QUESTIONS FOR HEAD COACH MARK DANTONIO COACH DANTONIO: First of all, I just want to thank the Cotton Bowl for having us here. This has been a tremendous experience for us. As a university, as a program, our players have had an outstanding time as well as our football family, football staff, wives and administration. Also, I want to talk about the great challenge that we have before us in playing the Baylor Bears. Art Briles is a tremendous coach. And we've gotten to know each other over of the course of time but have been extremely impressed with not only their offense but their defense and their entire football program. Things parallel -- I believe their program sort of parallels ours in a lot of ways. As I said yesterday, 26-3 in their last 29 games. We're 25-3. Certainly one of the best teams in the country. And after watching them for countless hours over these last number of weeks, you can understand why people are upset that they're not in the playoff because they are an outstanding football team and believe they could play with anybody in the country. So I'll take questions. Excited to be here. Q. Playing a top five team, that could have been unplanned as you talked about. Obviously a big game for you this year. But what's the importance for your team as a program moving forward, keeping the momentum kind of going after the Rose Bowl, the next few years? COACH DANTONIO: You always want to win your bowl game, your last football game. You want to finish. To me, that's as important as anything in your football season. It sets you up for the next year. It puts a stamp on things for your seniors. So for us, winning this fourth straight bowl game, it would be our fourth straight win if we were able to accomplish that, would be something that has not been done at Michigan State in a long, long time, I believe. Maybe it's been done maybe three or four times in the history of the Big Ten conference. So those type of things, with a win, our seniors will go out tied for the most wins in a four-year period in the history of Michigan State. So we have those things to play for as well as putting us, I think, in the national conversation. I think we've been in that conversation throughout the year. Had a disappointing performance against Ohio State obviously, but we've rallied back. And we have another opportunity to establish ourselves.
So those are the reasons I think we play aside from us always having to compete in every football game that we've played. And that's just been the standard set here. Q. What's this week been like with Pat [Narduzzi] coming back (for the bowl game), all the commotion with that, and having his little last run with you guys? COACH DANTONIO: You know, it's been outstanding. Pat, first of all, has a great attention to detail. Meticulous. Energizer. And he's an extremely hard worker. So we've always taught here, we always talked about finishing in this program. And that's one thing that as a whole that we've always tried to do, whether you're a player. Doesn't mean you're always going to be successful in a football game but you finish the job that you've started. And I think that's his mentality. He's come back to finish. He's also come back to be an assistant coach, to be a defensive coordinator for one last game before he embarks on his career as a head football coach. So I think for him not to be here would have been -- there would have been -- I don't know, a little bit of hole in the program. Because so many times, you're thrust out of a situation into another situation. And you don't have a chance to say goodbye. And this is our opportunity to send him off and his opportunity to say goodbye to so many of the people that were so involved in his job, his success, however, you want to put it these last 11 years, eight years at Michigan State. Q. Coach, when you look at Baylor on film offensively, obviously they were able to put up a lot of points in a hurry. What are some of the things you have in mind to try to slow them down? COACH DANTONIO: I think, first of all -- I talked about this yesterday. Baylor presents a lot of problems by -- with formations. They spread you out. They stretch you horizontally by alignment. They come at you very quickly, obviously. Got to tackle in space. So things that we have to do to be able to stop them. We have to play ball in the deep part of the field. We understand the ball is going to go up deep probably 16 times minimum. You're going to have to play with your back to the ball some. You can visually see it at times, but there's going to be opportunities when the ball is behind you coming in so you've got to play the ball in the deep part of the field. You've got to tackle in space. You've got to pressure the quarterback, the things that we've always done. Probably the most important thing, though, in being able to accomplish that goal is being able to line up because of their rapid deployment, be able to line up and have
proper alignment and play with great technique, not be sloppy from the initial snap. And I think that's what gets people. If you're sloppy, bad things are going to happen. So it's easier said than done because of how fast they are coming. But we need to be able to slow them down. And on the flip side of things, offensively, we need to take control of the game a little bit in terms of time of possession and be able to hold the ball a little bit. Q. Can you talk about the quarterbacks you've had at Michigan State and where you think Connor Cook might end up, now that he's announced he's coming for his senior year. COACH DANTONIO: Our quarterbacks, we've had outstanding quarterbacks since coming there. There have been outstanding quarterbacks in the past. Tony Banks was at our practice the other day. He was a great quarterback in the NFL for a long period of time. Drew Stanton, prior to my coming here. But since we've been at Michigan State, we've had Brian Hoyer play in the NFL and Kirk Cousins in the NFL. And Andrew Maxwell was the starter in 2012 and then now we have Connor Cook. And I think Cook is a guy that's big arm, big-frame guy, got a lot of experience, has the ability to create in the pocket and run with the football. Got a great set of wide receivers to go to. So I think his dynamics, what he brings to the table is as good as there is in this country. I think he'll be extremely successful at the next level when he makes that decision. And we're very excited that he's choosing to come back for his senior year at Michigan State. Q. I know yesterday when talking about Bryce Petty, you mentioned him as Buddy, the Elf. But what is it specifically about him that makes him so dangerous? COACH DANTONIO: First of all, I think he's a gamer. You can tell he's got great leadership skills. You can tell that by watching a press conference, by seeing how he operates. When you watch a TV game -- we've watched the TV games. We've watched the tape. So you can watch him and see that he is a leader, that he's got his players' backs and they have his.
Second thing he does is he's got a tremendous release, very quick release. He knows where he's going with the ball really before the ball is snapped or right at the snap. He's creative enough to run the football so you have to stay honest with him. And then he's got a great release and strong arm, and he's extremely accurate. He's got great wideouts to go to. And obviously the guys that Baylor has are [Antwan] Goodley and [Corey] Coleman and all those guys, very, very good wide receivers. Great run-after-catch guys. They can get vertical on you quick. Q. [Tony] Lippett has been a big part of your offense and defense this year. Because of Baylor's pace, do you think you're going to have to make some allowances tomorrow as far as maybe spotting him a little bit on defense because of how they play, or how do you think you're going to answer that? COACH DANTONIO: Since we started playing Tony, we've spotted him. He can't go just continuously. I think it's important that we use him. I think it's important that we use him periodically. And that -- but we cannot allow him to lose his legs on defense and then not be effective on offense. So there's going to be a time period there where you have to go back and forth to different people. But we anticipate using probably six corners in the game and four defensive backs. We'll play 10 DBs. I think that's what we planned for. We have a lot -- we played four safeties throughout the entire year already. So those guys have great experience and really we've played four corners as well. So we're just adding two more. Q. I know bowl week is all about finding that balance between work and play. But I was talking with some of your staff this week and they talked about early on when you and your staff got here and they were just excited to get to bowl games. And as your program has gotten stronger and stronger, have you been able to find more time to kind of soak and savor and enjoy these big-time post-season bowls and kind of look back on where the program has been and how you've kind of been taking those steps closer and closer to the top? COACH DANTONIO: Yeah, I think we have. We try to. But pretty much our afternoons after bowl practices are free for our families. With that being said, everybody's always trying to stay ahead of the pace. And I think that bowl practices quite honestly for coaches, you're sort of burning it at both ends. So you're up -- we are up early and working on the practice or working on scripts and
things of that nature and then going to practice. It's a great experience. But at the end of the day, you want to win that bowl game so we're going to try to do everything possible. So time sort of slips by you as you're at the bowl game, but I think we're prepared for this one. And it will be a very important how we play obviously. But we have had a great experience here. There's no question the Cotton Bowl has been -- no disrespect to any other bowls, but the hospitality, the bigness of this, the size of it, the magnitude of what they do for you is over the top. Q. A lot of the focus has been on Baylor's offense versus your defense. Can you talk about the other matchup and how important is it for your offense to maybe kind of control things? COACH DANTONIO: I think it's always important, if you win the football game, you've got to control the football a little bit. Baylor does that offensively. We need to be able to counter that and do that as well. Their defense, outstanding defense. Phil Bennett is an outstanding defensive coordinator. They have big-time players, the defensive linemen that they have. And I've been impressed with their linebacker group and corners. But we're going to see. We're a balanced offense just like Baylor. I mean, people think of Baylor, they immediately think of passing but they're extremely balanced with their run game with Shock Linwood. On the flip side of things, we've got to stay balanced as well. We can throw it certainly. [Jeremy] Langford will be a guy. So much of what we do is predicated I think on turnover margin as a football team. We've led the nation in that. We're plus 20. So that's a positive. We have to remain in that realm I think as we move forward in this game, too. Possession time, takeaways, special teams, all things that don't get talked about as much but have a -- it's extremely key I think in talking about the outcome of the game. Q. You've always talked about the importance of keeping it fresh and keeping it loose. We know you rode up on a horse at a bowl game and you dressed a guy up to wrestle an alligator. Have you pulled a prank yet this week, or has the Cotton Bowl hospitality been enough to keep your guys loose? COACH DANTONIO: Well, I've been trying to think of what to do actually. So, if anybody has got any ideas... You can't ride a horse into the stadium over there. But,
yeah, we'll figure out something. But I just want our guys to have a good time. This is a big football game. Tomorrow will come and it will go. And at the end of that day, things get settled on the field. You want it to be a life experience for our guys. You want them to remember certain things. So a couple guys were at the Outback Bowl, they certainly remember that action. Q. Couple juniors who I know will make decisions after the game. Do you have any feeling on where [Trae] Waynes and [Shilique] Calhoun are and how important would it be for them to return? COACH DANTONIO: Obviously, I think they're probably our top recruits right now. But I think Trae and Shilique are extremely happy here. To me, that's all that's important. After that, they make their decision that's best for them and their families. But the only thing that I want to be able to do as a football coach, as their football coach, is be able to help them in any way I can. They're both outstanding players. They'll make some decisions, and then we'll move from there. But we've done all the work with the advisory committees and all those type of things. But we'll finish -- business number one is playing the football game, and I think that's what -- that is where their focus is right now. And they're just excited to be a part of this as we are. So after that, you know, tough decisions are made. I'm not sure. But all I can say is I know that their heart is here at Michigan State. Doesn't mean they're going to stay here, but their heart will always be here and they're Spartans. And that's been our job from day one. We want to make sure our players as they leave here, they leave here with a degree and are self-sufficient. So as long as you're self-sufficient, meaning first-round pick, I think it's -- those are tough decisions. But we have to do the very best we can on both ends of the spectrum. Q. When you looked on film, what have you thought about Baylor's ability to stop the run, their defensive front, the front seven, they're very good statistically and the importance of that in the balance of the game? COACH DANTONIO: They give about 106, 109 in the game, I think. No. 1 in the conference. They provide pressure. They're good tacklers. A little bit different in this conference. They haven't seen some of the different type of offensive sets that we bring, but football
is football. So it's about taking on blocks, getting off blocks, running and tackling. They've done that extremely well. And I said earlier, Phil Bennett is a very good defensive coordinator. He's been around the game for a long time and played a lot of different offenses. So they'll have a plan. But good football team all around. Great punter. I think it will be a great matchup. And I know it will be an extremely big challenge for us playing the No. 5 team in the country. But that's why we came. So I was extremely excited when we got the Cotton Bowl invitation. I know there were some distractions as we moved forward. But at the end of the day, this is a tremendous bowl game matchup. I want to thank the Cotton Bowl for all that they've done for us as a bowl committee and all the people that work with them. It's been first class in every respect. And this will be a time in our lives where we'll remember this week for the rest of our lives. Quotes by Caption Northwest, Inc. 425-343-4946