Sept. 23, 2001
COACH DAVIE: After looking at the tape last night, it really kind of reaffirmed what I thought had happened during the game. I think it’s probably pretty obvious to all of you. You know, we got ourselves in a hole, and we’ve got to dig ourselves back out of that hole.
But the positive thing is, you know, after looking at it, I really felt ?? I felt a little bit better, because I thought our players really did compete hard. I thought they played hard. The thing you see, and I’m sure all of you see, there’s really no margin for error with us, and I think it is obviously going to be that way the rest of the year.
You know, going into the season, I think all of us would have hoped, certainly I hoped, that we would have a little more explosiveness on the field, particularly on offense. With Arnaz not out there, with David not out there, you just don’t feel it, you know. So I think you all see that we don’t have a big amount, a high amount of big?play capability, and because of that, we have to execute at a very high level, and our goal now, and what we have to be to win, we have to execute at a high level.
The bottom line as we sit here right now: We scored two touchdowns in two games. Both those touchdowns have come after a punt block at Nebraska, which we started inside the 5, and then a punt return yesterday that we started on the 6. So it is pretty obvious that we need to score more points to win, and for us, it has to be an execution style. I mean, we are not going to get a bunch of big plays. That’s the reality of that and I don’t see an immediate change in that.
If you look at yesterday’s game, I think you see what I’m talking about. I think Michigan State had 14 penalties in the game, we had five. Michigan State had zero turnovers, we had two, one of which came on 1st and 10 at the 23?yard line in the second series of the game. We had an opportunity to have a couple turnovers. You know, the punt there in front of our bench. Also, the play before, their touchdown on the big play to Charles Rogers, we had a chance for an interception. We didn’t get the two turnovers that obviously would have made a major difference in the outcome of that football game. So there’s a fine, fine line between winning and losing.
But right now, we have to be an execution football team. The other thing we have to do is when we have a chance to score points, we have to get points. Just to kind of go quickly through the game, you know, the first series, we come out, they had the personal foul and in the pregame. We have a chance with great field position, but we are three and out. That hurt.
Second series, we have the ball. We have a tremendous 4th down conversion on 4th down and 7. Javin makes a great catch. We have a 1st down at 23?yard line and we turn the ball over.
We come back the third series. We move the ball about 60 yards. We have a 1st and 10 at the 15?yard line. We have a couple self?inflicted mistakes. We settle for the field goal. So we have two drives, we have three points. We have to take advantage and we have to get points.
On defense, we started out a little shaky. Duckett made a run on us. We had the 15?yard face mask penalty. We are able to stiffen up in the red zone and hold them to a field goal. Then they have the one big drive on us. They made a couple plays on us. We busted one coverage ?? (technical interruption) … as it goes on, you can see it’s going to come down to the wire. It’s the team that take advantage of a big break. It’s the team that makes a big play is going to win. You always feel that they could make a big play a little bit easier than we could, just with their receivers on the field. Once again, a fine line between winning and losing.
I thought a key play, we had them 3rd and 10. It’s 10?10. It’s on the drive where they can going to go hit the long touchdown pass against the blitz. 3rd and 10, we have a young corner in the game. We play the wrong coverage, they hit the square end against us. The corner turns them loose, they hit the scare and they get the 1st down. We get them 2nd and 6 now. We get them 2nd and 7 at mid?field. They play?action, they try to lob the ball to the tight end. The ball is batted. The ball hits Clifford in the chest, falls through his arms. Could have been intercepted, it wasn’t.
Now it’s 3rd and 7. We all?ought blitz them. We get them to throw hot. They did a sight adjustment for about a 5?yard game. Once again our young corner misses a tackle. Charlie Rogers comes out of there. We strip the ball a little bit, but he fumbles it and goes into the end zone and scores. I mean, fine line. It’s 17 ?10.
We come back, move the ball a little bit, halve the punt. We get the ball back again, we go in. We have it 1st and 10 going in. Matt almost throws the interception. Ball should about been intercepted on 1st and 10, he throws it right to the DB. We come back, 3rd down and 6. You’re in that thing of, you know you are going to go two downs to get the 1st down. What we decide, they are going to blitz the heck out of us. We know the blitz it coming. We max protect on 3rd and 6. We throw the little stop route to Javin. It’s perfect. The ball is almost intercepted again. You know, we had a chance to convert on 3rd and 6.
So now my state of mind is we just called the best play. We thought we had on 3rd and 6. We knew they were blitzing. We max?out protect. We got the blitz protected. We can’t get it thrown and cut. On the 1st and 10, we almost threw the interception. I felt like our best opportunity was to fake the field goal, something we worked on for a long, long time. We went back and looked at all their field goal blocks from a year ago, not just this year, but a year ago, we had the look we wanted. Once again, we just didn’t execute. The snap was a little bit high. Tibble had a hard time, the rhythm of thing. He hands it to Nick, we turned the guy loose or we’re going to probably walk in and touch on the thing. So it’s frustrating, because there’s no one to blame for ourselves because we didn’t execute and we come back late in the game and we throw the interception on 1st down.
So kind of rambled a little bit, but where we are right now, quite honestly, I feel we can be really a good defensive football team. I don’t think we played as well as we can play on defense. But we probably played well enough to win. We gave up a couple plays we really shouldn’t have. Even though they are talented, we didn’t do things as good as we could on defense.
I think special teams, we have to continue to approve improve. We have to continue to get points out of special teams. Offensively, right now, we have a ways to go. I thought we played better than we played against Nebraska. That’s a positive. I thought our offensive line came off the ball better. I thought in particular, Tony Fisher ran harder. I thought we did some good things. But we fumbled two snaps from center. We had some penalties on offense. And we didn’t score.
So, it is kind of what it is. I think you guys can see, we need a spark. The challenge becomes greater because I thought our players extended themselves physically in this game. It was an important game for us at home. We didn’t win. We didn’t get it done. So the job becomes that much tougher on the road. It becomes that much tougher when you are 0?2.
From my perspective, all we can work on, all we control right now is our football team, and as I told our players after the game, all we have right now is each other. There’s nobody else on our bandwagon right now and I can’t blame anyone for not being on it. I don’t expect anyone to be on it.
So we are going to go to College Station. We are going to play in front of 80,000 people that are definitely going to be a factor in the game, just like in Nebraska. They will try to take us out of the game, whether they are behind by 10, whether they are up by 10, or behind by 30. Their crowd will be a factor in the game.
So we are going to get better. We are going to work out butt off to get better, because I’m proud of the effort the kids gave.
John, we can open it up to questions.
Q. You mentioned before about executing and you are not going to be a big?play offense, but at some point, do you have to take a shot down the field just to make the defense respected?
COACH DAVIE: I think so. You know, John, if you look back to the Nebraska game, though, you probably felt that we launched some jump balls more than we have in the past around here and we didn’t get a whole lot of productivity out of it.
So I think you make an accurate point. If you look at Michigan State, certainly, that was a big part of their game, taking advantage of a big tall receiver and throwing the ball down the field. We are a little bit limited right there.
I would say right now Javin Hunter is someone who can get down the field and make a play. You know, so you weigh the odds, and it being 2nd and 10, or do you think you have a chance to make a big play. Right now, I think the odds don’t really favor us, but certainly, we have to find a way to create some plays on offense and generate some big hits. And that’s what we are going to spend the rest of today trying to do: What gives us the best opportunity to loosen them up a little bit.
You know, I thought we ran the ball at times really well on 1st and 10. So I think you have a good point. I’m not sure right now with our football team that that gives us the best opportunity. But I think it’s something that we are evaluating, John.
Q. Just one other thing. Do you have any idea at this point on Given’s availability for the game?
COACH DAVIE: He’s 50/50. I spoke this morning with the doctors. He is 50/50. Glenn Earl is 50/50. Arnaz Battle is out four to six weeks. Other than that, we made it through the football game pretty good.
Also, the young man that was ?? that had the complications on the sideline for Michigan State, he is fine. Our doctors, our trainer Jim Russ (ph) went down there this morning to the hospital. His family was there, his girlfriend was there and they said he was just fine. So I’m really glad to hear that.
Q. Did it seem to you in reviewing the tape that the play calling might have been a little predictable, with basically running plays on the first two downs until you were in a passing situation?
COACH DAVIE: Well, Bob, I think we are a little bit that kind of a team right now. We did mix it up a couple times. I think we hit Tommy Lopienski out in the flat, which is a big play for us. We came back and tried to do that again, but we turned a guy loose and Matt got pressured a little bit.
I thought Kevin called a good game. There were a couple things that always draw your attention on 3rd down. One time it was 3rd and 6 or 3rd and 7 and we throw a hitch?route out there for about four yards that was short of the first down. Actually, it was supposed to be a slant and the communication between the quarterback and the receiver was wrong, but there was no excuse for that. That was a veteran receiver out ther and a quarterback that’s played a lot of football. That’s one thing that gets your attention.
The second thing on 3rd and about 18, we did the little smash route and we had to throw it to the short guy. So I think fans would look at those things and say, “Why wouldn’t you throw it to get to the first down”? One time we did a poor job communicating with the receiver, and the other time, we really had no chance to throw it to the first down marker for the first down because of the maximum coverage they were in.
The bottom line, and Kevin Rogers will be the first one to tell you, he’s been in this profession a long time: You need to score points. If you don’t score points, you are not going doing a good job calling plays. That’s how any good coordinator takes it. That’s how you understand it. We need to do a better job.
Q. How come the offense is struggling like this? Everybody thought it was going to be a potent offense, and you’ve got a lot of players back from last year’s offense. Nobody can seem to put their finger exactly on the problem, but why is this offense struggling?
COACH DAVIE: Well, I think it’s a couple things, Howie.
You know, first of all, the first game, it was a communication problem. It was playing against an awfully good defense and I thought we got rattled and lost our composure. I don’t think that was the case yesterday. I think once again, we played a pretty good defensive football team. Personally, I don’t think you felt the big?play capability yesterday. Just as I said, we are a football team ?? I think that from this point forward has to execute at a high, high level. There were times we did execute. We did do some good things. We have to be pretty close to perfect to score points, and that’s not an easy thing, but that has to be what it is, and we shoot ourselves in the foot.
You know, I don’t know that you ever take a tape, look at the tape and say, “Boy, we were perfect.” That is difficult. We all realize that. But we have an unusual amount right now of little things that happen that turn into big things.
You know, it’s not one thing over and over again. If it was, it would be easy to solve. You know, we had two fumbled exchanges. One time the center snapped the ball early. The other time, it’s hard to tell if it was the center or the quarterback’s fault, but the ball was on the ground. We had an offensive guard pulled and run by a defensive end one time. He was supposed to kick out. One time, Matt didn’t check to the right play against the blitz.
So it’s a combination of little things that when you don’t get big plays in games, it becomes all that more critical that you don’t have, and I think that’s the bottom line.
Q. What is the situation at quarterback? Do we know at this time who will start and who will not play, Saturday, Coach?
COACH DAVIE: You know, I don’t know yet. We didn’t have enough time to talk about it this morning. We really obviously spent all of our time just evaluating the tape.
I don’t know. I thought Matt played, honestly, pretty well at times. I really did. He had some 3rd down conversions. He had a 4th down conversion.
Also, you know, did we generate enough offense? No. Did we generate enough big plays? No. Was that Matt’s fault? A tough question to answer right now.
But once again, the bottom line is we need to generate more points and we need to generate more offense. So right now, I would have to say everybody’s job is in jeopardy. So that’s where we are. There’s go going to be a total evaluation done because we are not going to sit still. We have got too much at stake. We have too much invested and the players gave too much effort not to have success. We are going to move forward.
Q. You were gracious for the fans yesterday, but several of the players, at least four or five of the players were outspoken about the fans booing, Tony Fisher and Shane Walton were particularly outspoken. Does that concern you do you peek to the team regarding their criticism of the home fans?
COACH DAVIE: I didn’t know that. That’s the first I heard that. I will talk to them. But as always, you know I’m not going to tell our players what to say. We’ve got some kids ?? you look at Tony ?? you say it was Tony Fisher and Shane Walton?
Q. In particular, yeah.
COACH DAVIE: If your sons grew up to be Tony Fisher and Shane Walton, you would take it, and they put their heart out there on that field. So I’m never going to tell them what to say. Just like I don’t tell our fans what to say.
So, I can certainly understand the frustration of our fans. I think maybe from a player’s point of view, it may be even more sensitive because they have walked into the Nebraska stadium and felt the atmosphere in that stadium. I think from a player’s perspective, it’s a 10?10 football game with two teams that are battling their butts off on that field. I can maybe understand why a player might be sensitive to that in your home stadium.
But as a coach, I understand. I hope they are booing me. They should be booing me, because I appreciate what these kids do and how hard they work and the kinds of kids we have on this football team. So you know they are 18 ?, 19?, 20?year?old guys that are putting their heart into it, and I can feel their frustration. I feel our fan’s frustration, too. They have a right to boo. They have a right to boo. So that’s what it is.
Q. I don’t know whether it is accurate or not, the old expression, that when you have seniors ?? inaudible ?? and the season goes south, there’s a chance of losing the seniors. Is that a concern of yours at this point?
COACH DAVIE: No, it’s not a concern, but I’ve been in this profession long enough to know that when you extend yourself and give effort, you want results, and that’s something you have to deal with, with the players.
I think we have always been totally honest and I think we have done a good job of identifying what areas need improvement, and I think we can honestly take this tape, once again, and show that: “I know you tried and you tried hard. So did Michigan State. Here is where our breakdowns were.”
I honestly feel, and I felt this last night, I called Greg and I called Kevin Rogers last night, after looking at the tape, you know, I was somewhat encouraged because I feel we can solve our problems, I really do.
So I think we’ve got kids that, you know, understand. We put that tape on, there’s things that we can get better, and there’s a lot of football left. There’s a lot of football left in this season. So yeah, we have got a bunch of seniors on this team, but these kids have great character.
Q. In all of your years of coaching, have you been involved in a situation where it may have gone south, what you count on for senior leadership, can it go in the other direction?
COACH DAVIE: Sure, it can. Sure, it can. But I don’t think with the kids we have on our team, I’ve got tremendous confidence in these kids, and I’ve got tremendous confidence in the way we coach them. I think we’ll work harder this week, and I think our attitude will be better this week than it’s ever been, and I think the chemistry will be better. And I mean that sincerely, because to me when I put that tape on and I see great effort and I see the little things that happen, I mean, I feel pretty good about that.
All it is to me is coaching better and getting the execution better. That’s what it is. I really feel good about the chemistry of our team.
Q. If ever one unit feels like it has to carry the team, there’s the danger of too much pressing and not being able to be loose, do you worry about the defense, they have played better than offense thus far ??
COACH DAVIE: Well, I think we probably have a little bit of feel of that as a football team. I think going into Nebraska, I think our team felt that a little bit. We grinded it so hard. As I mentioned, watching them play two weeks, no margin for error, yeah, we’ve grinded it hard. You know, we’ve got a lot invested and we want to be successful. I think that’s part of it.
But you talk to your defense or you talk to anyone on your football team, just take care of your responsibility. It’s not like our defense is playing great or so much better than the offense. It’s not offense here, defense here, kicking game here, particularly for us because we see that we have to hit on all cylinders to win, and that’s not the unlike a lot of teams in college football. You look at the scores every week, it’s going to be competitive every week. So that’s an issue. That’s one thing we do deal with because I don’t want a division on your team.
But we do a good job of not having egos. There’s no real big egos on our coaching staff. And I think that’s the thing, and going back to Tim’s question, if the chemistry is right on the staff, which I know it is, chemistry is going to be good on the football team.
Q. Why is it so difficult to solve the problem of the red zone? It seemed like it gets to a certain point ?? you’ve been a coach a long time, why is it such a challenge when you can move the ball?
COACH DAVIE: If you look last year ?? I don’t have those statistics right year, but unbelievable last year statistically of scoring points in the red zone.
So this year, it’s different. It’s a new year. But certainly, last year we were an opportunistic football team on offense. We were opportunistic as a team. We knew it would be difficult to generate points like we did last year, with special teams being perfect in the red zone, some of those things. But we are still the same team and I think that we have to be perfect. There’s not some major big?play player that’s all of the sudden emerged from last year. What’s disappointing is our execution should be better than it was a year ago because we are a year older with the same guys, so that’s frustrating.
So that’s kind of where we are as a staff. We know it’s difficult to execute perfect, but we know we have to and we know we should be closer to that than we were a year ago. And that’s kind of where we are.
But the encouraging part, we did get better. We did get better from the Nebraska game. So I think we’ve got something to build on.
Q. To that end, the tight end ?? inaudible ?? do you feel that’s like hurt offensive execution?
COACH DAVIE: I think we’ve got some uncertainty in there at guard. You know, Sean Mahan has played good. Sean Mahan had a couple busts yesterday. We had to move Teasdale in there.
The tight ends have played okay. The tight ends have played okay. They have been no factor in the passing game, but we played okay. Yeah we lost a couple good players, two senior guards, one of them captain and two tight ends, but I don’t think there’s the problem. I think it’s just the little things right now. Playing in games where we can’t afford to have little things go wrong.
Q. How concerned are you about the crowd ?? being a military school ??
COACH DAVIE: It will be the loudest crowd we’ve played here at Notre Dame, period. And probably the crowd that has the most effect on a game.
One thing that helps us, is in the afternoon. Now that may not help us because of the heat, but it will help us because of the crowd.
Q. The fact that no Notre Dame team has ever started a season 0?3, does that worry you? Does that concern you? Does that give you motivation?
COACH DAVIE: I didn’t know we were 0?3 yet.
I’m really just kind of worried about winning this game. I’m not going to were I about that. What I’m going to worry about getting this football team better. I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what people say or what this record was or what this legacy was. I’m worried about helping these kids win a game right now, and that’s all I care about.
Q. Do you feel like you have to be more encouraging and be a motivator for your players this week, as opposed to getting on them about things they may not have done right?
COACH DAVIE: I’m totally consistent with that. I’m not going to do anything to try to spin anything or be phony in any way. I know I’m repeating myself, but it is what it is. That’s why we are going to dig out of this hole because there’s a lot of trust. There’s a lot of trust and I’m not going to do anything just for the spin of doing it. We’re going to work harder than we have ever worked and I’m going to put more juice and energy into this than I’ve ever put into it, and I expect our players to follow our lead. I am down right now. I’m disappointed about being 0?2. I feel bad for our fans, but we are going to dig out of this hole.
Q. After the Michigan State game a year ago, they were able to put that winning streak together. Do you believe that they believe in themselves ?? but can they do that again?
COACH DAVIE: We are going to get to that point. We are capable of having a heck of a football team. I think once again, there’s going to be a lot of close games and execution is the priority right now, because you have to execute in close football games, and that’s the deal right now, is how can we execute at a high enough level to win.
Q. (Inaudible)?
COACH DAVIE: I think we knew it would be a little more difficult because I think when you play Notre Dame right now, what you probably do is you probably come into it and say, “Look, whatever happens, don’t let them beat us in the kicking game. Don’t turn the ball over. Make Notre Dame score points.” That’s probably how teams are playing us.
So I know they are spending an awful lot of time in the kicking game, but as I mentioned we have had two touchdowns and two of them have been a direct result of kicking game. We have been two?for?two on field goals. The fake field goal, once again, if we execute, we score, but we didn’t. It was a high snap. We have had two high snaps.
But I thought our punt team yesterday ?? I mean, Joey Hildbold averaged 50 yards a punt and nine punts. Our kickoff coverage by and large was pretty good, although we kicked one out of bounds. You know, you are not going to just score points every week in the kicking game like last year. That was kind of a freak thing, really. I still feel like special teams is a strength for us. I think getting Glenn Earl back. Glenn Earl is a guy that I think last year made some really big plays for us. He has not played the first two football games for us. So if we get Glenn back and we can keep snapping the ball on punts, I think we are going to be okay.
Q. Going back to the booing, do you worry at all ?? you said early on that this is your most talented team and maybe you said expectations high and the fans saw that ??
COACH DAVIE: I’m going to be honest every way. I do feel, but overall, this is our most talented football team. And I said from the beginning, let’s not kid ourselves. We are not so talented that we are going to walk out there and just out?talent teams we play. I’m just drawing comparisons to what we’ve had. I think overall this is the most talented team we’ve had.
Q. Did Omar Jenkins show you ?? earn your trust and if David can’t go, who else would you ??
COACH DAVIE: Omar, I was proud of him. We had the 3rd and 7 that we completed was a 1st down and Omar dropped it. No one felt worse than him but he came back and made a couple catches. The thing you noticed was he’s real tentative. After he catches, he cradles it and gets no run after the catch, which is kind of that hidden yardage.
I think that position is somewhat open. You know, Carlos Campbell is a young guy, Ronnie Rodamer, Lorenzo Crawford, Omar, we’ve got four guys, one of them needs to step up. Hopefully we get David back. I’m not counting on it, but we’ve got four guys all kinds of the same.
Q. What goes in to the decision of when to bring in Holiday ?? whether and when, and I bring it up ?? he was brought in yesterday right after Fisher. You seem to have gone to a power running game ?? what goes into that decision?
COACH DAVIE: I think you bring up a good point, and this is something that, you know, Kevin and I talked this morning about. You know, Kevin is completely on the same page I am. I think what happens right now, we’re trying to generate points a little bit and we are trying to get a spark. Maybe that’s why you fake a field goal on 4th and sixth. You don’t have great confidence, so you are trying to get that spark and get it going.
One of the things, when Carlyle comes in, you almost force things a little too much. If you look, Carlyle comes in and the first thing we do is the quarterback draw because you are trying to make something happen. You know, at that time, we probably would have been better off ?? we honestly wasted that series with Carlyle. We went three plays and out. We got off what was going pretty well because we put in Carlyle and we wanted to take advantage of Carlyle’s athleticism. So it probably knocked us off rhythm a little bit and we hurt ourselves there.
Once again, it’s good intentioned. It’s for the right reasons, but we don’t have a rhythm of what we truly are and what we truly can do.
Defensively, I feel like we do right now. We are what we are. Special teams, we are what we are. Offense, we are still trying to feel our way into what we can really establish and that’s a bit of a problem. I thought we wasted a series when Carlyle came in. The next series Carlyle comes in, he runs option on 1st down, shows his athleticism gains nine yards and we have a 1st down, then we have a penalty and we have to throw it on 3rd down and we’ve got a guy down and he doesn’t even look to where he’s supposed to look on the thing.
So we have to be careful not to get ourselves in two different offenses depending on who is in the game. And I think that is a valid point.
Q. As you make your quarterback evaluation this week, is it based on efficiency and practice or is there a larger issue relating ?? do you have to commit one way or another?
COACH DAVIE: I think it’s a bigger issue right now than who practices the best this week. I think we’ve got a pretty good handle on who can do what or how they are going to practice because we are not going to be able to go out there and scrimmage. So the bottom line, they are both going to practice pretty good. Right now, it is more overall, where can we generate points and how can we become more explosive.
So I think this is, once against, you know critical for us to evaluate some things. But I do feel better than I felt a week ago. I felt we did run the football better. I thought Tony Fisher did run the football harder and I felt better about our offense.
Q. I thought this has no bearing on the game, but because of the circumstances of the stadium during the pre?game and all that, did you see Michigan State out there on the field and did that gave you a feeling of uneasiness? Again, under the circumstances, the emotion, everybody holding up the flags they were lined up out there and you weren’t?
COACH DAVIE: I didn’t even see it. I didn’t even see it. I didn’t know there was a decision to make. Our normal routine is to stay in the locker room and come out. No, that was ?? our kids were excited play this football game, no question about that.
Q. Once the game started, was it a typical game like every other game?
COACH DAVIE: Typical game. You know, the thing you noticed, it was hot for us. It was the first time the sun has been out, just like for them, and when the player went down, that was really a different atmosphere.
But other than that, you know, it was about like it always is.
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