Blue and Gold Illustrated

UNDER THE DOME "Played his best game since he's been here. He was physical, double-digit tackles, was our highest point producer, played the kind of football — and that's the bar. What we have to have from Max is a consistency from week to week. We brought him in, and we talked about that. That's the kind of football he's capable of, and we need to see that kind of performance week in and week out." — Head coach Brian Kelly on the steady improvement of junior safety Max Redfield and his performance against Clemson Oct. 3 "It's just he — and other coaches — are completely wrong [that it is unfair for Notre Dame to not be in a conference] because college football has never had equitable or uniform schedules. As such, how many games are played (quantity) is far less important than who they are actually being played against (quality). "Notre Dame attempts to play an unquestionably ambitious schedule every year, filled with more than enough really challenging games. … If Notre Dame joined the ACC full-time, dropped one strong non- conference game in lieu of a patsy and then got forced into the title game, the 13-game season would be no more challenging than the current 12-game slate. It's all the same. The only difference is it would get this mind-numbing criticism to go away." — Yahoo! Sports columnist Dan Wetzel on comments made by Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney — a popular position among coaches — that Notre Dame should be in a conference "If you were to create a blueprint for the perfect offensive line coach recruits would want to play for, you would start with Coach Hiestand. He's been doing it so long he knows everything about playing on the line and knows what buttons to push with recruits to get them to respond. Notre Dame had to load up on offensive linemen this year, and without a doubt Coach Hiestand's class is the best in the country." — An anonymous Big Ten assistant on Irish offensive line coach Harry Hiestand, who was listed No. 6 in ESPN.com's recruiter rankings Oct. 6 THEY SAID IT "I don't try to make a role for myself. I just try to con- trol what I can control, which is my attitude and my effort and things I can change — whether I'm playing 100 snaps a game or none." Fifth-year senior captain Matthias Farley (Chicago Tribune) TWEET OF THE WEEK @Who_GotJones94: "Words can't describe how proud I am of the defense... Win or lose I am forever grateful to be a part of that culture and the offense too" Senior defensive lineman Jarron Jones, out for the season with a knee injury, on the Irish defense PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND

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