Greg Jones, Pat Narduzzi and Trevor Anderson talk about the upcoming game at Purdue. The team talks about trying to defend better on the road, after giving up 42 points in their last road game at Minnesota. They also discuss how Purdue’s Senior Day might affect their chances of winning.
They play at noon Saturday at the Boilermaker’s to become bowl eligible.
The MSU football team’s defense hasn’t been the same this season when waking up on game days in a place other than the Kellogg Center.
The Spartans, who spend Friday nights before home games at the Kellogg Center, have allowed just 15.83 points and 281 yards per home game.
But on the road, they’ve allowed 31.75 points and 412.5 yards per game, something that can be attributed to various reasons, team members said.
Defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi said some of it can be attributed to youth — there only are four senior starters.
“When you got a young football team, sometimes being away from home or another atmosphere does that,” he said. “We’ve talked about it as far as what play on the road and what we’ve got to do and find out what happens this weekend.”
Senior defensive end Trevor Anderson didn’t buy that. He said the team simply hasn’t executed.
“We just gotta buckle up and play football and that’s all,” he said. “We go to these away stadiums who have some mean fans there, but if you’re a football player, that shouldn’t really affect you anyway. … We just have to step up to the plate and play our brand of ball.”
Purdue will have many motivating factors when the Spartans roll into town Saturday (noon, ESPN).
Not only do the Boilermakers need to win out to become bowl eligible, Saturday is their Senior Day, something head coach Mark Dantonio said adds to the emotion.
“It’s an emotional day,” Dantonio said. “I don’t know how (senior day) fits in wins and losses really, but it is an important day, especially for parents. To see their sons play and to be there and have some sort of ceremony — I think it’s important for parents and I think it adds some emotion to the football game.”
So the Spartans go into their final road game of the season at 1-3 on the road thus far and hope to come out of West Lafayette, Ind., with a win and bowl eligibility.
Junior linebacker Greg Jones said the team’s confidence is up since the 49-14 drubbing of Western Michigan last Saturday and the team hopes to take the confidence into Purdue this weekend.
“Guys are really trusting each other the best they have all year and that’s where it really counts, toward the end of the year in November,” he said. “So I think that’s what we really need to have in order to do well on Saturday.”
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