April 23, 2002
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame football continued to focus on fundamentals and execution during a two-hour workout session Tuesday afternoon. The Irish will have one more spring practice on Thursday before taking the field Saturday at 1:30 p.m. (EST) for the 73rd annual Blue-Gold Game at Notre Dame Stadium.
Head coach Tyrone Willingham said he was encouraged by the development of his team in the 13 workouts since the spring season got underway three weeks ago.
“Our guys have done a lot of good work in a very condensed period of time,” he noted. “I’m excited about the progress that we’ve made. There’s still a great deal of room for us to improve and grow, and that is exciting.”
Willingham also discussed the format of Saturday’s scrimmage, commenting that he would like it to be “a game, if at all possible.” He mentioned that the teams would divided evenly and that the coaching staff would be responsible for assigning players to each squad. In addition, the Irish mentor stated some of the special teams would be eliminated, in order to protect against any injuries in those areas.
As for final player evaluations, Willingham said much of that work would be done prior to Saturday’s game.
“For me, my evaluation will be completed probably on Thursday, when we finish what I consider to be our last really big work day,” he commented. “The spring game is an opportunity for our team to come out, relax a little bit and just play football.
“We won’t do a great deal in terms of our overall offensive scheme,” Willingham continued. “At the same time, we’ll allow them to have the luxury of not worrying about installation and other things and just play the game of football.”
— ND —