MICHIGAN WEEK: MSU's Jonathan Smith Reflects on Iowa, Looks Ahead to Wolverines
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith will get his first true taste of the rivarly that is Michigan State-Michigan on Saturday.
The Spartans come off a much-needed bounce-back victory over Iowa, while the Wolverines will enter the matchup coming off their second straight loss.
Smith addressed the media on Monday, reflecting on Saturday's Homecoming win and looking ahead to the matchup in Ann Arbor this coming weekend.
You can watch below:
Below is a transcript from Smith's opening statement from his presser on Monday:
Smith: "Just like a typical Monday, kind of quickly recapping Saturday night. Like I said before, really proud of the guys. Just talk about the response — multiple times in the game, we needed a response, whatever phase it was, and we got that done. I mean, we throw an interception in the first half, defense goes up, three-and-out, we get the missed field goal. A big-time response there. I think Iowa opens up the second half with a scoring drive, come back right there to answer that offensively. Get the game within the fourth quarter. They get the game within one score, and offense puts together a drive to respond to that. So, just really pleased with that. Also talked to team yesterday a little bit. Again, these things are going to be four-quarter games. Played our best in the fourth quarter when we needed it and finished that way. Offensively, mentioned it, it showed up on tape — the balance. I think that was just critically important for the whole operation, to be able to run the football like that and then complement it with some explosion in the pass game. Both [Nick] Marsh, Montorie [Foster Jr.] were huge for us. They showed up in the stat book, but also, they were doing a great job blocking down the field. They had a couple that allowed our backs to create. The backs, I think, ran pretty physical. It was nice to see a couple of those youngsters actually get a carry, too. By far O-line best game. On the same page, did a good job with it. And I think it was Aidan’s [Chiles] most complete game after watching the tape. Still some things to grow from — not just Aidan — in the whole offense, but overall, when you move in against what I still think is a pretty good defense in Iowa, a good effort there. Defensively, stopping the run. Throughout the night, the goal was to kind of almost just contain the run game. Did a great job against it. We gave up the one crease, so that made the stats look a whole lot better. And it really started with the front seven. At the line of scrimmage — D-line, defensive ends and the inside backers. Again, we got to talking about it yesterday. You got the front seven — we played 17 different guys in that front seven. We talked about the rotation we’ve done at D-line, but even in the linebacker level with the rush position. 17 different guys played in the front seven and did great. Nikai [Martinez], huge play on the interception, he had a nice game as well. And then looking at it, Jonathan Kim, those things were huge, and he was accurate, now. He took the snap to the hold, the thing’s down. Because we actually showed a couple things field-goal protection-wise, that was a little leakage that we got tightened up. But Kim was so critical in that and maintaining momentum and whatnot. So, we're pleased to get with the performance. Crowd helped us again, appreciate Spartan Nation all the time when we're we're playing at home. Moving forward, we got a huge week in front of us. We all know this thing is special. Rivalry weeks in the state. This is what college football is about, and so, this is a big, meaningful game. Anticipate being a tough, physical, big challenge Saturday at their place, and we're looking forward to — we’re going to have a great week of work and preparation leading into this one."
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