questions, please.
On whether roster depth in the portal and NIL era acts as an alternative to traditional high school player development…
Yeah, from a standpoint of our recruiting philosophy, we're always going to start and end our recruiting with high school guys. We're going to be a developmental program from that standpoint. When you bring guys in to develop them, for example, our D-squad (developmental squad) guys right now: the end of our Monday practice is a D-squad scrimmage. I think those guys got 10 or 12 plays today, kind of averaging about that every Monday. That's one aspect of that development, along with obviously dietitian, sports psychology, sports science, and strength and conditioning.
That's always going to be the foundational piece of what we do. And then you get to the end of the year after the season, and you've got the month to see who's going to stay and who you're going to retain, and then where you have to go and fill the holes appropriately for your roster. We're a long way from that—that's not until way down the road after the season, and we'll focus on that then.
But as far as development of your program and your specific players, no, I think that's critical for you to be able to get. You look at Wisconsin—I said last week, it's a credit to Luke (Fickell), right? They brought in multiple classes, he's been able to develop their culture.
And he's done a great job staying the course, and they're playing their best football, you could argue, of his tenure. So, I think it's essential. You look at Matt (Rhule), the same thing at Nebraska. And so, yeah, we're going to work diligently to develop everybody on the roster, for sure. It's a long answer, but I want to make sure I answer your question.
On what stood out the most after reviewing the game film from Saturday…
Yeah, well, if you want to be general, I'll be general: we've got to be better.
I mean, I'm not trying to be smart. Offensively, we had, I think, four or five drives of eight plays or more. We were cleaner: we didn't turn the ball over, which is a plus and a step in the right direction. We didn't have the catastrophic negatives; I think two of our negatives happened on our last drive of the three that we charted, so that's exponentially better than it was the week before. But we've got to score points. I mean, that's the bottom line: we've got to get across the 50 and score. Going into the game, we were very good on fourth down; we were not good enough at all.
Defensively, we just didn't fit some things properly. We had kind of a critical MA (missed assignment) on one of the touchdowns, so the guy was open. That we've got to coach better, and that's what we talked to the guys about today. And we just said, we didn't fit some things physical enough, in my opinion. On a quarterback draw, we've got two linebackers there and a 3-technique. That's exactly what I saw in the game: we've got to shed a block, and we've got to go knock the lips off of the two guys blocking us. I mean, the guy got through a crack that big, like, come on. And then our safety misses a tackle, so that's four issues on one play. Those things don't happen by accident. So, we challenged our guys: we've got to coach better, but they've got to freaking play better, too. They've got to play better. If we want to win, we've got to play better. So, it's all of us together. We've got great belief in our guys, but we've just got to play cleaner in three phases.
In the kick game, we were like one block away from some explosives on the kickoff return. We also have some young guys out there getting their first reps: a corner, some guys on the kick return team, punt team, kickoff team. A lot of guys are getting their first reps in college football out there, and we just see them continuing to work and get better. And then Liam's kicked it really well, and he's had a great day. So, there were some positives, but not good enough, not acceptable.
On the lack of explosive plays downfield and what needs to change offensively…
Yeah, well, number one, when you play some defenses that are going to keep the ball in front, right, you've got to be able to catch and run. And we've had a lot of catch and fall down. So, we've got to help out the quarterback with that, and we've got to help him schematically also.
And then, we've got to pick and choose our shots. There were more that we tried to take, and that's also been some of our more catastrophic negatives, if that makes sense—either interceptions or sacks. So, I don't fault Nick (Sheridan) schematically at all. We've got to execute it, so that's on us as coaches to look at the fundamentals and the technique which we are working on diligently.
Like the Bull (Rodney Bullard Jr.) play against Nebraska: he's open, right? We just overprotect, and the guy spins off, gets into space, and it ends up in a catastrophe—not only a sack, it's a sack-fumble, right? So just stay the course, and those plays will come.
It's like the lack of turnovers: we had our hands on the ball three times on Saturday and didn't get one of them. So, catch the ball, right? Catch the ball. The week before, we punched the ball out twice, almost three times, and we didn't get them. We've got to get on the ball. So don't stop what we're doing; just stay the course. Like I said a couple times, it's not fun, but there's no other way to do it. You've just got to stay the course.
On the fourth-down aggressiveness and going for it on fourth-and-7 across the 50…
Yeah, the fouth-and-7—that thought was, again, I am trying to score points. And again, we went into the game 8-out-of-9 on fourth down, so I kind of felt pretty good about that and our execution. The only one we did not pick up prior to the game was a fourth-and-1 that we just didn't block properly.
And then you look at some of the field position: they're all across the 50, they're all kind of in that no-man's-land, right? So, do you say, "All right, let's give up and just punt it"? Or do you say, "Let's be aggressive here"? On a handful of those, you convert two or three of those, now we might be talking about nine to 21 points. You feel pretty good about where we're at in that game if that happens. When you don't get any of them, you get the result we got.
I'm never going to be reckless; I'm going to make sure it's done all by research. And the plays that we ran, we had a couple drops. We just did not get it done on fourth down, but I won't deviate from being aggressive. I will never be reckless.
On whether the defense needs to bail the team out when failing on fourth down…
How about the defense just gets a stop? That's what I would say. It's not like this is new, right? I'm very clear on how I want to approach our games. You had the outcome that you had. I don't know why you didn't ask me about how we were 8-of-9 prior to that. You get where I'm going? The question is very fair and appropriate based on the outcome. If we convert half of those, I think it's a different game.
So, it's just a theme across the board: we've got to be better. But I'm not going to get scared away because we didn't have a great game.
On keeping the team motivated and not succumbing to frustration after three straight losses…
Yeah, I think when things don't go your way, that frustration has got to become motivation. It's the only way to approach it. I've been doing this for a long time: been in some great streaks of winning, and some tough streaks—a couple of tough weeks.
You want to get it fixed? Win. It's a really easy solution. It cures a lot of ills. So, find a way to win, right? You look at last game: find a way to pick up a fourth-down conversion, find a way to tackle the quarterback.
There was one play they had run—it was a good job by them—they had run kind of that tight end to the flat, and they ran a wheel route. Well, we had an MA (missed assignment) on that play that gives them a touchdown. We covered it all week. We may have been a little bit behind it, but at the same time, we had a missed assignment. So that's on us: why did that happen? What was your thought process? Where was your focus? So, we're having direct conversations with some of our guys about that.
On his message to fans to stay the course through a three-game losing streak and filtering out social media noise…
First of all, our fans have been awesome. I understand the Twitter-verse and the social media verse. I also understand and am mature enough not to worry about it and read it, so that's easy for me. My wife doesn't have social media—great for me, all right?
For the guys, they live on it, and it is rat poison. But they live on it. So, if you want to go down that hole, then go down that hole. It kind of goes one way: when you win, it tells you you're better than you are; when you lose, it tells you that you can't play, yada, yada, yada, whatever. I could probably write the tweets.
So, respect people's opinions. If we want to get it fixed, then we should win games. If I was a fan, I would not be happy with us, but that line starts behind me with not being happy. So, I'll see you Saturday. Cheer loud when we're on defense, and let's rock and get it going.
On the difficulty of playing complementary football when the defense hasn't generated sacks or takeaways recently…
Again, it's all three groups, right? We haven't had an explosive return. We had a blocked punt and we get a holding, right? It's all three phases.
You point the thumb. You don't point the finger; you point the thumb. You look at what you can do better individually, what your unit can do better. If you're an O-lineman, your line can be better, yada, yada, yada. But stay on your side of the ball and just stick together as a team. That's what they've done so far. Last week we were talking about playing cleaner, and we were back to one penalty again, so they got the message on that.
On whether the emphasis on ball disruption in practice is translating to game situations…
Again, we had multiple balls punched out against Nebraska—didn't get any of them. We had multiple times we had our hands on the ball on Saturday; we tipped multiple balls. Just don't stop. Just don't stop. We're working ball disruption, catching, recovering, punching it out every day.
On missed assignments against the read option and quarterback run game…
Yeah, the first one: our corner got forced. He's outside and our Will linebacker fits inside, and the corner jumped inside. Did you see that? I saw that, right? The next time, our Will is supposed to scrape on the outside, and he puts his head back inside, plays peek-a-boo.
So obviously we've got to coach them better. We've got to coach that position better. That's a heavy emphasis, to put it to you that way.
On players executing in practice and the film room but having breakdowns carry over into games…
Yeah, I mean, you can put together the best practice, and I think we've practiced very well. I think we've shown the guys. Again, that wheel route was a complement to the arrow. Good play by them, but if we have our eyes on our job, we should probably be able to run in coverage like Kenny (Soares Jr.). He did a great job covering the guy; he zone-turned instead of man-turned like we talked about, and he ends up being a whisker away from the ball.
We can fix those things, right? How do you win? That's how you win: fix those little details. All these little details get fixed, and all of a sudden, you find a way to win, and then you get momentum going in a positive way. Look at Wisconsin: they lost a lot of games that were tough, and they're playing very clean football right now.
You've just got to stay the course. You've got to make your deviations, your twists and turns, your personnel adjustments, and your schematic adjustments. All that's a factor. But from the macro level, you're staying the course, and that's what we're doing.
On the wide receivers creating separation for Alessio Milivojevic and younger guys pushing for playing time…
Absolutely. We've got to make more explosive plays. To us, that's a 12-person operation: it's us as coaches and it's 11 guys on the field.
On Saturday, there were guys open, but protection broke down, one man missed, a little bit too much push. Then we got protection, but guys were covered up and we weren't getting any separation. And then there were other plays where Alessio got the ball out of his hands, we dropped it, and every 50/50 ball it looks like we lost, right? So now we're in a position where we're not making plays for the quarterback. So, we've just got to keep going. These guys are going to make those plays.
Every position, not just wide receiver, every position when you're not winning is up for conversation. It's called competition, and we're expecting every guy who's not a starter to push those guys to take over jobs. And we're expecting the starters to be better and not let them take their jobs.
Practices matter. They always matter as long as I'm the coach, and guys have got to be cleaner in practice so that they can execute at a high level. I'm not a believer in "he's a gamer", I've never believed in that philosophy. Maybe a video gamer, that's fine. But you don't just show up on game day and be like, "Oh yeah, there he is."
There are inconsistencies in practice, and there are variables to that: guys who were banged up in camp coming back, guys dealing with nicks and things that aren't giving them an opportunity to be full speed. Our hope is we'll just keep getting more and more guys back as the season goes along, and that will add more competition.
On Illinois making a defensive coordinator change and what he expects schematically from them…
Bobby Hauck and I are very good friends; we've known each other for a long time, and I reached out to him a couple weeks ago just to let him know I was thinking about them. Bret (Bielema) is one of the best coaches in the country. I've known Bret for a long, long time. I have the utmost respect for the job he's not only done at Illinois, but his previous stops, and he's an unbelievable ambassador for us with the American Football Coaches Association. One of my better friends in the profession, someone I have the utmost respect for.
So, he made a decision he thought was best for them. He named Roger Cooper the play-caller. Obviously, Purdue didn't know that going into the game, but at a macro level schematically, there were a lot of similarities. Listening to what's coming out of there, they just tried to maybe tighten up what they were calling and lessen the menu. They were really close to a lot of plays, but credit Purdue, they made them.
On defensive tackle usage and relying heavily on Ben Roberts and Eli Coenen…
Yeah, Coach (Joe) Rossi and Coach Debo (Winston DeLattiboudere III) do a great job with them. They both played great at times. I think Ben is playing at an All-Big Ten level, I really do. I think Ben, of anybody on our team right now, is the most consistent player on our football team: Ben Roberts, without a doubt. He's playing physical in the run game, producing pass rush. Coming out of camp, this is the best condition that I've seen him in, and his care and concern for his teammates is unbelievable. So, we're really proud of him.
Eli is a guy that is just continuing to ascend and working really hard to get better each day and each game. But Derrick Simmons is getting more and more reps, Mikeshun Beeler is getting more and more reps, Carlos Hazelwood is getting some more reps. Those guys are going to have to earn those things in practice, and then when they get their opportunities in the game, just continue to improve.
Coach Debo (Winston DeLattiboudere III) is very conscious of the rotations in there, making sure we've got our best when we need it the most, and then getting some of those guys a little bit of time off when we can. Every D-line coach is kind of the same: you've kind of got your Alpha, Bravo, Charlie groups on how you want to put it together. That way you're not having wholesale shift changes where the twos are in and it's like, "Hey, let's go run it," right? You try to avoid that if you can.
On how the players responded to the staff's direct corrections in meetings…
Those are coach-directed to player. It'll be something in my staff meeting today that we'll debrief. When I met with the staff, it was: "We need to find solutions." When we break up, I want two sides to go create solutions for where we're at, where we need to go, and then do a self-scout of all your guys individually that have played. Where are the areas that they're doing well, where are the areas that need to improve, and put together an action plan for those guys specifically on what they need to work on and how we're going to go about working on it." Not, "Hey, we need to play with lower pad level", why is his pad level not low? Why is his footwork not where it needs to be? Fix it with a plan to correct it so we can be consistent.
The way the squad meeting went and the way we responded at practice was outstanding. I don't see a pity party or guys pouting. If they do, frankly, I'll just play another guy. We're not going to tolerate or accept that. Period. You get the privilege of playing at Michigan State, the privilege of playing in the Big Ten, the privilege of competing against Illinois. If you're not fired up to go do that, then you probably shouldn't play. I would give my left arm right now to still be able to play. I didn't grow up wanting to coach; I grew up wanting to play. My hips said no, so I don't get to play anymore.
We will coach the living you-know-what out of these guys until they say we can't coach them anymore. Love these guys, believe in them. They're working really hard; we've just got to execute on game day.
On maintaining the culture of earning playing time every day rather than just rolling out younger players…
Everything is earned. Everything is earned and re-earned each day, every day, by everybody.
I talked to them today about being a values-based program. At times on Saturday, I did not like our attitude. I asked the guys: "Listen, we value investment. What did you do last week that you felt like you did well? What could you do more of? Is it practice, film study, rest, recovery, nutrition?" Their character, to me, look at our special teams. Are we improving? Yes. Are we where we want to be? No. More guys need to do a better job there. A defensive end, we didn't recruit you to play guard on the punt team, but that's really important for us to win.
And then ultimately, trust in themselves. What jumped out to me in talking to some guys individually: I just feel like some guys are trying to do too much. Their eyes are doing too much. I don't question how hard we're playing; I question some of our physicality at times, and I question whether or not we're really playing under control mentally and emotionally so we can play physically. Sometimes you go too hard and you're out of control, or you're trying to do too much.
A lot of times in football, your footwork needs to be like a pianist: just real simple, feet apart. When you start seeing guys crossing over and trying to do too much, do your job. Do your 1/11th. It's my job to get them there.
On holding guys accountable for the small details like equipment discipline and locker room cleanliness…
Yeah, we're not there yet. We're not there yet, so it's one day at a time. The locker room in Madison was much cleaner than the locker room at South Bend, so I was happy to see that. There's a positive. Somebody asked me for a positive, there's a positive.
How you do one thing is how you do everything, absolutely, for sure.
On what Homecoming means and welcoming back Spartan alumni…
I can only talk about the culture at its peak from an outsider's perspective, and I would tell you it was an elite level, a Final Four level, championship level. That is what I saw and what you felt when you played those teams.
From all the Homecomings I've been a part of going back to grade school football: we used to have a fake piñata of the opponent we were playing and break it or run through a dummy and rip off its jersey. Whoever created Homecoming, it was a really good idea. At Loyola Academy, we had Homecoming for winter sports, too, like basketball, which was kind of neat.
Anytime you get alums back, it's special. For a lot of folks, they circle Homecoming every year: "If I can only make it back one weekend in the fall, I'm going to come back and see my friends, dormmates, fraternity, sorority, teammates for Homecoming weekend." It's always special.
This is my first one here in East Lansing, and if the first handful of home games is anything like what I anticipate Saturday being, the pageantry is what college football is all about, especially with the weather looking picture-perfect for football, tailgating, and being loud on third down. We've just got to play cleaner so we can give them something to be excited about, stick around, and sing the fight song together.
On the running back rotation with Jaziun Patterson, Marvis Parrish, and Brandon Tullis…
We believe in all three guys. I think I've said that since training camp: we like our depth there. Still, my heart is broken for Cam (Edwards) that he's not a part of that mix.
I thought Jazz (Patterson) and Marv (Parrish) from their first game on did some positive things. Run one was for seven, run two was for three, run three was for nine. We've just got to put ourselves in a position where we continue to run the ball and not be down two-plus scores trying to get back in the game, because our ability to run it is one of our strengths.
On facing former Spartan quarterback Katin Houser and the Illinois offense…
Didn't know a lot about him until my off-season study, and obviously very impressed with what he's done so far. Can make a lot of throws—again, another athletic quarterback. You look at last week: put together a couple of really spectacular drives with his arm and then extended plays with his legs. Explosive games against Southern Illinois and in the opener against UAB, and then they had a great lead against Duke. He played pretty darn clean in all those games.
Overall, defensively, they put a lot of pressure on you. Coach Barry Lunney Jr. does a really good job; they've been really good offensively since he's been there. They've had a multitude of quarterbacks, so I think he plays to the quarterback's strengths.
When you have (Collin) Dixon outside at receiver, he's a difference-maker. They've got multiple receivers, but he's a difference maker and one of the best, in my opinion, in the Big Ten. They're doing a really good job, and Houser is doing a good job spreading the ball around, but really focusing on big plays with Dixon.
Thank you. Go Green. Have a great week.
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