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Football
Charlie Weis Press Conference Transcript (Nov. 18)
Nov. 18, 2008
THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from Coach Weis. COACH WEIS: I have two matters of business to clear up before I go on to Syracuse. First of all, this Saturday I would like to encourage all fans to wear green to support the university's Green Week initiatives. We'll be playing the first carbon-neutral game in Notre Dame Stadium history. And for more information fans can look at Notre Dame's website. So I encourage you to wear something green to the game this week. As far as play calling goes. This week, Mike Haywood is going to be missing some practice for personal reasons. I support these personal reasons. But he'll be missing some practice again. And with that being said, followed up by a short week next week for the rest of the regular season I will be handling the play calling on offense. On to Syracuse. Coach (Greg) Robinson was told on Sunday that he's not going to be returning but is going to coach the final two games against us and finishing up next week I believe against Cincinnati. He also serves as the defensive coordinator, co defensive coordinator. We'll get back to that in a couple of minutes. Coach Browning handles the offense. And one thing you cannot sell short on Syracuse offensively is you better be ready to stop the run. They're averaging 146 yards rushing a game. Averaging 4.4 a carry. We're going to be talking about (Curtis) Brinkley here in a second. But I always start with the quarterbacks. But you better be ready to stop their running game or you could be in for a long day at the office. They played two quarterbacks last week. (Cameron) Dantley, who is a former walk on, who earned a scholarship in 2007, started last nine games. Has a strong arm.
(Andrew) Robinson was the returning starter entering the season but lost his job but he's got more into the mix the last few weeks. They both have been playing.
Getting back to Brinkley. Brinkley is a very good player with very big numbers. He's a returning starter. He's rushed 204 times for 1,060 yards, 5.2 per carry. He himself is averaging 106 yards a game rushing. The one thing, as you watch the tape, you'll see two things that stand out about him very clearly. He has very good vision and he runs very hard. Now, they have two other backs that splay significant time. Hogue, he's the bigger back, but he's also they also like to throw it to him out of the backfield a whole bunch more. And then they have their Mr. Versatility in (Antwon) Bailey. He's a true freshman who they line up at wide receiver. They line up at running back. They line up at wing. He's the fastest of these three guys, and they do all they can to get him involved with at least a few plays a game from different spots. So one thing you're going to have to do, and our defense is going to have to do, is identify where he is. Now, I'm going to talk about the fullbacks and the tight ends because when I talk about (Ben) Maljovec, I'll talk about him both at tight end and at fullback. (Tony) Fiammetta, he's their fullback, big guy, 250 pounds, has good hands. He's a threat out of the backfield. He's got decent speed. He's backed up by Maljovec. But Maljovec also plays tight end as well. The tight ends are listed as (Mike) Owen, who is second on the team in receptions as a receiver. But last week I didn't see him a whole bunch especially in the second half, and I'm not sure why. I saw (Nick) Provo show up a little bit more in the game when Owen was out. So a combination of these fullbacks and tight ends, they usually have a combination of two of them on the field at all times. Wide receiver, (Donte) Davis, he's their most productive receiver. He starts at X, but when they put three wide receivers, he usually moves into the slot. They also have their biggest receiver is (Lavar) Lobdell. He's also the most physical receiver. And the guy who you should keep an eye on is (Marcus) Sales, a true freshman, and seems like they've been playing him more and more each week. Up front they do a pretty good job, especially as run blockers. (Tucker) Baumbach starts at left tackle. He started every game there this season. (Ryan) Batholomew, their left guard, he likes to play with toughness and strength. (Jim) McKenzie, he's the heart of their offense. He started every game at center this season. He's a really try hard guy and he's a finisher. And that stands out on tape. (Ryan) Durand, he's a returner at right guard. And (Corey) Chavers moved from left tackle to right tackle in the spring. But, once again, against UCONN, I didn't see him much in the second half either. (Jonathan) Meldrum was the third tackle, shows up in the game. So I think we'll end up seeing a combination of three tackles in the game somewhere. I mentioned Coach Robinson is the defensive coordinator. Coach Jackson is co coordinator and also coaches the defensive line. Might as well start with defensive line. Their two defensive ends are two totally different guys. (Vincenzo) Giruzzi was a converted linebacker who moved to defensive end who is the smaller, faster guy. He's your try hard guy, hustles all over the place. A lot of times, as a matter of fact, he's in a two point stance, where Kimmel is a bigger guy that plays on the opposite side. Inside, they play (Arthur) Jones and (Nick) Santiago. Both of them can be disruptive, especially Jones, because he's disruptive both in the running game and in the pass game. At linebacker, they moved Derrell Smith back and forth from linebacker to running back and then back to linebacker. He's a very athletic linebacker. He's their adjuster. If they decide to stay in four three people, they can adjust out and use him as an adjuster because he's a very good athlete. But they'll also bring him off the edge and put his hand on the ground some as a nickel pass rusher. (Jake) Flaherty and (Mike) Mele are the other two linebackers. The thing about Mele is he's from Manasquan, New Jersey. He went to Manasquan High School. They list him at Sea Girt. I'll have to run him down, see if that's really where he's from. That's my home turf where I met my wife. I'm looking forward to running into him. And the secondary, they're solid at corner and experienced at safety. (Mike) Holmes and (Kevyn) Scott are very solid corners for them. And they have two senior safeties, both (A.J.) Brown and (Bruce) Williams, who are not afraid to come up and hit you. Now, the two other safeties show up and they're substituted packages, (Paul) Chiara and (Max) Suter, they both show up as down guys in their nickel look. So we expect to see six guys involved in that mix. On special teams, they don't list a coordinator, but there's two units that they're very good at. First of all, they block punts. And, as you all know, we've had some problems at punt protection over the last month of the year. So I think that we can see a heavy dose of punt rushes in this game and also they're very good on kick off return. They've gotten very good production on kick off return. Their specialists are solid. (Patrick) Shadle is their field goal kicker. He's 21 of 21 on extra points and 12 of 14 on field goals. (Niko) Rechul is their kick off guy. He has definitely above average hangtime. You'll see the ball kicked off down by the goal line. (Rob) Long is the punter, no pun intended. He also serves as the holder. He's punted the ball 54 times this year for 46 yards and 14 inside the 20. (Max) Leo is their long snapper and (Dalton) Phillips is their short snapper. And on returns, kick return, they've done a really good job on kick off returns. (Mike) Holmes and (Max) Suter both have had fairly good production. Holmes took one to the house for 90 yard touchdown, and Ryan Howard will handle the punt returns. THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. Wondering what you were going to do at the inside linebacker positions. Toryan Smith obviously had a good game. And you talked about stopping the Syracuse running game. Do you want to get (Steve) Quinn involved and maybe have (Maurice) Crum swing between the Mike and The Jack?
Q. Brandon Walker obviously has done a good job of straightening things out. You've got to give the kid a lot of credit for handling a really tough We talked about Ryan Burkhart, who had his best game kicking off since he's been here this past week. What we talked about, we talked about Brandon, how earlier in the year it would have been easy for the team to either throw the towel in on him or him to throw in the towel. Neither of those things happened. When good things like that happen, whether it be Brandon Walker, whether it be Ryan Burkhart or whether it be Toryan Smith, a guy who hasn't played a whole bunch since he got here and all of a sudden he goes in there and has a good game, we're really happy with the way things have worked out with Brandon.
Q. You probably didn't have a bunch of you didn't have a bunch of alternatives at kicker with him. But is there something in Walker's makeup that led you to believe that he would overcome the struggle he was going through?
Q. You were asked some tough questions last week, and I'm sure last week was not the time to address that issue with the players, but if and maybe you did, I don't know. But if down the road you're in a situation where there is a lot of controversy swirling about the program, is that something that you will discuss openly with them?
Q. But they hear the media's speculation, so does that then in turn prompt you to address it with them?
Q. Chop blocks, cut blocks, get a couple of players hurt in the process, it's got to be frustrating as a coach coaching against that style of play.
They try to take things to the letter of the law and do them as legally, do things legally. Unfortunately, you end up, if there's injuries that happen from things like that.
Q. Should they be disallowed?
Q. As far as Michael Floyd goes, I know I asked this question Saturday after the game. I want to reask it. How much do things change now that Michael's not out there? Because he seems to deflect a lot of attention from Golden (Tate) as well, and the team seems to maybe have two guys they're really worried about.
Q. I'm guessing Duval will get a lot more playing time?
Q. Is George West involved in this; is he hurt?
Q. I remember you saying mid year season, it's later in the year, you said if injuries happened you might need to use Goodman or Walker; is that a possibility?
Q. With you calling plays, how did it feel last week now that you've had a chance to feel just right back at home?
Got a lot of help from the offensive staff. So let's not but I think that more than anything else the biggest comfort zone was being able to, because we were involved with the whole process, be able to tweak some things at halftime to kind of get it right.
Q. You said obviously the rest of the regular season. If this goes well over the next couple of weeks, is it just
I just want to get through these next two weeks, because then we have another game that we're anticipating and we can revisit it at that time. But right now we just want to get through Syracuse first, and we understand that right after Syracuse, you get followed up quickly with a short week.
Q. And just with (Terrail) Lambert, obviously you guys practiced yesterday. How did he look?
Q. I know you said there was a couple different issues, turnovers, but is there any way for you guys to continue addressing that, or is there anything extra you guys can do to try to prevent it?
Jonas (Gray), the one at the end of the game, even though he's getting hit inside the 5 yard line, that's just being careless with the football. But the first three earlier in the game, the quarterback gets hit twice and you have to take care of the ball. But I think he was surprised on both of those hits. The first interception, that's on him.
Q. And the second half of the game, was that kind of the way you envisioned this offense before the season with the three running back kind of style of play?
We haven't shown enough consistent evidence at this time. But we have at least shown capability of going ahead and doing that.
Q. How much more confidence does that give you for the next couple of games overall?
Q. Charlie, is this the same personal issues Mike was dealing with last week, or is this something altogether new?
Q. It's been a while since Kyle Rudolph has really been involved in the offense. He had five catches for 70 yards early on in the game and since then a couple of catches a game. Is there a reason just not getting the tight end open? Is it what other teams are choosing to take that away from you?
So would I like to throw the ball to Kyle Rudolph more? You betcha. I think he's got a chance to be a dynamic tight end. But it's a week by week basis and last week his number one responsibility was to block at the point of attack and at the beginning of the year that would have been one of the biggest questions about him. So I think that he's made drastic improvement in that vein.
Q. He's becoming a good blocker; is he coming around?
Q. How much even before that, though, how much do teams try to take away your tight end because of how effectively you've used them in the passing game, going all the way back to Anthony?
So I think that the better that Golden (Tate) plays, the better that Michael (Floyd) plays, the more that Armando (Allen) and Kyle and those guys become involved in the passing game.
Q. This senior group is going to be playing their last home game this week. What do you remember about recruiting those guys, not a lot of four and five star guys in the bunch; just your experience in trying to pull that class together?
He always wanted to go to Notre Dame but Notre Dame really wasn't on him at the time. And I went and I watched tape on him. I said, look, I don't care how big you are, I just like the way you play. And I want you to be here. And he quickly, in a matter of days, we got together and ended up jumping on board. And it's good to see a guy like that who was more of an unheralded type of player, Eric, that wasn't 18 star player. Go through his career and be a nice productive solid player who will probably have a chance to keep on playing after he leaves here.
Q. With that being said, and not having the 18-star players in that class, you knew, or you probably felt at some point you were going to be able to recruit that caliber of kid, you were going to be recruiting over some of these kids, yet you didn't really have much attrition in that class at all. What does that say about them? What does that say about the way you were able to handle that?
But look at who you ended up left with. You got David Bruton and Kyle McCarthy. And Ray Herring, all three of those guys, that have all been obviously significant players.
I think the only two defensive linemen were Kuntz and Derrell Hand, who is on medical. But a guy like Scott Smith, who was in that class, Steve Quinn who was in that class.
There are guys, even though their roles may not be as full time starters, they've become productive players for us, productive players for us. Mike Turkovich, an unknown, who has had a nice solid year for us. Paul Duncan, David Grimes. Asaph Schwapp. So you look at a bunch of these guys, and I didn't name everybody, but I'm just going through that list. There are a bunch of guys who have become nice productive players for us here even though it was a little bit of a scrambled year.
I give the staff some credit, but I give those guys credit for coming on board when it was a very, I would say the situation was volatile and jumping on board and being part of the long term solution here.
Q. Is there anybody in that class that really surprised you, where you said wow, that guy...
He's jumping 41 inches vertical jump. Running under 4.5 in the 40. And having a nice long career on Sundays. If you would have told me that looking at him walking in the door, you could have won a lot of money off me on that one right there.
Q. Talking about guys playing on Sundays. Brady's had a couple of starts. Wonder how many of those you've seen, and if you've talked and what your impressions were?
But I had to stay up and watch the end of the game because if he's going to get his first win and I didn't watch I thought that would have been the wrong thing to do. It was past my bedtime, I promise you, but I had to make sure I got out of bed to send him a text so he knew I was watching.
He got it and acknowledged. I noticed the response early this morning. So I think he was happy to know that his supporters here were happy that he could complete a couple of passes in that last drive to set up that chip shot field goal (chuckling).
Q. Charlie, a lot of coaches come into the program to evaluate the commitment on board. Sometimes they say you're welcome to come. Sometimes they say look elsewhere. What was your mentality with this senior class when you took over? Was your mentality sort of if they want to come to Notre Dame I'm happy to have them or how did you look at that?
And then after that there were a few guys that kind of fell in place. Steve Quinn, for example. That fell in place in about 15 minutes. I mean, they kind of just fell in place. There was a phone call from somebody. A phone call from somebody. Next thing you know I'm talking to somebody on the telephone somewhere in some hangar somewhere, and during times when you could go ahead and call. And the next thing you know he's coming on a visit and he's committing.
Now, he might not be the most front line player in the whole world but he's been a productive special teams player, and this year he's helped us on defense as well.
Q. Aside from Kuntz and Quinn, McCarthy was the third guy you guys made a move on after you started. Knock on wood this won't be his last home game, but can you talk about your recollection about that improvement?
Q. This is kind of a follow up to Jeff's question about coverages. I know North Carolina dropped a lot of coverage. BC plays that way. And you talk about the coverages you're seeing more. Those changes in coverage, does that kind of explain Jimmy relearning some things now where he's seeing some different looks that maybe he wasn't getting earlier in the season?
So I think that there's a learning process. But with any quarterback, what happens, as you see things, the more you see them, the less it confuses you when you do see them.
Q. As far as you had some older guys beaten out by younger guys. For an older guy, what do you say to him in that situation and I guess how do you try to keep them with it? Because I would think that it would be difficult sometimes in that situation?
So end of the day, you have a guy like Kevin Washington, Kevin Washington has been here for four years. Hardly has played at all. A little bit on special teams. I can tell you this year if we wanted to, we could make him the defensive show team player of the week every single week. And what we do is we use guys like him as examples with our young linebackers and the other guys on defense. Fellows, this is the way it's supposed to be done. This is the way you practice.
This is the tempo you practice at. This is how it's supposed to be important. And when a guy realizes that, hey, his time has come and gone as far as productive playing time. But rather than complain about their role, accept their role and do what they can do to help the team win, why of a lot of respect for players like that.
Q. Is it important, the receivers as well, with Floyd and Tate coming in, they flew by a lot of older players?
So sometimes a younger guy just comes out right ahead of people. Others, they get an opportunity to go by a guy and then it's tough to take him out when the time comes.
Q. Do you worry at all, last time your team was heavily favored at home, San Diego State. They got off to a slow start. USC, do you have any different mentality going into this game at all?
One factor that people don't see, media or fans don't see, are the emotions that are involved in this game. That's the one underlying thing that you can't explain to people.
This is a tough game for a lot of players, personally, because you see them in the locker room before and after the game, you'll see kids after the game that you didn't even know how much they cared just sit there bawling, just crying, because how emotional it is.
I think some of the psyche that is involved in the game, besides the Xs and Os, is the anxiety about going through the tunnel for the last time. I think that's one of the things you have to factor in in this game besides whomever you're playing against, in this case, Syracuse.
Q. How do you try to manage that?
Because the last thing you want to do is have their last game at home in their career be a loss. I think a few years ago, and I don't know who started it, I don't know which player started it when they kind of took a lap around the field and were high fiving fans, it's probably an alumnus of the school and the head football coach, one of the most touching things you could watch when they're sitting there doing that and just standing back, it's almost surreal when you know it's the last time they're going to get to do it. And a guy like John Carlson jumping into the stands like he's in Green Bay. When would you ever see John Carlson doing something like that?
It's a really unique experience. And I think that one of the things you do is you put it on the younger guys that this game is not for you; this game is for them.
Q. Is this a bit of a trap game because relief of beating Navy and USC is it a little bit of a trap game?
Q. Can you talk about on Sunday about Syracuse, the coaches are loose and all that, don't know how the players will react, are you worried at all that they might come in on the first play with an onside kick or something
Q. Now that you're bowl eligible, do you talk to the team about that?
I know a bunch of them were talking about it. But when the time comes where we know that we're going and where we're going and I think that that's the more apropos time. I have to make plans accordingly. It's not like I can't make plans, but at the same time we've got to worry about Syracuse and I think that's where all our energies are going.
Q. Mentioned earlier about what you see with media reports, but one of the names that popped up as possible replacement at Syracuse is Rob Ianello, could you comment on
I'm not in the market of trying to push people out the door, because I need Rob. But if they were to come calling, I would give him my blessing.
Q. What do you credit with the change in your offensive line this year?
I think in the offensive line position, I think that continuity and experience are probably the two biggest keys to success and hopefully that bodes well as we finish out this year.
Q. What did you work on, was there anything specific that you worked on with them to get them to where they are now?
And I think that it's really helped with the cohesiveness and continuity of the group.
Q. At what point this year did you recognize that this was going to be a stronger offensive line and it was going to be a different year than last year?
And we could see early in the year that that problem looked like I wouldn't say it's been resolved but it's been minimized. I think we're still a work in progress as far as the running game goes.
Q. I wanted to ask you about that, why is it that the running game seems to take longer to catch up than the passing game seems to be impacted immediately?
I think that it's a little bit easier with big physical defensive linemen to pass block them than it is to run block them. But I think at the end of the day you have to be able to if you ever want to be any good, you have to be able to do both.
Q. So how are you planning on building on from this weekend with Navy? Are you going to try to run the ball as much against Syracuse?
Q. And, lastly, what role has Eric Olsen played on your offensive line this year?
Q. Golden has zero catches. Last week you mentioned the soft coverages. Jimmy's talked about them doubling the outside guys when Michael was in there. Specifically in the passing game, how do you get Golden more involved if they're basically rolling everything to him?
Q. He's gotten to the point where he can pick that stuff up? We've talked a lot about his development.
Q. Losing Michael, I know this has been asked multiple times now, and you've mentioned you've got guys that can step in. But obviously that's a big loss. I mean this is a guy who can stretch the field and your leader in catches, right?
So if you look at that combination of guys, I think that with those four front line guys playing, I think that, hey, we'll miss Michael. Just like we'll miss Brian. We'll miss those guys, but I think I feel pretty confident that the players we're putting in there will play well.
Q. Just some housekeeping stuff, I guess. You mentioned there were knee strains, which not being a trainer, kind of surprises me they would be out for a month. Is there anything structurally wrong with the knees? Are they undergoing any kind of procedures?
So if this were to the last game of his career, could you tape him up and tape him up and play, probably; but then you'd have a negative residual effect down the road. So I think the one thing we don't want is both of their knees are a little loose and you want them to go ahead and tighten up.
Q. How much will Mike Haywood not be in South Bend this week, how many practices is he missing?
Q. After the Navy game several players said a win is a win, just glad to get the win. They said the same thing after San Diego State. While I can understand that testament, especially after the Navy game ended, I'm just wondering has this team continues to mature and develop is there going to come a point where they're going to need to expect more out of themselves against the quote, unquote lesser teams to put themselves maybe more in the position to beat the better teams down the road, does that make sense?
But just like as our team is developing a different mentality, I also understand that as we move forward and continue to get bigger and better and try to get into that position, you're going to have to play the game differently.
And I think that that's important for me to understand just like for them to understand that going for the jugular is part of this game.
Development is all great and everything like that. That's part of the game, too. But like what you're talking about is really just going for the jugular, and I think that that's something that they're going to have to get sooner rather than later.
Q. There were also people congratulating themselves after a playing good third quarter, I'm thinking against a team you've beaten 43 times in a row, going out playing a good quarter, complete quarter, is that a high enough bar?
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