Mark Dantonio

Mark Dantonio
Mark Justin Dantoniois an American football coach and former player. He is the current head football coach at Michigan State University, a position he has held since the 2007 season, presiding over one of the most successful eras in the program's history. He's led the Michigan State Spartans to three Big Ten Conference championships, and seven victories over archrival Michigan in eight years. In 2013, he coached Michigan State to its first 13-win season and the program's fifth trip to...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth9 March 1956
CityEl Paso, TX
It was very bad for our players. It had a tremendous impact on the game, huge. We're about to score, then they go 98 yards very quickly and it's 18-7 instead of us leading 14-12. I firmly believe that if we had gotten it in the end zone there it's a football game. I don't know if we would have won, but it's a game. Even at that, we were still in it at halftime. But we weren't the same team in the second half.
We have a lot of young players that have not experienced the Louisville game yet. I don't know if they can identify with it. But for the players that went through it, it will be very motivating.
Nick Davila had a good day yesterday. He's another guy that's got game experience. Tony Pike for the first time since he's been here has made gains in winter conditioning and feels more confident as a player. He's a Cincinnati guy and he's got a lot of talent.
This will be their first game in this type of environment. I'm sure they'll be a little wide-eyed, but hopefully we've learned our lesson in terms of young players and how they prepare.
It's not just another game, it's a huge game on our schedule. We'll measure our success as a football team against that game, and we always will.
Chet did a nice job. He had a couple of real nice punts. He'll go into this game as the punter. But we're always going to hold people to a standard as we move through this.
The difference in this game was we got no pressure on their quarterback and they got pressure on Dustin. Those were the two biggest factors. Louisville has a great front line and there was somebody in his face all day.
Tony plays so hard and he is so smart. He is a winner who makes plays and has made himself a starter this spring.
We're going to ask that people reach out to (Ruffin) and make a donation to the University of Cincinnati Hurricane Katrina effort. We also have Mike Brown, whose family is living on the second floor of their home right now. The first floor is flooded. So let's try to do what we can for our own and help them move forward with their life.
The thing I've always said about Connor, and mentioned to Coach Kennedy, he's going to compete, I don't care what it is, he's going to compete. He's going to know what to do and play hard.
We couldn't put him out there vs. their wide receivers limping. He tried to go, but he just could not go. He will be back.
Well, it's no different than playing at Ohio State last year. Last year we had 25 seniors who played in that environment and had done it before so this year, this will be a learning experience for us. My advice to the players will be to enjoy the moment. Don't get uptight. These are the things you've dreamed about as a young person growing up. Enjoy the experience, live it and play hard.
We need to protect the passer and run the ball better on offense, but we did make some plays down the field with our tight ends. Defensively, we played pretty well at the point of attack, but gave up some big plays that hurt us.
You'll probably see him play three positions out there (today). That's something that's a positive for him. He's a football player, we just need to find him a role and allow him to grow into that role.