Blue and Gold Illustrated

Oct 08, 2022

Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football

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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 8, 2022 13 UNDER THE DOME THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT "It's to be another coach. Be an extra set of eyes. Be able to help our quarterback room. I think he might have been up there charting a play or two. Writing things down for himself. How do you make yourself bet- ter even though you're not playing?" — Head coach Marcus Freeman on TYLER BUCHNER's role for the rest of the 2022 season "That's something we'll talk about after the sea- son, see where Tyler Buchner is coming back from injury. It's a long season ahead. We still have nine guaranteed games to evaluate Drew [Pyne], Steve Angeli and Ron Powlus. If that's a position of need where we have to go get a high school quarterback or a transfer quarterback, we'll definitely evaluate that." — Freeman on potentially adding a quarter- back in the offseason "I actually experienced more racial issues in high school than I did at Notre Dame. [Coach Frank] Leahy was the law of the land, and nobody ques- tioned him. I had a lot of great teammates at Notre Dame, and it was not a situation where you would have to deal with any racial issues." — Wayne Ed- monds, Notre Dame's first Black football player in 1952, in a September interview with PennLive.com "I would strongly encourage Irish fans not to go into full-blown panic mode yet. (I realize it may be too late.) No, it does not appear 2022 is going to be the kind of season you've been enjoying lately, but that's not entirely unexpected when pivoting from the winningest head coach in school history to a young, first-time head coach who lost his starting quarterback in Week 2. This is still the same guy who is currently assembling the school's highest- ranked recruiting class in recent history. He may need a little time, though, to gain experience and truly put his stamp on the program. Which may or may not require making some staff changes after Year 1." — The Athletic's Stewart Mandel "He's smart. He's got length. He's sudden. He can cover the tight end, and as we've seen the last cou- ple of weeks, he's a more-than-adequate blitzer. He can close. … You can grab some safeties or cor- ners or nickels and put them in that position and blitz them, but they won't feel comfortable enough to weave through there. The bullets are flying and he's finding a way to get home, even if it's not per- fect. … He's a threat. We'll keep using him in that capacity." Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden on junior safety Ramon Henderson "When the O-line started clicking, we started getting those drives going. We ran the ball. When all five of us were starting to play together, that's when I really felt like we were getting in our zone. We were able to drive the ball down the field." — Senior center Zeke Correll on his unit's performance vs. Cal Sept. 17 "There's still a lot of work to be done. …There are certainly things we want to improve on. But there are positives with what Grupe and Sot have done through three games. That's what we expected. We have a high standard here. We brought them in knowing they had game experience and could meet that standard." Notre Dame special teams coordinator Brian Mason on graduate transfer kicker Blake Grupe and punter Jon Sot "What happened [vs. Cal Sept. 17] doesn't change the outlook for Notre Dame's season. A team that appeared capable of contending for the College Football Playoff may be staring down the barrel of a 6-6 season no one saw coming. North Carolina, BYU, Clemson and USC were always going to be challenges. Now Syracuse might be one, too. "If Freeman finishes 8-4 in the regular season it might represent progress considering the 0-2 start. But considering Notre Dame just split one-score games with Marshall and Cal, making any kind of prediction for October and November feels foolish. Let's give this another two games before looking that far ahead." — The Athletic's Pete Sampson PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER TOP TWEETS

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