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EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State head football coach Pat Fitzgerald held his weekly press conference Monday inside the Spartan Stadium North End Zone Media Center to recap the game against Nebraska and preview this Saturday's game at Wisconsin. MSU (2-2, 0-1 B1G) travels to Madison to face Wisconsin (3-1, 1-0 B1G) on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 12:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. CT. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network. Michigan State head coach Pat Fitzgerald transcript (Monday, Sept. 28) Opening Statement… Thanks for being here and covering the team, as always. Everybody in the building knows that Saturday's performance was unacceptable to our standard. It's hard to give yourself a chance to win a Big Ten game when you lose the turnover battle, and I would add a few more plays that were also essentially turnovers, the penalty on the punt play being one in particular. You lose that 3-0 and then make some mistakes around that against a very good football team. We had productive meetings as a staff on Sunday getting prepared for today. We know we need to be a lot better. As a team and staff, we shifted our focus – not only to the corrections that we needed to make this morning, but then onto Wisconsin. We had a good team meeting this morning and a really good, focused practice this morning. I want to highlight a couple of really good performances from Saturday: Trent Fraley played really well offensively, graded out at 94%, continues to play really well for us, and is an outstanding leader. Jaziun Patterson stepped up and graded out very high. There were a couple of runs that were really close to popping for explosives, but it was great to see him perform. Chrishon McCray made a bunch of big plays. The one-handed catch was spectacular – didn't need to be, but he made a big play. Defensively, Ben Roberts played really well. He's our defensive player of the week: four tackles, a TFL, and graded out at 87%. Caleb Wheatland played really well: nine total tackles, graded out at 85%. The big playmaker in the kick game was Jack Yanachik with that blocked punt – great job by him. Our practice players of the week: Eddie Whiting giving a great look to our defense, Jackson Pahl giving a great look to the offense, and DeJae White for his work in the kick game. Another huge challenge this week up in Madison. Huge win for them on the road; really impressive to watch that tape. Being down early, being down 10 with under four minutes left, just really impressive how they were able to stick together and find a way to win in a really hostile environment. They've just gotten better each week after a tough, challenging opening game against Notre Dame. We're going to have our hands full, but we'll go on the road and get ready to play our best game of the year. So, with that, I'll answer your questions, please. On injury updates… Most of it will be up to the availability report. Cam (Edwards), unfortunately, is going to be done for the year. The other ones will be on the injury report. Obviously, we're disappointed for him. He's been absolutely outstanding. I was just talking to him as we walked off the field; his attitude was terrific, ready to attack whatever direction things are going to go as we move forward. But it's a next-man-up mentality. As I mentioned about Jaz ( Jaziun Patterson ), I thought he and Marv ( Marvis Parrish ) are playing at a pretty high level, so we'll have to get some other guys ready. Really disappointed for him. He worked so hard to be ready to go, and that's football, man. It teaches you some really, really challenging and difficult life lessons, and I know through tough times he'll be better because of it. On whether losing Cam Edwards affects playcalling and the offensive game plan… No. He's a great player, but no. On managing player emotions and energy after wins versus losses… You mentioned the word "feel." I'm not a big touchy-feely guy. I don't really care about feelings; I care about production. When we don't produce, we address it, which we did as a staff with the guys across all three phases. We talked to them directly about some calls we'd like to have back, some schematic things we'd like to change in the game from our side, and then we were very direct with them. I showed 15 plays that were critical errors by us as a team that cost us the game, followed by 15 plays of us doing the simple things – the details, the urgency, the effort, the execution. Pretty much the exact same plays, just trusting ourselves and cutting them loose. So, we've got to eliminate those 15. I'd love to say they go to zero – I think that's an unrealistic expectation – but minimizing those self-inflicted wounds in areas where we're beating ourselves will give us an opportunity to compete to win, assuming our opponent is going to play clean and play well. We didn't play complementary football the last two weeks. Losing the turnover battle the way we have does not give us an opportunity, and we've got to eliminate that. On Alessio Milivojevic's confidence and development after taking five sacks… Sacks are on everybody. They're on us as a staff on a couple of things we'd like to tweak schematically, a couple of protection things that maybe we didn't execute cleanly enough, and then not getting the ball out of our hands, right? So, it's an every-man responsibility. He's a guy that I think, number one, really cares. His care and concern for the team and for his teammates is at a very high level – at the level you need it to be. You can't be too high when it's going well, and you can't be too low when you're making some material mistakes. You don't ever just move on from those; you learn and grow. I expect that he'll do that – he'll learn, grow, and get better from it. But you've got to learn from those things. That's what I expect him to do. On the development and accelerated timeline for young linebackers… Joe (Rossi) and Max (Bullough) are doing a really good job with that group. The guys are working really hard, and those guys are also involved in the kick game. I think the future is bright for those two guys ( DiMari Malone , Adam Shaw ), particularly that you mentioned. Because of circumstance, they've got to be ready to play. You learn by doing, and they'll just keep getting better as they get more and more reps. On Jaziun Patterson stepping into a featured role in the backfield… Do I think he can handle it? Yeah, absolutely. I highlighted his effort since the day he got here in the program. Let's go back to when we brought him here: I'm not sure – and I don't want to speak for him – if he thought football was going to be in the cards this year or not. When the opportunity presented itself to him, he was excited. When I said, "Hey listen, we feel like we may have a guy that's going to be the starter; we want you to come in here and be kind of 1B," he goes, "I don't care who you bring in. I am going to play and make a difference." I was like, okay, we want this guy. So yeah, we're excited to have him. Anytime there's adversity like Cam (Edwards) is facing, it's horrible for that person, but part of the next-man-up opportunity is to be ready when it presents itself. I thought Jazz, I think Marv ( Marvis Parrish ) – that whole room is being very well-coached. They're all ready for whatever opportunities present themselves at running back or in the kick game. As far as how it impacts the offense, it didn't impact it at all when Cam was out, so I don't envision it impacting us any more. On cornerback Andrew Brinson IV getting extended action after missing time… Like first-time playing experiences, there was some really, really good – kind of like our team – and then some plays he'd like to have back. He'll learn from that and he'll grow. But he needed to step up; he probably didn't start the week thinking he was going to have to step up the way that he did. We're all really proud of the way that he went about his business, the way he worked, and hopefully he'll be one week better this week. On eliminating penalties and resetting the team's discipline… The first three weeks we were in the top five in the country, so why don't we just act like us? That's what I told them. There were just individual-man issues. The one on Chuck ( Charles Brantley ) – that's ridiculous, okay? There was no whistle blown. The quarterback was still running. He didn't know the guy was out of bounds when he hit him; the guy was not out of bounds when he hit him. That's what I said to the officials. If you watch the tape, the official right in front of him, literally right before Chuck hits him, puts his hands up finally. So, I'm not mad at Chuck for that, if that makes sense. The other ones in the kick game, we can't have. We can't lose our cool in the way that we went about it with Kenny (Soares Jr.). He knows that. We can't do that; those are things we have to eliminate. If you eliminate those two big ones, it's a totally different conversation – really three big ones with the one on the punt return. We just have to get back to being us. We coach it every day: focus, attention to detail, discipline. That will continue to be coached every day. On tight ends coach Brian Wozniak facing his alma mater, Wisconsin, and developing players like Jayden Savoury … Yeah, and that was a catch by Jayden last week, but I guess it wasn't…Woz is awesome. I had him on my short list as a candidate for the tight end role in the past, and I got a chance to sit down with him when I was putting the staff together. He's just terrific: great husband, great father, really good fundamental teacher and coach. He's got great relationships with his guys. That group is very close as a unit because of his leadership. He really cares about the development of his guys holistically. He's been absolutely terrific, and we're really thankful to have him. As far as the Wisconsin connection, you've got to ask him; I'm sure he'll make it about the guys. On prioritizing coaches who connect with players and serve as role models… Absolutely. You build programs and you build organizations with people, and those are the type of people we want. We want guys that are great people first – great husbands, great fathers. It's a great thing to emulate as a player. I had that privilege as a young player with my position coach and my head coach. I've tried to live my life that way, and that's the type of guys we want on our staff. When our players are around them and their families, they should be role models for what we want our guys to become in the future. On generating more defensive pressure and maintaining pass-rush lane discipline against dual-threat quarterbacks… These dual-threat quarterbacks present problems. We were really good early and really good at the start of the third quarter; it was kind of the in-between where we weren't. Our rush-lane discipline was nonexistent at times. That was kind of indicative of the whole game: when we stayed on what we game-planned to do, it worked. When we got more concerned with our individual one-on-one pass rush against the guy we were facing, we had guys rush past the quarterback. We got out of rush lanes against a very dynamic guy, which you cannot do. We're going to have the same challenge this week. Pretty much every quarterback we see moving forward is an "air-quote" dual-threat guy, even if they don't run designed quarterback runs, they can take advantage with their legs when pass rush lanes break down. Those guys make it hard to get sacks. There were a bunch of scramble throwaways and scramble short runs. The stats will come when we're disciplined and execute the plan. On navigating early adversity and key injuries while building the program… I just want to see them work. How do you get through things? I wish it were an easy road, it's not. Football's not, life's not. You're going to get knocked down, and there's only one choice: respond, get up, and go to work. I think that's the Michigan State way. The people I've met in this community get up and go to work, and that's what we need to do. We need to get up, go to work, get better, learn, and grow. For the guys who started last week or started training camp not thinking their role would be where it is today, you never want to see that happen through an injury to a teammate, but you can't control that. My expectation is our guys will rise to the occasion and be their best. We don't need them to be the player who's hurt; we need them to be their best. As coaches, we've got to put the guys in position to showcase their skills to the maximum. On wide receiver separation and execution in the passing game… Number one, for the most part at the point of attack, I thought we blocked really well across the board; there was really good effort there. In the pass game, a couple of times we got hung up on downfield releases, but they got called for holding at least once – I would agree with a few more, but that's not what happened, so it is what it is. And then we had guys open that we didn't hit. On the big sack-fumble, Rodney (Bullard Jr.) is wide open. We've got to execute those plays. That was one of those 15 plays we talked about in the team meeting today. I can't look at Nick (Sheridan) and say, "Hey, get him more wide open." You can't take a second hitch, get hit, and fumble; you can't do that. Les ( Alessio Milivojevic ) knows it, and he owned it right after the game. He came in here and owned it. That's why, going back to the quarterback question, that's a mature guy even without a ton of experience. Does it stink going through that? Yeah, it does. But at 51, I never missed a tackle that impacted a game, all right? He's just going to stay the course. And then same thing with Cam (Fancher) we've got a checkdown wide open right over the ball, take what the defense gives you. When we try to make plays outside the framework – not because they're freelancing, but because they just want to win – we have to keep coaching them. We're four games in with this group. That's not an excuse; it's a reality. As we get to know them more, we make our small tweaks as a staff to help them be efficient, effective, and make good decisions. That's what practice is for, and then they have to go do it in the arena. That's every position, not just the quarterback, but that's how it works. That's what you sign up for when you play quarterback. Grade school, high school, college, the pros. NFL quarterbacks are so awesome, aren't they? You guys probably watched them yesterday. 90% of those guys stink (laughing), but it's a tough position, man. It's really hard, and it's getting harder and harder. On seven of eight Big Ten home teams losing on Saturday and preparing for a road environment… I did not know all those home teams lost. I would tell you that anybody can win a Big Ten football game, home or road. Typically, it's harder to win on the road, but could be an anomaly weekend – I have no idea. I know for us, we cannot continue to do what we're doing and expect to win a Big Ten game. We can't turn it over; we've got to play complementary football. If we're not playing complementary football, it's going to be really challenging, so we've got to be better in all three phases. As far as our experience at Notre Dame: anytime you're on the road it brings you together, because it's the 80-man travel roster plus the staff. Friday and Saturday, even though Saturday will be quick with an 11:30 a.m. Central kick—being on the road can bring you together. Hopefully it will continue to do that for us. On the running game's efficiency and breaking through for explosive runs… The rushing yardage gets skewed because of the sacks. Still not sure why a sack counts as a rush, but it does, so that is what it is. That's what kind of makes the stats look that way. The offensive line is starting to come together; we've just got to finish blocks. We've got four out of five, five out of six, six out of seven guys operating as one. There were two or three plays where backside, up to the second level and third level, if we get on the safety, it pops for 20 or 30 or more. I counted four of those. If you have four explosives in that game, you might be talking about something completely different. As the fourth quarter went, the run game wasn't as much of a factor because of the score, but we've just got to keep pounding the rock. That's what I told them after the game. Eventually it's going to break, but they've got to stick together and keep working at it, which they will. On Wisconsin's offensive scheme under Jeff Grimes and quarterback Colton Joseph… Coach Grimes does a really good job with their offense, and seeing Colton's (Joesph) resiliency last week was so impressive. There were things that didn't go their way early in that game, and then to put together the drives and plays he made down the stretch was really, really impressive. He's got that big playmaking ability, has around 24 career starts, and a lot of it goes through him. They're big upfront, play multiple tight ends, and they can get down the field—huge catch at the end of the game to win it. They're physical and really well-coordinated. I've known Luke (Fickell) for a long time; we were players together in the Big Ten. Coach Fickell does an outstanding job. He's stayed the course and stayed convicted. You can tell that this is a Luke Fickell coached team: physical, tough, and the way they responded Saturday in one of the toughest places to play in this league, at night especially, was really impressive. And Mike Tressel does an outstanding job with their defense. Their defense played lights-out on Saturday—the turnovers they created, the havoc they created. It's another huge challenge for us, but that's why you come to the Big Ten. On offensive line shuffling, using heavy jumbo packages, and the development of Robert Wright Jr. and Luka Vincic … I'd play with 12 or 13 if they let me, but the rules don't allow that. We like the group. I said back in Chicago at Big Ten Media Days that we felt like we had nine, 10, 11 guys. AJ (Dennis) stepped up huge on our punt team this week and played really well. Sacks always get equated to the O-line—that's what they sign up for—and we've got to be better protecting in one-on-one battles, and we've got to do some things schematically better as a staff to help them. Robert and Luka have both played a little bit, Robert a little bit more than Luka. Luka was ready to go, and I think he'll continue to get better as the season goes along. I'm really proud of both those guys, especially Luka coming off the injury and the battle he had to go through all last year and all off-season to put himself in position to get out there. Great job by Coach (Nick) Tabacca, and most importantly, great job by Luka staying the course and working his tail off. On Andrew Brinson IV playing 46 snaps after not seeing game action since 2024… Next-man-up mentality: his number got called and he was ready to go. Going into the game he was probably our third corner, and then NiJhay Burt goes down, which changed the whole thing for AB. That's football, that's life—things happen. You've got to stay positive when you don't get what you want, keep getting better, and when the opportunity presents itself, you're ready. When you get those first playing experiences, you learn a ton about yourself, and it all goes back to preparation. I expect he and other guys like Luka, Robert, and (Adam) Shaw—the list goes on of guys who had to go in and get more reps than they ever have— that they'll prepare even better this week now that they've gotten a taste of the field. At a certain point in the season, your "twos" can become what I call "comfortable twos": they ride the bus, they eat the steak, but they really don't have to go into the arena. And then they go into the arena and fail exponentially because they didn't prepare. I didn't see that on Saturday. Our guys who were in there were prepared. Did they execute perfectly? Is that the expectation? No, we'd like them to execute their best. Mistakes will happen, and we've got to coach them and correct them. But to see guys step up the way they did proves we've just got to continue to build that competitive depth. To see AB step up when his role was larger than expected, we're proud of what he's done. On walk-on quarterback Peyton Babbitt leading the team out of the tunnel with the American flag… We need everybody. I made a big deal to the team today about Peyton Babbitt . He's a young man who walked on to our program. We didn't have a special teams player of the week last week, and typically that person carries the American flag out of the tunnel. Last Sunday in our staff meeting, his name came up regarding leadership, work ethic, and doing a great job. I get my academic update on Thursday, and Mrs. Mandy (Chandler) talks about Peyton Babbitt . Peyton Babbitt was our fifth quarterback on the depth chart, and Peyton Babbitt led us out of the locker room. We're looking for more guys like that. And he's not playing, but as we build this program, if we get everybody to have that mindset—he jumps in on scout team, plays receiver, plays running back—that unselfish nature is what we're working our tails off to build in the locker room. I wouldn't be shocked at some point this year if he's out on the kick team, even though he came here as a walk-on quarterback, simply because of his work ethic, attitude, and effort. We need everybody. Thanks a lot, guys. Have a great week. Go Green.