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✦ QUOTING KELLY "They're a tempo team. They like to go fast. They've caught their last couple of opponents not prepared for that." and their friendship: "I would start with their develop- ment as football players. If you go back to when I first started here at Notre Dame, Robby was kind of a forgotten name in the sense that he hadn't played a lot of football. And Manti was a freshman who, obviously, in our first evaluation was a physical player that didn't know how to play the position yet. And their progress has been steady and as good as anybody in the program. "Now take that with what they do off the field. They On Hawaiian seniors Manti Te'o and Robby Toma make a huge impact on our team because they're great leaders, they're competitors, and then their friendship is the third element and they lean on each other pretty heav- ily, especially this last couple of weeks. So there are so many forms to it. But the thing that stands out for me is their development as football players has been as fun to watch as anything." Louis Nix III in 2010: "It's probably what your first im- pressions were. This big, mammoth of a man who had a kid-like personality. He continues to have that. He's just added a lot of maturity to that kid-like personality. "So, again, he's developing himself off the field as much On the first impression of sophomore nose guard as he is on the field. We've looked for that improvement every day from him." "We'd refer to that as the noise. That's the noise out there where they need to focus on the process, and the process for them is every day, the attention to detail, how they go to practice, how they prepare. I would tell you, that is the noise. "However, it's also important that they understand the On not letting the team be impacted by outside hype: Sophomore nose guard Louis Nix III (No. 9) is tied for sixth on the team in tackles with 16, and he has 1.5 sacks among his three stops behind the line of scrimmage. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA just put blinders on. But what you ask them to do is focus on the task at hand, so there is a balance there as well." deep ball: "Obviously they're going to want to stretch the field. They're looking for one-on-one matchups. They're trying to stretch the football down the field. Look, a good defensive team has got to be able to play both the run and the pass. So this will be a challenge for us. "But it's not just for our four guys in the back end. It's On the Miami offense's penchant for throwing the linebackers being in the right place. It's getting pressure on the quarterback. It's just another really good challenge for our defense as we move forward." success that they're having, because this bye week was a whole lot better than the bye week after Tulsa. They remember that, and I remember that. "It's important that there's a balance there. You don't Miami freshman running back Duke Johnson: "Well, we've had a few of them. Last week's kid was pretty multi-dimensional, [Michigan quarterback] Denard Rob- inson. He's a pretty good football player, too. So we've had those players that we've had to prepare for. On preparing for a multi-dimensional threat like ✦ PAGE 10 "He's a very good football player, and [comparable to] a number of players that we're going to see over the next eight weeks that have similar skill sets." players: "I think they're very much aware of Miami, and the tradition, and the rivalry dating back to 1985 where obviously, Notre Dame was beaten handily in that game. Then, of course, coming back and having a great victory against them. So they know a little bit about the history and tradition of the Miami game because everybody talks about the history and tradition, and these guys weren't born. "So it's always important to impart a little bit of the On what the Notre Dame-Miami rivalry means to his tradition to our players. But they're focused on what this football team is at 4-1. The kind of schedule they play, the teams they've beaten. I think that's our focus, and I know it is for our players that they're focused on this team more than the tradition and the history. Because if they're not, they're going to get beat." ✦