Sept. 17, 2005

Recap | Final Stats | Notes

Head Coach Charlie Weis – Post Game Quotes Michigan State (Sept. 17, 2005)

On what he told team after the game: “I told them that they don’t give out medals for trying, that they shouldn’t feel good about themselves for coming back. You know how you have team wins? Well this was a team loss. Give Michigan State their credit. They made more plays than we did. We just made too many mistakes. On offense, on defense, on special teams. All across the board.”

On the play of Brady Quinn (33 completions, 60 attempts, five touchdowns, 487 yards, all career highs): “I’m sure there are a couple of plays that he’s like to have back. When you throw it 60 times, you’re going to have some bad ones. When we got down by three touchdowns we knew we were going to have to throw it. I’d rather lose by 50 than not try to win it. He brought us back to tie the game. There were a lot of things that Brady did today that I was happy with.”

On Michigan State stopping Darius Walker early in game: “They (Michigan State defense) did what I thought they would do after watching the game last week. They loaded up the front to take him (Walker) out of the game. We had to throw it.”

On Maurice Stovall’s play (8 catches, 176 yards): “He made a lot of big plays downfield for us. I told them that we would have to throw it downfield. He made some plays.”

On the penalties (9 for 85 yards): “We had seven in the first half and with the exception of the offensive pass interference penalty, they were all of the five-year type. We had too many rinky-dink penalties – they were justified – but they affect the ebb and flow of the game. Playing at home, those kinds of penalties shouldn’t happen.

On bouncing back next week: “People are down, but I just want them to know that it’s not okay to lose. You can’t feel good about coming back. I told them that I’m going to coach the same way every week. You have to stay on an even keel. We can’t be worried about playing Washington. We have to worry about playing better than we did today. We have to take care of our business.”

Notre Dame player quotes

Junior FS Tom Zbikowski
On the team’s play in the second half:
“The defense came out in the second half and started shutting people down and the offense put up points, but we didn’t make the big plays in the critical situations. I don’t think there was ever a drive where they were dominating us physically- we just didn’t make any big plays.

On the team’s attitude heading into overtime:
“We definitely thought we were going to win. We had them at their goal line at the end of regulation so we had the momentum going into overtime.”

Junior WR Jeff Samardzija
On the team’s response to the loss:
“We’ve got a lot of leaders in the locker room and they’re picking everyone up and getting them ready to go next week. This team isn’t throwing in the towel.”

On the play of Brady Quinn:
“Brady did some great things today and he’s going to keep getting better. He played with confidence led the team well today. He’s very dangerous when he goes through his reads and he’s always going to make big plays with his arm.”

Senior WR Maurice Stovall
On the comeback at the half :
“We were down at the beginning of the half, and we made a comeback. Michigan State just made more plays than we did.”

On how the team can improve… “Basically, we just want to take our time and be more mentally focused, make more plays and clean up things that went wrong. We can’t get too excited or too down if the other team is making other plays.”

Senior K/P D.J. Fitzpatrick
On the outcome of the game…
” It didn’t matter that we came back – a loss is still a loss. Like coach said, there are no points for second place. We just have to come out here next week and prepare for Washington like we did this week, and then execute better.

Michigan State Head Coach John L. Smith

Opening statement: “Wow, what a game! This game was definitely worth the price of admission. I have to give Notre Dame a lot of credit they continued to battle all day long when they had every chance to give up on it. Going into overtime they had the momentum, but our defense stepped up and held them to only a field goal. Fortunately, in the end our running game won it for us.”

On his Michigan State: ” I am extremely proud of the way my team played this afternoon. I am proud of our coaching staff and everyone involved in this win. We responded every time the Irish came back, and we never gave up on ourselves. In the end, that toss was just awesome. That was Drew Stanton’s only toss all day and that was the greatest toss I think I have ever seen him pitch.”

On the Michigan State team motto: “Last Spring the team came up with the motto “finish”. Today, they proved to one another that they can finish. Over the Spring and Summer this motto brought the team together and it got them to believe in one another and what they can do as a team. They never dreamed they would have to finish like this, but today I am very proud of the way they finished this game.”

On his teams running game: “We have to be able to run the ball and today we struggled to do that. We know that if we want to win games this season we are going to have to be able to run the ball successfully. We did not run the ball well at all today. In the end though we ran the ball for the winning touchdown and that is all that matters.”

On his post game hand-shake with Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis: “Obviously, he was not a happy camper. I would have been exactly the same, had the tables been turned. He was very gracious and congratulated me on the victory, and we parted ways. Pretty simple”

Michigan State Player Quotes

Drew Stanton, QB

On the option play and the winning touchdown

“That play we only used at the goal earlier in the game and the play to end the game. I don’t think I had a choice but to pitch the ball. Brandon Hoyte came at me hard and it was just a matter of me getting rid of the ball.”

Winning at Notre Dame and being undefeated …

“It’s huge. It is a testament to the coaching staff and to what the players are doing around here. Now we start the Big Ten schedule and we are 0-0 so we just have to keep believing in the coaches and each other. This certainly gives us a great deal of momentum.”

“This is my biggest win at Michigan State with the magnitude of the rivalry and beating a Top 10 team on the road. This is a great momentum builder.”

Jason Teague, RB

On avenging last year’s loss to ND …

“This year we finished the job and that was something we talked about on the sidelines. We committed ourselves to winning this game and playing until the last snap of the ball and not giving up.”

Game Winning TD …

“I was just hoping there were not flags on the field. Everyone was just chasing me and I’m glad that I got in the endzone.”

Sirdarean Adams, DB

On overall play and INT return for TD …

“I felt good out there and in the second half the coaches told me that things would come my way. On that play I saw the ball and I just grabbed it and took it to the house. I’m getting better every game and the coaches told me yesterday that the `out pattern’ was something they might try and I was ready for it.”