Mark Dantonio Updates the STATE of MICHIGAN STATE FOOTBALL Post Air Force Win: CMU Week!
Dantonio: Excited about going to 3-0. Certainly there are some things we need to correct as we move forward, but there are a lot of good things there as well.
Q: What is your plan with using true freshman in the secondary?
Dantonio: We are always going to evaluate our players as we are moving forward. We are working with some freshman at various different places whether it is on special teams or on offense or defense. That is pretty much a week to week process in terms of if they are ready we will go in that direction and if they are not quite ready then we won’t. But it takes time. We are just making those decisions week to week.
Q: Grayson Miller made his debut on special teams this past game. What has he shown so far?
Dantonio: He is a big physical guy that runs extremely well, is a good tackler, is explosive so I think he was on every special teams I believe. That is how we evaluated it. We just felt like we needed to play him. He is also probably the fifth safety or the fourth safety possibly as he continues to work forward. I think he is a quick learner and he has a football IQ. That’s how we did it. We want to play the guys that are going to help us win and we don’t want to take red shirts off of guys unless they are going to play significantly special teams or significantly as we move forward on offense or defense. That is how we handled it. With Felton Davis (WR), he played a couple of plays. He also played on our punt return unit. I thought he would probably get a little bit more. It is what it is there, but I expect him to play as well.
Hondo: Versus Air Force was the first time we have seen redshirt freshman DT Enoch Smith, Jr. get to play. After reviewing the film how was his performance?
Dantonio: I believe he was in nine plays. I thought he was firm, a little heavy on his techniques, in other words lining up a little head up on the guy. He’s a good football player. He is waiting his time, he is a redshirt freshman and you know he had the hernia surgery which put him back and he lost all of camp. He’s been in football now two or three weeks and I think we will see more and more of him as we move forward. He’s got to do the job week to week just like everybody else. I do think he played alright.
Q: Reaction to being #2 in the AP College Football poll?
Dantonio: I don’t think there is any finished product here yet. You know we evaluate this program at the end of the season, much like we have the last two seasons. These rankings, a lot of it, are based on how you did last season. A lot of things happened that shakes up the rankings and those things will continue to happen I am sure. We need to keep our mind on our business and just focus on the moment. The next one up is Central. We certainly have opportunities moving forward, but there is a long road in front of us.
Q: After what Air Force did rushing defense against you, what stood out watching the film?
Dantonio: When you look at the running game, first of all it goes beyond the offensive line. It goes to the backs, it goes to play selection or the structure of it. It goes to the tight ends or the fullbacks. Everyone on the field is part of making the running game work. They did have everybody up there pretty close, give Air Force a lot of credit. I thought they played square. I thought they tackled well and I thought they had a good plan. With that in mind, we have to be able to find a crease and bust out, which we weren’t able to do. Usually that has happened with a 50 yard run or a 40 yard run or something of that nature and you feel a lot better If those things happen two or three or four times. I don’t think the consistency was there in terms of what we wanted. So you have to look and say is that mental errors by our players? Some. Is that physical errors by our players? Some. Is that structural meaning we had the right play called or we don’t have the right play called structurally based upon what we were asking them to do based on what they are going to see? There is some of that too. We need to be result oriented and then just move forward. There is a lot of good things that happened, but there is some negative things that happened. We’ve always been a balanced offense and we need to continue to be that. We need to be able to run the football. Regardless of the situation, regardless of the score we need to feel like when we want to run the ball we are at least capable and can do it effectively.
Hondo: There were several situations where Air Force loaded the box. Would you have liked to see Connor check out of those called running plays and audible to a pass or was he doing what you wanted?
Dantonio: I think in the second half basically we tried to run the clock. They had a long drive; it was 35-7 to make it 35-14. Probably the biggest disappointment was when we didn’t get it on third and two or fourth and one. We responded on defense and got the interception so that did not hurt us. Then the three and out at the end of the game. Certain situations are defined as run or pass type things. Others are not. I would say for the most part, most of those plays were not. I thought we hit big plays, pretty much throughout the first half and then in the third period as well. We hit plays to Burbridge and had a couple to RJ Shelton as well. We threw the ball pretty effectively but again go back to what I said about the running game earlier. We’ve got to have different ways to attack it. Every player is going to play his best game every week just like every play is not going to work every week. We are going to make some mistakes. We all need to come together and evaluate. All I ask is that we evaluate it and we be able to correct the things we did, this week.
Q: After evaluating Riley’s hit, what is your opinion of that now and with all of the personal fouls can you discuss your team discipline NOT getting any retaliation penalties?
Dantonio: Hey, we are playing football and he was trying to get the guy down. I don’t think it was an intentional thing. They made the call. They reviewed it. They made the call. I am not sure that there is an appeal process involved. I heard that there was so I am going to check with the Big Ten office and see if there is. We play by the rules. Whatever the rules are, that is what we will do. We’ve had that happen before, but there are some things you can change and some things that you cannot so we will see what we can do. We wanted to play the game with respect and integrity and we did not get involved in those things. I think that helped us because they had some big penalties. They were legitimate penalties. As I watched the film they were legitimate penalties. I thought they were called correctly and I thought the officials did a good job calling the game.
Q: Can you comment on Vayante Copeland being out for the season?
Dantonio: Vayante fractured vertebrae so he is out for the season. Very unfortunate. He is a great player and a good person but he’s handling it. Very very well. That is the situation and you cannot mess with that kind of thing. We took the precautions, the MRI and those are things that it showed. He’ll heal fine and be back for spring but right now it is too iffy of a situation.
Q: Down two starters on D for the season with Ed (Davis) and Vayante (Copeland) and on offense Kodi (Kieler) for a while, do you have the depth you need to weather this storm of injuries?
Dantonio: I do feel we have the depth. I do feel we have good players. We played a lot of defensive backs in the Oregon game obviously; I do feel like we can handle that situation. As far as Ed, we lost him early so it gave us a chance to get ourselves corrected in that area. Andrew Dowell didn’t start but played 49 snaps (against Air Force) so he played extensively. He is only going to get better and he had five tackles, a big fumble recovery and he played fast. He’s going to make some mistakes, but he plays fast. He’s going to learn and get much better as he learns, but he plays fast. Hopefully that helps. We’ll adapt and we’ll get Drake Martinez back here at some time in the next two weeks and that will help as well. We do have depth and we have good football players on this team and that WILL NOT be an excuse not to win. In football injuries are going to occur and you just have to handle them. As far as is this the most injuries that we have had? We had two season ending injuries (Vayante and Ed) and we’ve had injuries before. Two is a relatively small amount compared to some.
Hondo: A few years ago when the offense struggled you spent the overwhelming majority of your time with them. With the special teams struggling this season unlike any in your past here, will you spend significantly more time with special teams coordinator Mark Snyder to get them fixed?
Dantonio: Collectively our entire coaching staff coaches special teams so I am involved from the outset as well as basically all of our coaches. Then we split up our special teams relative to somebody having punts and somebody having kickoff etcetera and then they have a small staff that works directly with them in those areas and then plans it. I am involved in all of those meetings and those are the only meetings that I sit in on extensively day in and day out in this program. I may be in a defensive meeting or a QB meeting or different position meetings every now and then but I am always going to be in every special teams meeting. Coach Snyder is special team’s coordinator and that means he sort of sets it all in motion and is either active as one of the driving members of a specific special teams or let’s say Mike Tressel has the punt and he’s on that staff relative to the punt. That is how we have done it and that is how we will always do it. We’ve been good special teams wise. Our specialists need to make there plays and they will. All I ask is for our guys to compete. I thought other than the field goal (missed vs. Air Force), I thought our special teams played pretty well. Again we go solid punting from Jake with no returns, no big kickoff returns, the wind was a factor and on kickoffs we squibbed a couple, popped a couple up. We will continue to understand that special teams wins championships and there is no question about that.
Q: With the Vayante injury you are going to have to look at a lot of young guys in the defensive backfield.
Dantonio: Well with Vayante out, Arjen Colquhoun is a guy that had a great spring and very very good summer camp. Was in the competition really (for the starting job). Was out with the shoulder for probably a week and a half or two weeks and has bounced back and is playing now. He is a guy with a lot of experience, he is a fifth year senior and he has great skills. Big. Physical. We also have Darian Hicks who has a lot of starting experience and he was out with mono but we have him back now. I think he is healthy. He played a little bit (vs Air Force). Cox is out there. He can play inside or outside. Jermaine Edmondson saw extensive action against Oregon and did not play as much (vs Air Force) based on the option. I did not want to switch people up based on what we were seeing, the variations of what we were seeing. Once guys knew what was going on after we stopped it all the time. I thought change in the middle of the game or towards the end of the game might not be positive. Josh Butler is one of those corners we have talked about (true freshman) who has played extremely well in practice. Will we take the redshirt off of him or not? I am not sure. With him that gets us five. David Dowell is another freshman that has shown a lot of things. That would be six. Three safety position we’ve got our two starters and behind them Jalen Watts-Jackson is playing on all of the special teams and played in the Oregon game. Matt Morrissey is a guy that plays on all of our special teams and we’ve got Grayson Miller and possibly Khari Willis who has been working with us and he is in the situation like Josh. Do we take the red shirt or not? If they can help us win, and win now, we will. I think that we’ve got guys. We’ve got guys that can play the ball, block and tackle and play the ball in the deep part of the field and they have the size and speed for their position. Obviously we still miss Vayante. A great tackler and player and he’s a redshirt freshman so he will be back. We look forward to his return in the spring. That is one through twelve. Somehow and someway, but there is depth there and there is a couple of guys that I haven’t mentioned. The uniqueness of it all is that we did recruit six defensive backs last year so we need to play some of those guys because we don’t want six redshirt freshmen either. So, if they are capable of playing and there is a need, and we obviously thought there was a need because of the number, that’s why we took them. Grayson Miller was the first one up. We can’t get three ready every week so we will probably try to work one every week or two. We are not going to play a guy (true freshman) just to play him a couple of plays.
Q: Is there a chance of a medical redshirt for Vayante?
Dantonio: Yes, he will be medically redshirted this year so he will have three for three. I am not sure if he was out medically last year or not, and that would be for a sixth year, but he has three. I’m not sure how he was redshirted last year if it was a medical reason or if we just redshirted him.
Q: If Riley is suspended Shane Jones has had some snaps there and (Jon) Reschke?
Dantonio: Shane went in there and was productive. Reschke has been in there before and Byron Bullough has played in there as well. He has worked a lot through camp and is a redshirt freshman. So he’s got knowledge of the position too. So right off the bat there are three guys that can step up in there and play. We’ve got numbers as I have said.
Q: Darian Harris tackle at the goal line and his overall play coming back from MONO?
Dantonio: Darian has to get back in the flow a little bit, but I thought it was a big play on that goal line area. Staying there. That was a positive. He’s working himself back in the rotation. Again, the biggest reason is that the way we were spinning our safeties and flowing our coverage based on variation of option looks and the way they were doing it and the way that they were changing it as the game progressed, sort of determined that we needed to stay with the guys that were seeing it. You can simulate these things, but on game day it is much faster.
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