Here's everything four Notre Dame players had to say from today's postgame press conference in transcript form. Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.
RILEY LEONARD
When the offense is sputtering at the beginning of the game, is there anyone the group rallies around to get things going in the right direction?
“We’re a pretty mature group all around. There aren’t guys that are going to get too low on themselves and on the offense as a whole. There aren’t guys that are going to get too high. I can do a better job of rounding those guys up. But for the most part, we’re a mature group and everybody’s kind of feeling the same thing. Let's get back out there on the next drive and try to prove it. Luckily, we don’t have any attitude problems on the sideline when things aren’t going as expected.”
Where were the misses and hits in your game today?
“The misses are just on me being lackadaisical and not finishing with my mechanics and things like that. The hits, obviously, come when you trust your guys around you. Our best drives are when I was just getting it to our playmakers and letting them go. So, I gotta do a better job of being confident in those guys, just letting them make plays, not trying to do too much and sticking with the basics.”
When things weren’t going well early in the game, how do you keep patience? How do you rebuild your confidence?
“I’ve played a lot of football, a lot of collegiate football in my life. I’ve been through these situations where you might start slow, you might start missing easy passes. As a quarterback, it happens. I’ve just seen myself respond throughout the years multiple times. You saw it two weeks ago, how we responded as a whole last week. You kind of just learn who you are as a person, who you are as a player. When my back’s against the wall and I’m not performing to my best abilities, I tend to respond pretty well.”
Coach Denbrock talks about the vision of what you’re going to look like down the road. Do you think about that? Is it something that you were able to buy into right away? Do you feel that? Or is is something you put on the back burner and play football until you get there?
“It’s a little bit of both. Obviously, I understand what this offense can evolve to. It's kind of just my job to guide it in that direction. Still figuring some things out, but I think every game we’re getting better at the things that we struggled with the game before. Obviously, with the deep ball, it gave me a lot of confidence to know I can throw the ball down the field. Something good happened the majority of the time we did that, whether it was a PI, guys making plays. One of the biggest things for me is I can underthrow a guy and have the confidence that he doesn’t always have to catch it, but the defender won’t. That gains a lot of trust in me. I underthrew Jayden Harrison in the end zone, and what maybe would have been a pick in some people’s eye on an underthrown ball, he went up and made a play. He dropped it at the end, but it gave me a lot of confidence in that. The deep ball’s getting better. We’re nicking and nacking all these little things and improving. We just gotta sometimes stick to the basics and the fundamentals and remember the fundamentals of football, and we’ll really progress.”
Did what Mike Denbrock call align with what you saw from Miami (Ohio) on tape? How did they defend you as a runner?
“They did a really good job. I really thought that they would be in more zone. They played a little bit more man than expected. They got a good defense. They’re really sound and didn’t have too many MAs (missed assignments) defensively. Third down, their packages were really good. Can do a better job in protection to make sure everybody’s on the same page on my end. On their empty sets, they showed some stuff that we haven’t seen before, to be honest, a couple of times. You knew that they were going to be a really well-prepared football team. They showed us some new looks, but they also stuck to the basics. There were some situations and formations where we kind of knew what we were going to get, but they changed it up a little bit.”
Did you feel like the offensive line helped wear down Miami? While the defense was getting stops, did attrition work in your favor today?
“Obviously, with the way the defense plays, it takes a lot of pressure off us as an offense. We’re able to go out there and maybe take risks and play freely, because we know we have such a great defense. I’m confident in our game if we were to make a mistake. Up front on the offensive line, I thought they did an outstanding job. Obviously, a lot of new faces in there. I say new faces, but these guys that are coming in started multiple games. We might have had more total starts this game than we had in the previous two. I’d be curious to look that up. They did an outstanding job.”
The crowd was booing early. Did you notice that at all?
“Nah. We tune out all the noise. We stick to our stuff. We understand we gotta perform. We gotta put on a show. We don’t really listen too much to the outside noise. I know my job’s to win the football game. So, regardless of any of that, we can’t let it bother us. It is what it is, and we won. So, yeah.”
Being a former ACC guy, what are your thoughts going up against Louisville?
“Played them two times in my past. It’s a redemption game for me, as well as all these guys. They’re going to be a great team. Obviously, they got a lot of skill, a lot of new faces around their program. But a really well-coached team. It will be a lot of fun to go out there and compete against those guys. I’m very excited.”
RILEY LEONARD
When the offense is sputtering at the beginning of the game, is there anyone the group rallies around to get things going in the right direction?
“We’re a pretty mature group all around. There aren’t guys that are going to get too low on themselves and on the offense as a whole. There aren’t guys that are going to get too high. I can do a better job of rounding those guys up. But for the most part, we’re a mature group and everybody’s kind of feeling the same thing. Let's get back out there on the next drive and try to prove it. Luckily, we don’t have any attitude problems on the sideline when things aren’t going as expected.”
Where were the misses and hits in your game today?
“The misses are just on me being lackadaisical and not finishing with my mechanics and things like that. The hits, obviously, come when you trust your guys around you. Our best drives are when I was just getting it to our playmakers and letting them go. So, I gotta do a better job of being confident in those guys, just letting them make plays, not trying to do too much and sticking with the basics.”
When things weren’t going well early in the game, how do you keep patience? How do you rebuild your confidence?
“I’ve played a lot of football, a lot of collegiate football in my life. I’ve been through these situations where you might start slow, you might start missing easy passes. As a quarterback, it happens. I’ve just seen myself respond throughout the years multiple times. You saw it two weeks ago, how we responded as a whole last week. You kind of just learn who you are as a person, who you are as a player. When my back’s against the wall and I’m not performing to my best abilities, I tend to respond pretty well.”
Coach Denbrock talks about the vision of what you’re going to look like down the road. Do you think about that? Is it something that you were able to buy into right away? Do you feel that? Or is is something you put on the back burner and play football until you get there?
“It’s a little bit of both. Obviously, I understand what this offense can evolve to. It's kind of just my job to guide it in that direction. Still figuring some things out, but I think every game we’re getting better at the things that we struggled with the game before. Obviously, with the deep ball, it gave me a lot of confidence to know I can throw the ball down the field. Something good happened the majority of the time we did that, whether it was a PI, guys making plays. One of the biggest things for me is I can underthrow a guy and have the confidence that he doesn’t always have to catch it, but the defender won’t. That gains a lot of trust in me. I underthrew Jayden Harrison in the end zone, and what maybe would have been a pick in some people’s eye on an underthrown ball, he went up and made a play. He dropped it at the end, but it gave me a lot of confidence in that. The deep ball’s getting better. We’re nicking and nacking all these little things and improving. We just gotta sometimes stick to the basics and the fundamentals and remember the fundamentals of football, and we’ll really progress.”
Did what Mike Denbrock call align with what you saw from Miami (Ohio) on tape? How did they defend you as a runner?
“They did a really good job. I really thought that they would be in more zone. They played a little bit more man than expected. They got a good defense. They’re really sound and didn’t have too many MAs (missed assignments) defensively. Third down, their packages were really good. Can do a better job in protection to make sure everybody’s on the same page on my end. On their empty sets, they showed some stuff that we haven’t seen before, to be honest, a couple of times. You knew that they were going to be a really well-prepared football team. They showed us some new looks, but they also stuck to the basics. There were some situations and formations where we kind of knew what we were going to get, but they changed it up a little bit.”
Did you feel like the offensive line helped wear down Miami? While the defense was getting stops, did attrition work in your favor today?
“Obviously, with the way the defense plays, it takes a lot of pressure off us as an offense. We’re able to go out there and maybe take risks and play freely, because we know we have such a great defense. I’m confident in our game if we were to make a mistake. Up front on the offensive line, I thought they did an outstanding job. Obviously, a lot of new faces in there. I say new faces, but these guys that are coming in started multiple games. We might have had more total starts this game than we had in the previous two. I’d be curious to look that up. They did an outstanding job.”
The crowd was booing early. Did you notice that at all?
“Nah. We tune out all the noise. We stick to our stuff. We understand we gotta perform. We gotta put on a show. We don’t really listen too much to the outside noise. I know my job’s to win the football game. So, regardless of any of that, we can’t let it bother us. It is what it is, and we won. So, yeah.”
Being a former ACC guy, what are your thoughts going up against Louisville?
“Played them two times in my past. It’s a redemption game for me, as well as all these guys. They’re going to be a great team. Obviously, they got a lot of skill, a lot of new faces around their program. But a really well-coached team. It will be a lot of fun to go out there and compete against those guys. I’m very excited.”
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