Coach Mark Dantonio Offers No Excuses and Looks for NO LOWERED Expectations as He Updates the State of Michigan State Football

Dantonio: I thought Matt Sokol and Dylan Chmura went in there (did a nice job) as well. We played five different tight ends yesterday and that is only good for

Dantonio: I thought Matt Sokol and Dylan Chmura went in there (did a nice job) as well. We played five different tight ends yesterday and that is only good for our football team. Playing younger players who haven’t played before they get a taste of experience and I think it pays great dividends later on for your football team when guys start to return. Obviously we are going to miss Dennis Finley who is out for the season. R.J. Williamson had surgery (Sunday morning) on a torn bicep so he is out indefinitely. Probably until maybe the last game or the bowl game. So we have to pick up the slack and go. Those are two big guys that like everything else we’ve had some injuries, but we have to adapt. We have to reconstruct what we do and keep playing. We’ve got good players, we will maintain.

Hondo: Has there been a time in your coaching past that you were snake bit with injuries like this that you can reflect on with your players?

Dantonio: I really haven’t thought long term back. I am just trying to deal with the present. You now you have guys go down. (Against Purdue) we had five offensive players not playing. We adapted. We ran for almost 300 yards in a bad weather day. We wish we would have scored more points. We left points off of the board, but we won the football game. Defensively we gave up some plays, but we played with more consistency and at the end of the game we got off the field when momentum had turned. We won the football game.

Q: How is R.J. Williamson handling this?

Dantonio: I did talk to him. He had the surgery (Sunday.) It is another form of adversity in a young person’s life. It’s difficult to deal with but he was solid. He will have a role on this football team. He will be back and play this year, I am just not sure when. If it is at the end of the season or the bowl game he will be back.

Q: With R.J. Williamson being out do you look at Demetrious Cox staying at safety and getting a few young guys more snaps?

Dantonio: Basically we have been working six safeties prior to (the injury) with Cox being one of them. So Cox will play safety with still having the ability to go out and play corner. Grayson Miller will become more active in there. Khari Willis has played already. So both of those guys have some game experience having played in a couple of games. Matt Morrissey is a guy that is showing up on special teams and playing well. Jalen Watts-Jackson is another guy. A redshirt freshman. Two true freshmen and two red shirt freshman but they have gotten reps and they’ve been on our defensive side of the field and they’ve been coached. So it is there time now. We also have Montae Nicholson and Demetrious Cox playing at safety as well. We are still three deep quality football players there that play on special teams and play football for us there. So as much as we miss R.J. (Williamson) leadership, accountably and knowing the defense we have to push through.

Q: Is Grayson Miller in line to be the fifth guy out there in the nickel situations now?

Dantonio: Basically that depends on which direction we decide to go and basically how practice goes this week and how we decide to go on game day because we could go in a variety of different directions because we have guys that can play the other end of the spectrum. Whether it is nickel back or star or whatever it is.

Q: Mark Meyers has been suspended for some time. Is there any update on his status?

Dantonio: Mark needs to take care of things from a court standpoint and then we will address the situation.

Hondo: How are Dennis Finley’s spirits after his surgery?

Dantonio: Was with Dennis (Sunday) his spirits are very good. He is a positive young man. His high school coach Thomas Wilcher was up there as well as his family, his parents and sister. He is a strong guy in terms of his ability to handle adversity and he was good. He was good coming off the field. As he came off the field he was good. Very strong. As a football coach you really admire how he handled everything. So he will heal. He is going to be OK and he was in a good state of mind today.

Q: Donavon Clark has played LT before and how did you think Jack Allen did after reviewing the film?

Dantonio: I thought Jack did a great job out there. He is capable of playing any position on the offensive line. We’ve got a variety of ways we can go and also depending on who is back this week and things of that nature. We’ll see how everything works out as we proceed through the week. I really don’t know that until we go through the week and I talk with Coach Staten and see how he wants to address things. I thought the guys that played, played well in the second half and we had a lot of guys spinning around at different positions, but that adds depth to our offensive line so that is a positive with that.

Hondo: I sat in with you on a speech you gave to a group of business men about facing adversity. You were emphatic that football teams, people, business and everyone faces it. You mentioned that when you looked in your people’s faces during those times you want to see fight. Not flight or fear, but fight. So I ask are you seeing that looking at your guys with all the injuries?

Dantonio: Yes! I thought we had great energy (vs. Purdue) in terms of who we were as a football team and a group of people. Our guys are going to lead. Even our guys that are hurt still continue to lead. Somebody else gets an opportunity. There are no excuses not to win. We are not making excuses because we have these guys out, that is NOT going to happen. We have enough football players in this program to perform and to perform well. We will also have enough players coming back off of injuries to perform and to perform well. That will be the mental makeup of who we are and what we do. There are no great victories without great adversity and we just need to rally up.

Q: With Demetrious Cox probably staying at S, how are Darian Hicks and Arjen Colquhoun performing at CB and is that position stable?

Dantonio: I thought Arjen played very well yesterday. He had some very big plays at the end of the game. A pass break up and a sack, tackle on a tight end screen and a deep ball break up and he covered well down the field and contested every throw. Hicks played well as well. He had two deep balls that he contested but he has to come up with them or knock them out. Other than that if you take those things away I thought he played pretty well. Jermaine Edmondson is still working and beyond that we will look to see from a freshman standpoint do we need to get a freshman involved? Which we may. I think we have some talented freshman. You try to hold on to them (red shirt) if you are only going to use them a couple of plays. If the situation arises we will use them and we will see what happens. Day Day (Cox) can always go back out there as well so we will see what happens.

Q: He has had limited game reps, but how has Grayson Miller looked in practice?

Dantonio: Grayson is a very good football player. He has great ball skills, size and speed. He tackles well, but he is a freshman. He will grow up quickly. He is a very smart football player. He is solid.

Q: Is Macgarrett Kings inured and is there a silver lining to playing away this weekend and getting the team alone on the road?

Dantonio: Macgarrett was hampered a little but, no disciplinary action whatsoever so we held him. As far as going away you play at home you go away it goes back and forth. So those things are a change up for you and should keep your football team fresh and create new energy or maintain new energy. We are looking forward to going to Rutgers, to the East coast and a night game. We will gear up for it, it is a long wait, but we will gear up for it. We will get ready to play and be ready to play.

Q: You have dropped to #4 in the polls. Do you care to comment on that?

Dantonio: Really my thoughts are on the Big Ten conference and what we have to do. Polls will take care of themselves as we move forward. When you win, if you win however you want to term it. My focus is we have media attention where we are in the polls and that should pay dividends in the end. It means nothing unless you perform and win every Saturday so that is our intent and our focus.