Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1183432
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 16, 2019 27 NOTRE DAME HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY … On the Irish defense allowing only two touchdowns in the last two games: "They have been really good all season. We have one bad performance. We had a bad day [against Michigan] and, certainly, they rectified that with the way they played the last couple of weeks. "This defense has been a consistent performer all year. I think we clearly know that offensively we've had our starts and stops, but our defense has pretty much been there all year in force." On how hard the team worked in practice this week: "I saw it in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday. Man, these guys practiced so hard on Tuesday and Wednesday. "I was so impressed with them and to a point where their numbers, and again, I use this sometimes in the man- ner that I should explain it a little bit better, but we moni- tor their GPS player load numbers and they were higher than preseason camp." On senior quarterback Ian Book's improvement: "This was what we were expecting him to move towards. Some- times it just takes a little bit longer. There are other things going on, and other pressures that he's now flushed through and has experienced and gone through the worst of it. "I believe he's only going to get better at things that he can get better at." On fifth-year senior wide receiver Chris Finke: "He's the king of getting the punt returns back to the 10-yard line. That's what we told him. He gets to the 10. Awesome day for him, another guy that has worked so hard, he was fast this week. "He was hitting 20, 21 miles an hour on GPS. He has his legs. He feels good. The guys are, for November, I've had a lot of teams that at this time of the year are kind of limping to the finish line." NOTRE DAME FIFTH-YEAR SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER CHRIS FINKE … On what he saw on his punt return: "He just out- kicked his coverage and I had a little bit of room, maybe could have gotten some more yardage out of it, but we will see on film. I had some really good blocking." On what motivates the team even if they cannot make the playoffs: "If you're not motivated playing football, even if you can't make the playoffs, you shouldn't be do- ing it. Obviously, that was the goal but we show up every day, we love each other, we have fun. "When you start playing this game as a kid you're not thinking about the college playoffs. There are reasons why you play it and you love it. I think for me and a lot of the other guys the main thing is that we love our teammates." NOTRE DAME SENIOR CORNERBACK TROY PRIDE JR. … On what clicked for the team defensively: "It's our mindset for the week, we just worked, we worked, and we executed and we got on the grind. "It was a combination of a lot of good work throughout the week, and when we execute and everyone does his job, we can do anything." On getting a dominant road win over a Power Five team: "It feels good, you want to continue that, you don't want to be half and half. You want to dominate, you want to beat a team 150-0 if you can. "If we execute and do exactly what we are supposed to do and everyone does their job — everyone is in their gap, everyone is on their coverage — that's what we want every time." NOTRE DAME SENIOR QUARTERBACK IAN BOOK … On the several crucial third down conversions early for the offense: "I was able to get through all my progres- sions, but with them playing man, Finke is hard to guard. He is a smart receiver, so he is able to find those holes in the defense. "This week he did a good job getting separation. It worked out perfectly tonight." On head coach Brian Kelly mentioning the captains wanted harder practices: "We talked as a group, all of us captains, it's just more energy to feed off. It's hard to win in November, we want to win every single game in November — that's huge. We want the coaches pushing us, don't want anybody letting up, we are still playing for a lot of good things here. "Not just them, we want to be guys to keep each other accountable. Leadership from all around the program is what we wanted, and we wanted to be at the highest it's been. We are all one family." — Andrew Mentock and Vince DeDario FROM THE LOCKER ROOM Head coach Brian Kelly praised the team's attitude and work ethic, especially the demand from the players to push physicality more in practice rather than taper off during the month of November. He was amazed to see higher work volume levels recorded this month than back in August. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN