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NEW ERA PINSTRIPE BOWL: MICHIGAN STATE VS WAKE FOREST

December 27, 2019

Mark Dantonio

New York, New York

Michigan State 27, Wake Forest 21

MARK DANTONIO: Great football game. I thought we played very well the second half. Came away with a shutout in the second half from the defense. First half we needed to contain the quarterback, and blew a coverage for a long touchdown on sort of a trick play.

I thought our guys were relentless. Asked us to describe how we played, I thought relentless really on both sides of the ball. Had a lot of yardage in the second half, really three big drives in the second half. Don't come away with points, a couple of interceptions, an interception and a fumble. Some things you can control, some things you cannot. Huge plays by our defense. Three times on fourth down, getting off the field.

Elijah Collins has a big day, big runs. Brian Lewerke has a big day. Cody White has a big day. Huge catches at the end of the game there in the fourth quarter, contested catches.

Just can't say enough about our football team and our seniors, that they stayed together. When you win a football game at the end of the year, when you win a bowl game which so much goes into it from a preparation standpoint, it's a good feeling, a very positive feeling. We'll take it from there.

I'll answer some questions.

Q. In the second half, you were able to contain Newman, kind of cut down on his ability to escape. What things changed for you guys at that point?
MARK DANTONIO: I thought we did a pretty good job rushing their tackles back into the quarterback's lap pretty much, cut down his running opportunities. He's a good football player. To look at it, 17 rushes per 112 yards for their quarterback. He threw the ball down the field effectively, as well. Good football player. We needed to contain him.

Wake Forest has a good football team. So again, want to congratulate them and ourselves here and our players as we go forward.

I thought we did a good job just sort of confining him. He had some running opportunities early in the game.

Q. There were some times this year in games you didn't win where the defense had chances to put the game away late in the game. Turnovers in the red zone, missed field goal. What was the difference today that they were able to make those plays, put the game away?
MARK DANTONIO: Really I think we got stronger as the game went. When you look at it, they scored in their first series. Then they actually scored 21 points in the first half. As the game progressed, we got more confident, we got more I would say stronger, more confident. I think that was the difference. Our attitude and our confidence level just continued to just raise as we went.

Got off the field, made it very difficult to really do anything in the second half for them. Managed to stop them. But they have a good football team, no question.

Q. Seemed like the last drive when you were trying to score, before you ran out the clock, you remained aggressive with the play calling, throwing the ball around instead of running it. What was the thought process?
MARK DANTONIO: The next-to-last drive, the one where we kicked the field goal, just felt like two scores, with their explosive offense as it was, we needed to make sure we were staying on the offensive ourselves, at least get into position where we could kick a field goal, make it a two-possession game. That was the intent.

Again, I thought it was good play calling. I thought it was good execution. Usually that's what happens. Big catches by Cody White, big plays by Lewerke, big plays in that first series to get a first down, called option run type of thing. We had the ability to hand it off or keep it. He continued to make plays really throughout the day.

Q. Was there anything approach-wise that changed the way you were going after the quarterback in the second half, or was it a progression?
MARK DANTONIO: Sort of a progression. We actually pressured more in the first half than the second half. I think we got out of our gaps a little bit. He's a big guy. He's 6'4", 230. He's elusive, as well. He can run behind his pads as well as take it to it.

I thought we took an attitude more of capture the quarterback, in other words, push the pocket, put people back in his face. I thought that was effective. We kept telling our guys to push the pocket. More of a capture mode than a kill mode.

Q. You mentioned Lewerke's plays, the plays that Cody White made. You had several young guys show an extra juice, cutback ability, explosiveness. How much did the last month help, and maybe time to heal?
MARK DANTONIO: I think the young guys playing was really about hitting the reset button for them. They played, take a step back, what have I done, how can I get better.

Tre Mosley has a couple good catches in the game, huge catch. Almost goes for six. Makes a catch, turns up the sideline. I think two third-down catches maybe.

Julian Barnett has a catch. We played Nick Samac and J.D. Duplain on the offensive line. Both of those guys played a lot. Adam Berghorst, Matt Seybert sweeped his knee early in the bowl practices. He played a lot of plays. He was a guy who had virtually played very little coming into this football game.

We had young guys playing. That was good for them, to experience a win in a bowl game. I thought it was an exciting game. Excited about it. Guys are very excited about the win.

Q. You talk a lot about what seniors mean to a program. Obviously Brian has a big day in his last game. To see a guy like Mike Panasiuk grab that ball, score a touchdown in the beginning of the game, what does it mean to see guys like that have moments in this game?
MARK DANTONIO: When you're a senior, you play your last football game, you want it to be your best. Big difference taking off that jersey when you played your best or played as best as you can than taking it off and saying, Okay, I didn't do as well as I planned, something of that nature. There's a big difference in that.

I wish he wouldn't have taken his helmet off, okay? Cost us 15. But a great play by him, a very alert play by him. I thought he played very well throughout the game.

I think the way they run their offense, when you go against a fast tempo offense, they're a little bit different in the way they run it, you can practice it, but there's always sort of a point in time where you have to get used to the tempo, how they're doing things. I thought we did a good job with that as the game progressed.

Q. You talked about your excitement going into next season. Was that game an encapsulation of why you're excited about the future?
MARK DANTONIO: I'm always excited about the future, to be honest with you. I always look forward to the next challenge, next goal in your life, bringing people with you.

I think that's something that you always do. I think that's a natural progression for every football coach or every CEO maybe in the country: What's next.

I keep talking to our players about, What is next? How do you handle your challenges coming down the road for you? That's how we'll spring forward. That's always how we've done it.

Q. The pass catchers that you're expected to have back next year, how much does it help who is going to come next after Brian?
MARK DANTONIO: I think you got to have a guy that can catch it if you can throw it. If you got a big range, a radius of where you can catch the football, it's going to help any quarterback as we move forward here.

Lewerke made a lot of plays with his legs. Brian made a lot of throws, as well. What, did he become the all-time all-purpose leader, total offense? For a quarterback who really played three solid years, he was hurt some last year, so he didn't play in about four games, that's quite an accomplishment.

Q. You've talked about what a bowl win can do, maybe especially after a season like this. Can you speak a little bit about the vibe and how it may or may not change inside the program the next few months because of this win?
MARK DANTONIO: I can say that the bar has been raised here immensely. When you talk about, okay, we're a 7-6 football team, a lot of people are celebrating that as a tremendous accomplishment. To me, it's the basic minimum that you have to do.

That's where this program has come in the last decade. That's a good thing. You don't ever want to take anything away from the guys that have accomplished what they've done. We've had a lot of things go against us this year. Some things went with us today. Still we had to fight through adversity today. That's the nature of it.

Can't speak to totally to answer the question, but I can speak towards today, if that makes sense.

Q. (No microphone.)
MARK DANTONIO: Another guy that had a big game. A big 64-yard play. Had the big play down to the five yard line. Wish he wouldn't have fumbled it. They got players, too, did a great job stripping it. He made some big plays in the game, big catches.

Probably played 60 plays or 50 plays. He and Berghorst. Adam gets in there as well. Max Rosenthal gets out. Another guy, a redshirt freshman that hasn't played much, gets a catch.

From that perspective, we got guys stepping forward that are young players that really haven't played a lot. I thought Trent had a very good day.

Q. (No microphone.)
MARK DANTONIO: He's a good ball receiver, good receiver.

Want to thank the Pinstripe Bowl for everything that they did for us this week. Tremendous. John Mosley, thank him personally, but also want to thank them for their organization, making this a great moment for us and our student-athletes. Everything that we could ask for from a bowl perspective was put in place, very well-organized.

Obviously when you win the football game, it's sort of icing on the cake. We had a great experience here. Spartans will be out in New York City one more night. Hopefully it's a great night for them, as well.

Go Green.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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