Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com Oct. 17, 2016 31 Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly … On throwing the ball 26 times in the rain: "I don't think I would second-guess that. We still had 38 carries. I think it was pretty evident to me that we were in need of throwing the football when we did throw it. We just weren't as effective as I thought we could be." On the decision to go for it on fourth-and-13 instead of Justin Yoon attempting a field goal: "The ball came out so low. I didn't want a block in that situation. He was past what we felt was his distance. You don't want to start flirting with low kicks in that situation. I thought we were just outside his range." Notre Dame junior quarterback DeShone Kizer … On the weather compared to the 2015 Clemson game: "Clemson was spurty — there were times where it was raining sideways, there were times where it was dry out there. But to have the constant rain like it was [at NC State] doesn't allow the ball to have much time to dry off in between drives "Against Clemson, we were able to have somewhat of a dry ball every snap. For this one, by the time that ball got from the sideline to us, it was soaked. It was a lot dif- ferent and definitely worse conditions than Clemson." On if he could actually prepare for the conditions in practice: "You can't prepare for this. You don't get this up in South Bend, Indiana. You can use wet balls. You can do whatever you want and prepare yourself mentally, but until you're here with sideways rain there's nothing you can do to really get yourself prepared for that." On the passing calls: "I'd say 95 percent of those pass plays were called in. With the defense that North Caro- lina State was playing against us, they were putting an extra guy in the in the box. The safety was dropping in. They were throwing some blitzes at us. "The best way to combat that is to throw the football, and we stayed true to who we are. We took what the defense gives us. Tonight, it was throwing the ball. We just weren't able to do that well." Notre Dame senior defensive lineman Isaac Rochell … On forcing fumbles: "It's just circumstance. Guys did a really good job tackling. I don't want to take that away from those guys. Obviously the rain helped, but guys were coming downhill too." On NC State backup quarterback Jalan McClendon's play in the second half: "They were all good. Indi- vidually [McClendon] was good. He was tough to bring down and brought a lot of energy, but overall all their skill positions in the backfield were really good players." Notre Dame senior receiver Torii Hunter Jr. … On the passing game with the wind: "It was difficult all around to try and throw the ball, but we still tried to run our offense and operate the same way and make plays at the receiver position. On the offense needing to "grow up," according to Kelly: "It comes with repetitions in practice and just sticking to the little details and executing those details. If you put yourself in those situations in practice, that'll carry over to the game." Notre Dame senior left tackle Mike McGlinchey … On the final offensive drive: "We just started execut- ing a little bit better. That's all it comes down to is our execution today, and it's as simple as that. We needed to execute more plays, and we needed to execute our jobs across the board. "It was sloppy, and when it's sloppy like that, there's no room for error. We had to tighten it up a bit, and I thought we did that on the last drive. Unfortunately we fell short, but that's the way football is." NC State head coach Dave Doeren … On the game: "I thought it was a great football game. Notre Dame played really hard. I want to thank our stu- dents that were here with fall break, the way they hung out there. Our band was all there in full attendance. For our fans that were there and stayed the whole time, thank you." FrOm thE LOckEr rOOm Junior quarterback DeShone kizer threw 26 passes in the game, and head coach Brian kelly said he had no regrets about that number. Photo by bill Panzica