Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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very helpful in his learning curve. "I'd say the other thing would be that he's a natural runner, and if he wasn't I don't think that he could have been ascending in the manner that he is. He's ascended quickly, and I think we've got to credit the athlete himself as a natural runner of the football." Freshman wide receiver CJ Sand- ers … On his punt return touchdown: "I knew I was going to have time — my biggest thing was just to set up the return, make one guy miss and just get up field. "And I knew with me taking care of my job, my teammates would take care of there's. So after I made that one cut, that was it." Sophomore punter Tyler New- some … On Sanders' punt return touch- down: "CJ did a great job. The de- fense had a hell of a stop, stuffed them back there, and CJ just worked his magic. "I remember him housing one on me in fall camp. I knew he was going to do it this season, and he'll have many more to come." Senior defensive lineman Shel- don Day … On Sanders' punt return touch- down: "Just to see that little guy run, it definitely brought us a lot of excite- ment on defense." On his helmet coming off: "I don't even know what ran through my mind. My helmet popped off, and the first thing I wanted to do was stand up and show the world my face, I guess." Sophomore quarterback DeShone Kizer … On freshman quarterback Bran- don Wimbush: "Awesome. We talked all week. We knew the oppor- tunity was going to eventually come to get him some playing time. I spent a lot of time talking to him about you're a five-star athlete coming out of high school. You have all the talent in the world. That stuff can trans- late over to the college field if you're comfortable in what you're doing. "He was very comfortable going out there. He was obviously put in a position where there wasn't too much pressure on him, and he balled out just like we expected. "He has a really live arm. We got to see it today on that pass to Will [Fuller]. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that it's hard to overthrow Will, but look at that kid, he overthrew him, and he has the speed and all the talent, and for him to come out tonight was awesome." Junior linebacker James Onwualu … On UMass early offense: "We knew that they were going to come play hard, and they did. I don't think we were flat. They had a couple of trick plays here or there, and we per- formed better in the second half. "We picked it up, made some ad-