Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1507821
30 SEPT. 23, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED NOTRE DAME HEAD COACH MARCUS FREEMAN … On junior tight end Mitchell Evans and graduate safety DJ Brown missing the game: "Mitch ended up hav- ing a concussion. He was in concussion protocol. DJ had a tight hamstring two days ago, and we didn't think he would be able to be 100 percent, so we decided to hold him." On graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman being slow to get up after being sacked in the third quarter: "You protect your player; you care about your player. And the first thing I say is, 'Hey, what happened? First, 'Are you okay?' He said, 'Yeah, man. He kind of turned my knee, kind of rolled my leg.' "I just kind of mentioned to the refs, 'Hey, protect our quar- terback a little bit.' I care about Sam, but I also want to make sure we protect him, too." On how the offensive line performed: "Five hundred seventy-eight yards on offense. We ended up having 342 passing and 236 rushing. So, in order to have those types of numbers, your offensive line has to play well. "If they don't play well in the passing game and run game, your stats aren't going to look like that. Obviously, I don't love the two holding calls. We got to be better there." SENIOR DEFENSIVE TACKLE RYLIE MILLS … On how he would assess the defense: "I think the biggest thing is a lot of the yards we got are self-inflicted. And I take that personal. My penalty, I get 15 yards. Coach Freeman said, 'No one's worth 15 yards.' "And sometimes we got caught up in trying to make a play and get at the quarterback. And that's on me to get better and be more focused. I think that's where it comes down to, work- ing together and making sure we're living in that." On the defense's mindset at halftime: "We knew if we just played our biggest football and did exactly what we did in preseason and these past three games, we could dominate. "If we stick to what we're doing, reading our keys, doing exactly what we need to do, coming off the ball, playing well — you can see, like, they didn't score any points. So, it's just on us and making sure we can execute." SOPHOMORE WIDE RECEIVER TOBIAS MERRIWEATHER … On fans wanting him to have a bigger role in the of- fense: "I don't have Twitter or anything, so I don't really pay attention to the media. I think football is a patient game. You have to wait for the ball to come your way. A lot of things have to happen for you to get the ball and for you to make big plays. "So, I think just staying patient and having a good support group around me. My close friends, my family, my coaches just telling me to keep going." On scoring a long touchdown after getting chased down by North Carolina State graduate linebacker Pay- ton Wilson last week: "I'm not really used to getting chased down from behind. But that guy's a heck of an athlete, No. 11 [Wilson]. We didn't score that drive, which really took it out of it for me. So, I was like, 'I got to get it next time.' This time, the ball's in my hands, finished in the end zone." GRADUATE STUDENT LINEBACKER JACK KISER … On making halftime adjustments: "I don't think it's necessarily big adjustments, and we're going to scheme ev- erything out and come out in the second half and just play amazing. It's more so the message. … 'We got to execute. We got to tackle.' Just stuff like that. "It's not a big rah-rah speech or anything. It's just collect ourselves, go out there as a unit and play a lot better football." JUNIOR RUNNING BACK AUDRIC ESTIMÉ … On setting a new career high for rushing yards in a game with 176: "It feels great, honestly. But that's not what I look forward to at the end of the day. At the end of the day, I'm happy we got the win and I'm happy we're still 4 and 0 and we keep going. "That feels great to have my career high, but hopefully let's break it again." On Ohio State coming to South Bend next week: "It's a big opportunity ahead of us. They're a really good team. They're a really good defense. And they're undefeated right now. They're ranked top five or something like that. "But we're going to take — we're coming into this game like any other game. It's another game, another game that we got to reach our full potential." — Jack Soble FROM THE LOCKER ROOM Head coach Marcus Freeman was pleased with the play of his offensive line, with the exception of a couple holding calls. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER