Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1313320
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com DEC. 5, 2020 29 NOTRE DAME HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY … On the 31-17 win over No. 19 North Carolina: "The de- fense was outstanding. I thought [they played well] in all phases, especially in the second half the way our defense played. And then our offense, running the ball, throwing the ball. Ian Book was outstanding. Kyren [Williams], Javon [McKinley]. "Then defensively, Drew White was outstanding. Ade [Ogundeji] was relentless with the pressure. We're play- ing without, arguably, our bellwether player in the back end in Kyle Hamilton. Our safety play was outstanding. [DJ] Brown and Houston Griffith were outstanding, and certainly Shaun Crawford. "A great victory on the road. It gets us to our ninth win and puts us in a great position to clinch an ACC berth in the championship game with one more win." On the message to his players at halftime: "All of these things are important. But I think at the end of the day, when we went into the locker room and halftime at 17-17, I looked at that team and I said, 'Now you've got to understand we take this one play at a time. And this is going to be fighting for every blade of grass. But you guys are capable of doing this. Let's go out and do it.' "And they did it. This is on them. The players made the plays necessary for this game to turn out the way it did." On fifth-year senior quarterback Ian Book's shovel pass to freshman tight end Michael Mayer: "Playmakers make plays. He was confident in his ability to make a play in that situation. And he wouldn't tell you it's something that he expects to do at any one time. But look, you let guys play. He's a playmaker. He's the quarterback. "I read an article in USA Today from some guy that really shouldn't be writing articles about football. He should probably be doing something else. But they listed the top 10 quarterbacks, I think, in college football. And they didn't even list Ian. He's got a little fuel, and he's got a little chip on his shoulder as well. He won the matchup tonight." NOTRE DAME FIFTH-YEAR QUARTERBACK IAN BOOK … On the USA Today article that didn't list him as one of the top 10 quarterbacks in college football: "I just let it fuel the fire with a chip on my shoulder. I had a chip on my shoulder in high school, in the recruiting process, got a chip on my shoulder here. I don't know who's writing those. Have they played football or not? I'm not sure. It's just part of it. There's a ton of articles out there that say a lot of bad things about Notre Dame. "But again, it doesn't really matter who's ranking at the end of the day. I'm having fun out here playing college football. It's a dream come true. I feel fortunate to be here. We're 9-0, so I've got nothing for whoever wrote that. But it's motivating. Shoot, I think I'm top 10 and want to be — and want to compete every day to be like that." NOTRE DAME SENIOR LINEBACKER DREW WHITE … On shutting out North Carolina in the second half: "We came out not the way we wanted, but man I thought we bounced back great. We came out of the second half, after we got the message across to all the guys that, 'Hey, listen, like we need to step up. This isn't our standard of football.' "And we did. We came out in the second half guns blaz- ing and were able to pitch a shutout. But so much respect to their offense, to their quarterback Sam Howell. They've got a great system, a great offense." On if the defense going through momentum swings during a game: "As a defensive unit, we see momentum as a myth. I'm sure people argue that point, but after each drive, we go back to the sidelines, and we make correc- tions however many that [is]. Our focus is onto the next round. "We make the corrections and the reviews that we need. After that, I'm not thinking about the play that I missed in the first quarter. That's out of my memory. And I'm moving on to the next series. It's almost like the opposite of momentum. It's just focusing on the next drive, because that's all that really matters." — Andrew Mentock FROM THE LOCKER ROOM With the win at North Carolina, head coach Brian Kelly and the Fighting Irish moved a step closer to clinching a berth in the ACC title game. PHOTO BY ROBERT WILLETT, THE NEWS & OBSERVER