Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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FROM THE LOCKER ROOM they ran out of the tunnel, it was a pretty exciting atmosphere. They are used to Notre Dame Stadium and 81,000, but the 60-plus thou- sand that were here tonight made for a great atmosphere here in Chi- cago. From our standpoint, our football team really fed off that en- ergy. "I think it's pretty simple — we Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly … On the game in general: "When controlled the line of scrimmage and played physical today." couldn't script it any better. I thought [freshman cornerback] Kei- Varae Russell tackled soundly today. We worked hard on his skill level — increasing as it relates to tack- ling. One of the lost arts that seem to be out there [in college football] is tackling. Coach [Bob] Diaco did a great job with the tackling circuit this week." On the defensive effort: "You due to violating team rules: "Our team rules are pretty simple as it relates to being on time. It wasn't a big thing in terms of a disciplinary approach. But we have high stan- dards and we hold all of our players to those standards. "I want our guys to be account- On Everett Golson not starting able. He was accountable. He knew that he's got to do a better job of communicating. Look, he was meet- ing with a professor and he lost track of time, and he knows he's got to communicate with us and do a better job of that." back Everett Golson … On missing a team meeting: Notre Dame sophomore quarter- "I didn't handle it in a way that I should have, and Coach Kelly and I talked about it. I understand that was a violation of team rules so that's why I sat out the first series." tivation tonight was just to have fun. I don't want to say never try to make it anything too serious, but I think I put a lot of pressure on myself dur- ing the Michigan game. Talking to Coach Kelly and Coach [Chuck] Martin, they really just wanted me to calm down and just have fun out there." On playing looser: "My main mo- gan: "It didn't really feel like I was having fun out there. Stuff off the field added a little bit extra pressure, but when I'm on that field I have to play within. I can't let other stuff af- fect my play." On what was amiss against Michi- this: "I don't know about my confi- dence, but just for the team's confi- dence and the offense's confidence. We had a lot of good rushing yards. It really showed up that we're capable on offense." On needing a performance like