March 12, 2007

Watch the Press Conference

MODERATOR: The Spartans open spring football practice on Tuesday, March 20 and conclude spring drills with the spring game on Saturday, April 21 at 1:30 p.m. Here to talk about his objectives this spring, first year MSU head coach Mark Dantonio.

COACH DANTONIO: First of all, I want to congratulate our basketball team, Tom Izzo and our players, on making its 10th straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. I think that's a tremendous accomplishment. From what I understand, it's the fifth-longest streak in the NCAA currently.

In terms of goals, I'll just be very forward in how we're approaching this spring. We've got an agenda, and we've got a mission. We've got to take small steps. We move forward at a very small pace sometimes. Sometimes, you see things moving ahead. Other times, you see it sort of stagnant, and perhaps even taking a step backwards.

Our goals: No. 1, we want to continue to build relationships and trust among our players. It's also about attitude. We've tried to work on that from a standpoint of getting to know our players. I think that's first and foremost what we had to accomplish in January.

We've had 11 winter workouts, 5:45 this morning was our latest. I can tell you 5:45 this morning everybody was back for spring practice, spring drills and spring classes.

That was a commitment that every player made. Whether they were coming from Florida, wherever they were coming from, they needed to be back. That was a commitment they made to the football team in general. From that standpoint, we were very, very pleased. There were no excuses. None were offered.

I think sometimes you look at recruiting lists, and you look at opportunities for people to go wherever they're being recruited. You have a guy - a so called five star player - has an opportunity to go play at University X. This is what I'm talking about in terms of trust, relationships and attitudes, I think sometimes people fixate on that individual as a player and only look at one aspect of that individual.

When they come to a university, how they handle adversity, what kind of relationships will they have with their peers, are they willing to work through tough, tough times? Those are all the intangibles that you gain from knowing the person. Just when you hire a reporter, you don't look for a guy that just as ability and then say, what kind of person is he going to be. It takes relationships, trust within the organization. Those are things that need to be built. Those are the things that we will continue to move forward on. But that's objective number one, continue to build those relationships and trust factor.

No. 2, implement the system. We need to start at Point A and build. Vocabulary, you know, just talking with safeties, talking with defensive players, talking with offensive players. The entire vocabulary is changing. While there are still some things that remain basic for a football player and a football team, so many of those vocabulary and terminology issues are going to be changed this spring.

We have to start from a very basic block and begin to build. That's going to take a little bit of time. We need to implement our offense, defense, special teams as a base and build on top of that.

The third thing, we need to evaluate player ability, character and work ethic. Certainly, their ability as a player is crucial. There will be no formal depth chart as spring practice opens. What I said when I came in here was that everybody would have an opportunity. We would begin to formulate who people are, what they can do based on what they do in spring drills, based on what they do off the field, based on what they do in all of the other areas.

Then, we'll formulate who is on what depth chart as we go through, who is first team, second team, third team and so on. I think to sit here and say we have a first team quarterback, first team linebacker at this point in time doesn't send the right message to our football team. Every position is up for grabs. Certainly, there are some guys who have proven their worth. We've watched the game films and there are certain people you know are going to be in the lineup, but there are other aspects of the program that are still really up in the air.

We'll hand out a roster and we'll begin to make those assumptions as we move forward. But we want to find the players that can play, obviously.

The last thing, I think that we need to try and establish this spring is finding the impact player. What player can impact our football team, then figure out ways to feature those players. I know when I was here in 1999, Julian Peterson was a guy that was an impact player. Again, figure out ways to use him in a defensive scheme. We need to find out who those impact players are throughout spring practice, figure out ways to feature them, then build our program from there.

Where we're at right now, we're wrapping up winter workouts, the fourth-quarter program as we call it. We have sort of a system in place. I think it's a pyramid of success for us. Right now, at the bottom of the pyramid stands five blocks. One of those blocks is our fourth quarter program, run by our coaches. That has to be a foundation of who we are, we've got to be able to come through that process and be able to begin to build there, put a strong foundation under that.

The next foundation, next block of success, would be our spring practice, what are we going to do there to formulate who we are. That's got to be our next block. The next one is summer conditioning, then fall practice, then our first game.

It just doesn't happen that you just go out and play. Everybody in America now is going through this process. Many people start spring practice about the time we do. We're starting early this year. The NCAA has passed new rules. We'll take five weeks to go through 15 practices during spring ball. That's a long time, but that should be a good time to evaluate, implement, critique, reassess all those things as we move forward.

We have the first two practices next Tuesday and Wednesday. They're both in shorts. After that, we have a clinic put on by the Michigan State High School Coaches Association on Friday and Saturday. Friday will be the first opportunity to practice in pads. We'll have high school coaches from around the state here all weekend.

Dean Pees is the featured speaker, by the way. Dean was here as defensive coordinator for Nick Saban through 1997. Now, he's the defensive coordinator with the New England Patriots and does an outstanding job. I think he'd be a guy you'd be interested in talking with.

The fourth-quarter program is just finishing up. We have NFL Pro Day on Wednesday. Pro Day will be for outgoing seniors and I think that would be something that the media would be interested in covering as well.

Spring quarter classes: I think we're amiss if we don't talk and focus on going to class, being academically sound as well. Everybody else on this campus is doing the same thing.

I think it's important we also integrate our new commitments. We'll have our new committed players coming to practices. A lot of them are coming to the spring game. I think it's important we integrate them into our football team and bring them in, let them meet our team, let them meet our families. I still haven't met a lot of our players' families that are currently here. I now our recruits' families better than I know our own players' families. We need to do that.

All those things are still taking place. We're still at the very, very beginning of who we are as a football program and we will just continue to stack the bricks on top of each other, continue to build that road to success.

Next week starts spring ball and it ought to be exciting for us. We gave our players a week off over spring break. I think everybody came back with an attitude.

The fourth-quarter program, everybody gets to go out and run. Everybody gets a chance to indulge themselves in that. You get a chance to see their attitude and work ethic when they're pushed.

Now, we'll have a chance to look at the players when they have to stand on the sideline or maybe they don't get the ball thrown to them, they don't get to run the ball, they're not making the tackle. We'll get a chance to see how they're going to handle themselves when truly adverse situations come to them. It has nothing to do with being on the field; it has to do with right here, has to do with right here. Where are they at in terms of team, with a focus of who they are as people, because I do believe that you win with people.

The last thing we'll do this spring is try to get as many juniors up here for practice as we can. We have to use spring ball as a recruiting tool. We'll get our top juniors up here on campus, show them who we are as people, show them our facilities, what we're trying to do here to move forward, to progress towards a championship.

Without taking anything away from our basketball program there, I just want to end it right there and answer any questions that anybody has. We can be more specific at this point.

Q. Do you plan to experiment with position changes this spring?
COACH DANTONIO: We will have an opportunity to look at different players in different positions. I think that's what spring ball is always for: to change people around, move in a different direction a little bit and to give people opportunities.

You'll see some different players out there at different positions. Obviously, we don't use the bandit position. That's just a little bit of a glorified outside linebacker or glorified defensive back, depending on what formation you're in.

We'll use a Will linebacker, Sam linebacker and Mike linebacker. Some of those players will move into those positions or into a safety position. We're obviously going to utilize some two tight-end situations. We can move the guy or leave the fullback stationary sometimes. We need to put people in those positions to also help.

There will be some guys moving around. The offensive line, I think is pretty much interwoven there. You'll definitely see some guys playing different positions.

Q. Talk about players that you'll be evaluating at the fullback position.
COACH DANTONIO: Dwayne Holmes will be moved (from tight end) to fullback. Right now, Jeff McPherson has been moved (from linebacker) to fullback. Jeff played a lot last year on punt team. I think those two are the guys right now that stick out at fullback. We also recruited a couple guys for that position.

That's a position that will move forward as we progress. You're always going to put your best players on the field, and let them do what they do best. We'll move forward with that whole dynamics of our offense and defense as we see our players in action. We're always going to put the best players on the field.

Q. Talk about your outside linebackers.
COACH DANTONIO: SirDarean Adams is now a Will linebacker, and so is Tom Dance. Those guys can definitely run. I remember when I was at Ohio State, we had Cie Grant at cornerback one year and the next year, he played Will linebacker. He had a tremendous year and was drafted in the fourth round.

One thing, we want to make sure that we have guys in that position who can run, guys who can blitz, guys that cover some, but guys that can move and fly around the football.

Q. Typically, there's attrition following a coaching change. Have you lost any players? COACH DANTONIO: Right now, we've had a couple of individuals that sort of have been held out, but we have not lost anybody. Nobody has transferred, and nobody has quit the team. I'm just going to let you guys figure that out.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH DANTONIO: I want to come in the program trying to give everybody opportunities and embrace everybody. As I said the first day I came here, change is very difficult on people. I think we all need to understand what people are going through and try to work towards success.

Success is going to involve everybody, not just the guy playing on the field, it is going to be the guy behind him, who is his best friend. How are you treating him? I think that makes a statement to those individuals that are playing as well. We're going to give everybody an opportunity. That's why I don't want any depth chart right now. I just want everybody to feel like it's open. When it's open, there's opportunity.

Q. Can you identify players that have stood out during the winter conditioning program?
COACH DANTONIO: A lot of guys have been impressive. Otis Wiley, Ross Weaver and Travis Key impress in the secondary. We've got some guys that can run at linebacker. We have a lot of different guys at linebacker, but they all move pretty good. From the defensive line, Justin Kershaw has had a good start to the spring in the fourth-quarter program.

On the offensive line, quite a few guys need to stay healthy there. Brian Hoyer has done some nice things. The thing that I like right now that I see is our attitude. Our attitude is strong right now. But, like I keep saying, we're on the honeymoon. There's going to be adversity, there's going to be growing pains. We're all going to get those. There's going to be decisions made, people that are both happy and sad. It's going to be how we handle all those situations.

Q. How much of spring practice will be open to the media?
COACH DANTONIO: You'll be invited to practice, but I'll ask you to leave when we start doing team things. You will be invited to practice to watch individual drills, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to see a little bit of what's going on. I really feel like we need to sort of guard a little bit what we're doing from a team perspective, for the sake of ourselves but also for the sake of our players, too. I don't want to put them in situations where you're asking: why are you not playing or why are you playing? You will be given opportunities to see an entire practice before the spring is done, as well.

Q. What kind of shape did you find your team in during winter conditioning?
COACH DANTONIO: Well, if you don't do too much for two months, I'd say we were not in running condition. I'd say we're farther along now. I think in terms of mental toughness, we're growing. You know, I don't see anybody begging out.

I like where we're at. I like our attitude. We grade every single workout. We're going to grade the workout and determine whether it's either a Big Ten championship workout as an individual. If you're a player, you get a grade. You can get an injured grade while working for the goal, or you can get a losing grade, or you get an average grade or you can get a winning or national championship grade. Every day, we're going to evaluate every single player on our team, from top to bottom, and give them a grade.

I like where our players are attitude wise. A lot of it is attitude and character under duress. I like where our guys are at.

Q. Will your players hit during spring practice?
COACH DANTONIO: Absolutely. We'll tackle in spring ball.

Q. How do you identify impact players?
COACH DANTONIO: If you don't have an impact player, you try to get everybody else to play up. We've got to find guys. Everybody has talents and we need to feature their talents. We need to find those players. They will come either from within or from outside the program. But we'll get there. We'll get there.

And Julian Peterson: how many people heard of Julian before he got here? He was just a guy coming out of junior college. We recruited him when he was a high school senior. I think it was Syracuse, West Virginia and Michigan State that recruited him in high school.

Some of those guys are made, and some of those guys are found. But we'll get there. I'm confident we have some guys like that currently.

Q. Talk about the depth situation at tight end and fullback.
COACH DANTONIO: At tight end, we have Kellen Davis and Eric Andino, both who have played. Dwayne Holmes has played some at tight end but now, he's a fullback. I also mentioned Jeff McPherson, who has played some linebacker but will now get a look at fullback. We also have three or four guys that have been recruited at those positions. We can place people in there. We can get guys moving.

We also had a couple big offensive linemen that played some tight end in the past here, so they can also fly in there and become a 280 pound guy moving, too. That's always nice, too. But we'll make things work.

Like I said, you have to feature who we have. Until we get out on the field and start evaluating, critiquing everything that we do, it can be a little bit of an unknown.

Q. Have you had an opportunity to evaluate last year's game films?
COACH DANTONIO: Offensively and defensively, we have watched every game, and we have assessed the talent. It's hard to assess because sometimes you see what they're doing, but you don't know really what they are asked to do. But you try and assess: are they able to make a tackle, able to make a play on the ball, their effort, play off the blocks, try and assess their physical ability as much as anything. We've watched them all.

Q. Where does this team rank from a talent standpoint?
COACH DANTONIO: In talking with many people around the Big Ten, our talent level is somewhere in the middle. I didn't play a Big Ten schedule last year, so it's hard for me to assess where the talent level is, but our players feel good about where they're at. To me, that's a huge step because you need to have confidence in yourself.

Q. Can you provide us with an injury update? And what is Bobby Jones' status for spring ball?
COACH DANTONIO: We're not going to talk too much about injuries. We'll evaluate Bobby Jone's situation once he finishes the entire fourth quarter program. Some things have happened in the past, and I want to try to give people opportunities. I want to try and provide people with opportunities to the best of my ability. We're going to evaluate things as we move forward.

Q. Have you been able to identify leaders during the winter conditioning program?
COACH DANTONIO: I think leaders identify themselves and rise to the top. As I said, everybody has had an opportunity to be out there running, working out. Leaders have risen a little bit there.

But I think the true measure is where it's going to be in spring ball, then during the season, during tough times. I think that's what you're going to find out, when we have some tough times. There are some players that have some tough times, whatever the case, we're going to find out.

Q. Will you appoint team captains?
COACH DANTONIO: The team will select the captains. I'll have a vote, just one.

Q. How do you feel about your first recruiting class, in particular Ashton Leggett and Kirk Cousins?
COACH DANTONIO: Very excited. Very excited about all our players. As a matter of fact, I was driving up from Cincinnati yesterday, coming back home from the break. I called every one of those guys, all 21 guys. They're very excited about the opportunity to come here. There's an opportunity to play, there's an opportunity to be involved in something from the ground level, and help build a foundation.

I'm excited about Ashton Leggett and Kirk Cousins. Ashton is a 2,000 yard rusher, who played on a championship team. At 220 pounds, I've never seen anybody catch that guy from behind. I've said it before but Kirk does a lot of things that remind me of Drew Brees. Kirk is 6-3, 180 pounds and plays all sports. He's an excellent student and a very focused individual. He has a very good arm, and he has a knack of delivering the ball from all different angles. I'm very excited about those guys joining our program.

Q. With the coaching transition, what's been the mindset of the team?
COACH DANTONIO: I think my biggest surprise has been how the players have stepped forward in a united way. You don't see people fragmenting, you don't see people hanging on the edge. You see everybody trying to be involved. I think that's a credit to the staff that was here in the past, and I also think that's a credit to Ken Mannie, Mike Vollmar, Dan Enos, the guys who remained here. They've kept the guys tight. I think it's a credit to our players that are forging ahead to try to build something special.

The thing that's been most impressive to me has been the attitude of our team. They've come out and competed. It has not been easy. For those of you who wandered out there for a 5:45 a.m. conditioning workout, it has not been an easy deal. We've pushed them. Basically, I've gone out there and told our coaches to try and break them. Every day, try and break them. What can we figure out this week, today, to break them down, to try to get them to quit the drill. I think that's a positive.

Q. How much emphasis will you place upon special teams?
COACH DANTONIO: I think special teams control the vertical position of the field. That's the biggest, drastic difference maker in the game of football. Obviously, we have a pretty good placekicker (Brett Swenson) and a decent kick-off specialist (Todd Boleski). The punter (Brandon Fields) was decent, but he's gone. We need to have better production from our punt return guy.

On film, I saw a lot of different guys hustling on special teams. A lot of guys played special teams throughout the year. We got a chance to see younger players in action. Now, we'll see some of these guys playing all the time. We got to see them playing on special teams, and I think it's been a good thing.

Certainly, it's a critical part of the success or failure of a football team. We'll spend a lot of time on special teams this spring, working in live situations.

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