Head coach Brian Kelly …
On the adjustments in third-down
defense from the first half to the sec-
ond half: "I thought we were much
better up front. We got pushed around
a little bit in the first couple of drives,
and then we settled down and played
much better.
"I think we kept [Stanford running
back] Christian McCaffrey under 100
yards rushing, which hadn't happened
in a while. A lot of that was just we
settled into our game plan and played
just better football defensively. It starts
with your front four."
On playing a number of starters
on kickoff coverage: "It was all hands
on deck. Jaylon [Smith] is on it, Joe
Schmidt is on it. It was a defensive
play. I said, look, guys, we can go one
of two ways with it. Do you want to
start on the 45-yard line or the 3-yard
line?
"I can put a couple of backups on
this team or you guys can start on the
20- or 25-yard line. How do you want
this to go? And it wasn't much conver-
sation after that."
Sophomore quarterback DeShone
Kizer …
On finishing the season strong:
"We all understand that there's prob-
ably going to be one more opportunity
for to us step out on the field together
and to represent our university and to
represent this team one last time.
FROM THE LOCKER ROOM
