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SAN DIEGO COUNTY CREDIT UNION HOLIDAY BOWL: MICHIGAN STATE VS WASHINGTON STATE

December 27, 2017

Mike Leach

San Diego, California

THE MODERATOR: Good morning everybody. Thanks for being here. San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl press conference, Coach Mike Leach, Coach Mark Dantonio. We are going to have Coach Leach make opening remarks, then Coach Dantonio and then we will get pictures. Coach Mike Leach, Washington State.

MIKE LEACH: I want to thank all the people at the Holiday Bowl for the hospitality that we've enjoyed. Does anybody have any questions?

Q. Coach, there have been pictures of your quarterback in a cast. Can you speak about his condition for the game?
MIKE LEACH: He's doing great. You can use your imagination all you want about the cast. He has had something on his hand all year and hence we named him the King Slayer. Beyond that you're on your own.

Q. (No microphone.)
MIKE LEACH: He's an explosive guy. He can move his feet some. He's got a pretty good arm. The other thing, he gets hot. There are times when he gets streaks where he gets pretty hot, you know, and I think that he's a very good player. He's one of the best quarterbacks in that league. He's definitely a key on offense.

Q. Saw you went to Sea World over the Christmas holidays. What did you think of it?
MIKE LEACH: I didn't go. We were able to meet after our practice so we went up there and met. I've been up to Sea World before which I think is great contrary to popular belief unless people are exposed to these animals and things, the fish. It's tough to have a great understanding of them, even though that's -- there are some people that disagree with that. A number of our players went to Sea World and enjoyed it.

Q. Coach, Coach Dantonio has been asked about facing your type of offense because it's not something that Michigan State faces regularly, but their offense they would rather run at you and attack you. So how do you face a different type of offense?
MIKE LEACH: They're a little different. They remind me of Utah and Stanford in some ways. They're not exactly like that, but they have some power run philosophy somewhat like Stanford and Utah.

Q. (No microphone.)
MIKE LEACH: Well, he's bigger than Peyton Pelluer. He's just a real solid guy. If you run anything at him or if he hits you he doesn't move, the other object moves and I think he does a great job, just a good, classic, physical linebacker.

Q. Coach, have you gotten a sense that your team is motivated at all based on their showing here last year and the fact that the game didn't go obviously the way you would have liked and now being back here in the same bowl game?
MIKE LEACH: I think they're always motivated, but they're two separate games, two separate teams. So I don't think that has anything to do with it.

Q. You had the players Tribune piece today. I was wondering how often you think about Bilbobag your pet raccoon from your childhood days and if you would consider having a pet raccoon again?
MIKE LEACH: Yeah, I don't remember when I did that article, but, yeah, I did have a pet raccoon. I would like to have a pet raccoon again. It's tough if you travel. They're quite a bit more maintenance free than you would think.

They do like shiny objects. Yeah, I kinda would like to have a pet raccoon again, but, you know, bouncing around the country it makes it tough.

Then, you know, there's the time when they, you know, they hit kinda raccoon teenage years and it's time for them to head off into the sunset. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun, and in some ways every bit as maintenance free as a dog or a cat, you know?

Q. (No microphone.)
MIKE LEACH: I think Luke has had a tremendous impact on our program. That's why we gave him the award on the aircraft carrier. Luke, besides his work ethic as a walk-on to become the -- I mean, he's top of the heap in the Pac 12 as far as yards, touchdowns, all those things. I think it started with just his incredible work ethic to become a starting quarterback at our place.

Then I think as that happened, then a lot of just sorta the standard of how hard you work, how you treat an off-season, how you treat practices I think rubbed off on our other players that we had to play early. We had a lot of guys that had to play as freshmen in that class because we were a very thin group, and I think he kinda led the charge on that and has been very instrumental to our team in a lot of ways, a lot of them intangible but very important for building a program.

Q. Coach, the Michigan State corners are physical and very big. What stands out when you look at them on film, please?
MIKE LEACH: You pretty well covered it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, they can move around good and they're good corners.

All right, thanks.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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