Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com DEC. 19, 2020 29 HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY … On why fifth-year senior right guard Tommy Kraemer, who had an emergency appendectomy a few weeks ago, came off the bench and played against Syracuse: "As we went along during the week, Tommy had made it clear that, in his last home game, he wanted to play. Once he was cleared by our doctors, we saw that there was no need not to get him in the game. Then with the weather situation, it was a little cold. I didn't want to keep him out very long. "So I asked Jeff [Quinn] to get them in after the sec- ond series. So we got him in. I didn't want him standing around the sideline too long. He got in, felt really good. Jeff liked his production in there. But we wanted to keep both him and [Dillan] Gibbons in the game and continue to build depth." On how Josh Lugg performed in his first game play- ing center: "Josh Lugg did well. He developed a big welt on his hand, and he tried to work through it. He didn't bring it up to us until after the bad snap. It really wasn't a bad snap to be quite frank with you. It just was a little bit different than what Ian [Book] had been getting. It really came up and rolled up on his wrist a little bit more and he couldn't handle the snap. "I thought he played solid in there, and I'll have to watch the film. We'll evaluate the film tomorrow and have a better-detailed understanding of what we did up front. But as you know, the longer we stuck with it in terms of our offensive running production, the better we were." FIFTH-YEAR SENIOR QUARTERBACK IAN BOOK … On if he thought he'd set the Notre Dame record for the most wins as the starting quarterback when he first enrolled: "I probably didn't think that, honestly. When I stepped foot on campus, I just wanted to work hard and become the starter whenever that may be. Now we're here today. "It just means a lot. I couldn't have done it by myself. There are a lot of people who've helped me get to this point. But when I got here, I just wanted to play quar- terback and I wasn't thinking about any record or never losing at home. It's just a special night." SOPHOMORE LINEBACKER JACK KISER … On the electric play of senior rover Jeremiah Owusu- Koramoah: "It's more than just this season. We saw it last season, too. He's been a playmaker out there for us, just flying all over. His effort is unbelievable and just his skills are out of this world. He's able to make some plays that you scratch your head at. "But when you watch that and watch his work ethic and coming in every day and having his attitude, if you know 'Wu' you know his soul, and it is really fun to be around him. But just to see that all season and last season and him just continuing to get better and continuing to make plays. … There's a reason why his number is always flashing around the field." SOPHOMORE SAFETY KYLE HAMILTON … On a benefit of playing in the ACC: "One thing that's a lot different from our schedule from last year is this consistency of the offenses and just the type of offenses they run from week to week. It's kind of consistent. Every- body kind of does the same thing in comparison to when we played USC, who used the air raid, and then the next week playing Navy with a triple option. "It's a big switch up, but I think consistency has kind of helped us learn week in and week out what to expect and how to be better and put ourselves in better situations." SOPHOMORE RUNNING BACK KYREN WILLIAMS … On where his energy on the sidelines comes from: "It's just a natural thing. My mom and my dad are both rowdy people, so at games they were always loud and brought energy. They always had that energy to them. "Since Little League, my dad has always instilled in me that you have to bring energy, that juice, to get people around you fired up. That was his big word — 'fired up.' Now I definitely just keep doing what I'm doing. I'm just trying to get the guys hyped up." JUNIOR TIGHT END TOMMY TREMBLE … On how the Irish offense overcame its inability to run the ball early in the game: "We really came together after the first quarter and weren't really happy with what our performance was. We banded together. We focused and pretended it never happened and just went on to the next play. You saw the outcome of that: we got back to having a strong run game again." — Andrew Mentock FROM THE LOCKER ROOM Versatile senior Josh Lugg (75) started at center against Syracuse one week after starting at right guard against UNC, and at right tackle in 2019. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS