Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

Michigan State Head Coach Bobby Williams
Michigan State vs. Michigan
November 3, 2001

"What a win. That was a huge win for this program. When you look at the play of our football team, they performed. The defense played extremely well and I was really proud of the way they stood up in there. It was an outstanding job by the coaching staff and making the adjustments, to our personnel, which gave us a chance to be successful. The play by our special teams really created the positive field position that we needed throughout the entire game especially late when we got the kick-off return. Then the drive by the offense at the end. They made several plays. Jeff Smoker really hung in there after being sacked so many times and came back, showing his toughness. You have to look at what we got accomplished in the running game. I don't think there has even been an MSU back go over 200 yards against a Michigan defense."

On the MSU offense:
"You have to give a lot of credit to the offensive line, the tight ends, our receivers and the way they played, the way they blocked in the running game and then the way T.J. ran. He ran like a big-time back today-broke a lot of tackles, showed some speed and really made a lot of plays for us today."

After the game:
"I ran on the field, the whole team ran on the field. I thought about running out there and jumping on the pile but I said 'no, I better not do that.' So I just watched all those guys jump on each other."

On the final play:
"We had an empty backfield and T.J. was coming on a slant-that was the play we hit it to get the first down before. We came back and Jeff got flushed out of the pocket and threw back to the end zone and T.J. was there."

On Michigan penalties:
"It was huge. It gave us field position that we needed. That was a tough game to officiate-the emotion on the field, the talking and the extracurricular stuff that goes on. I thought they did a fantastic job."