Blue White Illustrated

N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 7 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 P O S T G A M E P R E S S E R On the defense's performance: I think Brent Pry has done a great job all year long, as well as the defensive staff and then the players. We had some questions marks going into the season. We had some challenges early in the season with depth at the linebacker po- sition with injuries. Tonight was a men- tal toughness game and physical toughness game, and that's where we've been all year long. There's been some adversity that's hit with the linebacker unit and O-line unit. It's been a next- man-in mentality with no excuses. We're going to make a way or find a way, and I'm really proud of how the guys handled all those things. On how he felt when the team was up 9-0: I felt pretty good. … I think the weather was factored in for both teams. That opening-possession fumble wasn't ideal. We've had a number of situations this year where I guess some teams, coaches and coaching staffs could panic. We've just been in this sit- uation so many times that the players believe in each other and in the coaches, and the coaches believe in the guys. We're going to battle for four quarters. This is a crazy game. I think we've all seen this across the country the past couple of weeks. It's not always going to be pretty and you're going to have to play for four quarters. The Big Ten is a difficult conference, and one can make the argument that it's the best confer- ence in college football right now. We don't ever expect it to be easy. We ex- pect to go and fight four quarters to see what happens. On whether the blocked punt helped open up the game: I don't know about that. Obviously whenever you block a punt in a game, if you look at the statistics, if you get a punt blocked against you or you block a punt, that has a real way of just swinging a game. I think that factored in. I love seeing all of these young players step- ping up and making plays on special teams for us. Cam Brown, Aaron Mon- roe and obviously Juwan Johnson has been doing some things. It's been great. Obviously those guys have tremendous length and athleticism and use their length. Obviously it had a factor in the game. More than anything, I'm just happy to see these young guys step up and make plays that the team can use to gain confidence from and momentum. On next week's regular-season fi- nale: We have a long bus ride home, so we should have time to digest this. We should have the film graded by the time we get home and then we can get started on Michigan State. Everyone saw today what Michigan State was able to do. They're a tough team and have been a touch team for a long time. Coach Dan- tonio has done a great job for a long time and they have talent. We're going to have to have a great week of practice.

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