Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1039349
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 29, 2018 29 NOTRE DAME HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY … On Ian Book's play: "His pocket awareness was not great in the first half. I had a nice conversation with him in the second half. He settled down nicely, but I think this is just maturation. "Seeing things, feeling them and then he had a great second half. I think he had one incompletion, and if we can work on his sliding skills to get the 10 full yards, he'd be flawless in the second half." NOTRE DAME JUNIOR QUARTERBACK IAN BOOK … On if he had to focus on moving past the intercep- tions: "Forget about it and move on. I need those guys; and if they make a mistake, I need them to forget about it and same goes with me. "You think about it for a minute and move on." On his game-winning touchdown throw: "Miles [Boykin] made a great move and stuck it on the post. He's really rangy. I just have to put the ball up there and give him a chance. "I was focusing all week on giving our guys a chance, not over throwing … Throw it and Miles will go get it." NOTRE DAME SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER MILES BOYKIN … On his touchdown catch: "It was just a simple post route. He was playing press man and they brought pres- sure. Ian finally had time to throw it up there so I had to go up there and make a play." On the mood in the locker room after the game: "It's not where it should be. Obviously, a win is a win, but this team, our standard isn't to go out and win a game like that. "We understand that happens and Pitt played us great, but we want to be able to dominate every opponent we play." NOTRE DAME FIFTH-YEAR SENIOR CENTER SAM MUSTIPHER … On the team's conditioning: "[A few years ago] we found ways to lose in the fourth quarter and let games slip away. We were behind today and faced a lot of adversity. "Two interceptions, the kickoff return, a penalty in the special teams unit, guys missing blocks in the run game and pass protection. For us to battle back from that adversity, I feel like that was the most important thing for us." On Book's performance in second half: "It's a testa- ment to who he is. No matter what happens, he's going to come back out there and keep fighting. "Offenses mimic whatever the quarterback does, and his identity is we're going to keep fighting no matter what." NOTRE DAME JUNIOR DEFENSIVE KHALID KAREEM … On what the Pittsburgh win shows: "Grit. We had to persevere through all the adversity. We were down most of the game. "The offense scored for us, and the defense had to come up big at the end of the game." On changes made to stop the Panthers' run game: "No adjustments were really made. We just had to focus on what we had to do. We got out of focus a little bit, but we locked back in. "We stuck to our mission and came out with the victory." NOTRE DAME SENIOR LINEBACKER TE'VON CONEY … On importance of staying unbeaten heading into bye week: "It's huge. All week we talked about getting this win to get to the bye week, get rested and reset. Getting this win was great. "We played against a great opponent who gave us a great test. We appreciate them for giving their best. Our goal was to get the win, get to the bye week and recoup." NOTRE DAME SENIOR LINEBACKER DRUE TRANQUILL … On coming from behind to win: "I don't know of a team that's won a national championship that hasn't had to come from behind at some point in the season or play a close game. "That happened to be today for us." — Corey Bodden and David McKinney FROM THE LOCKER ROOM Senior linebacker Te'von Coney made a team-high eight tackles in Notre Dame's 19-14 win over Pittsburgh. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA