To see him come in and talk to me, and then all of a sudden he becomes your new head coach, it was such a weird transition. I guess that's life. Things like that happen. |
Two years ago at Michigan the crowd noise was pretty heavy there, obviously, with 110,000 that had to play a big factor. It was one of those situations where I think our team had to resort to silent counts. We adjusted pretty well with it at Tennessee last year, but not so well at Michigan two years ago. |
We didn't necessarily have the best day today. Looking back, it was an ugly game two years ago. |
We don't focus on (individual accolades). Everyone on our team looks at the success of our team as the most important factor. |
We feel as if we are by far the best team in the tournament. Last year the tournament was tainted, and this year we are going for blood. |
We had the mind-set to just keep putting points on the board. One of the goals coming into the game was to keep our defense off the field, knowing that their offense had a lot of firepower. |
We just tried to get them the ball and let them do what they do best. |
We still talk to this day. We had a real close relationship and used to hang out as friends and everything. It's fun seeing them before and after the game, seeing how they've progressed and developed in college. |
We tried to get him the ball. That was one of the strategies we tried to do coming into the game. With his size and his ability, one of the things we wanted to do was get him the ball. |
We're starting to form together. But at the same time, we looked kind of rusty, plus it's kind of hard to tell without pads on, to be honest. |
When they cut it to five, I think it was expressed across the sideline that we need to stop messing around . . . and put some points on the board. |
When you come back like that, you've got a lot of emotion and you feel pretty good about yourself. And then when you can't come through with the victory, I think there's the ability to be a big letdown. |
When you have that kind of success in the first drive, you get excited, but maybe we were a little too excited. The next couple (of) drives weren't what we wanted. |
When you look at the situation, I'm a big believer in my faith. And I actually believe God helped me make the decision to come to Notre Dame, and I feel the same way about Him giving me a feeling that it's in my best interests to come back for another year and it's in my best interests to finish out school and be prepared for the real world whenever football ends. |
When you look at those Xs and Os you're pretty confident in what they are able to do. |