Sept. 11, 2004
NOTRE DAMEHEAD COACH TYRONE WILLINGHAM
On the differences from the Brigham Young game:
“We made better plays, we made plays at the right time. You have to believe in yourself and get it done. Our coaches and players believed in themselves and what they were doing for this week.”
Importance of game – not wanting to start season 0-2:
“If I was to speculate at the start of the season, most of the people in this room would have said I’m right where I am right now.”
On the play of the defense:
“I thought in game one we played pretty well exceptfor giving up three big plays. Today, we stayed strong and played with poise. Except for a couple of big plays, they hung tough all day.”
On the play of freshman running back Darius Walker: “(Running backs coach) Buzz Preston and I talked during the week. We wanted to get him in in the first quarter, but didn’t know how many carries he would get. He gave us a spark. The right person at the right time can give you that spark that every one feeds of off.”
What win means for rest of season:
“This was a big win. Anytime you knock off a top 10 team, it’s a big win. This is just one game though. I can’t get ahead of myself, I won’t let my team get ahead of itself. Today was fantastic. Tomorrow we start over again. We start preparing for Michigan State. I know they will be looking to play their best game versus Notre Dame.”
NOTRE DAME PLAYER QUOTES
SENIOR DEFENSIVE TACKLE GREG PAULY
On the Notre Dame defense:
“I’m so proud of the way our defense played today. After halftime we knew that we had to come out fired up and wear them down in the second half.”
SOPHOMORE DEFENSIVE BACK TOM ZBIKOWSKI
On playing in the Notre Dame/Michigan rivalry:
“It means a lot, especially because I was here last year and I didn’t get a chance to play. It’s hard-nosed, and it’s a fight out there.”
SENIOR TIGHT END JEROME COLLINS
On the team’s response to today’s win:
“After the first week when we lost everyone was down on us, and we won this time so I feel like people are going to jump on the bandwagon. But we can’t let this one game blow up our heads to where we think we can just walk into a house and beat somebody. We still have to come out and practice with enthusiasm and play as if we’re still the underdogs.”
MICHIGAN HEAD COACH LLOYD CARR
Opening statement:
“We have no excuse for what happened out there today. We just did not do the things necessary to win. I thought Notre Dame’s defense played outstanding today. This was a disappointing loss, but when you give up big plays and have a punt blocked, it makes it that much harder to win. I am proud of my guys for the way they battled back to have a chance to win in the final minutes of the game.”
On Michigan’s defense:
“Our defense continued to fight all afternoon. We had a great stand against Notre Dame when they were at fourth and one on our one and our defense held them. It was a great defensive first half, but in the third quarter, the Notre Dame team and their fans really got into the game after the big turnovers by our offense. “
On Michigan’s rushing game:
“We were unable to get our running game working for us today. After last year, breaking all kinds of rushing records, this is a little bit of a shock for us. Unfortunately, in this game we could not win on field goals alone. Our running game is a key to our offense and today we really struggled to get it on track.”
On Notre Dame:
“We heard reports coming into this game that since we shut out Notre Dame last season, they had spent the whole offseason preparing to play us today. In June, they rescheduled the BYU game, and I think that kind of set them back in their preparation. The team that showed up here today for Notre Dame was much different than the one we watched on tape all week getting ready for this game.”
On the Notre Dame-Michigan rivalry:
“These are two great teams with a great rivalry between themselves. We always know that we are going to get their best and we will give them our best. This is what really makes this a great rivalry.”
On Notre Dame running back Darius Walker:
“He played outstanding today for a freshman. He is a slippery guy that our defense struggled to stop. I am sure the Irish will be impressed with what they get out of him the rest of the season.”
MICHIGAN PLAYER QUOTES
WIDE RECEIVER BRAYLON EDWARDS
On the game:
“This is Notre Dame-Michigan. This is a rivalry were if you don’t fight to the finish, you are going to lose. And Notre Dame fought to the finish and they pulled out the win.”
On the final play:
“That was a hook-and-lateral play and I was trying to lateral but I couldn’t.”
QUARTERBACK CHAD HENNE
On the game:
“We had a great gameplan coming in and it’s all about execution and unfortunately, sometimes we didn’t execute what we wanted to and that was the difference in the game.”
Difference from last week to this week:
“We opened things up a little more this week. We just didn’t capitalize on those opportunities.”
TAILBACK DAVID UNDERWOOD
On the game:
“We have to go back and look at film because there’s a lot of things we need to do better. We’ll be fine. We just have to keep fighting though the adversity.”
CORNERBACK MARLIN JACKSON
On the game:
“It’s a tough loss, but we still have got more games left and we have to refocus and look at our goals that we set out to accomplish at the start of the season.”
On the 9-0 halftime lead: “We were comfortable with the halftime lead. We thought we were going to come in the second half and shut them out.”
On the turnovers: “The turnovers were huge and there were a lot for both teams, but their defense didn’t give up the big play and ours did and that’s why we lost the game.”