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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 13, 2018Mark DantonioEast Lansing, Michigan MARK DANTONIO: Morning, guys. First of all, just want to congratulate Greg Ianni on his retirement. He's been instrumental in building so many of the different things in this building that we're sitting in right now, Skandalaris building, the practice facilities, all of the things that have gone on. We want to congratulate him and wish him the very best. He's been here since I've been back as the head coach and was here prior to that, so a longstanding member of the Spartans community. Where to start? First of all, in regard to quarterback decisions, might as well get that out of the way so I don't have to be asked about it. When we make a decision on the quarterback, first of all when anybody is hurt or battling through any kind of injury, we're going to first of all talk to our doctors, our trainers, the family, the player, outside consultants, specialists, anybody that is involved in the decision-making process. Then at that point in time we're going to make a decision. That decision is going to be based first of all on his safety, which should be well documented the number of players that we've had out this year, and then secondly on his ability to compete and play at a high level and our ability to win with that individual. So we make decisions. As we go forward those decisions become complicated at times, but we do the very best we can and everybody is involved. I don't really think it's in this team's best interest to air those decisions prior to football games. I think that's something that needs to be kept in house for everybody's best benefit. So that's how I handle those things. Really that's my response on those things. As far as Nebraska, great environment. We're going to have an opportunity to go to Nebraska this weekend. Played there in the past, outstanding environment, one of the great venues in college football. That's true a greatly improved football team, Coach Frost is building a foundation there. It begins with his first year there. He's got a track are record as an outstanding coach thus far, and we expect that to continue. They have some outstanding players, especially offensively with Martinez at quarterback, and Spielman and Morgan at wide receivers, outstanding tight end in Stoll, and then their running back is closing in on a thousand yards, I am not sure how to pronounce that, Ozigbo, I think, closing in on a thousand yards, very close. They're putting the big numbers up offensively. Defensively right now they're, again, building a foundation, do a lot of things from three, four, a lot of different pressures and playing improved on that side of the ball. From the standpoint of where we're at right now, obviously we're playing very well on the defensive side of the ball. We've got to get better on the offensive side of the ball, but that's where really all of our injuries have occurred with L.J. Scott being out almost the entire season, with Felton being out since the Michigan game, with some other wide receivers hurt, offensive linemen hurt, in and out and quarterback situation as well, a little bit. So we're dealing with it. But the most important thing to me is that our football team remains intact from a chemistry standpoint, which it will, and we will bring great energy to the game on Saturday against Nebraska and we go there close. So with that I will take some questions. Q. Mark, in 2014, your offense was rated 11th in the country, and through the years it's gone from there to 73rd, 75th, 91st and now 111th. Can you explain why? MARK DANTONIO: I can look at it and say first of all last year we had some production, especially from our quarterback position and wide receiver positions. This year I would say it's the injuries. It's always something; every year you're going to deal with something. A lot of things are predicated in how your quarterback plays, that's college football. That's pro football. That's high school football. If your quarterback is playing well, you're going to be successful, usually. So there's a lot of things that go into that. Receivers, timing, offensive line protection, the ability to run the ball consistently or at least well enough. So that's an easy question to ask, probably a difficult question to answer and probably would be best -- that's why you do self-scouts and spring evaluations and all those different type of things. We need to be better, but we're playing -- I would say right now we're playing at the highest level of college football, the competition level that we play into, but point taken. Q. Mark, continuing on that point, you brought in 19 of 22 starters including plus two specialists this year. You're going to bring about that same number next we're, now that L.J. is coming back, you've got quarterbacks. Ceilings is probably about Citrus or Outback Bowl this year. Two games left. How much of that is building the foundation for this year and how much is setting the foundation for next? MARK DANTONIO: I think we've built a foundation here in 12 years, won a lot of football games, and we've competed at a high level, I think. Even last week we competed in a very tight football game, and all of the sudden within ten plays it opens up a little bit. So my take on it is do the very best you can to win one game at a time. Don't look past one game, don't look past Nebraska, don't look past Rutgers, don't look past the bowl game and get yourself ready for next year. That's the way we will always play it. I want our senior class to have their best experience at all times. We're not going to sit there and say let's play this guy instead of this guy because we can get him game experience. Yes, you can get those things, but our focus is on the present. Q. Relative to the quarterback situation, after the game we talked to Brian and he said to us -- I don't think we were leading him there, but he said to us at some point he didn't feel like he could make the throws, or his arm wasn't as strong as Rocky's at some point in that game. Is it wise if a guy can't make all the throws to keep playing him if he physically can't get it done? MARK DANTONIO: Well, again, another tough question for the coach. You know, as you go through things and you go through practice, you know, you're trying to watch practice and watch and see if guys can make the plays, and there is a base foundation for everybody. I've always tried to be the guy that's -- the coach that's going to, number one, protect our quarterback. Hopefully physically as much as we can from a protection standpoint and play call, things of that nature, and secondly from an emotional standpoint, public standpoint. I'm going to stay with the quarterback that has brought us a certain amount of level of success. I think that's warranted to do that. I'll go back to what I said before: We talk to the player, we talk to the coach, the coach is involved, we talk to the doctors, the trainers, the outside specialist, the family, and we make best decisions and what we think are the best decisions to win. When you get to a point in the game and you see how things are playing out, you may have to alter your decisions, and that's what we try and do. I don't want to be led in that direction by fans or by media. I'm going to make those decisions on what I think is best. "Wise" is a tough word to use. Is it wise? I do the best I can to make good decisions which help us win football games. I thought he could fit it in tight windows, I thought he had velocity. Is he injured or hurt? He's probably hurt more than injured, you know? So who is not hurt at this point in the season a little bit? Some guys play through a little bit of that pain, and that's what he's tried to do, and he should be applauded for that. I'm going to make the best decisions possible. Put Rocky in the game, when it became apparent, wanted to give him one more series and went in that direction and -- probably elaborating on this too much. When we had a couple of turnovers, went back the other direction. Q. Along those lines -- it's not necessarily the quarterback situation but maybe more so the quarterback because it falls in their hands so often? MARK DANTONIO: Because everybody is an armchair quarterback. You can go back to 2013 there are armchair quarterbacks here. Keep it going. Q. I just meant how do you make that decision to take it out of the guy's hand when you do see it, and how do you approach the guy and say -- MARK DANTONIO: Very tentatively, to be quite honest, with you, because I'm concerned about a person's psyche. I'm concerned about people's confidence, and I want them to have the best opportunity to be successful. So I'm concerned about the well-being of a young man, all of our guys, everybody. I'm trying to do the very best I can to make sure that that psyche is intact. When you lift a guy, especially at a leadership position, who is your captain, that's a big decision, especially when he wants to play. But ultimately you have to do what's best for the team in that situation, but your belief system has to be strong enough that you're going to stand the test of time a little bit, and you're going to stand the public opinion poll a little bit and side with him, and that's what I do. Q. Dillon Alexander has not seen a lot on the field. What does he have to do to get up into that playing rotation? MARK DANTONIO: Dillon is coming off a broken foot, so he's missed a lot of time. I think he missed all of August. I think he broke his foot maybe in the second or third practice, very early, so he's missed a lot of time, and we've been playing very well defensively. So, you know, he hasn't gotten the opportunities that he would have had if he would have been there the entire time. But Drew Beesley has played solid, Jack Camper is a solid player, plays very well, and he's a very active young player, and he plays a different position to some degree. To some degree Dillon can play either or, and he's the fifth right now, so it's tough to roll in the fifth. At times he may get some opportunities, but he's got to show a little bit in practice, too, so it's a tough situation for him. Q. With Scott Frost having -- you've seen his offense before. How much does that help you prepare for-- I know the personnel is different but getting a foundation for what he likes to do? MARK DANTONIO: Sure. You look at what Oregon has done against us in '14 and '15, and you can put that in context, evaluate that separately and together and see if there are things that carryover there, and there are characteristics there of what they do, and make sure that you're covering all bases. Different players, but similarities. No question there are some similarities. I think that probably is the same thing they're doing, looking at, okay, this is the defense that played against them in '14 and '15 and carrying that forward. Q. I was curious, is David Beedle, would you say he's working closer to getting back on the field? We saw him dressed, haven't got an update on him in a while. MARK DANTONIO: Believe it or not, we don't talk much about injuries here. I know that's hard to believe. Q. I figured I would change the topic from quarterback. MARK DANTONIO: He's working toward it. Q. With Josiah, he's jumped back into the fire. When you watch him with your background in defensive backs, does he look like the guy that he was last year? Do you see him working back from some rust, or how do you evaluate him? MARK DANTONIO: He's playing very well right now. I think he's back to -- you know, he's really got three weeks of, I guess, what is it, three weeks? He's got three weeks of practice in right now, so this will be his fourth week, and two games under his belt, so we will make a decision next week how he does, to see will we redshirt him or not redshirt him, but he's a player, and he's playing very effectively. Q. With Bryon Bullough, obviously he hasn't had the statistics maybe as his older brothers, Max and Riley, but what has his impact been on this program through his leadership role and how has he developed as a person and as a player here? MARK DANTONIO: Bryon has played a lot of football here in the course of his four years. He was redshirted the first year, he's played a lot of special teams, in and out on the defensive side of the ball, probably not as much as he would have wanted to, but he's in certain situations. He's a team guy. He's a Bullough, he bleeds green. He's done everything possibly he can to benefit this program, and he plays extremely hard and he's just behind a very, very good player right now, but he's a good player in his own right and would not hesitate to play him. He's done an outstanding job. Q. Last time you went to Nebraska, obviously it was a tough loss there you were able to come back from. Do you talk to these guys about the difficulty of playing in that stadium and that atmosphere regardless of their season and what it's like? MARK DANTONIO: We talk about that as we get closer to the game. I think it's like playing in any of these places, difficult to play but great venue, excited to play. When you go away in this conference you're going to play in front of big crowds and crowds that are very passionate about their football teams. You get to experience that as well in this conference. That's part of playing in this conference. Q. You had 18 rushes last week, low for your era here, I guess. How do you try and change that? At this point in the season what things can be done along that line with the injuries to get more from the run game? MARK DANTONIO: Yeah, you know, we want to be balanced in terms of that, but as the situation goes along and I'm looking at it and I'm saying how in the world did we end up like this? Because we want to run the ball more in terms of numbers and attempts. Then you go back and look at the play-by-play and you see that you got a holding call so it becomes second and 20, or we jump off sides and it's first and 15, or we fumbled the snap, the mechanics of the hand-off. Now it's second and 14, then you get another holding call, and all of the sudden these things -- you're running it one time in the series rather than three times or two times or the series doesn't go in that direction. Then I ask myself, okay, Ohio State threw the ball 72 times against Purdue and that's not their MO. How did that happen? Sometimes you get caught up in the game, and you're dealing with the situations that are dealt you in the game and it becomes lopsided. It's not our intent. We want to run the football, we need to run the football, I say that over and over every week and that's what we have to do. When you look back in our history, to be successful, that's what we've done. It's what we will continue to push toward and we've got to be able to do that. But in this case, as you said, it didn't get done this last week. I look at every single game, I said last week it's not like a new season. Yeah, the Ohio State game was important, could have made a statement, nationwide, but this game is even more important now. And the following game will even be more important, so we need to stay focused on the task at hand and stay in the present. Q. How much does the run game struggles impact third downs? I think 128th out of 129 teams, obviously not where you want to be. How much does the inability to get yards and -- MARK DANTONIO: When it's third and long you're going to have a tougher time, so consequently your percentage is going to go down. We've played good football teams with great defenses and we've struggle against those. We need to come up with better plans, I guess, and better execution. And football is a game of reputation and execution. You can put anything together, I can show you a route that these people run, and show you a route that we're running, maybe protection breaks down, we've had injuries, timing issues breakdown, we've had some situations where new guys are playing. Got to be able to separate from defensive backs, if they're in certain coverages, you've got different coverages for different scenarios, whether it's first down, second down, third down, things of that nature. It's all blending forward, and the end result is every game has to be taken in its own unique experience, I guess you would say. That's when I sit there and say every game is going to be different, and you've got to trend toward, okay, this is what we're going to do this game, and we've got to do better in certain areas. It's been one of those type of years where we've got a lot of different guys playing at the wide receiver position, a lot of different guys. We've had ten different guys playing, or ten different guys hurt, and I can't think of one guy who hasn't been hurt, I don't know if you guys can. Let me know if you do. We will make it work. Gotta continue to work at it. Q. We talked about William and saw him dressed up last week and you talked about him postgame. Curious, how does a guy like that get on your radar, how does he come up from Florida to be a walk-on specialist? MARK DANTONIO: Brad Salem recruited him, to some degree, and then he came here and walked on. He saw an opportunity with Jake being a senior. We did not recruit a punter so there was an opportunity there. The amazing thing about it is as you go through the season, and you're in August, there is Jake Hartbarger getting the reps, and the back-up punter is maybe Rocky at that time, so he's not getting the reps, and all of the sudden after the Purdue game when Tyler Hunt gets down he starts to get the reps. He did a fantastic job last Saturday, for a guy walking out there for the first time punting. He has a calm demeanor and good nerves for it, and he got it done. Q. That was my second part was, what kept him from being in the mix? There were just so many reps to go around? Finally there weren't as many guys to take those? MARK DANTONIO: Yeah, I think that really what was happening was that first of all we had Jake Hartbarger coming back, and Tyler Hunt did a gait job, I felt, was ahead of him, had been here a year. Then the other two came, and Bryce Baringer, and he sort of competed, and Baringer was hitting them better at the time. Q. Dave Warner has taken a lot of criticism about the state of the offense, some fair, some unfair. In all the injuries you talk about and the substitutions of personnel and the game planning, and you want to run the ball, what are those conversation like with you and him the entire offensive staff at this point in the season compared to where they were at the beginning of the season? MARK DANTONIO: Our conversations go just like I've talked earlier about, every game is a new game. We're going to try and figure it out and try and make sure we have success. Those conversations are in house. Q. You don't like to talk about injuries -- MARK DANTONIO: No, I don't. Q. -- can you talk about talking about injuries? Because that's a big theme of this year. MARK DANTONIO: It's a theme. Q. It's got to be hard to not bring them up when you -- MARK DANTONIO: Well, you know, we need to push forward. I've never sat up here and said, hey, we didn't win this game and here is the excuse. I'm not going to start doing that now. Everybody here is on scholarship, we recruit good players, somebody gets hurt, it's an opportunity for somebody else to step up. I think Cam Chambers has made plays this year, some other guys, Laress Nelson has made plays, then he got hurt again, but he'll be back. You've got a number of people that have opportunity to play and made the best of it. I think timing hurts us sometimes, you're playing in and out different people, but we've lost four football games. I feel like we've had a chance to win every one of those. So it's more than just about injuries that we didn't win those games. It's coaching decisions, it's head coaching decisions, it's players that are playing, you know, breakdowns or the ability to execute. It's the execution of the people we're playing against, that they do a good job, so, so many things you look at there. We're going to keep getting better and keep pushing. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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