By Danielle Daniels

11/13/2023

Michigan State interim head coach Harlon Barnett

On playing three Top-10 team this season…
“We’ve got a ways to go… You see what teams in the Top 10 look like and how they play. I look back and I know what our teams have looked like before when we were Top 10 and so we have to get back to that… There’s another level to this thing and we can get there.”

On Marvin Harrison Jr.…
“He’s a tough matchup and one of the best receivers in the country.”

On offensive performance…
“We could get some nice plays and runs but all of a sudden, we’re taking two steps forward and three steps back… We just couldn’t sustain drives and ultimately you want to get in the end zone and … we weren’t able to do that.”

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day

On the performance of Marvin Harrison Jr. and the offense’s fast start…
“It was great to have everybody back. It was great to have Cade (Stover) back. It was to see (TreyVeyon Henderson) running. It was good to have (Emeka Egbuka) and Julian (Fleming) out there. Certainly Marvin made some big time plays early on in the game that got us going. I thought the reverse was really well executed by the guys up front. You talk about a couple of those blocks that were made, (Gee Scott Jr.) came around and set that edge and then Marvin did the rest. Josh Fryar was hustling down the field. I thought the O-line, the first group, did a nice job. Trey ran hard, Kyle made some good decisions. Like you said, Marv is a special player. We are always going to try to find ways to get him the ball, not that it’s always easy. There was a lot of double coverage out there tonight and he still found a way to make plays.

On the defense… 
“It was great to see some guys step up. Guys that you never know how they’re going to shake out. Even at the end of the game, those are precious reps because you never know when guys are going to have to be put in those situations. You think back to that down the stretch run last year, at running back and tight end, there were a lot of times where we needed guys to step up and so we’ll watch the film and figure out who did that today.”

On what stood out to him from the team…
“I feel like we’re getting all of our pieces back. I think you’re starting to see our identity start to forge a little bit of what we’re doing on offense. Every year, sometimes it takes a little bit longer to figure that out and I think you’re seeing us play with more and more confidence… I felt like something like this was right around the corner. We were knocking on the door. I’m counting on this momentum to push us forward and finish the season the way that we should.”

On more players getting to play in the second half…
“It is competitive to them. This is an opportunity. They practice and they earn the opportunity to get on the field and now they have to grab on to those reps. And some guys did flash. That’s where you see a guy on the field… They are all gradeable snaps on film, it doesn’t matter what the score is. That should have nothing to do with it. For example, a young guy who just flashed to me was Calvin Simpson-Hunt on that screen play. What a great play for him to show up there.”

COURTESY MICHIGAN STATE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS