Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1305649
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 7, 2020 31 NOTRE DAME HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY … On the improvements Daelin Hayes has made in his game: "He's been single-minded in his focus for the last month or so in terms of really working on his craft. I've just seen a different player when it comes to wanting to be a dominant player in football. Daelin has always been a good player, but he's been good at a lot of things, both on and off the field. He has made a choice, a conscious decision that he wants to be a great player. "It has just been fun to watch this kind of coming to- gether on the practice field. Now it's starting to show itself on the game field. It's his dedication to how he's been practicing, and we're seeing it come to fruition." NOTRE DAME FIFTH-YEAR SENIOR DEFENSIVE END DAELIN HAYES … On what he's done to work on improving his game in recent weeks: "It's really about just being one of 11 out there on the field, trusting our brothers to do their jobs. I'm going to do my part being out there, but in practice it's just being consistent day in and day out, busting your butt, working on your craft, going in extra meetings, spending extra time with our coaches. "Anything that you can do to give yourself an edge come Saturday, it always shows up in some form or fashion. I'm just doing the best that I can to prepare myself to be the best player that I can be for my brothers on Saturday." On if the deep defensive line rotation keeps him fresh during games: "When you go out and bust your butt in practice, Coach [Mike] Elston is going to give you opportunities to go out and play because they're earned opportunities. It's an awesome rotation to keep us fresh. "It's awesome for competition. We're all out there try- ing to put our best foot forward. It creates a really cool dynamic within our D-line room, where everyone knows they're going to play. Everyone is bought in. "The youngest guys are in with the oldest guys in our extra meetings and are excited to go out and play on game day and go out and produce. Coach Elston has done a great job of creating that type of dynamic within our D-line because it keeps everybody hungry and it gives everybody opportunities to go out and play football for the team." NOTRE DAME FIFTH-YEAR SENIOR QUARTERBACK IAN BOOK … On Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence not playing against Notre Dame next weekend: "The first thing is I feel for him. It's probably killing him inside. I've met him before. He's a good dude, and I know he's a competitor. I couldn't imagine, and I bet that really sucks. But at the end of the day, he's on the offensive side. He doesn't play defense. "We've got to do what we've got to do, and our defense will handle it. They'll prepare for whoever they got to prepare for — but again, he doesn't play defense. They're going to have all those guys that they've been playing with this weekend ready to go. So it's on us. But I feel for him. I feel really sorry for him." On how he's worked to improve his game over the last few weeks: "I worked on a lot of things. One of the main things was just timing, knowing where guys will be at the right time and I've to get better at that every week. I just feel more comfortable with those guys, just putting in more reps day in and day out. "The other one was just bringing juice to this offense and keep rolling. We know what we can do and tonight we hurt ourselves a few times, and we understood that. Georgia Tech's a really good football team, but we felt like we could drive up and down the field. Then we would get down there and we would make a mistake that would hurt ourselves. "We noticed that, and we're going to go back to the drawing boards tomorrow and get that fixed. Those are the main things, and I'm glad that I've had a few good games under my belt. I'm ready to keep going. I've got more work to do, though." — Andrew Mentock FROM THE LOCKER ROOM Fifth-year senior quarterback Ian Book completed 18 of 26 throws for 199 yards with one touchdown in the 31-13 victory versus Georgia Tech. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS