Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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We're not playing winning football." Notre Dame sophomore wide re- ceiver Will Fuller … On turnovers: "Nobody does it on purpose. Nobody wants it to hap- pen. It's just hard seeing things like that. You don't really think about it. It just happens." Notre Dame sophomore running back Tarean Folston … On the habits needed to win: "You've got to stop making the mis- takes that you made to lose in order to start winning. If you go out and make the same mistakes that you did the previous week, it's going to be hard to go out and win." On what the Irish have to play for with all major bowl hopes dashed: "We're playing for our pride and our team. We're playing for everything. We're playing for Notre Dame. "Everybody can say our season is over, but we've still got two more games, hopefully three. I'm going to continue to push everybody to work hard. I feel like we all can improve as a group and try to win these last two games." On the biggest lesson he learned in the overtime loss: "Never under- estimate your opponent — I'm not saying that we did. And the game is not over until the clock says zero." Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald … On how the win, along with the victory at Notre Dame Stadium in 1995, defines his program: "It's a special part of our tradition and his- tory. Days like today make me think of [former Northwestern and then Notre Dame head coach] Ara Par- seghian and all those that have been a part of our program. "Coach sent me a really nice email this week, 'May the best team win.' I thought that was pretty appropri- ate." O n s o p h o m o r e k i c k e r J a c k Mitchell and his game-tying kick: "We've been really blessed to have some really special kickers since I've been in this leadership role at NU. We all kind of agreed that we don't need to talk during that time. We just need to go out and do. It's about action. "You can see when he got iced, we didn't come over and have a chitchat and coffee and talk about world peace. Go do your job … I'm really, really proud of the young man in his first year kicking for us. The way he stepped up today on a cold day was awesome." Northwestern fifth-year senior quarterback Trevor Siemian … On seeing the kick go through for the win: "I was behind the kick. I started running on the field when I saw it in the air and thought it had a chance. "I was right there with [junior running back] Doug Diedrick. It was a cool moment. The craziest game of my life."