Here are my notes that I type live as he speaks (not verbatim), thanks!
• Kind of like anything, you’ve got to have short term memory and you’ve got to move forward. A lot of good things came out of last week, and we need to build on the things we didn’t do well. Michigan state is very good at what they do, similar scheme as what we do offensively. It will be another physical game, we’ll have to match that play, like we did a week ago, just can’t turn over footballs.
• I think our defensive people will say we tackle well, but not on 1st play. You take that away, and it’s 260 total yards in that game. Our safeties played well in the football game, athletically, we’re doing a good job. Practice is not going as long, being more efficient. You better have your shoulders and your legs, if you have that, you tackle better.
• Phillip Nelson – had some balls dropped, we missed one that he’d like to have back, with Maxx down the middle with 11 to go, he’s a competitive person, we all want to be better. Shoot, I wanted to do better, that had a lot to do with our defense. We’re playing freshman, redshirt freshman, sophomores, and more redshirt freshmen in a game like that.
• Anytime you play man to man on the corners, and get 9 in the box, I think Al Davis said, if you lock down corners, you can do anything you want on defense. MSU is very good upfront. People don’t realize how good a job Dantonio has done there. They have good strong defensive lineman, they want aggressive people up the filed, and they’re very good at safety. That’s what makes them special, they’re good at what they do.
• Nebraska is a pretty high level team. 1st of all we have no choice, 2nd every week is important. To me, you have to play consistent every week. We played consistent for 4 weeks, then we had some turnovers. We haven’t had a lot of penalties.
• We talked about that a little bit, the break. Recruiting is a big piece of things. We have 2 weeks after MSU and we’ll all be on the road. We’ll be out everyday, plus recruiting weekends. We turn the players over to Coach Klein, and focus on their studies.
• I think right now, that’s the best thing for the football team. The communication is good right now, managing the game is good, we’ll continue to do that at this point.
• You go back and look at what you did 2 years ago, and look at what you did last year, and that’s part of game preparation. You go back to similar type teams, and who’s had success, which is not many. We can’t turn over the ball, and we can’t have a bunch of minus yardage.
• (On getting redshirt freshman to play in bowl games) Our coaches need to really rally around each other, and have the same vision. I compliment the bball coaches, they have the same vision, that’s the reason basketball has gotten together and FB has been scattered around. Really, the Big 10 is the one that took the big plunge with that, with Mr. Delaney helping us out. The big 10 has taken the initiative to get that done.
• WI is very physical and they are good at the play action pass, that puts pressure on you, their QB is playing at a nice level. There are a lot of similarities between MSU and WI, they are both very physical teams. Offense and Defense compliments each other well.
• We came out for a cold physical football game, and the turf was pretty much frozen, but we came out of it pretty well.
• We’re playing for something every week. It’s darn important. We’re going on the road and playing MSU. It’s a great challenge for us. Competition makes everybody better.
• I’ve had conversations with Dantonio, he’s been though a lot, and no disrespect but it’s personal.
• I think it’s well documented that anything we can do for epilepsy, and anything cause, seizure disorders. The more awareness, the more things people do, you’ve got to give back. Anytime we can help people, whenever it is, we’ve got to do it.
• A lot of receivers don’t want to block, but not our guys, I’ve been impressed with that. They’ll be better this week than they were last week.
• The greatest thing about the senior class happened last Saturday – and you’re down there, and they go out that tunnel, it don’t get any better than that. They had to make the transition to fit in with a lot of young guys, and buy into a different approach. There’s a lot of togetherness and chemistry. Winning solves a lot of problems.
• Eric Murray is a pretty good player, and he’s gotten better as the year’s gone on too. We’ve got a lot of general managers looking to see Brock and Ra’shede, and they go “who’s that guy?”
• Our guys from MN are good, and will take kids home. We have a Thanksgiving brunch and we have it together, coach’s families come in here, it’s a good deal. They seem to handle it very good. Thursday menu is usually pretty good, we look like we haven’t missed any meals (laughing). Traditional Northern Thanksgiving with some Southern dishes as well…we’re very cultured.