Sept. 24, 1996

Off The Practice Field...Coach Lou Holtz

JOHN HEISLER: Coach Holtz will make some opening remarks; then we will take some questions.

COACH HOLTZ: On the injury situation, we think Melvin Dansby will be able to play. We are hopeful. It appears Peter Chryplewicz will be able to play although neither one of them will be able to practice today. A'Jani Sanders is not going to need surgery. He will be out four to six weeks. He could possibly be back for the Navy game. Jamie Spencer is probably out of this game with a sprained ankle. Other than that, losing two starters, or two possible starters in Jamie Spencer and A'Jani Sanders, we are pleased that it appears Dansby and Chryplewicz will be able to play.

Looking at our football team I don't know how good we are. I really don't. I wish I could tell you. We played pretty well in certain segments of the game and other times we didn't. We are not a dominating team in any stretch of the imagination. Looking at Ohio State, if you look at the statistics, they are very, very impressive. Of course, defensively, they have almost everybody back from last year's football team and Vrabel is an outstanding player. Of course Shawn Springs is probably as good a cover man as you will find and defensively they are playing awfully, awfully well.

I am not going to bother to go into many things about Ohio State. When you see a team put up 70, 72 points you figure there's got to be a lot of turnovers, a lot of fumbles, interceptions, etcetera, but that hasn't been the case. I think Pittsburgh had three turnovers. I don't think Rice had any against them. But what Ohio State does have is a great kicking game in addition to outstanding defense and outstanding offense. When you look at it they kick it off, they get you backed up and they hold you there. You don't move the ball out; then you punt. They either rush the punt and force a bad punt, get an excellent return or usually start around their 45, 50 yard line on their drives.

In their first two ballgames they had 29 first downs in one game and 27 in the other. Conversely, in our first three games, I think we have gone 27, 28 and 27, something like that. So we are probably getting more first downs than ever before. But the points and the yardage is completely different. They have a lot of people make a lot of big plays. They have two fine quarterbacks in Jackson and Germaine. Jackson is taking the ball and putting it in the end zone every time. Pepe Pearson is a very, very fine runningback. Of course they have fine receivers, especially Tillman. They have the big-play freshman, so they are just an excellent football team. I don't labor on the misconception they haven't played anybody because they are playing the best team in the country in practice when they go against one another. Our players have a tremendous attitude. We welcome the challenge. I figured Ohio State would be a very, very good football team but I did not anticipate them being as awesome as they are in every phase of the game. I hope it is an exciting football game. We are going to have to play awfully, awfully well in all phases of the game to beat them.

The thing that scares me the most is the kicking game. The punt and the punt return. We have had a big discrepancy and it is not our punter. Our punter has done a tremendous job, but we just have not been able to get down there and to cover punts as well as we would like and we have not been able to get a good return. Yet there was a time Saturday when we punted and they did not have a defensive man across the line of scrimmage when the ball was kicked. Our guys did a nice job. We just could not handle the speed at wideout. So that is one of the major concerns that I have in addition to offense and defense. But this is exciting. This is what it is all about. The players are excited and I am never very, very optimistic at this stage. But, we will just go from here and see.

I have no idea what you might want me to talk about. I know you don't want to me to talk about our team and Ohio State, so I don't know.

Q. Are you planning any personnel switches to offset the loss of Sanders?

COACH HOLTZ: Well, Deke Cooper is a strong safety and the starting strong safety will be Benny Guilbeaux or possibly Deke Cooper. We are going to give Deke Cooper a very, very good look here. That would be the main personnel switch.

Q. I wonder if you could talk about Kinder's first game back and what you expect him to contribute this week?

COACH HOLTZ: What we have to remember is that Randy Kinder had not played since he performed against Air Force. Prior to Air Force he was out for five weeks with an injury. So going into last Saturday, Randy had had live contact work only one time since last October. You are looking at almost a complete year. He did have a couple of short scrimmages this fall. He missed all the spring practice. But this fall I think he only carried the ball maybe 6 or 7 times. So he has only carried it maybe 12 times in the last year. I really didn't know what to expect when Randy got into the ballgame down there but I did feel we would play him. He did miss an awful lot of work and there are a lot of other things that a tailback has to do besides carrying the ball. I really like what I saw. He has gone on to take on a greater role. We don't want to have Autry Denson carrying 30 times a game but I think Randy Kinder is in a position to help us win. I think he has got excellent speed. He gives us good explosiveness, and he will take on a stronger role. With the loss of Jamie Spencer we are playing Robert Farmer more at fullback. I think our tailbacks will be Denson and Kinder and our fullbacks will be Marc Edwards and Robert Farmer.

Q. I have heard you say before that everybody's big game is Notre Dame. I wonder if there are games for Notre Dame other than Bowl games that your players get up for a little bit more. Does Ohio State fit into that profile this week since it's first game your guys have played that feature two top-five teams since the Florida State matchup in '93?

COACH HOLTZ: I find it difficult to find a lot of different between the number 6 team and the number 5 team. We don't really get up for any football team. But as coaches, we felt that the Texas and Ohio State games were going to be really critical. We felt the best thing we could do for our season was to win our first two games and then win on the road at Texas. So we really spent a lot of time studying Texas. But every game, I think is important. Yes, our football players understands it is important but I don't think it has much to do with the 1935 game or last year's game. It has to do with what you mentioned before, we are playing a top 5 football team. But they are like us. They have a long road ahead of them. Ohio State plays Penn State the following week and they have to play Michigan. We have got many hurdles as well.

This is a very big ballgame. All you have to do is come to our practice to see the intensity in our players. They are starting midterms, which is not the best thing in the world. But this morning I walked out of the staff meeting and some of our players were looking at film on Ohio State, so I think that gives you good indication they realize how big a game this is.

Q. With the Nebraska loss and the fact that Florida State and Florida are going to be playing each other, does that make this game that much more important for the chase for No. 1?

COACH HOLTZ: I have always believed this but I don't even think you think about a National Championship until you get into your 9th or 10th game. I think you are just kidding yourself. You get into the 9 or 10 game of the season. I understand why you all would do that in the media. It makes great reading and I have got to be honest, if I read something about what you all write, I read it because it is interesting. But I don't think much about it when I talk to our football team because it means nothing. It means absolutely nothing at this stage of the year. Maybe even 25 could win the National Championship.

Q. Do you think that even this early in the season positioning suddenly becomes far more important because of the fact that several teams are not going to move up or down that fast as the weeks continue along?

COACH HOLTZ: I agree with you in this respect. But with Nebraska's and Southern Cal's loss, there have been more big teams losing early in the year that I can recall. Tennessee and Texas have also lost. Saturday Notre Dame or Ohio State is going to have a loss. So one time when it looked like there would be 4, 5 teams having a chance go undefeated and you could be sitting there undefeated and not have a chance to play for it. You know, all I want to do is to be 4 and 0. I will tell you this, we will not face a tougher challenge. But getting back to your question, yeah, the fact is some have lost means that you go undefeated there is a good chance you are going to be playing in the Sugar Bowl.

Q. And that magnifies this game?

COACH HOLTZ: It is hard to magnify it much bigger than we got it now because we want to be 4 and 0. We don't have a conference you know. If this was our last conference game you say, okay, let us win this, but if we don't okay let us now regroup and go to the Rose Bowl. But we can't do that. On the other hand, you know, we knew they are on our schedule and I did not expect them to be as outstanding as they are. I got to be honest I don't think anybody else did.

Q. First of all, I wanted your lasting impression from last year's Ohio State game and also what confidence it does for your team beating Texas last week, especially on the road?

COACH HOLTZ: Well, what I remember well about the Ohio State game last year is I didn't feel real good, felt worse after the game. I remember the crowd and the excitement. I remember seeing the players down there I am talking about former players that were there at Ohio State when I coached. They brought all the great athletes back and put them in the tunnel before the game and the excitement of the crowd and the enthusiasm. I remember the game being very loud, I remember it being a back and forth game. I remember coming out the second half and driving down and getting forced to kick a field goal. Kicking off and holding them and them punting. We are up at that stage, I think 19-13. Despite the big plays that they had in the first half, when they punted, I really felt if we could take this down and that was critical. Critical to get ahead by two scores in the second half. It's really critical with your team. Next thing, you know, we fumble the punt, then they go in and score. Okay now we will come back and kick it off deep and pin us in the corner we get out to the 20, okay, now we are I think we are down by point or two. Let us take it back down then we fumbled the snap. They go in and score and go up then by a score of, I guess, 28 to 19. I remember them kicking off now in the fourth quarter. I remember taking the ball and driving it down. Randy Kinder running the sweep and running in from about the 26 yard line and we went for 2. I remember vividly Mike Rosenthal having a missed assignment on it and we didn't make it. But we are still in the ballgame within a score. I thought that drive was critical. We kickoff and on the first play Eddie George goes about 70 yards. I remember then they hit Glen on a curve he goes 80 and Allen Rossum couldn't catch him and Allen Rossum is pretty fast.

I remember it being a game with so many plays back and forth. But I have never seen one team have as many big plays on a team as Ohio State did. I have never in my entire life seen that many big plays, which was a tribute to Ohio State. It wasn't anything we did. We double covered Glen when he went 80 yards. But they are very well coached. I don't think John Cooper gets near enough credit for the coaching job he and his staff does, very well coached very well drilled. They do a good job, but that is what I remember, then after the game getting home and not feeling very good.

Q. When you look at the way other teams use their fullbacks as compared to the way you use the fullback position, do you see more and more teams getting away from the traditional use of the fullback and why do you think that is if you do?

COACH HOLTZ: I think more and more teams are getting away from the fullback because it is hard to find a good fullback in high school. But what more and more teams are doing is taking tightends and making them what you call an H-back. We take our fullback and we make them a tight end. They take a tight end and make them a fullback. We have a tailback oriented offense and fullback oriented offense and most people would rather just have a tailback oriented offense and there is some good logic it too. There isn't an all right or an all wrong. If your tailback is the best runner then maybe you ought to get him the ball 40 times a game. But I think we use the fullback in the old conventional style and we use it a little bit more like Woody Hayes does. We have been successful with it, but I can see why teams move to it.

Q. Why are they so difficult to find?

COACH HOLTZ: I think number 1 that good defensive linemen and pass rushers are difficult to find coming out of high school. You know what is really amazing and I think that coaches do a good job in high school, but you get a guy in college today and so many of them don't know how to throw downfield. You have seen this where we look like we have a screen already to go and then all of a sudden we don't throw well but you are not allowed to throw in high school. But I don't know. I don't think as many people are participating in sports today that take an awful lot of discipline. I don't know, that might not be true. But they are just more difficult to find. They really are.

Q. Could you compare John Cooper or contrast him with Woody Hayes and secondly, even though Cooper has had a fine record, is he destined to be under appreciated until he gets to a Rose Bowl or maybe even a National Championship?

COACH HOLTZ: John has been to a Rose Bowl hasn't he?

Q. I mean at Ohio State?

COACH HOLTZ: You can't compare anybody with Woody. I mean, there is no way to compare -- I know John Cooper and I think his teams have some of the same characteristics that Woody's have had. His teams are very well drilled fundamental. His teams have always been very solid defensively. When he was in Tulsa, his teams were exceptionally well coached. Offensively he throws the ball more than Woody Hayes does but that is also the style. I think that he has more speed. I think his kicking games are more dangerous. Coach Hayes' teams beat you up. I mean they just beat you physically and mentally and everything else. Coach Cooper's teams are very tough and they still will run the ball with that same Ohio State vengence, but they just throw the ball and they are a big-play team, which really creates some problems. They have kept the good things at Ohio State then they added the big-play capabilities of wide receiver. As far as being underappreciated, I think that most people are underappreciated while they are there. I think that you know, you are going to have certain levels during a 7 year cycle. You make a mistake recruiting, etcetera then the program comes back, I know I appreciate John Cooper and I think people will appreciate him. No matter what he does he has got an excellent chance to go to a Rose Bowl with this team. I think they play Michigan at home this year they play Penn State at home, but this is an excellent football team. The best job you know, the most overappreciated position in the country is second string quarterback at Notre Dame. He can't do anything wrong and everybody loves him.

Q. Give us your thoughts on Orlando Pace and also whether you think the Ohio State running game has lost a step with the loss of Eddie George?

COACH HOLTZ: I think Orlando Pace, and I made this comment to our team, I think Orlando Pace is one of the best tackles in football today. I didn't say college football. I said football. He is a dominating blocker, a great pass protecter. That is the other thing, they protect the passer so well and with the speed they have and of course Jackson has great elusiveness but they protect the passer well. I think Orlando Pace is just a dominating player. I felt Renaldo Wynn played very, very well against Orlando Pace last year. Now, I was very impressed with Orlando Pace before the game and equally impressed with Orlando Pace after the game but I thought Renaldo played well. Melvin Dansby will be lining up on Orlando Pace this year because we don't want to switch Renaldo's stance plus it is going to be a tremendous challenge because they run the ball as well. Yeah they appear to be running the ball every bit as well this year as last year. Pepe Pearson is a very explosive runner with tremendous speed. George had great power. They don't need as big a hole for Pepe Pearson as they did for George, but the line gives him movement. He finds a crease. He has got tremendous peripheral vision. He finds a hole and runs exceptionally well. I think he is an outstanding back. Make no mistake about it. George was a great back but there is not much of a drop off if any when Pepe Pearson is back there.

Q. Two questions. First of all, can you evaluate Stanley Jackson because the one question about Ohio State coming into the year was replacing Hoying at quarterback and secondly do you feel that your team has somewhat of an advantage having played a game where you have come up against some adversity where Ohio State has really cruised through its first two games?

COACH HOLTZ: I think Stanley Jackson really is developing into an excellent quarterback. I understand he has led his team to a touchdown every time he has been the quarterback. Now they do rotate Germaine in there, but it is obvious Jackson is the starting quarterback. He throws the ball well. He runs the team very, very well. I am surprised that Ohio State could replace their quarterback and the one wide receiver and have the consistency and the cohesiveness that they have. If I didn't know better and I didn't know Ohio State I'd say they have been practicing since they lost the Citrus Bowl last year. They have got unbelievable execution and perfection. I mean, they give you that impression that that is how long they have been going. It is at the end of year. I have never seen a football team have the precision and the sharpness that Ohio State has exhibited this early in the year. Once again, I know they operate by the rules. It is a credit to their staff and to their players that they do this so well.

Yeah, I think we have an advantage being in a close game. I don't think there is any doubt about it. But that is an advantage only if we make it a close game with Ohio State, but I know our players are going to play hard. I think we are going to play intelligently. You know, Pittsburgh gives scholarships, Rice gives scholarships, they have a full-time staff. I didn't think anybody could put 46 points and 52 points on the board in a half as easily as they did. But as I said, they didn't do it because the other team self-distructed. You know, Pepe played West Virginia pretty well for a short period of time, but their confidence level I am sure is very, very high and justifiably so. They are an excellent football team. I didn't get a chance to see them on ESPN, but I know the people that have seen them have been impressed with them. If the other team had 9 fumbles and 6 turnovers and dropped snaps and had penalties and had long runs called back or something but that wasn't the case. I mean, this was as thorough a whipping as you would ever find without the other team helping them. That is what is shocking to me.

Q. I was wondering John Cooper has chance to win his 150th game Saturday. Do you remember milestones like that or is that for later after things have all settled down to dwell on things like that? COACH HOLTZ: I have no idea what 150 was. I couldn't even tell you I guess I was here nobody ever said anything. It didn't mean a milestone for me. I was trying to think where I was when I got 100, I don't know. Wasn't any big deal. I think it was in Minnesota must have been. Those milestones don't mean much to me and I don't think they mean much to Coach Cooper. I think when you are done, the 200 meant something to me, because 200 seemed to be a breakoff where that is just longevity and Coach Cooper will reach 200 and 200 plus. He is a young man and looks like he is going to have a good team years to come. But I don't think 150 teams anything. It didn't to me and beating Ohio State means more to me than 200. But I don't -- I just don't think that would mean a whole lot.

Q. Coach Holtz, Coach Cooper talked a lot pretty much all season suring up his defensive front especially with what happened with the Michigan and Tennessee games last season. Adding the young freshman Katzenmoyer to the middle and putting Winfield Garnett in the middle being a 6'6', 305 pound kid. But they really haven't been tested against Rice or tested against Pittsburgh. Is this a week that you think those young kids will be tested up front?

COACH HOLTZ: I think this a much different defensive football team than what we saw last year. I felt that going into last year that we would be able to move the ball well. I felt that. Garnett makes a big difference. You put a 305 pounder, he looks like the frig when you look at him from the back. He has got tremendous lower body strength. Andy Katzenmoyer is probably as good a freshman linebacker as I have ever seen. I remember seeing him in high school and he committed to Ohio State so early and I thought he would be a great football player. He is a great football player and they have taken Bellisari and moved him from middle to outside linebacker and they have helped themselves there. They have changed their scheme. They are far more aggressive, play more man-coverage and that scares you. With Howard and Shawn Springs out there on the corner and their safety, Kelly, I think they are just much stronger up front. And a year ago I felt, yeah, they are a big-play offensive football team but maybe we can control the football; maybe we can frustrate them. I am not sure we can run the football on them. I am not sure that we can't. But they are much, much improved up front and total defense this year over last year. I expected them to be. I really didn't expect them to change their scheme, but I did expect them to be awfully good on defense because they had so many starters coming back from last year great players, Matt Finkes and of course, Mike Vrable. Then you put Garnett in there, you put Bellisari and Howard in, you put in Shawn Springs, they are good. I am not sure they would be as good if they had not changed their scheme.

Q. You mentioned earlier about speed. This is obviously a much faster team overall than what Ohio State had last year. How big and how important is speed when it compares to this particular game on Saturday?

COACH HOLTZ: Well, do you think speed is important in track? You know I am talking about the dashes. That is all football is, a dash. It is not a hammer throw contest. Ohio State has speed and size. This is probably the fastest Ohio State team I have ever seen on both sides of the football, speed at wide receiver and Pepe Pearson the tailback and of course Jackson even has great speed. Of course there is speed on defense but I think you have to be able to run. Football is a game of movement, if people could run they are going to play the best everything else being equal. One of the problems we have is the lack of speed at wide receiver and lack of speed in the secondary. It hurts us in a lot of areas. It hurts us covering kicks. It hurts us in our kick return trying to chase people down to get a block on the punt return. I think one of the reasons that their kicking game is so outstanding is because of the tremendous speed that they have overall. And you see signs all over, I don't know if they are still up but it said speed kills. They were referring to driving but it also will kill you if you play against speed. I told our players yesterday when they are warming up and I always joke with them but I wasn't joking when I said I want to tell you something. We better tackle the small numbers on their uniform. If we are looking at the big numbers, we aren't going to be able to tackle them. They just have too much speed.

Q. Your team is 3 and 0 and you looked defeat right in the eyes two out of three games so far. Is this a different type of senior class or leadership on this team that has made a commitment to say, even though we are down in these games, we are going to find a way to win? Do you see a stronger effort or a stronger will than maybe the last couple of years?

COACH HOLTZ: I don't think that you can say the players here didn't try and I think last year's football team, which won nine football games in the regular season and weas 6th in the country when the season ended wasn't a very good football team. But there was a lot of character on that football team last year and the year before we lost some senior leadership. But I don't think there is any doubt that the players' resolve is very good. I think the attitude of this football team, the closeness of it, is very, very good. And I think we are a good solid football team that has competed very, very well and made plays when we had to. We are not a great football team.

Q. Late week you made the change at left guard with Jeremy Akers. Are you still solid with that? What is the situation at that position?

COACH HOLTZ: Well there is good chance Jerry Wisne could start this week. I know you're wondering what goes through our minds. Jeremy Akers played very well. Jeremy Akers stepped in there, did an excellent job. A lot of it depends upon practice and how well people adjust to what we are doing, but I think you will see both of them. I think it is safe to say that they will both play.

Q. What was your evaluation about how Benny Guilbeaux played at strong safety and what is Deke Cooper doing that is allowing him to challenge for that spot despite no previous experience?

COACH HOLTZ: Well, Benny stepped in and did a nice job. He did get us a 15 yard penalty, which did not help our cause, but he played pretty well. I think Deke Cooper does some good things and moves well and at practice I thought Benny Guilbeaux had maybe the best day he had since he has been here at Notre Dame. He didn't look like the same Benny Guilbeaux in practice. Now if he continues at that level, I think it would be very difficult for Deke Cooper to start ahead of him. I tell you this, I think Deke Cooper is a winner and competitor. We put Deke Cooper out there doesn't have great speed. We put him out there on Texas wideouts on the punt and he probably did the best job that we had done in a year and half on it. We put him as a sprinter and he did the best job as a sprinter. The problem is we need couple of more people like Deke Cooper but the thing that keeps getting your eye here is a guy that isn't real quick or isn't real fast but the guy is effective and I just say that if a guy does that maybe you need to see if he is in the plays he can be on the field.

Q. In watching film about Orlando Pace, can you give us an idea of a percentage how many times they go to his side on running plays?

COACH HOLTZ: I have not broken it down on how many times they go to Orlando Pace's side. They seem to go far when they go to his side. But he is a big, strong wide body. I mean I would call him double body. He is twice as wide as I am. But he is an excellent athlete. He is nimble. He has great feet, he has balance. He also has good football instincts.

Q. Big game after a big game and by that obviously they are all important because if you lose one, -- but playing highly ranked team right after playing a highly ranked team, are there any advantages to that or is it mostly disadvantages?

COACH HOLTZ: I think it is a disadvantage in this respect. You come off of a win like that and people want to talk about it, enjoy it. Now you got to come back, you got to get yourself focused and mentally prepared. Plus it is a very physical game. It was a very hot game. Starting the second half, I mean, the sun was out as bright as could be and the temperature on the field was a little bit over 100 degrees. That game takes so much out of out of you, the emotional stress, the heat stress and then the physical contact. We have had more people on our injury list than we have had for a while. Can it be done? Yeah. Is it easy, absolutely not.

JOHN HEISLER: This is the fourth time in history that Notre Dame has played top 10 teams on back-to-back Saturdays. Happened in 41, 43, actually four straight Saturdays in 43 and only other time was '89.

COACH HOLTZ: Who did we play?

JOHN HEISLER: USC and Pitt. Beat them both.

Q. How much does consistency of Hunter Smith's punting and Jim Samson's kickoffs help your defense? By the same token, how much has the return game helped your offense in terms of field position in a kind of hit and yardage.

COACH HOLTZ: Our kickoff return has been very good, I think. We haven't returned many of them. We aren't going to win the national statistics on kickoff return because we have always been leading the country, then everybody stops kicking to us. Now what Texas did, Texas either kicked the ball out of the end zone with the wind or kick the ball at about the 30 against the wind. What hurt was we fumbled one kickoff, dropped it, then we got a penalty on the other one. And so our kickoff coverage has been pretty good. So I'd say our kickoff and our kickoff return have been solid. Hunter Smith has done an excellent job punting the football. What we haven't done is a good job of covering. On the return game we have let the punt bounce far too many times. We have gotten penalties. Consequently we put our offense in a tremendous disadvantage by losing field position that maybe the defenses gained. We can't afford to give up field position like we have in the first three got football games against a team like Ohio State.

Q. It's only Tuesday, yet you can start to feel the excitement as the week wears on. Obviously the hype is going to build. Is that more of a disadvantage for the home team? Is that a concern and how do you combat something like that?

COACH HOLTZ: Yeah, it is a concern. I love playing a top ranked team but I don't like playing them at home and I mentioned that to the football team last Thursday. I said one good thing about this is that we are going on the road to play this big game. All the reporters are down there. I had a press conference and there wasn't anybody here. We had sandwiches left over. We could have had seconds on soup. They were all down in Austin Texas, so all the fanfare and excitement and the newspaper and the interviews and everything else, was somewhere else. I felt that was a tremendous asset we had in 1988 when we went out to play Southern Cal, 11th game of the year. We were 1; they were 2. We were here over Thanksgiving and no one was there. Nobody cared. You thought you would have to look in the paper to see who won the game. Now you get out there, you could feel it. When you start feeling it early here, it is a disadvantage because of all the distractions people come to the game. Your families come to the game. People want tickets. Interviews, I had a stack of radio stations wanting to interview me and I couldn't get to them.

Q. You said that you don't want to look too far ahead but you have got some of your seniors saying this is a bigger game for them than the Florida State game was in 93. How do you temper that and not let them look beyond it as what the game could mean?

COACH HOLTZ: I can understand why they say it is a bigger game than Florida State because they were watching it. They are playing in this one. I don't remember any of them playing in that game. This is the thing that I have said to the players and I mean it. This is a big game for one reason. We won at Vanderbilt. We won at Purdue and we won at Texas. That is why it is a big game. Every time you win, the next game becomes bigger. This is a big game for Ohio State. The Penn State game will be bigger for Ohio State if they win this game. Every time you win, the next game is bigger. We played Florida State at night didn't we? I would like to play this one at night.

Q. My photographer said -- they just radioed us to tell us at his press conference, John Cooper said he thinks Notre Dame has a good shot at the National Championship. He might be sandbagging, but we would like your reaction to that?

COACH HOLTZ: I hope he is right. I tell you, I trust his judgment more than I would mine. I don't think anybody has a chance in the National Championship. I just hope we have a chance in this ballgame. And I don't - when I say have a chance, I am not down-playing our football team or anything else, but I don't know how good we are. I think we are going to play awfully, awfully well. Ohio State is going to meet a very solid football team and we are going to play our best game on Saturday.

Q. You have talked about your team attitude and its resolve and maturity. How much do your players feed off of that, like Marc Edwards?

COACH HOLTZ: Marc Edwards is one of our captains. He is like LaRon Cobbins. He loves the game of football. I think that the one thing about this team is that everybody keeps trying to figure out what is different about this team, what is unique about this team. You can tell there is something different about our football team. This is a team. There is no one-upmanship. Nobody sending their own message, whether it be for towels, tape or socks. It is a team. The seniors have made a committment that this is going to be just a complete and total team and I think that comes from people like Cobbins; certainly from Marc Edwards. I wasn't going to play Marc Edwards last week. I was not going to play him. He had missed too much of practice and it has been my experience people don't play well when they miss practice. But I have never seen anybody want to play as much as Marc Edwards. When Jamie Spencer hurt his ankle after seven plays, we played Marc Edwards early in the game, but after Spencer got injured he had to play an awful lot. Then we to play Farmer some at fullback, but Marc Edwards played better than anybody I have had with a limited amount of practice. I mean from now on when I say I have never had a player play miss practice, I will put an asterisk "exception Marc Edwards."