Head coach Mark Dantonio responds to a question from the media during Media Day on Aug. 8, 2016 at Spartan Stadium. Media Day allowed for the media to converse with the team's coaches and players.
The MSU football team welcomed the media on Monday and held a series of press conferences for Media Day at Spartan Stadium. Head coach Mark Dantonio led the event off with a half hour press conference in which he answered general questions about the team.
Last season was Dantonio’s best yet where he and former quarterback Connor Cook ended with a 12-2 overall record, a Big Ten Championship and an appearance in the highly sought after College Football Playoff. MSU’s only regular season blemish was a 39-38 loss to Nebraska in Week 9 in Lincoln. Dantonio and the Spartans fell to Alabama on New Year's Eve in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl in which their season came to an end after falling to the Crimson Tide 39-0.
Dantonio was quickly asked about the elephant in the room and discussed the quarterback situation. Not much was said about junior Damion Terry, a contender for MSU’s starting QB role in the fall, but Dantonio shed some light on fifth year senior Tyler O’Connor’s leadership abilities.
“Tyler O’Connor is a good leader,” Dantonio said. “He always has been. He’s always taken that aspect of our program very seriously. He’s not a guys that has just been here all of a sudden, he’s always been a guy who’s been involved in our offense.”
Following Dantonio, members of the MSU defense sat down for interviews and then coaches and players of the Spartan offense talked with the media. MSU co-defensive coordinator Mike Tressel is positive the defense will only get better from last season.
“As a coach there’s always fun to look forward to,” Tressel said, “If there’s not much experience and you get guys coming in, I get to try and teach these young guys and get them experience… I’m going to be able to really get into the finer details and teach at a 500 level instead of a 100 level.”
And even though the Spartans lost players like Cook and wide receiver Aaron Burbridge, Spartan wide receiver coach Terrence Samuel has faith that this offense will be able to make clutch plays come crunch time.
“Every guy is going to be fighting for playing time,” Samuel said. “With this group we aren’t worried about running the right routes we’re worried about making (big) plays — that’s what we’re being graded on, things like the 50/50 catches in the air.”
The Spartans will have a series of open practices, with the first being on Wednesday. MSU will host a number of open practices throughout the coming weeks and will be capped by Dantonios first weekly press conference on Tuesday, Aug. 30.
Last season, MSU’s mantra coming into the season was, “Reach Higher” and, now with the 2016 season quickly looming, every Spartan is telling the media the goal for this season is to go, “Back to back.”
“Getting back to the playoffs is where we want to end up,” Samuel said. “And winning the Big Ten is what’s going to get us to the playoffs.”
MSU will open the season on Friday, Sept. 2 and host Furman for their first ever meeting. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. and will be televised on Big Ten Network.
