Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1478022
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 10, 2022 13 UNDER THE DOME "I'm going to rise above all of that, no matter how hard it is for me. … Treat [people] nice in a world that just spit on you. I'll take all this crap, I'll take all the jokes, I'll take all the memes so I can be an inspiration to [the] one [fan] who needs me to be. That's the whole reason I am doing this." — Former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o in a Ya- hoo Sports! story on the new Netflix documentary "Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist" "I could sit here all day and talk about Avery. He's been here six years. He's played five posi- tions. He's made some plays at absolutely critical moments. He gets hurt. He's back ready to go for his teammates. "Every time that we need a spark, a play or some- body to do their job the right way, big or small, doesn't matter, he's always stepped up. We've had a lot of guys that garner respect over my last five and a half years here. He might garner as much respect as any player in that locker room that I've seen." — Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees on graduate student wide receiver Avery Davis "I wrote Brian Kelly maybe eight positive letters during his time at Notre Dame. And I go to the mailbox every day hoping I'm going to find an an- swer. He never responded to one of them. "That's his choice. I answered every letter that came in to Notre Dame. When you get a nasty letter you say, 'Dear Jim, just thought you should know some idiot is writing this letter and signing your name and hurting your reputation.' I'd find out who it is and put a stop to it. But Brian Kelly didn't believe in that. "I'm sure he'll be very successful at LSU. He has been everywhere. But he's going to find out he's not going to be playing Toledo. He's not going to be playing Marshall. This conference is a little bit differ- ent." — Former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz at the "Wins Without Losses" dinner at Vestavia Hills Country Club in Birmingham, Ala., in late August "You come to Notre Dame to take on challenges. I feel like trying both sides of the ball is a challenge. And not a lot of people have the opportunity." — Notre Dame junior Xavier Watts on playing both safety and wide receiver "X is a beast. When he goes over there on of- fense, he's catching everything. He's got hands for sure, undoubtedly. Then he comes over to the defensive side, and he's still a beast. He's smart. He has the key traits you need to be a good safety. I try to figure out all the mental parts of being a safety. I couldn't imagine having the offensive playbook in my back pocket, too." — Notre Dame senior safety Brandon Joseph on Watts "I had confidence in myself it would be coming. That's what they brought me here to do. That's what I came to do. It's a dream to be here and do this kind of stuff, to be the man." — Graduate transfer Blake Grupe on winning Notre Dame's placekicking job "I'll tell you the best coach in the history of col- lege football. The best coach, in my opinion, for my money, in the history of college football is Ara Parseghian." — Chris "Mad Dog" Russo on ESPN's "First Take" "The most compelling statistic for me when we started our research was on average, if you're a college athlete, you have a 23 percent chance of participating in the postseason. If you're a football player, you have a less than 4 percent chance. We need to give student-athletes — if you're a football player — more opportunity to be in the postseason." — Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick on being favor of a 12-team playoff "I've always felt like a No. 1 wide receiver since I came in. Now it's time to go show everyone what I can do." — Notre Dame sophomore Lorenzo Styles TOP TWEETS PHOTOS COURTESY NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL TWITTER THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER