Michigan State Coach Jonathan Smith Reflects on Maryland, Looks Ahead to Prairie View A&M
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State football comes off a momentous 27-24 victory over Maryland, one that, at times, looked out of reach down the stretch.
But the Spartans were resilient, making key stops and battling from behind with explosive plays to earn the team's second win of the early season.
Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith had his weekly press conference on Monday. You can watch the entire presser below:
Below is Smith's opening statement:
Smith: "Well like a typical Monday, again, just kind of recapping after thoroughly taking a look at the film. Obviously still pleased we found a way to win on the road. Resilient group. Did talk about wanting to play for four quarters, win the second half. Momentum -- pleased with the end of the half, the 2-minute drive to give us a field goal kick, go up by 3 at halftime. That was a big kick by Jonathan [Kim] there. I mean, really, Jonathan wasn't alone. From Game 1 to Game 2, we really improved on our protection because we needed to. A few of the PATs in Game 1, we weren't good enough there, got better; obviously came in huge at the end of the game. Generally, just defensively, played with a lot of effort. Again, rotated a decent amount of guys. Third-down defense has got to get better, especially in that first half. And credit to Maryland, you know, again, schematically, they got players that are tough to tackle in space. We got to find a way to get off the field better on third down. But in the second half, got a little bit better and was resilient because, again, this thing was back and forth. And they take the lead halfway through the fourth quarter. They got the lead. Guys kept on playing, so I was pleased with that. Offensively, you know, it was nice to see some of the explosion. Down the field, run game still needs to be more efficient. Protection wasn't as good as week one. Got too much leakage there, and then we still got the turnover issues that are really going to bite us. Saying that, finished the game, you know, opportunity with the ball to go win the game. Those guys got it done. Was pleased with kind of the execution of the two-minute drill at the end. The small details of getting the ball snapped, getting out of bounds, not panicking, playing with urgency. But poised, and that showed up. And, you know, Jonathan Kim, a ton of confidence in him, and he bangs the thing through. That was awesome. You know, injury-wise, Chance Rucker's going to be a longer term upper body, but you haven't seen him probably for six to eight weeks, which was unfortunate because I did think he was progressing, and now being the next man up, kind of a tally. Similar approach to the week now. On Mondays, we're back to work, focused again on a process of practice and preparing. We need to take advantage of that throughout the week. Looking forward to getting back at home, playing in front of a fan base, and kind of game two for me, at least, to be back home. Really looking forward to that. Got some respect for Prairie View A&M. These guys know how to win some games. You look at last year, winning games in their league, I think they've won their side of the conference, presented some players. And so they'll have our full attention."
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