NEWS AND NOTES FROM MARK DANTONIO'S B1G FOOTBALL MEDIA DAY PRESSER

The head coach of the Spartans was the last coach to hold his press conference, and he brought it strong today.  He brought out a lot of good information, and Spartan Nation has it all for you.

ON LAST SEASON:

"2010 was an exciting year for us.”

ON THE STRENGTHS OF THIS TEAM:

"You have to look to the quarterback position, and that provides a lot of leadership for us."

"Cousins brings a great sense of calm and leadership to our team."

"We have great locker room chemistry right now, and that’s where it starts for us."

"We have experience and I think we have a good mindset and we have the leadership intact."

"You look at our team this is the first time you could take a look up front and I could say we’re solid."

"We have more guys that bench press 400 lbs and vertical jump over 30 inches than we’ve ever had before."

ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE:

"We lose three guys from last year’s football team, we moved Blake Treadwell over there and Dan France over there."

"We’re sorta set."

"Skylar Burkland, used to be Schoffner, is an outstanding player in his own right"

"I have a good sense that we’ll be just fine on the offensive line."

ON THE RUNNING BACKS:

"Larry Caper fractured his hand, Edwin took off and never looked back, and LeVeon had a great first half of the season."

"All the guys have the ability there."

ON THE DEFENSE:

"We’re a young football team there"

"We’re going to miss greg jones and eric Gordon certainly."

"Very exciting with Max Bullough, Chris Norman who sat out the spring, but should be solid."

ON MIKE SADLER:

"Mike Sadler is a kid who made the choice to come to Michigan State and sit a year, but is a tremendous talent"

ON THE CHALLENGES FACED THIS YEAR AFTER WINNING THE BIG TEN TITLE:

"If you look at our team and how we performed in the bowl game we took a step backwards."

"We’ve climbed one mountain, and when you get to the top of that mountain you realize there’s another mountain to climb."

"We need to look at our program and deal with what we can control."

ON NEBRASKA JOINING THE CONFERENCE AND THE NEW DIVISIONS:

"With Nebraska coming into the conference I think it gives us, the conference as a whole, it strengthens our brand as a conference."

"I think the thing that you learn about this conference is that its very very competitive as you move forward"

"Even now as we sit here and say this, recruits nationally continue to call, and because of the conference setup and structure it strengthens our efforts and improves our program."

ON THE KEYS TO SUCCESS LAST SEASON:

"When you look at our football team you have to get breaks in football games."

"You have to be able to handle adversity, that’s leadership, and that’s chemistry."

"If you had to ask me what was our strength as a team last year and this year, that’s chemistry"

ON SOME OF THE FAILURES FROM LAST SEASON:

"Any time we lost a game its because we’ve not won the game up front."

"When we lost to Iowa, couldn’t run it. When we lost to Ohio state, couldn’t run it. When we lost to Alabama, couldn’t run it."

ON THE NFL DRAFT LOVE SOME UNDERCLASSMEN ARE GETTING:

"We don’t want those guys to leave obviously. But I think it helps recruiting when you have guys being recognized before they’re seniors."

ON THE JIM TRESSEL SITUATION:

"Well it’s very heart wrenching for me and my family because we’re very close to Coach Tress."

"He’s done a lot of good for college football, every person he’s come into contact with as a player and a coach he’s had a positive effect on them."

"He’s become a tragic hero in my book."