OPENING STATEMENT:
“This week we are playing one of the most established teams in College football in the past 25-years. They always seem to be in the top-20, top-25, in the rankings and they are very comfortable in being in that role as a football team. It starts with their head coach (Mark Dantonio), a tremendous football coach. Their DNA, they are well-coached, physical football team in all three phases of it. They have played very well on defense in the last couple weeks, offense as well. We faced these guys last year. There are seven guys coming back from the defense side. Offensively, quarterback is getting mixed plays with his legs, they have some receivers that are big and physical. They are a physical football team and that is the conference that they play in and it will be a big test for us as it is the first one on the road.”
 

ON MANDRAKE AND D.J. DAVIDSON PLAY:
“He is a mystical guy, I got the name from Jimmy Hendricks. I was a Jimmy Hendricks fan and went to a concert when I was 13-years-old, believe it or not, the one in Monterrey, California. My babysitter took me when he burnt the guitar up. I became a Jimmy Hendrix fan and followed Jimmy as I was going through college and high school. There was this album cover called Mandrake and I always remembered that name, Mandrake. As I got to coaching, I said there has to be this player, that does everything. It was kind of a little of a fun deal, kind of started for me in Tampa with Lynch and those guys. I would always tell them, ‘I am in search for Mandrake during the draft.’ When I took this job, Lynch tells me, ‘You find Mandrake yet?’ and I said: ‘No, I have not found him yet.’ It became one of those deals and all of sudden I just said let us do something kind of special for players that play well and we win. Let us give him an award. We do not do things on the sidelines like colleges do. Let us give him an award within inside the team and I came up with this guy. We got pictures and sat down with a couple of the artists and said this is the image that I see in this guy. I said he should be in a black helmet, with a shield and a black jersey. Two weeks in a row has been pretty good, we have two Mandrakes. It is a big Mandrake this week. D.J. (Davidson), he played really well. He is getting better. He is fun to watch and he got hurt last year at the USC game. He has come back to be a really good football player and he is trending up. He is going to have to play good for us this week. That is for sure.”

ON HOW IMPORTANT IT IS FOR TEAM TO FIND RHYTHM EARLY AGAINST MICHIGAN STATE:
“This defense is pretty, it really is. It does not give you a lot of room. Whether you are running the football or throwing the football. I think patience is going to be the key just like last year. It was not an offensive juggernaut game for either side. It was kind of one of those tight games and we were fortunate enough to make some plays in the red zone. We got some turnovers, we turned one over too going the other way. We had the ball in the end. We made a couple plays and we were able to kick a field goal. That was the kind of game it was, that was the kind of game that I envisioned it to be. This game will be a little bit different because we are on the road. They are going to have a packed crowd, be excited. We have to learn to play on the road and this is our first test. We have a lot of young guys and it will be interesting to see how they will react because we have been at home for the first two games and now we have to go on the road.”

ON SELF-ASSESSMENT OF TEAM’S IDENTITY:
“Right now, defensively we have done some things pretty good. We have allowed 14 points in two games. I do know if you could do that, you have a chance to be in every game, right? We play a different opponent, but right now defensively, we are doing some things pretty good. We have to get after the quarterback more. Offensively, we are trying to find our identity. We have a bunch of young guys, we have done a lot of things with the offensive line as you guys know. That is just the way it is right now, not a lot of depth there. The depth that is there are freshman players and we are going to be forced to play some of those guys. With that, then you have to figure out what you want to become. We are not the same offense we were last year. For certain reasons and I am not going to get in to that but we are just not. You always have this mindset of what you want to be until you start playing. You evaluate and you assess what you have. The most important thing is allowing the players to have success and not let our egos get in our way of saying I want to do this when you are putting players in positions where they are not comfortable. I think when we assess that, we will find out more about our offense.”
 

ON IF IMPROVEMENTS ON OFFENSIVE LINE WILL HELP TEAM FIND IDENTITY:
“There are ways that you can help it, too. We have to be smart enough to realize that, too and what we are trying to do schematically. Can those players do that and then who is the opponent. You are playing a big physical football team upfront with seven veterans guys who have played defense. They play in a conference where everything is contested. Every yard, every pass. They are a heavy-handed team, they play heavy football. They are athletic and play heavy. You have to realize that when you play them and you have to ask yourself, ‘What can we do to use our athleticism in certain positions to counter that.’ That is the greatness about football, there are all these moving parts and you have to come up with a game plan that allows your players to have success.”

ON ANY LEARN-YOUR-LESSON MOMENTS THROUGH COACHING CAREER:
“I was fortunate enough to play for a great coach in Dick Vermeil. I learned from him, just being a player on how he would do things. What he would say and from there, working with Marty (Schottenheimer) and working with Tony Dungy. We came in the league together, our history is well documented. Then I always look at myself as a player when I decide things. When coaches start deciding things, I go, okay that is nice for us to say in a nice air-conditioned room because we stay in here more than these players. But what can the players do? Then I look through the players eyes and go like, ‘nope, we are not doing that.’ I always guard on the side of the player, because of the player in me. I look through the eyes of those guys and say: ‘What are we asking these guys to do now.’ We are asking them to do something that we can do on the chalkboard. You know chalk always wins. Last guy with the eraser and the pen always wins. But no, look at the tape and who we are playing. All those things come in. How much experience do we have doing that and can this guy do that. You always have to consider that.”

ON HOW TALKS WITH OFFENSIVE COORDINATORS GO:
“Just kind of looking at us and going okay, we have two games under our belt. This is who we are. What can we do to do some things to get our offense going. Can we get some rhythm going here? Now we say that, then you play these guys (Michigan State). That is how it works and what we are going to do. I think we were here Sunday, we were here Saturday and we talked about it. We were here for a long time. Hopefully, we have came up with some-what of plan that we feel like we can implement going forward to help us. We will see.”

ON CLEANING UP LITTLE THINGS WEEK TO WEEK:
“You make a great point. Even though it was not fun, two touchdowns came off the board. One being the fumble at the one yard line going in and the other one was a penalty. If we would have scored, then we would have 33 points. We would have had 30 points in our first game and 33 points in our second game, while only giving up 14 points combined in both games. Everybody would be thinking we are doing okay. But, when that does not happen, a cloud becomes part of it. You can not worry about it. I have been around this too long that I am not fazed by any of that. You just coach. I am an optimist. That is my personality. That is who I am. I am a caring person, I care. It is very hard for me to go to the dark side. I do not dwell on that side of it because it is no fun. So, you try to fix things. I think there are moments when we are impressed, but we need to have more moments. Sometimes it can be the call, or put the players in a bad situation, but a lot of times it is just the fundamentals of football. If you watch the tape, it is more of us than them. Maybe we could have called a better play. But, it is better to get 2 yards than losing 3 yards. Offense is funny because it is predicted on moving the ball. If you get caught calling plays, one does not work, fix it on the sideline, you never come back to it, and you try another play and that does not work, then you should go back to the original play that you fixed to see if it worked. Sometimes the game does not allow you to do that because you lose track with what you are doing. Then, nothing works. Running is hard. It is not pretty. Not everyone is happy about it, but you can not throw ten passes in a row and say we can not run. Running is hard. I said it early that teams are going to stack the box. They will put eight guys up there. Until you start hitting some passes, they will stay up there. We have to be able to do that.”

ON UNDERDOG TEAMS PLAYING BETTER:
“Well, if you listen to perception, every player looks at it a little different. These players have information because it is all on their phone. I do not plan to that scenario. I do not live in that world. I do not watch television or pick up phones. I do not listen to any of that. The only time I listen to something is when Mark (Brand) tells me I need to do something. I do not know what you folks write or what you say. You do your jobs and I am good whether you like me or not. I do not take it personal. You can have your opinions and write them. But, what I focus on what we have to do and I have to do to help our players and coaches. That is my job. That was the only job I was hired to do here. Nothing else. That is why I come to work everyday. Coaches feel bad too. They are human because they understand when it is not going good. It can be either side of the ball or a position coach. They feel the same thing that the players feel. They take on that burden of the player because they are the coach. So, it is up to me to make sure I tell the coach what we will work on. I am petting a lot of guys. I am patting a lot of guys on the back right now because that is what I have to do. You do not give up and say that you are not going to talk to someone because they did not play well that week. That is silly. You just coach because we are all in this together.”

ON THINGS THAT NEED TO BE CLEANED UP HEADING INTO WEEK THREE:
“Defensively, we have had some lackadaisical moments when we have given up some plays at the end of games. We have been pretty good through three quarters and then something happens. Offensively, it just has not been consistent since week one. The second half of our first game we kind of got going. This past game was a struggle. We moved the ball and got it into scoring position, but then there was a foul or something that kicked us back. It was one of those games in which the tape was hard to look at. Watching breakdown after breakdown, I was thinking if we were asking them to do something that they were incapable of doing. Now, we are going to play a legitimate football team. They are good and they are going to stop you. Sometimes you will do everything right and they will still beat you. You can not worry about that because that is football. We have to look at ourselves schematically to see if we are asking our guys to do something that they are incapable of doing. That is what you have to stay away from.”

ON HOW OFFENSE SEARCHES FOR IDENTITY:
“I know at the level I competed at and coached at, it is all about that. It is about how mentally tough you are and how willing you are to weather things when they do not go well. I was not the most talented guy when I played, but I was a smart player and had good instincts. I was really good when it came to mental toughness because that was just me. I learned that at a young age when I grew up. When you get to be my age, you have heard almost everything and you have seen a lot in your eyes. I almost laugh inside and think that these people do not know who I am and how I am made. The players and people that have known me over the history of being who I am know how I am. The more I can walk that path in front of the players and coaches, then hopefully they will draw from that because they look at me. They watch what I say and watch how I act. I am not going to crack. I have seen some good times and I have seen some very low times. I am not going to change who I am. Sometimes that is what you need when you are in tough spots. I say that because we are 2-0 and we are struggling a bit on offense. We all know that. That is not unusual. In football, you are always struggling. Every week there is a different group that you are trying to fix. That is just football. It is never perfect. You are always trying to fix a group and then keep some groups humble. That is the great thing about football and coaching. Every week, even when you win, someone is a little bit disappointed. How do you get them up? How do you lift them up? The guys that are doing good need to stay humble because it is going to come. How do you react to that? Hopefully they will take a page out of my book and know that I will never panic, never throw any player or coach under the bus, and we are going to try to stick together as a football team. We will try to get better every week. We are a young football team. I can not say it enough. I get that part of it. I am not going to deny it or run from it. When errors happen or when things are not going well, I get it. But, they will get better. That is what I truly believe. That is how I coach."