Cavalier Corner Digital

✦ QUOTING KELLY "They're a physical football team. … It's apparent across the board the kind of team you're going to play when you face Stanford." physical player. He can get banged up, comes back and continue to compete. You can see he's the heart of their football team and one of their captains." On Stanford running back Stepfan Taylor: "He's a mentals, it's technique, it's assignments, it's offen- sively those things. If they follow the plan, the plan has worked pretty good over our last 15 regular-season games. We're 13-2, and if they follow the plan and re- ally focus on the preparation, we will be a better foot- ball team — and we will need to be against a very good Stanford team." On what it takes to beat Stanford: "It's funda- table: "Stanford is unique itself. Not only do they run the ball out of multiple formations and jumbo packages, they create great one-on-one matchups. "When you play a lot of zone you have to drop extra players down to defend the run, which gives them a one- on-one matchup. It's another unique challenge for us." On what offensive style Stanford brings to the have been growing pains — you just don't see them on a day-to-day basis. There are certainly areas of growth and development. "We need more growth back there, and not just back On Notre Dame's youth-laden secondary: "There don't talk about that level from 30,000 feet because it doesn't do us any good. All we can focus on is what we can control on a day-to-day basis. "When I do maybe press conferences or talk to the there. I challenge our players offensively to that growth." On not talking about being 5-0 to his team: "We media, sometimes I let our team know, 'Listen, I'll talk in those terms.' But among us, it's about today and what we do today." Head coach Brian Kelly said his team has sensed that something spe- cial is happening this season, but that it needs to stay focused on its important day-to-day tasks. "That's the hard thing. We're talking about 18 to 21 years old that are easily distracted. The charge is to keep them focused on what they need to do to get better as a football player." haven't beaten Stanford, and if there is one team that has beaten us physically it is Stanford. They know that. Secondly, they turned the film on and watched what they did to their opponents, they physically intimidated their opponents and that's clear. "They see when they turn on the film and watch the On it being easy to stay focused on Stanford: "They way they play the game. They don't need much push from me to know what to expect this weekend." think I'm seasoned enough to know what noise is and how that affects 18 to 21 years old and the coaches on a day-to-day basis. I think I'm aware of it. The noise is there regardless of whether you win or lose; it's there constantly. "It's just making sure the football team is focused on On him personally handling all the attention: "I the preparation. I don't think that's different in terms of what I've tried to do week to week. When I was at Grand Valley State and we won 24 consecutive games, the De- troit newspapers starting covering us, and that was a lot of noise for us. It's just on a larger scale here, but it's the same noise." football and in the classroom: "It doesn't get enough attention. You have two outstanding academic institu- tions that are ranked high in terms of graduation rates. "That's one of the reasons why I came to Notre Dame. On Notre Dame and Stanford succeeding both in I wanted to make sure that everybody knew that you could do it in the classroom, and you can certainly do it on the football field." PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA ing: "They understand, based upon some of the things that I've mentioned, that if they continue to do the things on a day-to-day basis. … On the team sensing something special is happen- ✦ PAGE 10 "We think we have many, many distinctions that are unique to Notre Dame. We make sure that recruits that are looking at Stanford and looking at Notre Dame un- derstand what we believe to be those distinctions. "We clearly see them, and we make sure the recruits On how Notre Dame is different than Stanford: understand that there are some clear distinctions between Notre Dame and Stanford." ✦

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