Michigan State football has dropped two games in a row, falling to 2-2 and needing to do a ton of soul searching before they travel to Madison in a week.
When they get to Madison to face off with the Wisconsin Badgers, Pat Fitzgerald is going to need to get a very different version of his team, one that is going to limit mistakes and play to their strengths in a Big Ten matchup.
Ahead of that game, like every Monday, Fitzgerald spoke to the media about the state of his team:
- "Everyone knows Saturday was not acceptable. You can't win Big Ten games losing the turnover battle 3-0, with other plays that should've been turnovers."
- "I don't care about feelings. I care about production, and when we don't produce. We have to eliminate those 15 plays where we don't execute, produce."
- "Didn't play complimentary football the last two weeks."
- "Joe (Rossi) and Max (Bullough) are doing really well with the group. Those two (DiMari Malone and Adam Shaw), their future is bright."
- "When we brought in Jaz Patterson, we told him we had a guy we wanted as starter, he would be 1B. Jaz said 'I'll make an impact.'"
- "I'm not mad at Chuck for the penalty. There was no whistle, the quarterback was still running."
- "The penalty with Kenny, we can't have that, players losing their cool."
- "That was a catch, but I guess it wasn't."
- "Our rush lane discipline was non-existent. When we did what we came to do, we were efficient. Gonna have the same challenge this week, and for the rest of the schedule."
- "I want to see them work. I wish it was an easy road, but it's not. Football's not. You're going to get knocked down. We need to get up and go to work. That's the Michigan State way."
- "In the pass game, there were times we got hung up on a downfield release. We had guys open that we didn't hit. The big sack fumble, Bull (Rod Bullard) is wide open. Les owned it right after the game."
- "We are four games in with this group. It's not an excuse, it's a reality. We need to make good decisions."
- "For us, we cannot continue to do what we are doing and expect to win a Big Ten game. We got to be better in all three phases."
- "You can tell this is a Luke Fickell team. They're tough, they're physical. Their defense played lights out on Saturday."
- "I'm proud of both of our guys (Wright Jr. and Vincic for stepping up). The battle Luka had to go through, all offseason."
- "It all goes back to preparation. He (Andrew Brinson IV), Luka, Robert, Shaw, they will go back and prepare more, because they got their taste of the arena. I saw our guys that were in there, did they execute perfectly? No. To see them step up, we're proud."
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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Everything Pat Fitzgerald
said prior to playing Wisconsin
