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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEDecember 16, 2015Harlon BarnettMike TresselEast Lansing, Michigan Q. For either of you, like to ask about Malik and his transition, seems to have become a better player and improved. MIKE TRESSEL: I'll tell you this: The consistency has stepped up, every single play going hard, he's improved. Last year there was glimpse of a great player. This year, I think every down, you need to be prepared for him to be in your backfield. I know that our D-Line as a whole has really stepped up the intensity the past half of the season and that's Malik, that's Shilique, that's LT, that's the whole crew. But certainly Malik McDowell is a guy you need to keep out of your backfield. Q. Inaudible. MIKE TRESSEL: He is different. The first thing that's obvious is his length, okay. There's huge advantages of having that winning span in terms of separation and disengaging from blocks. But what makes him special is a lot of times that length can be a detriment at times when you're playing inside and he has the ability to get low when needed. He has the ability to turn and torque his body to play in positions of leverage which a lot of times, guys don't have the ability to do, and Coach Burton is doing a great job working with him. But also, that's a natural feel he has to be able to fight that pressure and feel where that pressure comes from. Q. Mike, how much has Darien embraced the leadership role this year? MIKE TRESSEL: Yeah, he always been a leader. It started in his career -- always by example. He's always been one of the hardest workers. He's always been one of the first to show up. He's always been a guy that finishes through the line every single time. So the rest of the team sees that and has started out leadership by example. And once he starts playing more and once he starts making more plays, he feels more comfortable being vocal and on the field, he's had his best year. So those natural leadership skills are really coming to the forefront because of what he's doing on the field and off. Q. For either of you guys, I want to ask the defense, it seemed like the last few weeks, it's all started to come together for this unit and some guys talking about how it feels more like what they are used to, dominating Michigan State defense. What do you think the difference has been for these guys over the last few weeks of just getting healthy? HARLON BARNETT: I think health has a lot to do with it, and getting adjusted to new coordinators, even though the system was the same and all those type of things. But they have to get adjusted to Mike and I doing it, as well, and I think they have. I think they have. Along with getting healthy, that was a big deal. We have lost some guys that we feel like could have been major contributors for us through the season and all those type of things but one thing we never do was not talk about it and next man up mentality. We said last summer, a championship team is only as good as its backups, and we found that out this year for sure. Good for them for coming together at the right time. November is a month for contenders, we all know that, and as we continue through the playoffs and those type of things, they know that this is our time. This is our time. Let's get it done. Q. Before the Iowa game, you were preaching to the guys three simple words, fast, physical, violent. Going up against Alabama, Derrick Henry and that offense, how big will it be to play by that mantra? HARLON BARNETT: It's a must. It's a must. And that's how we should always, not only against those buys, but always; that should be our mind-set, our mentality going into every game. And they have done that, especially in the month of November for the most part, we have done that. That's a good mantra so we don't keep pumping it out and keep getting it done. Q. What is it about Calhoun's personality that makes him so valuable to your program? HARLON BARNETT: Shilique, as you know, he was already holding court. He's naturally a people person, you know what I mean. He's a smart young man. He's always been that way. He's sincere and he's a hard worker. So you love a guy like that. You love a guy like that that really cares about his teammates, that's a hard worker, that plays well and shows up on game day. So great to hear -- maybe it's his parents, what is it about him, you have to ask him that question. He's just a great young man to be around on a daily basis, and you know what you're going to get. Love having him on our team. Q. What are your expectations for R.J., on the field and the leadership attributes and emotional? HARLON BARNETT: We expect a lot from him. He's a very experienced player on our team and on our secondary, who was part of what we were talking about earlier about injuries and things like that. So we did miss him, but it's good to have him back. He was always involved and engaged in everything we were doing even while he was out, so it's not like he's behind on anything and understanding techniques or tweaks or things we have made throughout the course of the year. We are excited to have him back. We are excited to have him back. He will contribute heavily in this game. Q. Going back to Henry, for both of you, I guess. Seems like a lot of games they have really been able -- especially against Florida, late in games, wearing people down. How important is tackling but also using your depth early in this game to avoid that? MIKE TRESSEL: There's no doubt with a guy as big as he is, as fast as he is, as physical as he is, especially when he's getting the ball potentially 40 times a game, you need to be prepared to play for 60 minutes. Really our last few games, we've talked about we need to prepare for a 15-round fight and we need to prepare to take blows and deliver blows right up to the very end, which we did in the Big 10 Championship game. But that has to be our mind-set. It has to be our mind-set that we are going to need to want to tackle and want to tackle physical every single snap. With a big man, you can see as the year progressing and as his game progressed that people have started thinking twice about wanting to throw their body around. The mind-set is a start and the second thing is the depth and we feel like we do have a two-deep, pretty much D-line linebacker secondary that we can roll in there so the guys stay fresh both mentally and physically. Q. Coach D always talks about completing that circle. Your circle goes back further than his because you played in a Rose Bowl and then you coached in a Rose Bowl -- playing for a National Championship, how crazy is this? HARLON BARNETT: Awesome, man. God's plan is the way I can see it, man. I never envisioned even coming to Michigan State -- not even college football when I was in high school. It wasn't like it is nowadays where guys are getting recruited as ninth graders and those type of things. Wasn't until almost my senior year, where I got a chance to go play college football. Coming to Michigan State, didn't know much about Michigan State at the time. To come here, it has been awesome. It was a great experience for five years, I got red-shirted. And then to come back, never even anticipated that, ever even being a coach for that matter, so it's been awesome. It's been great, man. Look forward to it. Look forward to it. Back in 1987, or after the '88 Rose Bowl, '87 season, that '88 summer, someone asked me, I'm going to tell you guys about it. I made up a rap and I was into rap and all that stuff about going to the National Championship. I shared it with the guys the Rose Bowl year, and now we got a chance to actually possibly get it done. Q. Do you hear from any of those teammates? HARLON BARNETT: Oh, yeah, I've heard from a lot of the guys. After the Ohio State game, after the Big 10 Championship game, my text messages were threw the roof and they are all excited and really happy, happy for the Spartans. Q. To either one of you guys, there's a passing of the torch with the Bullough family for generation upon generation. Can you talk about how Riley and Byron are picking up the torch and running with it? MIKE TRESSEL: Well, the Bulloughs all seem to have the same mentality: They love football. They love the physical aspect of the game. They are passionate people, so whatever they are doing, it's all in. And they also all seem to have some leadership characteristics that are really unbelievable to be honest with you. In my team here at Michigan State, that started with Max and from day one, you could see the leadership ability. And obviously has physical talent to play in the NFL but you can see leadership from day one. It was exciting to see once Riley got into the role he's in, those same characteristics coming forth and I can tell Byron has the exact same thing. It's neat to see the passion, and let me tell you something else, every one of them bleeds green, so that makes a big difference, as well. Q. You played for Nick Saban a couple different times. Did he influence you, your coaching style, how you approached becoming a coach? HARLON BARNETT: Absolutely. The basis of how I coach defensive backs are from Nick, great defensive back coach. I learned a lot from him. The reason why I have this job right now is because of that, because Coach Dantonio and I both speak Sabanism. That's how I got the job at the University of Cincinnati initially with Coach Dantonio and been with him ever since. The basis of my foundational teaching and how I teach is from what he's taught me in the past. Q. Do you guys talk at all with this team about how that last meeting with Alabama went or do you just leave that in the past and for them to know if they already know? MIKE TRESSEL: They know about the last time we played Alabama. I also think they view it much like we do, which that was a completely different team and we were at a different point in our program in 2010 that we are here in 2015. We are excited for the opportunity to show ourselves, as well as everybody else, where this program has come over the past five years. Q. Watching Calhoun, does it seem like maybe he saved his best for last? Did you sense anything different from him going into that game? His teammates talked about maybe he was quiet for a change, actually, before that game. HARLON BARNETT: You see a different Shilique every game sometimes, and you never -- and that's not just Shilique, that's all players, you just don't know. You're trying to figure are they ready or not. Sometimes they are joking around, sometimes they are serious and you just can't judge a guy how they are doing. But as far as saving his best for last, I wouldn't say that in particular because his mentality is to go out every game and play his best. But obviously now it's show time to get it done, Championship Game, big time players show up at big times in big time games. We are happy to see that. He really turned it on versus Iowa and hopefully he can continue it on versus Alabama. Q. For both you guys, you were both named co-defensive coordinators around this time last year. Can you just reflect on how this past year has been stepping into these new roles? MIKE TRESSEL: From my perspective, we have been together for a long time. So we had a picture in our mind of how this was going to work and which roles each of us would take over. And for the most part, it worked out exactly like that but you can't foresee every little tweak that has to happen, every little adjustment that has to happen. I think we work well. I think we have great input from Coach Burton, Coach Snyder and of course Coach Dantonio who has helped us along the way but you can also see our defense grow and us grow over the course of the season. HARLON BARNETT: Feel the same way. You saw us grow as co-coordinators and figure it all out how we want to get it done and we've grown throughout the course of the year and we're in the spot we're in right now because of it. Q. Who would you compare Derrick Henry to? You've seen so many running backs over the last 30 years. Is there anybody with that size and that speed that fits into the 6-3, 245, 4-4 category? HARLON BARNETT: Whenever I get those questions, I get always get a blank. Of course as soon as I get back over to the office, I'll think of somebody. Christian Coya (ph) was a big boy but he wasn't that fast. Thinking of guys like that, Marion Butts -- I'm taking y'all back now, but you asked when I played so that's taking me back a little bit, too. Those are big guys, man. And you have to, you know, wrap them up, get them down low. You can't take them on high, because down low, they don't weigh as much as they do up top. I can't think of anybody in particular that's like that, but he's a big, physical runner, good player obviously, Heisman Trophy winner and we'll have our work cut out for us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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