Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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42 FEBRUARY 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED HEAD COACH MARCUS FREEMAN … On the attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans that postponed the game: "I think once you found out more details about the tragedy, the emotions took over each individual differently. But they handled it spectacularly, and they prepared. … "It's unprecedented. I told them this morning, there's things in life that are unpredictable. And the ability to handle those unpredictable things determine success. And they handled this incident, this change, but they handle everything that's thrown at them in an unbeliev- able way." On the defense responding from "uncharacteristic" miscues: "It was, 'We didn't get a call; this guy didn't get the check.' That doesn't happen to this group often. I said, 'OK, we're good. Get it fixed. Go back out there. When they get the next opportunity, we'll be fine.' They responded in a great way." SENIOR QUARTERBACK RILEY LEONARD … On the game being postponed for a day: "After we got done praying for all the families, I hit up my quarterback coach and said, 'Can we watch some film tonight?' I got four, five more hours of film study. We had another day of walk-through. That's our superpower: our preparation." On his Superman dive on third- and-7 that helped seal the game: "Everybody keeps telling me to stop do- ing that, but I did it, and it worked out today. Plus, we're in the playoffs, which is put your butt on the line. But that's my mindset going into every game. "Everybody else can put their butt on the line, I'm going to do it right there with them." JUNIOR DEFENSIVE TACKLE DONOVAN HINISH … On Georgia: "Just because they have a 'G' on their helmet doesn't mean anything special. We prepared just for them, the way we prepared for any team. We didn't take it out of propor- tion just because of who they were." SENIOR TIGHT END MITCHELL EVANS … On Notre Dame's lengthy drive to ice the game: "Next thing I know, I look at the clock and it goes to the two- minute warning. I was like, 'We just chewed up six minutes of clock. I didn't even look at the clock. They had zero or one timeout or whatever. "I was like, 'Oh, my God, we just chewed that much clock.' We were up two scores and did what we were sup- posed to do." OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR MIKE DENBROCK … On Notre Dame's offensive per- formance: "After the game, you sit down and look at it, and you go, 'We probably set offensive football back 15 years tonight. But we did what we needed to do to win. "Obviously, that's always the key. … It was Notre Dame football at its finest." On graduate student guard Rocco Spindler (questionable with an an- kle injury entering the game): "It's a testament to his willingness to dig into everything that he needed to do from a rehab standpoint to get ready to play, and then just selling out for his team- mates. "Was Rocco 100 percent? Not even close. But did he go out there and bat- tle and give every piece of whatever he was? Absolutely. And that's what this team does for each other. That's the brotherhood that we have." GRADUATE STUDENT DEFENSIVE TACKLE HOWARD CROSS III … On re-aggravating his ankle in- jury: "No one's healthy at this point in the season. If they say they are, they're lying. You just push through it. "I came here to win a national cham- pionship, and that's what I'm gonna do." GRADUATE STUDENT KICKER MITCH JETER … On going 3 of 3 on field goal at- tempts after an injury-plagued sea- son: "I can go out there and feel like my body's healthy again. I feel like I'm kicking confidently, not worrying about my body. Throughout the season, it was kind of a nagging injury, to where you're kicking balls and you can definitely feel the injury a little bit. "I was able to, these last two games, to be confident and just execute with no pain." On being 100 percent against Georgia: "I've played Georgia every single year of my career, and that's al- ways fun. It's the first time I've actually won, and I'm really excited about that." SOPHOMORE SAFETY ADON SHULER … On his forced fumble, which ne- gated a promising Georgia drive: "All week, Coach just said be tight to the man and read your keys. We had a long time to prepare, and I just felt like I was ready for the moment." On the importance of being the most physical team against UGA: "Very important. I think that's what al- lowed us to be very successful on both sides of the ball, and that's just the type of football we want to play. … "That's just how we play as a defense. Each week, we want to elevate and get better. We felt that we had a great op- portunity this week to showcase who we are." FROM THE LOCKER ROOM Sophomore safety Adon Shuler (No. 8) tied his career-high with 8 tackles against Georgia, and also had a big forced fumble that ended a promising Bulldogs drive. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER