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C O A C H S P E A K • E X C E R P T S F R O M J A M E S F R A N K L I N ' S W E E K L Y P R E S S E R You and others have talked about not allowing a loss to linger. What have you seen from your players and coaches in the past 10 days on that front? Obviously, it hurts. It hurts our fans, it hurts our coaches, it hurts our players. I think the last thing you want to do is ig- nore that. You recognize that. You watch the film. You evaluate the film, you make the corrections and you move forward. The thing that I've been really harping on to the team this week is really two things: No. 1, we're at a point in our pro- gram where we have to fight for every lit- tle gain we possibly can find, and it's not going to be in one specific area. Can we improve 1 percent in nutrition? Can we improve 1 percent in sleep? Can we im- prove 1 percent in scheme. Can we im- prove 1 percent in terms of practice, effort and focus, in meetings, in taking notes and all those types of things? Because that's really where we're at. So we spend a lot of time talking about that, and challenging each coach, includ- ing myself and the players, to all look at it that way. How can we get 1 percent better in multiple areas? There's tremendous value in that. So that's been one thing. The other thing – and this I know has been helpful to me and helpful to our players and our coaches – is that I think for the people who study our program closely – the media, our fans, our coach- ing staff and our players – it's always got to start with a simple question, and that is: Have we gotten better? I know we did not finish the [Ohio State] game the way anybody wants us to finish the game. I get that. But OK, we understand that. We study that. We learn from that. We grow from that. But let's go back to that first question: Did we get better from week one to two? Yes? Did we get better from week two to week three? We've gotten better every single week. If we continue to do that in- dividually and collectively, I think we'll like where we're going to be. You know, those are things that we can control. There are other things outside of our control. Do I think some of those things probably helped this week? Yeah. We didn't do this as coaches, but our players were able to sit around and watch college football all day, and a lot of teams across the country got beat. Me and my wife were talking, and we were saying, is there a way to get every single team in the country to lose this week- end? I don't know if that's mathemati- cally possible, but me and my wife were trying to come up with a way for that to happen. I know our players sat around watching college football, and a lot of teams got beat. A lot of teams got upset. So the thing that we can control, which is getting 1 percent better in multiple areas – that's all of us, players, coaches and everybody as a program – is something we can focus on. I don't think there are too many peo- ple out there who could argue different, that we haven't gotten better every single week. So those are the things that we can con- trol, and that's what our focus is going to be. And then all the other things that are outside of our control, we're going to try not to listen to those things and we're going to try not to focus on those things and we're going to focus on our process. Michigan State's quarterback, Brian Lewerke, had a pretty big game against you last year. What do you think are a couple of keys trying to defend him better this year? I think obviously his mobility is a major factor. [It's important to] take some of those easy throws away from him, keep him in the pocket so he can't extend plays. So I think getting pressure is great, but [the pressure has to] keep him in the pocket, so that he can't extend plays, [be- cause] it's difficult to cover anybody for that long. I think that's the biggest thing. If you look back with Coach Dantonio over his career, they always want to establish the run, and when they are able to do both, they are difficult to defend. But I think with their quarterback, I think the biggest thing is to make him hold onto the ball and try to keep him in the pocket. Obviously, our contain rush- ers cannot allow him to break contain and get on the perimeter, where now he can hurt you by running the ball, or now our defensive backs have to cover for an ex- tended period of time, which is always challenging. What has stood out most to you about Pat Freiermuth so far, and how quickly has he been able to pick things up as both a receiver and a blocker? I think the thing that we noticed pretty quickly is that the stage just isn't too big for him. It hasn't been [too big] in the weight room. It hasn't been in practice. It hasn't been in meetings. You never know when the lights come on, but it hasn't seemed to be there, as well. He's a very confident guy. He's a very poised guy. He's physical. That's something that we have shown the team, examples of big runs and big plays that he's had where he's pan- caked people. He's playing really well right now. But we also have a lot of confidence in our other tight ends, as well. A couple of those guys have been banged up or had some injuries and things like that. It's great having [Nick] Bowers back. We think those two guys are a really nice complement. We felt like [Jonathan] Holland had a re- ally good off-season and summer camp. So being able to get him back, as well [is important]. We're expecting to get all these guys back this week, and Danny Dalton has done some really nice things for us. I think it's a really good unit, and we have enough depth there so that when we do have a bump or bruise or whatever it may be, we have enough depth there that guys can step in and get the job done for us. I'm pleased with how Coach [Ricky] Rahne recruited that position when he was coaching there, and I think Tyler Bowen has come in and done a nice job with his O-line background at that posi- tion, too. Been very pleased with him and the whole group. How has Michigan State been so good against the run? Are they doing some- thing that you notice that really im- presses you in that area? I think the biggest thing is up front. Their D-tackles and their D-ends are big, are strong, are physical, are very, very ag- gressive. They have got the two Panasiuk boys inside who we recruited who are O C T O B E R   1 0 ,   2 0 1 8 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 10

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