August 2, 2010
An Interview With:
MICHIGAN STATE
COACH MARK DANTONIO
THE MODERATOR: Next up is Michigan
State head coach Mark Dantonio.
COACH DANTONIO: It's great to be back
here in Chicago. And we're very, very excited as
we enter our fourth season as a staff at Michigan
State. Very, very excited, especially about really
the leadership, the chemistry, and the attitude
that's been displayed by our football team
throughout winter conditioning, spring ball and
summer conditioning.
And it starts with our players certainly at
the ground level, when you look at some of our
seniors that are returning, some of the captains
that are returning such as Greg Jones and Kirk
Cousins, very, very excited about that aspect.
As we move forward, we hope to lay a
foundation on our past three years, all of which
resulted in bowl games as we compete for a Big
Ten Championship.
I think, first of all, when you look at our
football team you have to look at our defense
because it starts with Greg Jones. Greg Jones
returns for his senior year. He's a returning
captain.
I think not only from a physical standpoint
but from a psychological standpoint, it talks about
his maturity as a person and talks about our overall
program, I guess, welfare, in terms of where we're
at as a football program that he would decide to
come back.
He has a great physical presence on the
field. He's a first-team All-Big Ten player,
first-team All-American player, and certainly
through the middle of our defense gives us a guy
who can make plays throughout our entire defense
and all over the field.
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Look at the rest of our linebacker group,
Eric Gordon comes back as a fourth-year starter.
Chris Norman is a guy that has played as a true
freshman. Jon Misch has starting experience. So
you've really got four linebackers at that linebacker
position with starting experience.
You move into the secondary, our second
returns four guys with starting experience as well
with Trent Robinson, Marcus Hyde, Chris L.
Rucker beginning his fourth year as a starter, and
Johnny Adams, who was out with a shoulder last
year but started as a true freshman.
When you look at our defensive line
situation, we're solid up the middle with Jerel
Worthy, who comes off a redshirt freshman year
where he was Freshman All-American, and Blake
Treadwell, who played as a true freshman.
Our defensive ends, Tyler Hoover, Corey
Freeman, Todd Anderson, Jason Strayhorn, and
an assortment of others will also play very, very
important roles throughout the entire season.
But feel good about our defense right now.
Got to come up with more turnovers. If you had to
say one thing we have to improve on, that would
be turnovers. Sometimes those come in bunches,
but working extremely hard on that.
We've got great players in the secondary
right now with great ball skills. And when I look at
our secondary, right now you see guys that can
catch the ball very, very well in terms of deep ball
judgment and things of that nature.
So extremely happy about that. So
offensively, obviously it always starts at
quarterback. I think when you have an
experienced quarterback, you know, good things
can happen for you. Kirk Cousins returns as a
second-year starter and, again, as a second -- as a
possible captain, I guess, is what you would say
with Greg Jones. They have to be voted in. But he
was voted as captain last year as a redshirt
sophomore.
Keith Nichol returns as an X-factor guy.
Played two games as a quarterback, Cousins
taking the 12. And Kirk had a great sophomore
season.
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 Andrew Maxwell provides a guy in the
wings that really has performed very well, and he'll
be a redshirt freshman this next year.
I think when you look at it from a
quarterback perspective, I try to parallel everything.
You look back at 2007 compared to 2008 and
Brian Hoyer's arrival, he played very well that
second year and was able to take us to nine wins
and have an opportunity to play for the
championship at the end of the season.
So that's a very good situation there for us.
At the wide receiver position, we bring back four
guys with a lot of game experience. Keshawn
Martin is a guy that every time he touches a ball he
averages about 18 yards of play. Whether it's kick
returns, punt returns or touching the ball on a
sweep or down the field with the pass. So he
would be very dangerous for us.
Mark Dell returns in his fourth season
having a junior season where he was a little bit
banged up, and B.J. Cunningham returns. And
Keith Nichol returns to a wide receiver position. He
gives us an X-factor in that position. Tremendous
athlete. We have to find ways to get him on the
field and get him the ball and allow him to do
things. Very interesting how he develops, but he
certainly has a great future ahead of him in that
area.
When you move further about our tight
ends, looking at our tight ends, again, four starters
back, four guys back, which we would consider
starters, with Charlie Gantt coming back. He had
an outstanding year as a junior last year, one of
the greatest tight ends in the conference or
possibly the country, goes about 260 pounds,
about 6-3 or -4.
Brian Linthicum returns as well as Garrett
Celek, as well as Dion Sims. They played a lot for
us last year, so it's a very good situation.
When you look at us as an offense,
positions of strength would be quarterback, wide
receiver and tight end.
At our running back situation, which I think
last year, when you look at us a little bit, we had
the -- last year when I was sitting and talking to
you, there was no tailback really who had sort of
made his way into that position where he was
considered a full-time starter.
He was going to have to battle. And we
played five tailbacks last year because of it. The
two guys that have emerged, Edwin Baker and
Larry Caper, are guys that were true freshmen last
year getting most of the carries for us. And guys
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that really have will outstanding spring practices
and are really poised for a great year.
So it should give us a great combination in
terms of running and throwing the football, which I
think you have to have great balance as an offense
to be truly successful.
Josh Rouse returns at the F position, the
fullback position, for his fifth year. He was injured
last year and so he redshirted and will come back,
but he will provide a great role in terms of
leadership and development there and should be a
great situation.
Our offensive line also returns three
starters and then also two guys who have limited
starting experience. But D.J. Young has moved to
left tackle. Joe Foreman won't move but will come
back for his third year as a starter at left guard, and
John Stipek has starting position at our center and
played very well last year, and he returns for his
senior season.
Among the others there on the right side,
Chris McDonald, (Jared) McGaha has starting
experience, J'Michael Deane. You've got young
players like Henry Conway, David Barrent, Nate
Klatt, and guys stepping up. A lot of guys are
extremely athletic.
When you combine those guys with the
recruiting class coming in, and what we've seen
from our recruiting classes is about six guys getting
on the field every year, should be very, very
exciting for us.
We've got a top 25 class last year and the
year before. So this will be no different this year.
Some of those guys will find their way on the field.
The last segment, special teams, is really
headed up by Aaron Bates, who has already
punted in more bowl games as a punter than any
punter in the history of Michigan State. I think 37
percent of his punts drop inside the 20. He's our
holder. He's done this for four years. He's a
tremendous competitor and vital part to our football
team.
Alex Shackleton returns as well. His fourth
year as a snapper. And I think one of the biggest
questions you have to ask yourself or we're asking
ourselves as we move forward is the kicking
situation, who will be our kicker, Kevin Muma or
Dan Conroy. Both those guys will find their way in
August, and it's been pretty much even after spring
ball. So it will be interesting to see how that race
takes place. But I feel very, very good about both
those young men.
Special teams goes beyond -- I think it
goes beyond just the kickers the punters and such.
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We have some outstanding young players that will
definitely make their mark. Denicos Allen, a young
player not many have heard about, and Jairus
Jones. But those young men will have a
tremendous season for us in special teams, in role
playing on defense as well.
We have a lot of young players. We are
poised. I believe we'll have a very, very good
football team this year and we look to continue to
compete. This will be a very tough conference as
always, and the margin of error is not very big.
So you've got to be right, you've got to be
right 100 percent of the time.
With that I'll take questions.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. When you look at the kicker
situation I know in the spring you said that
Mike Sadler would get a look. People down in
Alabama -- just got back from a kicking camp --
said consistently putting it in the end zone. Is
he a little bit going to be behind the eight ball,
wanting to redshirt him? Or if he wins it, can
he get it?
COACH DANTONIO: When we took Mike
Sadler last year where he accepted the offer and it
was right at this time last year, to me, it sort of
solidified our kicking game for the next five years.
He's an outstanding punter. Bates will punt for us.
We hope to redshirt him. But if he's the
best, whether it's kicking field goals or kickoffs, he
will be the guy. And Mike is a tremendous
complement to our recruiting class and one of the
most outstanding kickers in this country.
It will be interesting to watch.
Q. People have talked about the
rivalries, keeping the rivalries intact already
with the new conference divisions. What are
your thoughts on keeping the games with like
Penn State at the end of the season and
making sure those traditions stay?
COACH DANTONIO: Well, I think, every
team has rivalries. I think it's good for college
football. It's good for our fans. And I'm sure all
those things will be taken into consideration when
they're making these decisions.
But you may be in one conference -- one
division of six and six, but you're going to play
across that division. And inevitably you're going to
play everybody. So I'm sure that will take place.
But I think it's good for college football, obviously,
and we always welcome the opportunity to play our
rivals.
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Q. How impressive is Ohio State's run,
like five straight championships either shared
or outright been? Do you see this as a year
they get knocked off? How do you see the
thing, the sizing up there?
COACH DANTONIO: I think when you
look at any conference, you look at the team that
has won most consistently in that conference and
you try and sort of set aim on that, try to get to a
level to be able to play with that type of football
team. We don't play them this year, so I may not
be quite as qualified to talk about them as some
others.
But certainly when you look at Ohio State
through the past number of years, you know, they
have unprecedented success. And they have a
program in place. They have great recruiting area
in the state of Ohio, and I think that just translates
into great success. Coach (Jim) Tressel does an
outstanding job, and I'm sure we all know that
here.
Q. Could you talk a little bit more in
detail about improving the past events from
last season, what have you seen this spring
and generating a pass rush coverage, et
cetera?
COACH DANTONIO: When you look at
our pass rush last year, we did come up with
sacks. We had 36 sacks last year, which was
second in the conference. But there's a lot of third
down and passing situations where we were able
to get those.
What we have to get better at, I think, is
transitioning from those run pass-downs, those
first, second downs where we're in a base defense
and we have to transition our defensive line into
attacking or pressuring the quarterback a little bit
more.
From a secondary standpoint, a linebacker
standpoint, all of this when you talk about defense,
you don't say, hey, just the defensive line stops the
run. It's the secondary as well as the defensive
line and linebackers hand-in-hand run pass.
But when you look at us in the secondary,
we've got to make a play on the deep ball. We've
got to come up with the ball when we have an
opportunity to. We have to come away with more
turnovers, we have to eliminate big plays.
I think these things I'm sure everybody in
this meeting here knows about. But how we're
going to get to that, you know, our players have to
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make plays and we have to put them in situations overconfident. We have some things that we need
that allow them to do that. to prove. I think that's very evident.
But from the spring, I think we've had a And we've lost some close games. I think
great spring, and we've really tried to pinpoint what last year we lost five games. We were either
was the problem, critique it and move forward and leading or right there with five minutes to go in the
try and address those issues and put a point of game. So we lost five of those. Some other ones
emphasis there. So I think we're going to be very went our way. But, as I said, the margin of error is
good at that. It's easy to say here right at the very, very small here. So we need to move
podium. We've got to do it on the field. forward. I like our players' attitudes. I've said that
at the very beginning.
Q. Would you classify yourselves now THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.
as a 3-4 defense, or is that just part of what FastScripts by ASAP Sports
you're going to be doing this year?
COACH DANTONIO: I think that's part of
what we do and what we'll be doing. We'll try and
transition a little bit more towards doing that on run
pass-downs, first and second down.
But the bottom line is we want to put our
best players on the field at the same time. From a
linebacker position, it's going to be a position of
strength for us on defense. We have four starters
back. We also have young players like Max
Bullough and William Gholston, who I think are
going to play for us. You take those two guys and
try to implement defenses that allowed us to have
four linebackers on the field. Certainly 3-4 lends to
that.
We'll see how that goes as we move
forward. But we want to -- I think as a defensive
coach I've always tried to say we need to be
simple but comprehensive. We need to be able to
cover all the bases at once, but still allow our
players to play fast, which means we have to keep
it simple.

Q. How do you go about managing

expectations and keeping from being
overconfident, being really excited where the
team is as a coach and coaching staff with your
group of players?
COACH DANTONIO: There's no reason
to be overconfident. I think we have a lot of
players back. I know we said 16 maybe full-time
starters, but when you look at us we have 50-plus
lettermen back and we have 30 players who have
started for us or played in and out of the situations
throughout the entire year.
So we have a lot of experience back. I
think that speaks to our leadership as a program
and as a team right now. It comes from, as I said,
the ground level being our players. But from the
way our players have worked thus far and winter
workouts, spring practice and now summer
conditioning, it would not seem that we're

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