Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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a long time with these coaches, so I do feel it's my part to not only lead but to help these young guys out. … I've grown up and learned how to lead." "I enrolled early and I've been here … Dame really made the key plays, in particular down the stretch when they had to have them. What a heck of a football game. I told my players I was very proud of how they fought, how they competed, how hard they played and all of that. We just needed to be a few plays better in some areas. "When you get down to it, there's Junior wide receiver TJ Jones had another pro- ductive and efficient outing, catching a team- high five passes for 55 yards. He has quietly emerged as the team leader in receptions this season with 26. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA TJ Jones … On winning a game of this magni- tude on the road: "It means a lot. We always had confidence in ourselves that we could win this game. We knew people were going to say what they were going to say, and we got that chance to prove them wrong." On the offense stepping up: "It Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops On the game in general: "Notre a little over five minutes to go in the game and it's a 13-13 game. You're where you want to be to have a chance to win, and we give up the big play, which we haven't done much all year at all, and it sets up the touchdown." On the differences in the game: makes us feel good as well. We see every game with the offense that we're taking steps and are really roll- ing through our offense and getting to know every aspect of it at every position. "Credit them; there were some tight third-down receptions that they caught and just made the first down. They out-jumped us or out-fought us for the ball here or there. There were very competitive plays where our guys were in great position, but they were able to get up and get the football in some tight spots. "Again, they made some key plays that way that picked up first downs and helped move the football for them. I thought overall it was a heck of a football game, and we came out on the bad end."