Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1300210
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 24, 2020 31 NOTRE DAME HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY … On the play of Notre Dame fifth-year senior quarter- back Ian Book against Louisville: "Certainly there are things that he can get better at, but — look — he wins. I get asked the same question each and every week. He's a winner. He wins football games. "I said he hasn't lost at home, and when it's time to make plays, he made huge third-down conversions on this last drive. So when the game is on the line, you can count on Ian Book to come up and make big plays for us. That's a good feeling to have." NOTRE DAME FIFTH-YEAR SENIOR QUARTERBACK IAN BOOK … On the weather conditions against Louisville: "It was pretty windy, there's no doubt, but at the end of the day, Coach [Tommy] Rees came up to me and said, 'We're go- ing to do what we're doing. I know you can throw in the wind. We did it all week.' "We came out hot with some passing game, and that's what we did. We didn't feel the wind and say, 'Okay, we're done throwing.' The running game was working. It's been unbelievable this whole entire year, and that's what it's about. Just to be able to go out there and do that and get a win feels amazing. Winning is really hard." NOTRE DAME FIFTH-YEAR SENIOR DEFENSIVE END DAELIN HAYES … On coming away with a hard-fought win against Lou- isville: "Coach Kelly always stresses that to us. It's hard to win. It's hard to be consistent and protect your house and take wins each and every week. So Coach always starts with, enjoy that, congratulations on that. We're just trying to keep that at the forefront. It's a positive that we won, but we always, each and every week, want to work on the details where we need to elevate our game as a team. "Our schedule gets tougher from this point on, so we just have to continue to develop, clean up the mistakes like Coach talked about with the red zone on offense. For the de- fense, it's us getting off the field on third down. It's a great win. You always want to hang your hat on that. That's great, but there's still work to be done and we're excited about it." NOTRE DAME SENIOR ROVER JEREMIAH OWUSU-KORAMOAH … On what he did to earn consistent playing time this season: "Just by cutting down the amount of calls that we have, just making it easy for everybody to understand and to be able to go out and play really fast. That was really what we keyed in on this week is playing fast and playing physical. When you take out some of the calls and take out a lot of the checks and things like that, you start to get more comfortable in the defense. "That was one thing that we keyed in on: just making sure that we understood what was at hand, because Lou- isville does not play a lot of different offenses, so you want to make sure that you cut down the defensive calls when defending Louisville." NOTRE DAME JUNIOR WIDE RECEIVER KEVIN AUSTIN JR. … On his rapport with Book: "Before my injury, I spent a lot of time with Ian working on passing and being on time. So when I came back, there wasn't really a misstep. "But while I was injured, I was really focusing on strengthening both my opposite leg and the leg that I injured, trying to stay off the foot and just focus on the strength in my leg." NOTRE DAME FIFTH-YEAR SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER BEN SKOWRONEK … On what he brings to be the Fighting Irish offense: "I'm experienced. I've played a lot of football, probably the most on the perimeter in the offense, but a lot of people would probably describe me as a possession receiver. I just want to be a playmaker — someone who can make a play when my number is called and help the team win games. "Being a winner is kind of how I like to be described." On playing against Louisville after missing the previ- ous two games due to a hamstring injury: "I was kind of like a kid before Christmas last night. I was so excited to play, so excited to get back out there with my brothers. Just going through adversity, it makes everything sweeter." — Andrew Mentock FROM THE LOCKER ROOM Head coach Brian Kelly noted the good feeling he gets knowing that when the game is on the line he can count on his quarterback, fifth-year senior Ian Book, to make the necessary plays to win the game. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS