close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

Heard outside Michigan State locker room: Overly aggressive and disgusting
news

Heard outside Michigan State locker room: Overly aggressive and disgusting

EAST LANSING – Michigan State opened coach Jonathan Smith’s tenure with a win.

It was not a pretty sight for the Spartans, who beat Florida Atlantic 16-10 on Friday night.

Here are notable quotes from Smith and players after the win:

“The first game you’re going to learn a lot about your team and we’ve got a lot of work to do. What I’ve learned and what I’m happy about is that there’s a response in this group. We’re going to play four quarters.”

– Smith on the team’s overall performance in the season opener, while not a single goal was scored in the second half.

“The reason? It’s me, it’s me. I take full responsibility for everything that happened today. You always want to play good football and do what you have to do and I felt like I was trying to do that and not doing what I’m used to doing. I play football for a living and I didn’t show up today to give my best performance.”

– Quarterback Aidan Chiles on why the offense struggled. The sophomore, making his first career start, was 10-for-24 passing for 114 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions while also rushing for 28 yards and a score, along with a fumble.

“It goes back to the response and this is not easy. It’s not all on him and he knows that. … He did some good things, enough good things to win the game. He’s 1-0, undefeated as a starting quarterback.”

– Smith on how Chiles dealt with adversity.

“Our running game is not what we wanted.

– Smith after the Spartans finished with 179 yards on 37 rushing, 63 of which came from a touchdown run by Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams.

“We all kind of take responsibility for things that aren’t going in the right direction. I think we just have to keep working, all of us as a whole, and clean up the little things so we don’t get into these kinds of messy situations.”

– Lynch-Adams in Michigan State’s offense, which only managed 293 total yards.

“Too much, without a doubt. We want to play with some aggression, but we also need some technique.”

– Smith on Michigan State, who finished with 12 penalties for 140 yards.

“We just had to respond. … I felt like we fed off each other’s energy and kept stepping up as a defense.”

– Defensive end Khris Bogle, who had five tackles and 1.5 sacks.

“That was probably too aggressive because when you score a field goal and you make it, you’re up two scores, so in hindsight the score probably would have been the other way around.”

– Smith on keeping the offense on the field, which was stopped at Florida Atlantic’s 9-yard line on fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter.

“I flushed it. … Such games happen.”

– Chiles after intercepting a tipped pass on the first action of the match.

“That was the offensive line touchdown. As soon as I got (the ball), that crease opened up and I just did what I was coached to do.”

– Lynch-Adams with his 63-yard score, aided by a big hole that center Tanner Miller helped create.

“I thought it was great that we played with a lot of guys and played with a lot of effort. We had some communication errors that made a few things possible.”

– Smith on Michigan State’s defense, which limited the Owls to 248 yards and 2 of 15 third downs.

“Last year, man, last ride, I got to do everything. Fly around, make plays.”

– Angelo Grose, a fifth-year defender, made 12 tackles, one interception and forced a fumble, the most on his team.

“We just have to be more efficient on offense and then finish, like I mean in the red zone. You’re conceding 21 points to zero, this is totally different.”

– Smith on the Spartans going 1-of-4 in the red zone.

“We’re probably going to go in there feeling horrified. We don’t want to go in there and see that. We didn’t do what we needed to do, we didn’t do what we know we can do. It’s a new week, we get a new chance. We won the game, we’re going to go for it, and we get to come back and do it again.”

– Chiles on what he thinks it will be like to watch footage of the game ahead of the Big Ten season opener against Maryland next week.