O’Connor on first loss: ‘It’s on me’

EAST LANSING - Tyler O’Connor watched the game tape twice Saturday, ate some chicken wings, then watched it some more the next morning.

Some of it looked OK, but most was bad. And O’Connor absorbed all of the criticism and shouldered much of the blame for his first loss as Michigan State’s starting quarterback.

“I think just when you go back and look at it, I think the biggest thing is there’s sometimes where, as a quarterback, there’s things out of your control,” O’Connor said Tuesday. “But the biggest thing is don’t make a bad play worse. So in the end, it’s on me. That’s just how it is.”

O’Connor went 18-for-38 for 224 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions in the 16th-ranked Spartans’ 30-6 loss to No. 8 Wisconsin on Saturday. He was replaced on the final drive by redshirt freshman Brian Lewerke, but coach Mark Dantonio continued to affirm that his fifth-year senior will be MSU’s starter going forward, including Saturday night’s game at Indiana (8 p.m./BTN).

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“Tyler is fine. He’s a confident player,” Dantonio said. “I talked to him. Texted him Saturday night, and he had already watched the game twice. He’s a responsible, responsible guy. He’ll take ownership in what he did. He’s not a finger-pointer. He’s mature in terms of how he handles things.

“This hasn’t been the first time in his football career that something has gone wrong. A lot of things can go wrong at that position. I’m sure he’s prepared to handle these things, and he has an opportunity to bounce back and make it happen.”

O’Connor reflected on his first interception of the game, when he read three Wisconsin blitzers coming from his right side. He got rid of the ball on the hot read and threw off his back foot to tight end Jamal Lyles on the right sideline, but he stared at Lyles the whole time and Badgers cornerback Sojourn Shelton stepped in front of Lyles and picked off the ball.

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“Whether we’re hot (read) or not, it’s better to throw the ball out of bounds and take an incompletion than it is to throw an interception, obviously,” O’Connor said. “There’s some things out of my control, definitely, but again, I can still make a better decision for this team.”

Dantonio said part of the problem is MSU’s offensive line, and the running backs need to better protect O’Connor. Part of it is receivers getting “tied up down the field.”

The 10th-year coach also put part of it on his quarterback. O’Connor knows that comes with the job.

“Actually, Drew Stanton texted me after the game and said we deflect all the credit and then we take all the blame as quarterbacks in situations like this. I was fully prepared for it and fully expected it,” O’Connor said.

Honoring Hicks: Dantonio said the Spartans plan to wear black socks and black shoes as well as a No. 6 sticker on the back of their helmets at Indiana to honor former MSU linebacker/safety Mylan Hicks, who was shot and killed early Sunday morning in Calgary, Alberta. The coach, wearing Hicks’ favorite color black to his Tuesday news conference, said the program also plans to “honor him in a variety of ways.”

Dantonio said around 40 players on this year’s squad were teammates of Hicks, who played for MSU in 2010-14. The team had an open chapel service Sunday to grieve. He has talked with Hicks’ mother, Renee Hill, about trying to help bring her son’s body back to his hometown Detroit. Arrangements are pending.