Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com SEPT. 18, 2017 31 Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly … On whether Brandon Wimbush's inexperience showed against Georgia: "I love the way he goes out there and competes, but there are things happening for the first time that he's getting a chance to grow with. I'm glad he's on my team. "We're living through a couple things here and there — but man, when it all comes together, these press con- ferences will be a little different." On whether tackling was improved from Temple: "Much better. We had a couple of missed fits on a jet sweep, and we didn't get off a block here or there. "But we played well enough defensively for us to go into a game like this and say, look, we've put our defense now in a better position that we can go and play with anyone." On what he learned about the team: "We put our- selves in some tough situations, but I just liked their grit and resolve and going out there and competing for four quarters, and having the chance to win a football game against a quality opponent in the University of Georgia." Notre Dame junior quarterback Brandon Wim- bush … On whether Georgia's defense was what he thought it would be: "Yeah, it was everything I thought it would be, but I never played against a team with speed like that. All 11 positions, all the guys were really physical and had speed. "That was a little different. It's hard to emulate that during the week, but our scout guys do the best job they can do." On the difficulty of recognizing different looks Georgia's defense was showing: "It wasn't too difficult to get a handle on things because I think we did a good job preparing during the week. Coach [Tom] Rees and Coach [Chip] Long did a good job preparing the quar- terbacks and the offense for the looks that they were bringing, so none of it was really foreign. "I may have missed a couple checks and that was on me, but nothing that we didn't see during the week." Notre Dame junior running back Josh Adams … On why the running game wasn't as effective: "It plays by ear. They brought their game plan and brought a lot of blitzes on the edge. A lot of it was on me making one guy miss. "There was a lot of time I was one-on-one against a defender and I need to make that play. … A lot of that is on me, but I'm excited to come back, learn from the field and get better." On what he would say to Wimbush: "I don't think you say anything specifically to Brandon. That's on all of us. We're one unit. It's never on just one guy. Even when we're successful, it's never on one guy. "We're just focused on learning from the tape. That's all you can do at this point, coming back better. We're excited to see where we can go as an offense in the future because we have those things on the film we can learn from." Notre Dame fifth-year senior offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey … On the offensive line's run blocking: "They definitely did their job to make sure we didn't have that run game. They loaded the box a lot, played hard and they had guys filling in quick. "They made sure we weren't going to try to run the ball on them and they did a pretty good job of that." On why the loss won't cause a snowball effect: "Just because we're a different team. It's not going to happen. There's too much character in our locker room. "There's too many great people leading our program in our coaches. This team has a different attitude and it's not going to be hard to do that." Notre Dame senior linebacker Nyles Morgan … On if the loss is tough to swallow: "Just like every game. Every loss is the same. Just like every win is the same. We'll worry about pushing forward." On if there were any positives he took from the game: "I'd say from my perspective the defense played pretty well. We shut down the run game pretty well. … Overall I see a lot of improvement." — Corey Bodden FROM THE LOCKER ROOM After rushing for 422 yards versus Temple, junior running back Josh Adams and Notre Dame only mustered 55 yards on 37 carries against Georgia. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA