Michigan State Head Coach Mel Tucker
Opening statement…
Obviously very disappointed not being able to close this game out. We got outplayed in the second half. You can point to any aspect of the team – offense, defense, special teams – where we had opportunities to execute, and didn’t do them for 60 minutes. We had the opportunity to win the game and weren’t able to get it done, so, very, very disappointed, especially for our seniors’ last game in the Woodshed. We appreciate our fans coming out on a day where it was pretty chilly. We had a really good crowd, and we appreciate that. We have one game left, and I know our guys are going to show up to practice ready and prepared for the last opportunity. But, certainly a very disappointed locker room. We’re sick about it.
On Indiana’s kickoff returns and the last field goal in regulation…
On the kickoff returns, they hit us with a couple field returns. We didn’t have very good leverage to the field. The first one, we lost leverage with a couple of guys. The same thing happened in the second half. At the end there, we had the opportunity to end it with a field goal. We tried to get it as close to middle field as we could, called a timeout with three seconds, and missed it to the left.
On the communication situation on the last drive in regulation…
We were trying to score a touchdown. We had a couple timeouts. We wanted to make sure we had the right plays. We had the situation at the end of the Illinois game – they didn’t have any timeouts – and we didn’t want to leave it up to a field goal. This game, we were down there pretty tight, they didn’t have any timeouts, and so, we were trying to score a touchdown. We ran it one last time, to see if we could pop one, and we didn’t score on third down. We called a timeout with three seconds and missed a field goal. We weren’t initially playing for a field goal because it wouldn’t make sense for us to try to do that. But ultimately, that’s what happened. We didn’t make it. It was a lack of execution. That’s pretty much what happened. But, we did want to make sure we had the right plays called, everybody was on the same page. We did have the timeouts remaining, so we were able to get that done.
On playing against a mobile quarterback…
I wouldn’t say it’s a lack of experience. We’ve played against some…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Michigan State University Athletics…