Coach Kill - Michigan State Week

COACH KILL:  I guess we'll open it up with we have moved on and working on Michigan State.  Started on that on Sunday and Monday and look forward to practicing.  We're going to play a great, great football team, a tremendous defensive football team.  I think they're No. 2 in the country right now, and rightfully so.  Very, very, very athletic, and we have our work cut out for us.  We've been hard at preparation, and hopefully we can execute and do some good things.  But it will be a great challenge for our football team, a very, very physical football team.

So that's where we'll leave it, and I'll take any questions.

Q.  Is there a noticeable difference with the guys after the result Saturday?

COACH KILL:  Well, I'll know a little bit more today.  We came in Sunday, and as a coaching staff, we didn't approach it much differently than we've approached it for the last whatever.  We come in, and I told them here's some things we did to win the game, and here's why we won the game, but here's all the things why we could have lost the game.  And so these are things we've got to get corrected.

 Then I came in and watched the special teams with all our special teams group, pointed out the great execution and the execution that needed to be better, and defense and offense did the same thing, and they'll get talked to today about many things that we need to improve on each individual this week, and we go to work, pretty much like we have all the time.  I think you have to be consistent in what you do.

But I think that certainly I see more of it on Saturday, having a smile on their face and feeling good.  I don't think anybody would ever say that that's not happened.  That's a natural process, and hopefully, again, we build on it.  But I think we also know the huge challenge each week in the Big Ten and where we're at, so you get to enjoy it, and I'm sure they have for a while, but it's back to work, and got to move on to the next one.


 
 
 

 Q.  Last year they had two in a row, and it kind of seemed like one carried over into the other.  Is that possible, other than the smiles you're talking about, the feeling good, the confidence?
COACH KILL:  Well, it's a different season, different schedule, different deal.  I mean, I hope so.  I hope so.  But that's why we've got to go play Saturday.  But again, we're playing a football team that -- I mean, you put the film on, film don't lie.  So we're playing a group -- we're playing defense that -- I'm not sure how many NFL guys are on there, but there's a lot of them, and we're playing against the best defensive tackle I've seen in a long time.  It's a big challenge for us, and again, we'll approach this week -- there's no question there's some kids that have gained some confidence over a week ago.

I'm a little bit concerned about last week there was a lot of -- mentally I think we're in much better shape than we were a week ago because you get a win.  Physically I worry about it because we expended a lot on the field, and we're not the biggest group in the world, so I worry about us a little bit physically right now.  Our injury report was pretty big, and any time -- as Christyn Lewis kind of sums it up, I told him he's one of the toughest kids I've seen because he's a buck 65 playing safety tackling a 235-point tailback who's got about a 10- or 12-yard run start at you, and he's sticking it in there every play, so I can tell you he's giving me everything he's got.  I asked him if he was sore on Sunday.  "Pretty sore, Coach."  I said, "How much you weigh?"  He said, "165."  I said, "I wish you wouldn't have told me that."  Then I grinned at him and told him he was the toughest 165 I've seen in a long time.  But that's a credit to him and the way he's playing, played hard.

Q.  Will Jordan Wettstein be the kicker again this week?

COACH KILL:  You know, right now he will be.  Chris Hawthorne is still not healthy, and he certainly performed well and should have some confidence.  But again, it's easy from one week -- you have to be consistent, and I'm sure he understands that, but yeah, he'll be our kicker this week.

Q.  How is Marcus Jones?

COACH KILL:  He will not play, as I said, the rest of the season, and he'll have surgery here soon.  But he's doing well, and I think he'll bounce back off the surgery pretty well.  I mean, because of the type of kid he is and those kind of things, positive, and he'll work hard, so I'm -- cautiously optimistic that he'll be ready to go in the spring.

Q.  What happened to him?

COACH KILL:  Hurt his knee.  He was just playing and hurt his knee.  Things happen in college football.  He just planted his knee got kind of hung up and got his knee, and it's not a complete reconstruction or anything of that nature, it's his ACL, and it's isolated there.  So that's a good sign.

Q.  MarQueis looked like a different guy in the second half.  What clicked with him?

COACH KILL:  Well, I think it's just like anything.  Again, I've said it since the day I walked in, you're taking a kid that hasn't played quarterback four or five years.  You look at what the NFL teams go through that don't have a quarterback and they're learning and so forth.  So I just think as he's been playing and he missed basically a full game and a week of practice or actually two weeks of practice, so I think he's -- I think what happened to him in the game is that, number one, we've talked to him about leadership, and he started to do that at Nebraska, I thought.  At the end of the game at Nebraska he was talking to the kids on the field.  He hadn't done all that stuff, so I felt like maybe he was getting more comfortable.  And then basically what happened on Saturday, he was a lot more vocal to his teammates, and after we fumbled the ball, he was really vocal in a good way, and I said, hey, he's starting to figure this thing out a little bit.  That means he's getting more comfortable.

But I think the best thing that happened to him, he threw the ball to Tufts on a deep ball about 60 yards and he put it right on him, and then he did it again, and it's just like anything, it's like going bowling, you get one strike, sometimes you get another one and another one.  And I think confidence is a big key in anybody's life or whatever, if you start feeling you can do something, you kind of get better, and he just got more confidence as the game went on.  Hopefully he'll continue to take that, and he had some guys do some things up front, gave him a chance, and it all starts up there.

It's an amazing story.  When you've got a young man Caleb Bak who hasn't been playing at all and not getting a lot of practice reps and he plays for three quarters and finds a way to get it done and you're able to protect the passer and give him time, it's really kind of an amazing deal.  The kids up front gave him a chance to have a little success, and then he took advantage of it, so it was a good team effort by the group of -- we had some receivers make some plays.

Tufts' catch was tremendous.  We had a couple slants, routes that we had to run -- Da'Jon ran through some people, tight end made a play or two.  I mean, it's amazing, had opportunities to make these plays maybe earlier in the season, wasn't able to make them, we were able to make them on Saturday.  I mean, why and how?  If anybody knew that question, it would be a heck of a deal.  But they just did.  Again, I think as things happen and you get a little confidence, it kind of rolls your way, and the ball bounced our way a little bit on Saturday.

Q.  As far as tufts, what does that do for him to get a couple catches like that?

COACH KILL:  Well, he's been a young man that has come in and -- I mean, he's done a heck of a job.  I mean, it's like anything when he came in and he was like a baby deer, just learning how to do things.  It tells you he's listened to every single thing Coach Poore has told him, and you can tell because the way he plays is a little bit different than anybody else because you can tell coach has coached him and he's learned what he's learned, and he does exactly what you tell him to do.  And he's got good leg core strength because of all the running he's done and training, but he bends better than a lot of kids we have.  He can bend down -- even though he's 6'2", he can bend and block you.

The thing he's improved on the most, he used to be a body catcher, catching in practice, he's actually catching the ball with his hands, but all that credit goes to him and Coach Poore working with him and all those kinds of things.  And he's played pretty tough and physical.  I mean, it's a -- you look for tremendously bright things ahead, he's got a bright future, and he can run.  There's no question about that part of it.  But the hands and catching the ball, that was a tremendous catch he made, it really was.  It was exciting to see.  Big plays.

Q.  You look at Tufts or Wettstein or some of these guys who have sort of been thrust in there that weren't in the mix earlier.  What's the key to getting do you think that production out of them?

COACH KILL:  Well, I think we work with them all the time.  Wettstein has practiced all year, and Tufts has played some all year, even though when we got -- we've lost four or five offensive linemen.  We haven't had the same group of offensive linemen the whole year, and when you lose somebody, the next one steps in and you work with them.  Bak may not have had as many reps but we've been repping him in practice.  I think the way we practice and repping kids and mentally they -- when you go and get the repetition in practice and you get a chance to play in the game, then it doesn't guarantee you success, but it guarantees you an opportunity for it.

You know, I think we coach them pretty hard, whether that's good or bad, and I think they were prepared for their opportunity.

Q.  Bennett appeared to be more physical Saturday than any time all year.  Your thoughts?

COACH KILL:  He was.  He got banged up a little bit, and I hope he's going to be ready to go.  But he ran physical, but again, I think it's a confidence level.  I mean, once you have a little bit of success -- he had a nice run in there, made a good cut, hit it up in there, and then after he fumbled -- Duane is a proud kid, and I think after he fumbled, it bothered him, and I think he played even harder after he fumbled the football to make up for the fumble.  He's a competitive kid.  He's a senior.  He's been through a lot.  Duane has been great to me since the day I walked in the door, been a very positive kid, and I was very happy for him.

Everybody has seen his running production, but on the touchdown at the end, MarQueis, we were looking to throw the quick slant.  They took it away, we pumped it, then we have a boot off of it, and the key block on the play was Duane's block, and he cut the guy in half and we were able to get around on the edge and MarQueis scored.

So not only did he do a good job running the ball, he blocked much better, and he just kind of -- no different than MarQueis, I mean, he kind of came out of his shell and played with some confidence.  And again, I think he had a little bit of success, offensive line gave him a little bit of crease, so I was happy for him.  Hopefully we get him healthy and get him ready to go this week.

Q.  Did you see MarQueis making some strides, especially with the passing, being on the same page with the receivers, putting it on them in practice leading up to these games, or did it just kind of click there?

COACH KILL:  Well, practices, we've gone full pads on Tuesday and Wednesday, and for the last two weeks, and we've gone good against good, and we've thrown a lot of footballs and done a lot of things.  You know, it's like anything, you practice good repetition or bad, and he's gotten better through practice.  We got better at getting off -- we've just gotten better, because you can either go out and feel sorry for yourself, we're not going to practice any different today than we did last week.  We've been consistent.  We changed our practice a little bit because we didn't have the depth to get speed on speed, and I think it was hurting us when we got to games.  We were slow.  We were acting slow.  So we went good on good quite a bit.

That can backfire, too, because you can get people hurt so you've got to be careful, so we shortened practice up.  So far formula is we've gotten better.  Not just those kids.  I could put on the film and the onside kick kind of sums it up.  Everybody has seen the kick, but nobody has seen Spencer and Pat Sveum take 5 -- their outside guy, and I mean, just blew him up, and the other two kids did their job and doubled 4 and knocked him out of the picture, the ball was kicked and recovered.  But those four or five guys, what effort they gave.  We knocked the No. 5 five three yards back.

I think the kids, no matter who it was, I think they played hard.  As I told them at the end of the game, playing hard doesn't promise you a victory but it guarantees you a darned chance, and this is what we've been trying to tell you.  Everybody has got to play hard.  And our sideline was in it, our fans were definitely in it, they were definitely a difference.  The last four plays of the game that Iowa had the ball, our stadium won that game.  It's that simple.  I think it fed through the whole place into those kids, and credit to everybody on that day.

Q.  Kyle Henderson has played big the past few games.  Can you talk about him as a player?

COACH KILL:  Kyle is an amazing story.  You need to talk to him.  He's transferred here from Mankato, didn't start there, came here, worked his tail end off and done what he's supposed to do and got an opportunity to play and does what coach tells him to do and plays hard and finds a way to get in a good position.  He made a -- he'll tell you, on a touchdown pass they threw over the top, he should have been backed off.  He missed a call.  But then he comes in and sacks the quarterback.

It's just a credit to his attitude, saying, hey, I can play this game.  I may not be as big and this and that, but I can play in the Big Ten, I'm going to play hard for the coaches and do what I'm supposed to do, until he had some success.  Again, that's credit to him.  He's bought into -- nothing in life is fair.  There's bigger, stronger, faster people in the world, but if you play hard, you've got a chance.

Q.  You're about to enter a stretch where you face Cousins, Wilson, Persa, Scheelhaase as quarterbacks now.  How does Cousins strike you on tape and are you encouraged that the pass push can handle those guys?

COACH KILL:  Well, again, each week is different, and everybody has their different problems.  You defend Robinson, that's a whole different quarterback.  I mean, they're all different.  You know, the thing about Cousins is if you went to the Big Ten meetings and hear him speak, there's a reason Michigan State is doing what they're doing; it's because of that kid.  That kid alone is worth six or seven victories just because of who he is.  I mean, he's a dynamic person, a good person, puts in the work ethic, pro-style quarterback, and he'll tear you up if you give him an opportunity, plus they've got good run game.  They're a very, very good football team.  You know, there's no question about that.  Notre Dame beat them, and then Nebraska beat them at their place, but they had a game at Nebraska kind of like we've had a couple of just nothing went right.

It's not a good time to play them; I can tell you that.  They'll be ready to play on Saturday.

Q.  Is there anything you did offensively to open it up for MarQueis a little bit, give him a little more freedom?

COACH KILL:  I'm not sure what you mean.  I don't understand the question.

Q.  It just seemed like toward the end of the game he was a little more comfortable than he had been.

COACH KILL:  Yeah, I think that's true.  Again, we're doing a lot of the same things we were doing three weeks ago.  He's executing them better.  So you open up and gain confidence, maybe throw the ball deep more and so forth?  I think everything is natural.  I think that's a deal that you feel more comfortable with somebody being able to do things as an offensive coordinator or head coach, you go, boy, we may take a couple more shots at this.  So I think there's a confidence level between the coach and the quarterback and the offensive line, and I think all that got better, and hopefully we can continue to move it forward.

Q.  If you look at the Michigan-Nebraska game, Nebraska kind of dominated them, and you played Nebraska as good as anybody played them in the fourth quarter, so maybe there's hope for a big upset.

COACH KILL:  Well, you go into every week, go into those things -- as all of you know, in college football, week to week, you don't know what's going to happen.  That's what makes it such a great game.  You look at Wisconsin right now, they could be undefeated except for, what, two plays or three.  You just don't know what's going to happen.  That's why you play the game and you play it hard and you play it consistent and you give everything you've got and then you don't have to worry about it, and you can let the chips fall.

But we have to play every week, and we played hard against Nebraska.  The score didn't indicate it, but as you've mentioned last week about four or five things happened to you, you're not going to win, and we cut some of those things out, but we played hard the last two ballgames.

Now, we've got to play just as hard in this one and the one after and -- we have no room for any type of let-up or turnover or dropped ball.  We're not that type of team right now.  If we continue, if we can play as hard as we did last week and physical as we did last week and make a play or two or three, that's why you play on Saturdays.

Q.  How do you feel about the $2,000 the NCAA is adding to scholarship players and all that?

COACH KILL:  At our meeting in here today, there's all kinds of things changing in college football, from graduation rates to -- a lot has changed.  I think there's another week our athletic directors all head to the Big Ten meetings, we'll know a lot more, but right now with the players, it's based on -- it's not everybody gets $2,000.  It's going to be based on your -- what term of -- what is it?  Based on your cost of attendance, all that.  So the base of it is $2,000, but there's still some question marks how all that's going to work out, I'll be honest with you.

There's no question that the kids are going to get some money on top of their scholarship, okay.  How that's all going to work, I still think it's up for discussion.  There's some loopholes in there.

But how do I feel about it?  You know, each place is different.  Living here in the Twin Cities is different.  Cost of living is different.  But as far as the players and the money that's generated by college football, I see some of these kids come in, not have a whole lot and so forth, they get a scholarship.  Do I think we need to play them like pro players?  No.  Do I think adding to their scholarship -- that's okay.  What I really would like, I would really like for them to have three training table meals where we only have one.  There's a lot of things that could be adjusted.

But I don't think anybody has the perfect answer or the perfect formula.  But there's a lot of money being made on college football, and I think the players have a point that, hey, my jersey is selling for X amount of dollars and everybody is making money and they're paying the coaches all this money and I get just books and tuition and fees.  That's probably the way to look at it.

So if we can help them and it doesn't screw up everything, what's that magical number, I don't know, but the NCAA has come up with the $2,000 cost of attendance, I think there needs to be tweaking and those kind of things, but I support that if it helps make the -- if it's the betterment of the student-athlete and the game, I support it, because the bottom line is the game is about the student-athlete, and I don't think there's any question.  And they put a lot of time in.  There's no question about that.

I know that things come up with if the kid wasn't playing football, he could go work somewhere and those kind of things, and they basically -- there's the 20-hour rule, but academics and all that is not included in that.  So you take -- they get up at 6:30 in the morning and some of them don't leave here until 9:30 by the time they go to study hall and tutoring and classes so there's not really time to get a part-time job to make an extra $500.  I think the hard thing for everybody, what is that number.  I don't know what that number is, I really don't.  I'll leave it up to the highers and powers that study all the kind of stuff.  Hell, I'm trying to stop a damn power play in football, so I don't know all that stuff.

Q.  Are they making academics a lot harder, though?

COACH KILL:  Yep, ain't nothing going to be easier, but that's part of life.  Life isn't going to get easier, so you deal with it, and we will, and we'll be fine.

Q.  Last week you mentioned that there were hits coming and you kind of hinted that academically maybe the loss of some scholarships.  How serious is the situation?

COACH KILL:  Well, right now, I'm not -- I'm tired of talking about all the contract stuff.  I'm ready to move on.  I mean, we have issues like everybody does, I mean, Michigan, everybody has got issues.  I will tell you right now that from the academic -- our academic people, we walked in, we had a problem, had a big issue, and our academic people, we've got new people, they have worked their tail end off and done a great job, and our coaches, and we're class checking people and all those kind of things.  It's going to be a semester to semester to semester deal.  You're just not going to crawl out of it.  But right now we're hanging in there tough, and that's a credit to what the coaches have done, Dan O'Brien, Adam Clark, people you never hear about, Lynn, Jackie, all the people that we have, Shana, all those people that are part of the football program have stepped it up.

You come in, you may have a deal where you come in where I'm not going to give you figures because then it'll get printed and then they'll say I'm wrong, but all I know is that where we were at and where we're at now, we've had major improvement.  It has nothing to do with me.  I told them we had a problem, we needed to fix it.  I told you the president was aware and we've worked hard to fix it from all the way to the summer until now, things are going pretty darned good.  But again, we've still got part of the semester to go.

You report on last year, we did some things that -- to try to get that APR up when I first got here, so hopefully we've got the right formula.  Right now we are very close, but I think my understanding that we've moved in the right direction, we've got a chance we may not lose anything right now, and we'll go to the next semester, because again, you've got a lot of people hovering in an area that you've got to -- that area has got to improve, it can't stay the same or you run into it.

But so far so good, and that's because a lot of people have worked their tail ends off, and they need to be comply complimented for it, not me.  Certainly we put our finger down, somebody is not going to class, I'm not going to mention names there, either, but we've had a lot of them in study hall instead of practice.  I'm surprised nobody has asked me those questions.

Q.  Who benefits the most from Marcus going down?  Is that Devin as far as playing time?

COACH KILL:  Devin has been playing quite a bit.  That's the whole thing, he's been playing quite a bit.  We played about five or six guys about the same, so I don't think it's -- I mean, what hurts us with Marcus is return game, and he's been a good receiver, but as far as somebody's playing time pickup, Devin has picked up a little bit more, as more Brandon Green instead of him substituting as much, so forth.  But certainly, again, as you play and people do well, you certainly want them on the field.  So I mean, that's a fair question.