Oct. 30, 2004

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

Michigan State Head Coach John L. Smith

On the game ... "There's not a lot to say, other than you have to give them credit. They're a great football team; they've got some great athletes. When it came down to having to make plays to win it at the end, they made the plays. They won it and we didn't make the plays to win. But I'm proud of our guys. We played a good football team and we played well. At times we made some mistakes, but for the most part we controlled the football game. But when it came time to win it at the end, they got a lot of momentum there."

On the loss of Drew Stanton ... "He's your leader, he's the guy that's really done a lot of good things for us lately. He had a spark and we were rolling. That's the game of football, the second-team guy has to be ready to come in and I thought he came in and did a good job. He performed well. He gave us opportunities to win. We just had to make the plays."

On moving on from the loss ... "There's no consoling. We're going to take a look at it tomorrow. We're going to come back and go to work. For them to lose this game the way they did, we're going to kick ourselves, and they are and we are as coaches."

MSU Sophomore Quarterback Drew Stanton

On having to leave the game ... "I got hit and landed on my shoulder. I don't really know what the injury is yet. I have to wait until tomorrow to get re-evaluated. It's just real hard because I want to be out there. I felt like we were gaining momentum the whole time."

On what his absence is going to mean to the team ... "It's not going to mean anything because Damon showed that he can play. Now he needs to step up and be the leader. And today we showed that we can play with anyone in this league."

On the emotions he experienced as Damon Dowdell took over ... "I couldn't really go out there and do anything, but at the same time, Damon went out there and did everything that was asked of him. He moved the chains, but unfortunately we didn't get it done when it counted."

MSU Senior Guard William Whitticker

On Drew Stanton's injury ... "It didn't affect us that much emotionally. We just wanted to go out there and play hard for Drew and Damon. He got out there and helped us put up over 500 total yards offense. We just have to step it up and play hard against Ohio State."

On the difference between this year and two years ago ... "A loss is a loss. Two years ago we didn't have a good game. We got killed two years ago, but this year we just couldn't finish it off. With that offense of ours, they had nothing for us. They couldn't stop us."

On how difficult it was keeping things together without Drew ... "It wasn't that difficult. We know we can come back in with a second quarterback, and with him, we can do the job too. He prepares every week just like Drew does."

Michigan Head Coach Lloyd Carr

On what this game means ... "There are so many heroes. When we look at this game on film there are going to be a lot of things from a technical standpoint that we did not do particularly well. I think this game speaks to the spirit of this stadium, to the tradition, and this rivalry. Michigan State was an unbelievable foe today, they gave everything they had and anybody who saw this game either in this stadium or across the country on television saw one of the greatest football games, in my opinion, ever played. When you look at the drama of the fourth quarter and the overtime and all of the plays, it's going to go down as one of the great games in the history of the Big Ten Conference."

On his mind set in the fourth quarter being down 17 points ... "As a coach you are always thinking about what we have to do, we were talking about getting down to the two minute mark and I was thinking about when we were going to use our timeouts. And then they broke that play and I think the truth is it was not a good moment. When you think about all of the alternatives as a coach one of the things you have to do is continue to convince your guys they can win. I knew we still had enough time, but we had to hit some big plays. I told them, `Look, what we have got to do is score fast.' And I was talking to the kickoff return team and then the ball went over Breaston's head. When they got that bounce that is when I thought everything was going their way. But then we hit a couple big plays and got down there and got back into the game."

On the team's resilience ... "We talked at the half and we hit that field goal in the second quarter to make it a seven point game. I told them we are going to kick off into the wind, we have to hang in there and get them stopped. We probably won't have great field position. Then we put a great drive together and turned the ball over deep into their territory. We went into the fourth quarter and they got a field goal to make it 20-10. We talk all of the time about how if you are going to be a championship football team, you have to be able to play and win the fourth quarter. Most of these games today in this conference are going to go down to the fourth quarter. There are so many guys that made so many plays, particularly Garrett Rivas. If he misses a single kick we are not talking about a win."

On Braylon Edwards ... "With the exception of one great drive for a touchdown, we did not do much of anything for the first three quarters. We had a hard time protecting the quarterback and we had too many sacks. There is no question that Braylon made plays he has to make or we don't win. Those were great catches. All three of those catches were plays where the defender was in pretty good position. It wasn't like we just ran by somebody. Michigan State's secondary was right where it needed to be. Henne made some great throws and Braylon made some great plays."