Michigan State Coach Jonathan Smith Speaks on Win Over Prairie View A&M
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith is now 3-0 as the Spartans' head coach as he and his team shut out Prairie View A&M, 40-0, at Spartan Stadium on Saturday.
The team was clicking on all cylinders, but penalties continue to be an issue -- one that must be fixed as the Spartans get ready to head to New England to take on a very good Boston College team.
Smith addressed the media after the victory, reflecting on what when well and what needs to get cleaned up.
You can watch his entire presser below:
Below is Smith's opening statement:
Smith: "Well, always good to win a game. Was really, really pleased with the approach this week in practice, I thought we had good Tuesday, Wednesday, focused worked leading into Thursday and Friday. The mentality they came out and played with obviously started on defense, start to finish. Those guys were lights out making physical [plays], another opportunity to, defensively, respond. They got the ball down to the red zone a couple of times, pushed them back. Big-time plays. Obviously, Chuck [Charles Brantley] was just up here. That was exciting and fun. I thought offensively, there's a lot to like, especially on third down. I thought in the first half, third-down conversions -- and these things aren't just third-and-ones, now -- We converted multiple times to get get drives and come up with points. And so, did like that. I think there was some balance in the offense with the run game and the pass game. Special teams really pretty solid, kicking the ball out of the end zone on kickoff. ... I did see [Ryan] Eckley hit the one, was a big punt. We were backed up with some bad field position, so that was nice for him to get some hang time on things. Been working on that first couple of weeks. Kaden Schickel's been sick the last couple of days -- our long snapper -- didn't practice Thursday or Friday, comes out here and battles it out in the first half. So just happy as a group. Definitely things to clean up. And I think I'm probably going to get asked about it, but we'll just say -- I actually mentioned to our team -- you go double digits again in penalties, that's going to catch up to us. We got to find a way to coach it better, starting with us. So that will be a point of emphasis again, because these guys -- and they do -- they don't want to have penalties and all that. But obviously, we had some extended drives on defense. Offensively, getting in the red zone, we've had some hiccups there. ... So, we got to tighten that up as one."
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