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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCEDecember 17, 2013Pat NarduzziQ. Pat, when you watched them on film, they're a team that's going to go strength on strength. They're a team that's going to try to run on you, and when teams try to stack the box, they just keep doing it. What do you like as a coach when you know a team is going to be stubborn? If you stop them, they're just going to keep coming. PAT NARDUZZI: It's amazing we've got a six‑game break down on them. They're really 50‑50. I think that's the image they portray is that they'd like to run the ball at you every snap. But really 53% run is what our stat is on them. They're going to do a little bit of both, try to run the ball, play action you hard and throw the ball deep. So when you look at it, they're going to get a lot of jumbo sets and have big tight ends in the game with knee braces on that are 300 pounds. They do a lot of jumbo sets. So they're doing a little bit of both. They're going to try to run the ball but also try to take our corners deep. Q. On the surface it looks like there are a lot of similarities between their offense and Michigan State's offense. The more you break them down, is that still the case? Are there a lot of parallels or once you get deeper into it there may be more differences than appears on the surface? PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, I think there are a lot of similarities to their offense and our offense. When you look at their regular personnel, 22 sets and 21 sets as far as personnel goes. I think there are a lot of similarities. They've got a very good tailback, offensive line‑wise they're big and physical. They have a great scheme. The one thing I think that's going to be huge is just how we adjust on the run. I think with what they do, we can go out there. They're going to have all kinds of differences when they get there. They'll have different tweakings on how they'll block different plays, and those are things that we'll have to adjust to as the game goes on. We know that right now, and we're a couple weeks out. That is just wait it's going to be on January 1st. We'll have to adjust as the game goes on. Q. Got to ask, how close were you to taking the UCONN job? What is your outlook from here through the bowl game with possible dominos falling still? PAT NARDUZZI: When I went through from it, obviously it was close. You're always close. It would have been an hour from my mother‑in‑law, and I don't want to answer many questions on this today, so this is the last one. But it's an hour from my mother‑in‑law. I really said probably the key is probably my wife being a great coach's wife, because she could have said, hey, Pat, let's go, and I would have fallen off the fence either way. But she was strong enough to say, hey, what's the best move for us as a family and for you coaching‑wise. It wasn't just about being close to home and all those things. Obviously, with the amount of money that you probably could have gone to go do something like that for and have your own program, it was close. But when you look back and say what do I have here in Spartan Stadium and the fans and the staff that I have to work with every day here is the best in the country, no question about it. When when you talk about something like that, it's not about you. Because I'm nothing without Harlon Barnett, Mike Tressel and Ron Burton, period. I'm nothing without Denicos Allen and Darqueze, and Curtis, and Isaiah, and Shilique and Rush and all those guys. It takes more than one guy. I guarantee you that. So there is a lot of hoopla that goes with that. If you're grounded and smart, you know it wasn't you. It was everybody else that you're around. You hate to break up a great party that we have going on right now, and it better be a great opportunity. It felt like this is the place to stay. Q. I don't know if this is a good follow‑up, but I was going to talk about the emotional attachment that Coach Dantonio has to this place. You kind of touched on that a little bit. Do you sense that with everybody on the staff there is something incredibly special here? You talked about not wanting to break up the party. PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, it's a great place. Enjoy coming to work every day. You never know what you're going to have on the other end of that. So enough said. That's what it is. It's a great place to work. If I was just half happy, you know, it's easy to go take a job. It's like well, you know, shoot. It's easy. But it's a great place to work and you're happy with the people you're with and the players. There is an attachment there. I mean, it's hard to leave your players. I mean period. I've got Shilique busting me yesterday like, come on, Coach. It's hard to leave those guys. That's a fact. Q. Coach, a couple weeks ago I talked to William Gholston about what make this is defense work. He said a couple things. That you can't feel like you have to make the play every time. It's everybody working within this. I want to know how accurate that is. Also, he said you put guys in a good position to make plays. I want to know what your philosophy is and what you try to do as far as making guys better? PAT NARDUZZI: If Will said it, it's a hundred percent correct. But Will's exactly right. Plays are to be made if you're in position to make plays and if they run your way. You can't try to do too much. But our defense is built around putting kids in position to make plays. Sometimes guys are put in a position that's a tough position, whether it be a safety one‑on‑one, number two receiver running full speed at them with play‑action pass. But everybody's got a job, and it comes down to everybody doing their job. We didn't execute particularly well, I didn't think last Saturday at least in that third quarter. But there were even some quarterback runs that were like, hey, what are you doing on this play? But the defense is built for that. I think when we game plan it's structured so that we can be sound versus everything. Not really good versus this, but I hope they don't do this. We're never going to have a blitz where we have two guys running through the same gap versus gap protection, which is really good. But it's only good if they throw the ball. It's not good if they run the ball. So everything is structured to be sound versus everything, and not be really good against this and bad against that. I'd say that is probably the best way to say it. Q. Will you be upstairs with us for the Rose Bowl or downstairs? PAT NARDUZZI: Upstairs. Q. You'll go back upstairs? PAT NARDUZZI: Right where I belong. That's right. Q. No temptation to stay down on the field where you were? PAT NARDUZZI: I don't know. Depends on how the weather is. If it's really nice out, I might stay down. I don't know, but it goes based on what Coach Dantonio says. I like calling the game from up in the box. I can see better. There will be a lot of adjustments to be made, so it will be important to be up there. I'm sure with all the media that thing has, they'll have fourth quarter adjustments too, so I have to stay up there for four quarters. Q. Were you ever to a Rose Bowl? PAT NARDUZZI: No, I've never been there. Q. Where were you in 1988? PAT NARDUZZI: 1988, I was in college I believe at the University of RhodeIsland. That was a bad year for me. Q. From a personnel standpoint, these games always seem to come down to match‑ups. I know that the Ohio State offensive line gave your defensive line more trouble than you'd like based on what you said after the game. Going in, is that the biggest concern, Stanford's experience, size, and physicality on the offensive line? PAT NARDUZZI: No question about it. To me I tell our kids every Saturday when you go out there you're playing off of weaknesses from a week ago and strengths from what you have. Certainly their O‑line and offensive coordinator is looking at some of the problems we had in that game and how they can take advantage of a Tyler Hoover or Micajah Reynolds inside and schematically what they can do. So without a question that is something that we've got to face. We've got to be better inside than we were. And it trickles down. I think their secondary played a great game. But I think some guys up front played well, but there was some weakness at linebacker that we didn't play exactly the way we needed to play. Not based on ability, but based on what we did and what we were thinking and our mindset and attitude. So there was some really not very smart things we did in that game that really gave them some stuff that normally we don't do. I saw them do stuff we don't normally do, so we addressed those things yesterday with our team. Q. I know you look at the offensive side of the ball for them. But how similar is their defense to when Scott Shafer was out there? Does that allow you to help in any aspect here? PAT NARDUZZI: No, Scott has really no bearing on what they do out there. I think they're totally different from what they were. I'm not sure exactly what Scott was doing, but Scott was very similar to what we do, I think. I have no idea on the other side of the ball what they're doing. I haven't looked at one lick of tape over there. I just know they're big, tall, lean and athletic from what I hear. Q. Middle linebacker seems like the big off‑season thing for you going into next year, how would you break it down right now and going into these bowl practices? Who are you looking at and what are you looking for from them? PAT NARDUZZI: Losing Mack is going to be a big replacement. It could be a bunch of different guys. I don't know who it is going to be. First of all, it has got to be a guy that can run the defense from huddle or a no‑huddle standpoint. I think Darien Harris, I think Riley Bullough will have a chance. Ed Davis will have a chance. We've tossed that name around too putting him in there. We have plenty of good guys. I think they're all similar positions. So it could be anybody in there. Q. (No microphone)? PAT NARDUZZI: Oh, there is no question about it. Those are two puppies. But if you look at trying to get the three most experienced guys in game situations, those are the first three that come to mind. If Shane and Reschke step up and show something in bowl practice, and everything will be told in spring ball as far as where we stand there. But right now you'd like to get three experienced backers out there and give those young guys a chance to grow a little bit instead of starting their first game at Spartan Stadium at Mike linebacker. But those guys can get it done too. I think either one of them could. We don't get to see as much on our offense. They're down there most of the time. But we'll find out here in a couple of days of bowl practice. Q. I asked Coach Dantonio the same thing. Has it hit you that this is the last time with some of these guys like a Max, Denicos, Darqueze that you're going to be with them preparing in a big‑ game situation like this. Are you going to miss that? Or is there no time with this preparation to be sentimental? PAT NARDUZZI: There is time to have a heart. No question about it, but you thought about it in your last game against Minnesota at home. Every week it was like this is our last game in Spartan Stadium. I think that was a big obstacle. Then you go into the bowl championship game and there is always that thought that it's our last game. The thing about our relationships with our players is it's never over. It's just our last time coaching them. It's not ending our relationship with our kids. It's not like they're moving out of the country. So we'll be with them forever. That is the key. We might not be able to coach them, but they'll be back. Just like the rest of the our players that we've coached here. They're all going out to the Rose Bowl and shooting you text messages all week. So you never leave them. They just, you know, it's like kids graduate from college and moving on. But no question we'll miss them, that's for sure. Q. Aside from the fact that you've made a bowl game every year here, what do those extra practices do for this team? PAT NARDUZZI: No question having seven straight years of having bowl practice makes you better. We're obviously the major focus for me, Coach Dantonio is more into development. I'm more into Stanford and games if we didn't have any developmental periods. That's why he's the head coach and I'm coaching on defense. I'm worried about stopping the next opponent. I'm not worried after practice if we have a bowl scrimmage with our younger players. That's all fun. But as far as what we need to do is beat Stanford. But obviously those practices are huge for our kids. Getting an opportunity to work with them fundamentally and structurally, we'll have some seven‑on‑sevens and some team run periods to help develop them and at least see where they want to be seen. I think that is the biggest thing. They want to say, hey, Coach, they want to answer Joe's question as far as who is that Mike backer going to be? We are going to throw some guys in there and see what they do, but they want to be seen by us. Q. (No microphone)? PAT NARDUZZI: Just younger guys on the depth chart. There will be a point, I don't know if coach talked about it because you had him out here for a while. But say, hey, listen. Take your seniors out and take your starters out. Let's see what these other guys have and turn it up and go. Q. On that same line, what guys shifting positions do you want to take a look at? PAT NARDUZZI: Obviously, Riley. I told Riley today it's about time you got back on the defensive side of the ball. You've been soft over there on offense for so long now. I'm sick of looking at you over there. But he's one guy I'm looking forward to just getting back over to see what he's got. You lose a lot when you're not there. There are meetings every day when you're not sitting in there listening to what's going on. When a mistake is made against Minnesota or Ohio State, you're not hearing it. You're hearing about protections and foot work and taking a hand off. So that's the main guys. Those other guys have been on defense for the most part. So we have a good feel for who those guys are already. Q. Damion got a good look running the Braxston look for Ohio State. He tweeted asking everybody in Spartan nation to pray for him. You've got a couple guys you've looked at. But what did you think of Damion? PAT NARDUZZI: Damion Terry has grown a lot since camp. I personally didn't feel he was ready watching him through camp based on who he was out there against. But I think he's come a long way as a football player, a quarterback and a leader. He's been the guy. Believe me, you'd rather see him as the guy on the scout field than the guy at Spartan Stadium on Saturdays, I think. He's going to be a better player leading that thing. We had to teach him everything on how to check. He had the worst fake checks I've ever seen. You had to pretend like you're checking into another play and it was awful. We had to coach him up on that too. He was a really quiet guy that was laid back. I think he's grown a lot from that experience over there. So I think there's a lot to come with Terry here in the future. Q. I wanted to ask you about Mark as a boss. Has he changed at all during this time you've been with him? Anything significantly? Has he been the same guy the whole time or has he changed in the last few years? PAT NARDUZZI: I think he's been the same throughout. I think the first couple of years Cincinnati has been more involved in defense. I think he let it go once he felt comfortable that things were in good hands. That is the biggest change I see the first couple years to year ten as far as a football standpoint. I think he lets his staff coach. That's why it's fun to coach here. He hasn't changed as a person. He's been the same person he's been. I think he's become a better head football coach every year. I think every coach becomes better. I think you become a better reporter after ten years. He's become a much better head football coach, and that is saying a lot. He was already really good, so now I think he's really great. But he's been very consistent. I think that's what you've got to like about him. He's been consistent in everything he's done on the field, off the field, decisions made throughout the program, he's been consistent. It's easy to work for consistent people. When you're inconsistent, you're not sure which way that ball is flying. It's hard that way, but it's easy because you know what you're getting every day. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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