Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541365
28 NOV. 22, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED NOTRE DAME COACH MARCUS FREEMAN … On redshirt sophomore safety Adon Shuler setting the tone early by breaking up a pass with a big hit: "There's a standard the way we play. You have to play with the physicality that we demand. And so it's not for a certain game, that's the standard you have to play with. And I'm not saying we always do it, but you're not OK if you don't play with that type of physicality. "So it was a physical battle, and our guys chose to play the game that way." On whether all the outside noise coming into the game galvanized the Irish: "I think any leader will find ways to motivate his group. But they know the opportunity at hand. And they know that, man, all we can focus on is this opportu- nity we have in front of us. "I don't have time to focus on anything else but this foot- ball program and what we have to do. And if I'm focusing on something other than that, then I'm wasting time. And so, that's our focus, and that's got to be our players' focus, which is: 'What do we have to do to be ready for each opportunity?'" NOTRE DAME JUNIOR RUNNING BACK JEREMIYAH LOVE … On his 56-yard touchdown run: "Everybody executed. Great blocks. Read it out. Seeing the safety coming down at kind of a bit of an angle, I kind of knew I was going to go back to the left, so I just tried to set them up. "Set them up with a spin move, get running, touchdown." On being able to run the ball effectively on the na- tion's No. 3 run defense: "Our offensive line went out there and just moved guys around. They went out there and played with violence, executed every single play, and were just strong throughout the whole game. "CJ [Carr] made some good pulls as well to open it up, make them respect CJ more, which really helped us as running backs to be able to read everything out and have them put some re- spect on everything." On the secret to Notre Dame playing so well knowing every game is an elimination game after an 0-2 start: "We've got great coaches and great people in our program. We've got coaches like coach Free [Marcus Freeman], [running backs] coach [Ja'Juan] Seider, all the defensive guys. We've just had great coaches who motivate us to never give up and just do what we've got to do to finish the season how we want to finish it. "Players, just our brotherhood, we're really a close-knit group. Everybody cares for each other. There's no offense on this side of the block, no defense on this side of the block. Ev- erybody's together at all times. I feel like that togetherness has helped us to fight through adversity. "Kudos go to the coaching staff, to the players for standing up through hard times. We're trained to stick together and just keep going." PITT HEAD COACH PAT NARDUZZI … On his early-week assertion this wasn't a "must" win: "They're all 'must' wins." On what he would tell the Pitt fans who thought it had a bit more meaning: "I apologize to the fans. It was a great showing. Walked out to [ESPN's] GameDay. It was a heck of a day, at least to start, for our Pitt fans, for the University of Pittsburgh, for this city of Pittsburgh. "I appreciate everything they did. I wish I could have given them more." On sizing up the loss: "I don't think we played our best game today against a really good Notre Dame football team, but it starts with me. We've got to do a better job as coaches preparing. We didn't convert enough third downs. We didn't get enough stops on defense. They ran the ball on us, which they've done all year. "They may run for 306 yards, so we held them to probably their average or less, but we didn't get enough stops. It starts with me and every coach on down. We've got to make more plays. "But I'm proud of our football team. We don't quit at the end. There's no quit in these guys. We get a fourth-down stop, and then we take the ball down and score a touchdown. There's no quit out of our football team. We've got a lot of season ahead. We'll get locked in and get ready for Georgia Tech on the road. Excited for that one." On how he'll keep the loss from snowballing: "Very easily. That's my job as a head coach to make sure we don't let it snowball into anything. We've got a great Georgia Tech team now. We've got another top-25 team coming up this week, and that's where our focus goes. "We've got to get ready to play down in Atlanta, and I'm excited. Our kids will be excited. This will not snowball into anything." — Eric Hansen FROM THE LOCKER ROOM Junior running back Jeremiyah Love carried the ball 23 times for 147 yards against Pitt's stingy run defense, notching his fifth 100-yard game of the season and the 10th of his career. PHOTO BY FRANK HYATT