DIVISION I FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: MONTANA ST. VS NORTH DAKOTA ST.

January 8, 2022

Ty Okada

Isaiah Ilfanse

Montana State Bobcats

Postgame Media Conference

North Dakota State 38, Montana State 10

Q. Can you describe how you're feeling right now, what's going through your minds.

TY OKADA: I'm thankful and fortunate that God has put me in a position and our team in a position to be here. I also want to take this opportunity to thank August of our seniors that have had a huge impact on our team and turning this thing around and really building what we will as seniors-to-be will continue to do.

First Tyrel Thomas, Tre Webb, Amandre Williams, Nate Stewart, Tucker Rovig, Troy Anderson, Taden Gillman, Chase Benson, Daniel Hardy, Ryan Davis, Taylor Tuiasosopo, Dylan Porter, Lewis Kidd, Lance McCutcheon, Kyle Rygg, Byron Rollins. I just want to say thank you to you guys. You've had such an impact on my life and an impact on this team.

You really set the standard on how as well as football players, so thank you.

ISAIAH IFANSE: We're a little bit hurt. Like you spend all off-season and spring working towards the opportunity to compete for a title, so coming up short always hurts, but I'm thankful to be in the position with my team that I am.

Q. Isaiah, describe how you had to change your game plan once Tommy went down on the first drive. And Ty, talk about stopping NDSU's run game; why was that so difficult?

ISAIAH IFANSE: I think how we changed our game plan when Tommy went down was we kind of lost -- I wouldn't say we lost the ability, but we were limited to what we could do while running on the perimeter, so that was difficult.

But I thought that we overcame that.

TY OKADA: Yeah, and then on your question, they played tough, physical football. I couldn't give you the exact answer as to what was so tough for us in that first half, but I felt like we made a few adjustments, and yeah, I couldn't really hit on that. I'm not sure.

Q. Ty, even though you're playing defense, when the starting quarterback goes down, how does that impact your mindset? Does it change it at all?

TY OKADA: No, it doesn't change our role. Our job is to go out there and get stops, which we didn't do a good enough job of today. Whoever is playing back there at quarterback, I have all the faith in the world in Tucker. He's led this team before to big-time games, and you've got Zay in the backfield and those guys on offense.

Really we just didn't do a good enough job on our part of taking care of business. So no, it doesn't really affect us. Our job is to stop the other team from scoring, and we didn't do a good enough job of that today.

Q. You mentioned what the seniors have done, but as seniors to be, I'm curious how motivated you guys are going to be to get back to this stage moving forward.

ISAIAH IFANSE: I feel like we're extremely motivated to just get ready and grind again and hopefully be here next year.

TY OKADA: No doubt. We owe it to these seniors to get us back here and take it all the way because they set forth this standard, and that's what we've just got to continue doing.

Q. You've talked about how much -- just to bounce off on what the seniors meant to you and the season as a whole. I'd love to know from your take, if you could wrap it up now, what does this season mean to you, the relationships that you've made throughout the year?

ISAIAH IFANSE: I feel like with this class, Ty and I, we've known the guys for four plus years. The senior class was very special to us, and the new guys who came in, the transfers and whatnot, they molded with us extremely well and the bond that we created; it was amazing.

TY OKADA: Yeah, absolutely. I don't really have anything else to add. Zay hit it right on the nail there.

Q. Is there something you guys could learn from this game, because I know you guys haven't been to a title game before until this year. Is there something you can bring to spring practice to get you more motivated and focused for next year to say we got here but we want to finish?

TY OKADA: Yeah, absolutely. This just leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and it breeds a little fire in you to take that into the off-season and get back right here and take care of business next time.

ISAIAH IFANSE: Just take it one day at a time and try to get better every day in the off-season.

Q. You kind of touched on it there, but what did you learn throughout the season that you guys can take into your senior years?

TY OKADA: How to deal with adversity. We were faced with a lot of challenging things throughout this year, and I thought that our seniors were a great example of how to face that head on, don't let it bother you, and really just coming back from anything bad that's going on, just how to face adversity and come back for sure. We're going to take that in.

We're going to take that example and impression that those older guys have set and continue to build upon that next year.

ISAIAH IFANSE: I think Ty hit that right on the spot with adversity. We've been through a lot this year and no one really complained or anything. We just got ready to complete whatever task we had at hand that week.

Q. Ty, I saw you were huddling with Daniel Hardy after the game for quite a bit and gave him a big hug. I was curious if you could share what you said to him and what that conversation was like.

TY OKADA: Kind of just hitting back on the adversity piece. He's a young man that's had a lot of adversity in his life, whether it be on the football field or outside the football field, and the way that he's dealt with it is tremendous.

I mean, that kid has no quit in him. He's been through a lot of things, and I just let him know that I admire that about him and it's going to take him a long way in life. Wherever that may be and wherever he chooses to go he'll have success because he's been able to deal with adversity and face it head on.

I just thanked him for everything that he's done for not only myself but the program and as a person the example that he set.