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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 18, 2019

Mark Dantonio

East Lansing, Michigan

MARK DANTONIO: First of all, recruiting has changed a little bit over the course of time. I think with this new signing period being earlier, a lot of times guys have committed for quite some time. We got all of our papers in before 10:00, so it was a good day, solid day.

For myself and for many of our players, when you bring new players in, it's a new beginning for them. It's almost a surreal day for them in a lot of ways. It's an end to a long season of recruiting for many of them. Many of them with 20 or 30 offers, that type of thing as they've gone through the process.

They got to understand there's new challenges waiting for them as they transition to college. So many times I think really when you look at recruiting, it's about what kind of growth and development they're able to have over the course of four and five years.

You start with something, you develop as you get older, whether you're 18 to 22, or 18 to 20, I think there's inevitable change.

Been very busy, as most people are, when you're recruiting right after the season, right into the recruiting season for two weeks, traveling a lot, trying to get to see the guys, getting your one visit in before signing day. Also bowl prep, practices, things of that nature. It's entirely different from the way it used to have been.

Talking to them on the phone this morning, a lot of guys very excited, planning on celebrations at their high school, those type of things. Be a good day for them, a good day.

These guys were all targeted early in the process for the most part. Have been committed for quite some time. Overall class notes I guess you would say very balanced, eight offense, 10 defense, one outstanding special teams guy. Many, many good students.

One of the things I keep looking at, many of our guys are state champions. Multiple state champions across Ricky White, Kyle King, Cal Haladay, seniors, Pietrowski, Devin Hightower as juniors, many more played the state champion game. Noah Kim, state champion, playing at the highest level of football in their state.

The players in this class, I feel like when you look at them, extremely productive senior seasons. You see Angelo Grose was second in Mr. Ohio. He was the defensive player of the year in the Division III in Ohio. Have you Pietrowski, defensive player in the year. Devin Hightower, Division II defensive player of the year. Kyle King, Mr. Indiana, at his position, defensive end in Indiana. Quite a few of those type of guys.

Three Ohio players Division I, II and III, as I said. Impressive group of wideouts, defensive linemen, I feel a lot of multi-sport athletes, seven players actually enrolling early.

Will recruit to recruit in February, a couple guys sitting on the fence. We will try to address the runningback situation going forward.

I am just going to go through big skill and skill players, then we can take some questions afterwards.

First guy up Dallas Fincher, All Dream Team Michigan. Highly recruited offensive lineman. Recruited him last spring, three year starter at East Kentwood. His father Mark played for Coach Perles, he's a legacy type guy. Size, athletic ability. The fact that he can play center sort of distinguishes him a little bit because it's tough playing center. Coached by Tony Kimbrough, but an outstanding young man, about 280 pounds, 6'4" or so. We look for him to get involved early in the process as he moves here.

Next guy is Justin Stevens from Ontario, Canada. A little bit different. Really played defensive lineman for the most part in his high school career. Went to post high school in Canada. What we saw was a big, athletic guy, 6'5" plus, 290, really run. Vertical, over 30inches in our camp. The question was whether we were going to try to transition him to the offensive side of the ball which he played this year. He'll come in mid-season here, he'll be a guy that has an opportunity to lay a foundation for himself here. Tremendous upside in terms of his athletic ability, size and strength. Looking forward to him being here as well.

Simeon Barrow, the top defensive end in Georgia. A guy we looked at early in the process last spring, immediately offered him. Watched him practice in the spring, our assistants did. Named regional player of the year. Strong season with eight sacks as a senior. Could play defensive tackle, weighing about 250 now, but may get up to 280 quickly, I don't know. Athletic, can run, a guy that will fit into our defensive system, a guy that I feel is sort of a doer in terms of how he plays. Outstanding athlete, though. A guy we pointed to and felt like we needed to get.

Avery Dunn, couple of these guys had great senior seasons, 6'4", 225, a guy that has gained 20 pounds in the last year. When you talk to the coaches throughout Ohio, a guy's name kept coming up is Avery. First team all-state in Ohio. Great length, could probably play linebacker, runs effectively. Work him as a defensive end. Reminds me Shilique Calhoun in a lot of ways. Explosive guy, long, athletic. Should be a great player for us here as he moves forward.

Kyle King, defensive end, cleans 380, 250 pounds, 6'3" plus, named defensive lineman in the state of Indiana, back-to-back state titles. Kyle (indiscernible) is his coach. Recruited Kyle when I was back here before. Very explosive, tough guy, can run very well, plays tight end as well. I feel like Kyle has a huge upside. He will also start here early in this semester, this next semester.

Chris Mayfield was out this year with a knee, his senior season. The film you see is from his junior year. Very athletic. Started in basketball. Four years as a ninth grader at Hilliard High School which is a big high school in the Columbus area. Athletic. Another guy that comes in as a defensive end, grow to a defensive tackle. 6'3", rated one of the top players in Ohio as well.

Jeff Pietrowski, Ohio Division I defensive player of the year, co-defensive player of the year I guess I would say. Cleveland defensive player of the year. St. Ed's, an institution that plays the same defense that we do. There's a lot of carryover in that respect. Reminds me of Kenny Willekes in the way he plays. Relentless guy, tough, on-the-edge guy. Over 6'1", probably closer to 6'2". Extremely productive player, has been productive for quite a while there. Played Mike linebacker, has the ability to play up, should be a guy that has an opportunity for immediate contributions as we go.

One other guy, defensive lineman, Jalen Hunt. We took last year coming out of the summer, basically wanted to include him in this class. He came in about 320 or so, now he's about 305. Was a Dream Team selection at Belleville. Guy is going to be a great player for us. Explosive, great change of direction, had a great year academically as well. I think he's on the cusp. He's traveled the last half of the season, may play a little bit in the bowl game as well.

When you look at our big skill, Tommy Guajardo, tight end from Dearborn. Multi-sport athlete. One of our earliest commitments in the class. Coach John Powell is his coach. Athletic, great hands. Came to camp, demonstrated his ability to run after catch. Wanted to be a Spartan from the get-go. He's been committed for a long time here. Extremely athletic, 6'3", probably going about 235 right now. Should get involved very early in his career as well.

Cole DeMarzo, a linebacker with Michigan connections, out of South Carolina, Hilton Head. Rated one of the top linebackers in the state of South Carolina. Multi-sport, multi-position type player. Plays wide receiver, linebacker, he's played safety. We look at him as a star, sort of that hybrid guy that has to go out in space and play over the slot a lot. But we'll see where he plays when he gets here. Came to camp, demonstrated his abilities in camp. 10 foot long jumper. A guy that ran extremely well, ran 4.6, vertical 34 inches. Great hands. A guy we looked at and said he'll find a place. Reminds me of Matt Morrissey in a lot of ways, Grayson Miller type of guy.

Cal Haladay, school's all time leading tackler at his high school. Won three state championships. An early enrollee. A wrestler as well. A guy that's very instinctive, plays downhill, athletic. He has a way of slipping blockers. Reminds me, a big comparison, when I was at Ohio State, as a graduate assistant, Chris Spielman walked in there 205, made every play. Very slippery guy, can defeat blocks. Sort of reminds me of him in that respect. Hopefully he gets to the height that Chris did.

Devin Hightower, named Division II player of the year. Great ball skills, eight interceptions as a senior, returned four of them for a touchdown. Tim Terrell is an outstanding high school football coach in Ohio. Won a state championship as a junior, early enrollee. Very athletic, quick twitch. Should be a guy that gets involved very quickly as well.

Obviously a lot of these guys have to learn things conceptually, transition to this level of football. I do think that he has a great skill set, outstanding skill set, very good tackler, quick twitch.

Jack Olsen, kicker. Ranked as one of the top five kickers in the country. Selected to the All-American Bowl in San Antonio. Had opportunities to be the kicker in the two other All-Star games as well. Has made eight field goals in one game, from what I understand, as a junior. Watched him kick when I was at a camp. He's got great productivity. He's got great range of the he's able to kick the ball in the end zone consistently. He'll compete for playing opportunities immediately. Should be our kicker here for the next three years for sure, after this year, possibly maybe the next three years, but he'll compete this year.

Noah Kim is an interesting guy in the fact that we had watched him really camp here as a 10th grader. We've watched him for a very long time. A little slight. In fact, he's about 180 pounds, 6'2". Elusive, quick, quick twitch guy, great arm, makes great decisions. I think he had one interception last year. This year I think he had three. But proven winner. 41-2 as a starting quarterback. One of those was a game where he fractured his femur, I believe, when he was a junior. So they lost that particular football game. From Virginia, makes all the throws. As I said, I've watched about 150 passes, creativity, things of that nature. I think he'll doing an outstanding job here. He is a black belt in Karate. Hopefully doesn't get too much criticism.

Montorie Foster, not played football since the seventh grade. Walked in and decided to play his senior year. 6'2", 175 pounds, outstanding basketball player. First heard about him from Will, Andrew, David and Michael's father, that he was coming out. Huge ceiling for what he's going to be able to accomplish. Great jumping ability, great hand-eye coordination. Watched him on the basketball court a couple weeks ago. Outstanding basketball player. Thought he made all the catches. Thing that really was not amazing but very interesting to watch was his toughness out on the football field, toughness in terms of blocking, things of that nature. I think he can be an outstanding football player. Very excited about his potential as well.

Terry Lockett made the commitment here this past weekend. He's a guy that we recruited really throughout the entire year, offered him early in the process. Again, another excellent basketball player, very fluid, makes all the catches. Polished receiver. Great hand-eye coordination. Had more than a thousand yards receiving, all-state player up in Minnesota. Outstanding player. Has the possibility of also playing corner if we decide to do that. We'll take him basically as an athlete. He'll start on the wide receiver side of the ball, but he may find himself playing a little defense.

Ian Stewart, Woodhaven High School. Finalist for Mr. Football in the state here. Multi-dimensional athlete. Was quarterback in high school. So you didn't see him playing wide receiver in high school too much, but you saw him in camp, 6'4", 196 pounds, plays on defense, can run you down as a safety or linebacker. Very excited to watch him progress in the fact that what he did in camp that really earned him his opportunities for a scholarship, then team leader in terms of what he did at Carlson in terms of quarterbacking their football team. While you didn't see him catching the football, he did it enough in camp that we thought he could be very, very special.

Ricky White, Marietta, Georgia, taller than six foot. Transferred from Wheeler High School. Had 97 catches for 1300 yards and 16 touchdowns as a senior, helping Marietta to the 7A, which is the largest division in Georgia, state title. Incredible play-maker, makes people miss all over the field. Watched him practice for the state game last week, extremely impressed. Very impressed. Great hand-eye coordination, run after catch. Again, a guy that can compete immediately.

As most of you know, Jayden Reed came in in the summer. Had to sit this year. But he's demonstrated his abilities throughout the entire fall camp. Was an All-American at Western Michigan as a freshman, freshman All-American. He will definitely add to this class. I think we have five wide receivers that could add to our group of playing right now. It's going to be interesting to watch those guys grow.

In the secondary, Angelo Grose, Ohio, Mr. Football runner-up, defensive player of the year. Led Mansfield to the state championship game. Obviously first team all-state, played all over the place, runningback, wide receiver, punt returner, kick returner, corner, safety. He reminds me in materials of how he handles things of Josiah Scott in terms of way he comes to play. Tough guy, very competitive guy. He's another guy that will come at midyear as well.

Finally, Darius Snow, ranked as one of the top safeties in America. Got his weight down. He was about 215 or 16, got his weight down to 196 right now. Has been one of the leaders in this recruiting class. Guy that committed pretty early in the process, in the fall. His father played here, Eric, then Percy was a two time All-American linebacker, in the College Football Hall of Fame as well. Early enrollee. As you sit and talk to him, his football knowledge, striking ability, great ball skills. Again, another guy who camped with us and demonstrated his abilities camp. When you see him play, watch our guys play in camp, you have an instant opportunity to compare them to players near us in our program. I think that he'll have an opportunity to get on the field very early, should build that foundation this spring, be a factor here coming into fall camp.

I believe that's 19 guys. I know I included Jalen and Jayden in that class, I felt like those were guys that needed to be mentioned as we go forward.

I'll take some questions.

Q. With Noah, the second year in a row you have gone a little late in the process identifying your quarterback. Can you describe what you saw in him? Does your brother get credit for the assist on that one?
MARK DANTONIO: Well, I think we got Noah here to camp, way back. We liked the way he threw the football, number one. Really have throughout the process, we kept watching him. We watch people all over America.

As I watched Noah throughout the season, I watched him last year, the biggest question was probably his size as he went forward. As you got to him, started watching him grow, now he's 6'2" coming into his senior year. We watched him practice, had him in camp. Again, we've watched him throw. If you watch the games, he makes every single throw out there.

He has a great arm, throws the ball 55 yards or so. It's what he does with his feet that makes him unique. He has the ability to get out of trouble, quick twitch guy, hasn't been sacked a whole lot.

We just thought he was a winner. He was a guy that took his team to the big school division state championships. They lost in the regional finals. Would have been in the semis had they won. Very good player, good student, basketball player as well, can dunk and slam it, all that kind of stuff. Just liked him.

Q. Talked to the college coach in Ohio that thought Pietrowski was the steal of your class. He thought that's a kid that he had marked, hoped he would fall through the cracks. What did you see?
MARK DANTONIO: Toughness, I think. He plays up at Mike linebacker some. I think his natural position is down. But I think that he's a guy, very much like Kenny Willekes, very relentless. They play an incredible schedule. I think they play as good of high school football in the country in terms of who they play, where they play, the pressure they're under, the system they're in. The fact that he was in our system helps him transition even faster.

He's just a tough guy, very strong individual, explosive guy, relentless. I think that he's going to come to play every single day.

Q. Talking to a couple recruits, they mentioned, not asked, the staff being here, being intact, was big for them. You said you weren't going to do anything about staff till after the bowl game.
MARK DANTONIO: We're talking about recruiting right now. That's where my focus is.

Q. When you watch Angelo's tape, obviously he stands out as a returner, stood out as a receiver this year. Any temptation to try him on the offensive side of the ball, similar ways to how you used Justin Lane? Where might his offensive future might be? Do you use him as kicker at all?
MARK DANTONIO: Kicker? No, not at all. Did he kick, too?

Q. All three positions.
MARK DANTONIO: He's a guy that if he was on the offensive side the ball, I think he would be the slot, get him loose in the slot a little bit. I think he will be a kick returner, punt returner type guy. I think he'll have opportunities to do that.

He's a guy that will come down and hit you. He's a very good tackler. He's a guy that is going to compete in everything that he does. As I said earlier, outstanding football player. Really did it all for them.

Q. The big defensive line class, was versatility a trait that was by design, was sought after? Or just happened with guys that can go either way, end tackle?
MARK DANTONIO: What we look at with our defensive linemen, it's the same that we've always looked at. We look for guys that are athletic, explosive, see where they're going to go. We've had those type of guys, even Raequan Williams comes in, 260 when he comes in, now he's 300 pounds.

Depends on how these guys grow. The one thing you have to have at that position is great hand placement, the anxiety to get off blocks, run, be explosive, redirect. Simeon Barrow is a very explosive player. So is Mayfield. Mayfield goes up, 260 pounds, just slams it on the basketball court easier. Kyle King, Pietrowski. I'm probably missing somebody here.

That's what we look for with our guys. If they do come to camp, makes it another positive. Some did, some didn't. We've seen every one of these guys play in person, whether it was in the spring with pads on or whether it was in the fall.

Much like I think every other team, we're going to make sure we see our guys. They've been committed long enough, we've seen almost all of them play football, see how they handle themselves in the football field, not just field of play, but between the plays, too. How do they handle themselves around their teammates, what kind of leaders are they, what kind of team members are they.

Q. With Darius, you mentioned he dropped his weight down. Have you been attempted to let him play linebacker or a safety all the way?
MARK DANTONIO: No, we recruited him as a safety. We thought that coming into camp. We didn't know whether he would play that outside backer, hybrid backer, or be a safety. He demonstrated in camp his ability to run and catch and jump, all the different testing things that you do.

Also his ball skills allow him to be a safety. He's a great tackler, a physical guy. A lot like Khari Willis, there's going to be some things probably.

He's been a trained safety, that's what he's played. Khari came in never having played safety before. Very much like him in terms of his explosiveness.

Q. With this wideout class you have, does it make it easier for you to do other things with Julian Barnett, somebody playing back on defense?
MARK DANTONIO: Yeah, we moved Julian over there when anyway 11 got hurt. Jalen started for us at wide receiver. He's had some good guys. I think he's a guy that can play that position.

It gives us the versatility to play him both ways. I don't think he'll lead totally wide receiver. There's a possibility he could play both ways, much like some of our other guys we've had here in the past. I think that makes him more versatile.

He was recruited here as a corner, he has those type of skills. Out of necessity, we had to play him there this year.

Q. The amount of in-state recruits is down compared to normal. General consensus on why that is?
MARK DANTONIO: I think less targets as we went through the process. I think Michigan has great high school football, but there's numbers issues at times in each place. We're going to recruit Michigan hard. We're going to be in every high school and work at it. It is sort of what it is sometimes.

Q. With the receivers, I wanted to ask you about two of them. Ricky White, you were on him pretty early. A big senior year, probably catches a lot of attention that way. What did you see from him very early on? With Montorie, to make that transition, again you were maybe one of the first big schools to go after him, what were the signs there?
MARK DANTONIO: Throughout the season, we had a couple bye weeks, we got on the road, then last spring as well. For Ricky, last spring he came up, then we went down and watched his spring practice, came away very, very impressed.

We also had a chance to revisit him in practice this year, during the bye week. Again, he was already committed to us. Extremely impressed with his ability. He's got Dayton connections. He is a Midwest guy. He felt comfortable coming up to Michigan State.

Very, very excited about him. I think all these guys could possibly play early, very early in their career. Just depends on how they come in and compete. So many times can you stay healthy in August to learn the concepts and things of that nature, can you transition. Certainly has the ability. He was extremely productive for a very exciting high school football team down there in Marietta.

Montorie is a little bit different situation. We started hearing about him, Mr. Dow (phonetic), We got a guy for you, this guy is going to be a player. We're talking about a guy playing wide receiver, other wide receiver has to say, Run the route.

He has very limited knowledge coming into the season. But they pointed him in the right direction. He just continued to excel. When you started watching his film, he has what I call hit tape, all the possibilities of him making a player throughout the season. Watch the hit tape, outstanding jumping ability, leaping ability, great hand-eye coordination. He has burst and he's tough, he'll block you. All the things tangibly were there. When I went and watched him, he committed to us, played basketball, very fluid on the basketball court, very first-step quickness, those type of things.

Was very impressed and very excited we got him.

Q. Did he remind you of anybody?
MARK DANTONIO: Did he remind me of anybody? I don't know. Keshawn Martin type of guy. Keshawn Martin is a guy that came out of nowhere, wasn't that highly recruited as a quarterback. All of a sudden we saw him, as soon as we saw him, immediately we offered him, got him up there and got him committed. Had a great career.

Q. Seven or eight midyear guys. How important was it for you guys to get with this class in particular that many guys in here early?
MARK DANTONIO: I don't really target, we don't target them and say, That's a midyear guy. Obviously I think it can help if they're mature enough to handle the transition. That's an individual decision that everybody and their families need to make.

So seven of those guys made that decision. They'll be here. Remember I said the other two guys will now be able to play into that. Really got nine new guys. I know they were here, Jalen and Jayden, but really they came late.

But it is important to lay a foundation, to be able to have those guys on your depth chart, to be able to start to indoctrinate them into things conceptually. It should pay dividends as you go forward.

Had guys come in here and be the last guy we signed, last guy on campus, they're the starters. Really how they play in August. Gives them a foundation, allows them to start school, get going on their degree, as well, early.

Q. There's so much change happening in recruiting right now with the transfer portal, early signing day. How much does that really take away or impact your preparation going into bowl game?
MARK DANTONIO: Different. Trying to juggle things. Portal is another thing. We'll continue to look in the portal, things of that nature for certain things, positions. You have recruiting, you have still recruiting because some guys, really what's happened this year, I don't know if you'll notice it, some people have actually stepped back and said, We're not signing until February 3rd. There are people that are out there doing that now. I think they're waiting to see how the recruiting takes them forward. There's a little bit more of that this year maybe than there was last year.

I do think probably most people, 80% or 70%, I think last year was 85%. I think there are some players who have not made that decision yet. We're still in that recruiting mode with them.

Q. Was there any certain position, position of need, you really needed to fill? It seems like you're having to recruit with fewer than 25 scholarship slots because of lack of attrition usually. How hard is it to pursue needs with fewer scholarship slots available?
MARK DANTONIO: The answer to your last question, when you don't have a lot of attrition, it's tight, numbers-wise very tight. You get very particular in terms of who you're bringing. That's why you're excited about the guys that we have because a lot of them were long time commitments, made those decisions early on in the process.

I think you're always going to continue to recruit guys. We've had some guys go into the transfer portal this year, gives us an opportunity to recruit other guys. This class can possibly be a little bit bigger, which is a positive I think, as you look at the existing situations that are out there relative to whether it's the transfer portal or whatever it is.

Then the first question on the recruiting, what did we target?

Q. Yes.
MARK DANTONIO: Same thing we always target. We're trying to target good football players. Obviously defensive linemen, guys that can move, they're explosive is always something because they can transition to other positions, as well, across.

We took five offensive linemen last year, actually four, we tried to put J.D. on defense, J.D. Duplain. Had a great spring, great summer camp, poised to be a guy that would play some as a true freshman. We felt like we needed to move him to offense.

With that, basically we brought five true offensive freshmen last year. We needed to balance that off a little bit, which I think we did. But we're looking for play-makers on offense at the skill position, defensively at the skill position. We're looking for guys who can anchor down inside. Obviously the big skill guys have to be able to run, play across all areas.

First thing up is going to be special teams. They have to be leaders in their own right, unselfish people that will play with a high level of commitment and excitement because they're going to show up first of all on special teams.

Q. Is there a position you looked at in the portal?
MARK DANTONIO: I think we'd look at a safety in the portal possibly, possibly a tailback in the portal, maybe an offensive lineman in the portal, kicker in the portal. Depends on how it all shakes out.

There's a lot that goes into that because you have to know people. They're on the same recruiting cycle that everybody else is on. January 16th, tough to get people on campus. We'll go slow and we'll look at things as we go.

Q. How many quarterbacks do you know that have a black belt in Karate?
MARK DANTONIO: None to my knowledge, so... That was exciting to hear. I think he competed from maybe his third grade through his ninth grade year. I asked him if he broke a board. He said yeah. That was good enough.

Q. How does a skill like that translate to the football field, especially at that position, footwork, being able to be creative?
MARK DANTONIO: Yeah, I think as much as anything, it's the discipline that goes along with it. Quarterback position, you need to be disciplined, you need to be very confident in yourself, very aware of your surroundings. I think that probably carries over from karate. I don't know that to be true, I'm not an expert. I would think that holds that value.

Also I think he is a quick twitch guy. You can see that on film, his ability to get out of problems. As I said, I think he's got a great release, very good, he throws it tight. We had the opportunity to send coach in there, watch him throw. The opportunity because they were in the state championship, we had Coach Warner, that run. We had Coach Warner be able to watch him practice, throw in cold, wet conditions. The ball, he could spin it. At the end of it all, can you spin it as a quarterback. He could do those things. Very excited that he's part of this class.

Q. Overview of where you feel recruiting regionally is right now for you guys. Do you feel like there's more competition from schools maybe outside of the Big Ten that have hit the area? Do you feel maybe some of what your blueprint has been historically is trickling out to other programs?
MARK DANTONIO: I can't answer that for other programs. I can say I think the Midwest has great football. I think the trend probably for a lot of people is to stay closer to home than go farther away. That's probably the trend with families and things of that nature.

We're going to spend our time in level one, what we call. Quite honestly, we'll know more about the players that are closest to us, we know more people that know them as players or as people. So we're always going to start inside, work our way out.

It's not to say we don't go to Texas. Darius has been up here, he's got connections at Michigan State, been out of here probably six or seven times. The bottom line is can you get people on campus in the process. Now the way the rules are, when you have players coming in June for an official visit, then you have to maintain that relationship throughout the entire fall semester, fall season. They may not possibly get up there. They may possibly be able to get to a school near them. It becomes a little bit tougher.

They have great football in this area. We've always done it this way. It's paid dividends in the past. I look back at 2007, we have guys that are still playing in the NFL from the 2007 class, Garret Celek, Kirk Cousins. Those guys are still playing. I think even B.J. Cunningham is still playing in Canada.

It's all about what do they do when they get here, how do they develop, what can they do as people as they meet their challenges at the next level, this level. When I say the next level, I mean this level.

Q. Every year there's national recruiting rankings, what they're worth. You had a lot of success with classes that might not have been ranked as high as you hoped. This class not ranked highly like some of the other classes in the Big Ten. What traits do you need to see in this class to see that they have the traits of other classes that have had success here?
MARK DANTONIO: When you're watching, they win championships. Are they winning football teams, team captains, how do they handle themselves around their peers. I think all those things are issues or transitional things as you go forward, can they handle challenges. Do they play other sports.

All these guys, when you start looking at guys and say who are the top 300 players in America, there are a lot of good football players in America. You have to anticipate how they're going to develop and you sort of build it from there.

That's what we've always done. We see a good football player, I really don't look at the stars, I just don't, we've had guys come here that are four-star players that have never played. Other guys come here, Denard, Tulsa dropped him during the recruiting process, one offer, Tulsa dropped him. We swooped in, I think this guy is a very good football player.

There is not a scientific approach. There is a science to it, but not total. They do the same thing in the NFL. It's the same process, even more to a higher level. Why does a free agent make it in the NFL? Can't answer those questions. Why does a seventh round pick play on, a first round pick does not. It just goes with the competitive nature of people, who they've competed against, how they come up. So many of the intangibles that an individual has that allows them to go forward. We're betting on those things as we go. Some of them are unseen. We have a strong feel about them.

Q. With the 19 guys you announced today, is there a number you see the class finishing at? If there was a guy who was committed to you and didn't sign today, do you still consider those guys commits?
MARK DANTONIO: Yes.

Q. The total number for the class you think it might be?
MARK DANTONIO: 21, 22, 23, 24. I don't know. Just depends. There's a lot of things going on. I mean, in this day and age, what's the number? You don't know what's happening within your own program sometimes. You think you do, but sometimes there's change. That's the world we're living in. I understand that. Don't want that, but sometimes it's inevitable, too.

But we're going to recruit guys that can come and play here to this level. There are a couple of positions of need we still need to focus on. We'll address those.

Q. Runningback, will you take one or two this class?
MARK DANTONIO: Yes, yeah.

Q. When you do look at these next two months until February, can you say position-wise what you might be looking at to target with the last couple spots? Beyond that, when you talk about the portal, it's all new, long-term do you see that being more of a factor in the late period versus the first one because of guys leaving mid-season? Do you foresee that playing out where that's mostly a later deal?
MARK DANTONIO: The portal?

Q. Yes.
MARK DANTONIO: Yeah, I think unless an individual has a particular place in mind, I think for most people, you're focused on your season, you're focused on who you're recruiting. The portal becomes something that maybe you're trying to bring a guy in. I can't really say that. We've not brought a guy in yet from the portal.

Q. Does it have to become a secondary thing?
MARK DANTONIO: Doesn't have to be. Doesn't have to be, no. Could be a primary thing. Just depends on the situation I think. I think everybody is dealing with it differently.

Q. You mentioned you haven't brought much in from the transfer portal. With a position like quarterback, would you really consider going after a quarterback, or would you prefer to sort of grow on your own?
MARK DANTONIO: I think those are conversations that are in-house conversations as we go forward, see what our guys do, too. Right now focused on trying to watch our quarterbacks during bowl practice, get them ready to play next season. I think they have a huge upside, but they got to play well.

Q. Is there any position group that you have so much confidence in right now you can say that we're not going to consider someone from the portal in that particular area? If every year is a little bit different, was there something in your recruiting message this year that you used more than others that you see having a little more traction? Did you have a question you had to answer a lot?
MARK DANTONIO: I don't think we take a wide receiver right now. I feel very, have good about our wide receiver position, whether it's Darrell Stewart, Brandon Sowards, everybody else is back. Also I think we have four really talented guys, really five if you count Jayden coming in. I don't really see that as an area we would look towards.

Try to be straight up and honest with people as we go through this, do the very best I can. Our entire staff and program recruits, our players recruit, system recruits, in terms of just who we are as people, what we're trying to accomplish.

One of the things I think as much as anything I appreciate throughout the years really has been the lack of de-commitments we've had. Once somebody has made a commitment... I appreciate their trust in us as people, so...

Q. Back on the portal question, how much right now are you guys relying on maybe preexisting relationships, whether you had guys on campus or had offers out to them as they enter the portal? Is that something that plays a big factor right now with that, the previous knowledge?
MARK DANTONIO: Yeah, I think some of that would. You wonder how many of them are actually in that category. We're trying to look at the portal and break it down because there's 2,000 names in there. You got to break it down by position, what year they're at, how many plays they actually played, what's their background. You got all these different questions you have to answer. It becomes difficult to find all the information you need.

We're going to just look to it as an area in positions of need, sort of go from there, take it step by step. I think this is a new and developing saga. I'll call it a saga, okay? Journey.

Q. As far as the bowl goes, Theo Day yesterday said Wake Forest does some things on defense you haven't seen in the secondary. What does Wake Forest do defensively?
MARK DANTONIO: I think what they'll do is they'll, with their coverage, line up in certain things, give you different looks, then stem to the coverage that they're going to play pretty late in the down. While that's good, if they don't quite get there, that's not so good. They've got a lot of different things they do in that capacity. They may line up here, send the safety all the way to the far hash, those type of things.

Well-coached football team, they've had a great deal of success.

Q. You have a guy in Kenny Willekes, won a unique award as a former walk-on. Can you reflect on him, what he was like when he first got here, when you noticed he was potentially a better long-term contributor than some guys on scholarship?
MARK DANTONIO: Ken won the Burlsworth Award last week. A tremendous award. Just been named to the national group of awards. In its 10th year. I don't know how much you guys know about it, but Brandon Burlsworth died tragically in a car accident 11 days after he was drafted.

We've had a lot of guys come over the course of time. I can think back to Jack Conklin, Kyler Ellsworth. I could go on. Not just Kenny who have come here and done a tremendous job in terms of accelerating their play.

Kenny is relentless. I started thinking he could be a player for us in the spring of 2017 when he finally got opportunities. He's a smart player, a tough player. He's relentless, got very quick twitch. He's a powerful guy.

He's been able to build himself to that over the course of time, from a 215, 220 pound linebacker into this. He had the 6'3" frame to put that on. He's done a great job. Very impressed with his speech down there.

Q. We talked to Brian, Ray, Kenny, Mike, David all said they're playing in the bowl game. Anybody you anticipate to skip the bowl game?
MARK DANTONIO: No. I think it's a testament, I said over and over about our football team, chemistry, excitement in terms of how we come out to practice every day, just their temperament as people.

It hasn't been perfect this year. I'm the first one to sit there and admit that. The way they come every day to lead and compete has been extremely impressive. All those guys figure to be somewhere in a camp next year either drafted or otherwise. I think it's a statement.

Q. The bowl presser, you said you wanted to get the four quarterbacks all meaningful reps. Early in practice, but how have you seen that competition shake out?
MARK DANTONIO: I think what we look for right now is to give them opportunities to play meaningful snaps, especially like Payton Thorne who has not had that opportunity to play in this system as much. He's been a scout team quarterback. Giving him some opportunities. Same with Theo Day.

Hard to get three quarterbacks ready. The majority of time is spent with two quarterbacks, Rocky being the second. Rocky gets plenty as he goes through it.

I think Theo Day and Payton are the two guys you want to see. Let's give them some opportunities there. We're going to invest in that. We've done some what I would call showtime not scrimmages because we've not gone full live with that, opportunities at the end of practice where they have an opportunity to show out a little bit. We'll do that again today.

Q. Kevin Jarvis, will he be back, anybody else we haven't seen that could be back for this game?
MARK DANTONIO: I'm not going to talk about injuries right now. Going to see how it all shakes out next week. If they can't play next week, I'll let you know.

Q. You're used to playing indoors, warm weather this time of year. How much are you practicing outside?
MARK DANTONIO: Yeah, we go outside every day. I don't know about today, minus two or two. We've gone out every day, probably about half the practice in and out. We're going to make sure that we don't become too accustomed to being inside. We have done that. We have worked at it. We ran 160 plus plays the other day. We're going to work at it. A bunch of them were outside.

Q. What have you seen on Wake Forest from the offensive side? High snap count. How do you prepare for that? Where do they compare to the other teams you played with that kind of tempo?
MARK DANTONIO: We're playing up-tempo offenses all the time. We understand how to play against it. You just don't know until you play them, how fast they're coming. I've heard they're as fast as anybody in the country. We're practicing every 12 seconds, 10 seconds, that type of thing. The ability to focus in that amount of time, focus and bend your knees, I think is paramount to your success in these things.

But it's interesting because they're a little bit of a contradiction because while they line up very fast, when they run the inside zone, it's a very deliberate inside zone with the ball being handed to the runningback in a very slow fashion, creating a situation where our linebackers have to make the correct read. Or it's their offensive back trotting across the formation, seeing a seam and hitting it.

When they're going really fast, once they start to play, that mesh sometimes is two seconds. Unusual, we haven't seen that. You have to stay in your gap. I don't think there's any message to that. You can't get out of your gap, play gap sound with great leverage and you better be able to tackle.

I'm been extremely impressed with their runningbacks. They're going to work you hard, their quarterbacks and their wide receivers. I know they have some injuries. What you see on tape has been impressive.

Q. Obviously job one is winning the game. If you had the opportunity, would you like to play, plan to play more than one quarterback?
MARK DANTONIO: The goal is to win the football game. So we'll see where that takes us. The answer to your question, I would love to play another one because that would mean we're getting goal number one, job one.

Q. Brian has been through a lot here as a starter. With the one game left, have you seen anything in him approaching that last game as far as how you think he'll handle it?
MARK DANTONIO: I think he'll be excited to play. I think he's 28 completions away from being all the all-time leader in completions at Michigan State. I think he has 695 completions. He's been a very productive quarterback in that capacity.

We can't make mistakes on offense, can't turn it over. He's a guy that has done a lot of great things here. I think he's very excited about the opportunity. His last game as a Spartan, I think he'll play well. We certainly anticipate that.

Good? Thanks.

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