Coaches Review The Battle.....

Lou Holtz

Notre Dame Head Coach Lou Holtz
"I wish to congratulate Air Force for an excellent football game. They beat us up front. They didn't make mistakes and we made far too many mistakes...We didn't run the football well."

"A touchdown before halftime would have been real good if we got it."

"Air Force played their hearts out. I thought we would play better than we did. It is very disappointing."

(On the line of scrimmage) "Basically they controlled the line of scrimmage...We tried to isolate them, we tried to zone them, we tried to T-block them. We tried everything."

(On the loss) "We need to handle this with class. Is it easy to take? No. We have no excuses. We have to come out to play."

(On Raki Nelson's incomplete pass in the endzone)"I asked the official and he said the ball skipped. Raki Nelson told me he caught and I thought he caught it."

"It was crazy. Last week Air Force had eight penalties that killed them and this week they had (only two)."

"They read (our defense)...and the quarterback ducked it up inside. He is an excellent runner."

"We made far too many mistakes, such as the penalties and fumbles. They (Air Force) deserved to win the game."

"They controlled the line of scrimmage. We lost two fumbles. They didn't turn the ball over."

"It wasn't a particularly good week in practice."

"I'll know more after I look at the film."

"We did not get movement."

Air Force Head Coach Fisher DeBerry
(On the game) "I can't say enough about our players. They never gave up and we have faced a lot of adversity. This year we have lost twice because of opponents field goals late in the game. One was with 26 seconds on the clock and the other was with nine."

"Both teams played hard. Our guys just never gave up. We emphasized to them that we were coming in there to win, not just to look good against Notre Dame on national television. We really believed that anything was possible."

"It was a guessing game all day. We changed some things from last year, from last week even. Notre Dame changed some things, too. We were constantly guessing what they were going to do, and I think we kept them guessing."

(On kicker Dallas Thompson) "Our field goal kicker was tremendous. He showed tremendous guts and courage. He has missed some long ones, but not short ones. He has the potential to be one of the best kickers."

(On Notre Dame's play) "Notre Dame made some big third down plays, but in the fourth quarter it was our team that made the plays. I think that was the difference in the game."

"Ron Powlus has a tremendous arm. We went after him and tried to keep him scrambling. But sometimes he's even better when he's scrambling."