Oct. 5, 1999
JOHN HEISLER: Coach Davie is here, he’ll make some opening comments, takes some questions.
COACH DAVIE: I think this week once again shows what a big difference there is between winning and losing. Everyone in this program prides themselves on being even-keeled, remaining the same regardless of what happens each week. There’s no denying the fact that winning is just a whole lot better than losing. It really is amazing. You see it with the players. You see it with the coaches.
We met with our team this morning. We meet at 7:30 on Tuesdays because we don’t start class until 9:30. I talked to our team again about you wonder sometimes what it would be like to be in a profession or maybe coach at a place where there’s really little or no chance of failure. I imagine in some ways that would be a lot easier, but I doubt that it would be nearly as rewarding. I think all of us see that winning is just a whole lot better.
I think we also see just what a fine line there is between winning and losing. Parity is a reality in college football. You look at the last four weeks. You coach a long time without having four games in a row that come down to the very last series of the game to decide if you were going to win or lose.
You go back to last year, John and I went back and checked, we actually had five games that you could say came down to the very last series of the game. In ’97, we had five games that came down to the very end.
I think playing the schedule we play, it’s obvious that it’s going to be every week, regardless if you’re at Notre Dame or where you are, it is a week-to-week situation.
I think college football has changed over the past several years for a lot of different reasons, but one thing that hasn’t changed is how you win. We talk every week that for us to win, we have to play error free. That challenge is still the same.
Also every week we talk about a plan to win. What do we have to do to win? The first thing we talk about is gaining momentum, taking control. Certainly we hope to build on the momentum we have, but that never changes either. Momentum is something that’s pretty simple to control. It’s executing and players making plays.
Once again I go back to the Oklahoma game just to make a point. There we are a 1-3 team, Oklahoma is 3-0, we trail 30 to 14, ten minutes left in the third quarter. But to our players’ credit, from that point on they executed, they made plays, and we won.
The second thing. As simple as it is, as repetitive as it is, you can’t turn the football over and win. The reality if we’d have turned it over one time in the second half, we would not have won that football game. Maybe if we had turned it over one time the entire game, we wouldn’t have won the game.
The reason we did win, we didn’t turn it over in the second half and Oklahoma did. You can see we’re averaging 430 yards a game now. If we had not turned over the football 14 times, you could imagine what our record would be.
The third thing we always talk about is big plays, have more big plays than your opponent. We always talk about run over 12, pass over 14. We had 11 big plays in that football game. Oklahoma had three big plays. They had three big kickoff returns. I’m talking about offense and defense. Even with the kickoff returns, they had six big plays.
So the reality of that, if we’d have given up a big play against an explosive offense like that in the second half, we wouldn’t have won the game. If Jarious Jackson didn’t make some unbelievable effort plays, if Joey Getherall doesn’t make some plays, we don’t win.
You think back to Michigan State. The reason we didn’t win, we gave up two big plays in the last four minutes of the game for 122 yards. Against Purdue we gave up some big plays. Kicking game, we had 566 yards that game for 237 yards. The only reason that game was even close is because we made some mistakes in the kicking game. We had two missed field goals, may have three kickoff returns for 240 yards. I make this point or make these points to show you that the challenge is still the same. Whether we’re 1-3, 2-3, 4-0, we have to play as well as we can play every week to win.
You know, we realized that every week is different. The exciting thing I think you see with this team is if we can do that, accomplish that, play as well as we’re capable, we can win against anyone. We’ve played some talented teams.
I know when I started this season or when we started, we had the press conference. We talked about a key for me was if we could just improve every week, by the end of the season, we would have one heck of a football team and the future would really be bright for Notre Dame football. I feel stronger about that statement even more so now.
You know, the reason our players stay here all summer and condition all summer is not necessarily what happens in September, it’s what happens in October and November. We played an extremely difficult schedule early in the season. I think that schedule could come back to help us, the fact that we’ve played good football teams.
You’re going to see a lot of football teams in this country that started out 3-0, started out 4-0, they’re going to level off and may tail off before this season.
There’s that old saying that, I think it goes, They don’t ever remember what you do in September, they may not remember what you do in October, but they’ll definitely remember what you do in November. I think we’ve geared our whole program for that.
You know, it’s a heck of a story. It’s a heck of a slogan. I wish it was that easy, but I think we all see that it’s week-to-week, it’s keeping your eye on that target and just going back to those things that either keep you or lead you to winning football games.
But the thing I see is I think that, you know, we’ve got a talented team, we play a lot of talented teams. We play another one again this week. But we also see, you know, if we control it and we play as good as we can, we can have a bright future here.
You look at ASU. A lot like us. They had a big comeback win against UCLA. They take the ball 80 yards in the last 50 seconds of that game to come from behind and win. They’re hoping to build on that momentum as well that they have.
They’re a talented team. A year ago in the summer, I think most people thought Arizona State would be a National Championship team. They’ve got seven starters back on offense, I think about ten starters back on defense. It’s the same players. Offensively, No. 21, Redmond, without a doubt, is maybe the first runningback to be drafted next year. I don’t really know what else is out there. Definitely a first round draft choice. Explosive player.
They went out and signed a junior college player, No. 3, that I think was maybe the No. 1 junior college player in the country. He had a 50-yard reception on a little jailbreak screen at the end of the UCLA game which was unbelievable, won the game on it. I think they have 12 or 13 junior college players on their team. They’re a talented football team.
Defensively, they’re athletic. Kicking game, you know, when you have No. 21, No. 3 back there on punts, also they’ve got another young man, I think his name is Green, on kickoff returns, they’re explosive. They’ve had a couple tough losses, but they’ve certainly won enough football games over the last couple years, and with their capabilities, they’re an explosive team.
The way we’re looking at it right now is we have two PAC-10 teams back-to-back, then we have the open date. For the first time since I’ve been at Notre Dame that open date coincides with our fall break academically. You know, it’s a two-game season for us. It’s two games.
I like where we are right now. I just wish it was that simple. But it comes back to our guys playing against their guys and eliminating mistakes.
The kicking situation, Jim Sanson is going to be our starting kicker this week. We spent a good part of yesterday looking at a lot of different issues. We put all the kicks from this year and late in last season on one tape. We went back and looked at it.
You know, with anything, I think always people want a simple solution. Sometimes there aren’t simple solutions. There’s no guarantee by making a change that that change is going to be better than what you have.
We’ve gone since really the spring and now since August with Nick Setta being in the mix, watching the three kickers every single day in practice, Jim Sanson in practice is better than the other two kickers.
You know, with anything, there’s always a lot of different issues. We’ve had some snaps that were inside, we’ve had some mechanic problems. The two Jim missed Saturday were from the same spot on the field, a tough angle. One the snap was a little bit low. The second one, they brought pressure off the corner. The fact is he missed both of them and he should have made them, but there were other things.
What we’ll do this week is David Miller, he’ll get an opportunity to kick in our first unit, which he has not had the opportunity to do. You know, we have our first snapper and our first holder. I want to look at that this week.
I met with all the kickers this morning. Jim realizes that because of what’s happened, if he doesn’t perform, that a change will be made. I don’t say that to put pressure on him. That’s just how it is.
But I also think you look at all the facts. It comes down to one thing: we stand out there every day and watch those kickers. If I had the game on the line right now, Jim Sanson is the one I would want in the game based on what I’ve seen. I don’t want to make a change just to make a change and just hope it works. I’d like to see somebody jump up this week and make me feel better about making a change.
But as of yet, I’m not going to do it just to do it. That’s how we’re going to start the football game.
Ready for questions.
Q: You’re the only coach that has played Michigan and Michigan State. I wanted to get your thoughts on that game, what may come to be the key for either team?
COACH DAVIE: Boy, I haven’t really thought about it. That’s a tough one. I mean, those are both Top 5 football teams, without a doubt. A lot of similarities. You know, both have big, tall, athletic receivers. Both have big, tall quarterbacks that can throw the football. Boy, that’s going to be a great football game.
It’s at Michigan State?
Q: Correct.
COACH DAVIE: Tough for me to call. That’s a tough one. That’s going to be a great game. I mean, that’s a toss-up. Sorry.
Q: Could you give us a report on the current injury status of your team? I noticed last week I believe Mike McNair was on the sidelines, not dressed. I also noticed Joey Getherall seemed to be favoring his shoulder after an early hit in the game.
COACH DAVIE: Yeah. First of all, Mike McNair has been out since the Kansas game with an arch injury. Continues to be out. Joey Getherall had the shoulder injury against Michigan. He’s not 100 percent. He’s probably 80 to 85 percent, but improving. Jamaar Taylor, a young freshman wide receiver, is out with a knee injury, as well as Jason Murray, a fullback, who had shoulder surgery.
The only other injury of significance would be John Merandi who was stepped on, on his calf. In fact, you can still see the cleat marks. Hopefully he’ll be back to practice tomorrow, but he’s doing better, but he’s not going to practice today.
Q: During that 98-yard drive in the fourth quarter, was there anything about it that made you perhaps think that this was a young team, specifically a young offensive line that might be coming of age?
COACH DAVIE: I think so. You know, the first two plays when the ball was on the one yard line, we ran the football out of there in our tight grouping when I think everyone in the stadium, it was apparent to everyone that we had to run the football. Those two plays running the football out of the end zone, then just the overall execution of that drive under a pressure situation, you know, you would hope that that’s a sign of things to come.
Q: I was wondering, with Daniels’ big day and the kickoff return, he really didn’t have a lot of returns prior to that game, is he a one type of game concern or does he raise concern about your kickoff return?
COACH DAVIE: Obviously raises concern about a lot of things. It’s not going to get any easier because this week certainly Arizona State with their two returners back there, then the next week USC has the same kind of returners. You know, we’re in a stretch right here where we’re playing some talented return men.
It’s one of those things that you never take anything for granted. We were rolling along there, felt pretty good about our kickoff coverage time. Oklahoma came in with one kickoff return for 16 yards.
You know, we didn’t execute as well as we could. We’ve gone back and looked at personnel on that team. We’ve spent part of Sunday looking at our scheme, then trying to correct some things with our players.
You know, you wish you could kick the ball in the end zone. Reason Oklahoma had one return is a bunch of people kicked it out of the end zone. It’s a combination of a lot of things, but, no, it’s not a one-game concern particularly because of who we have the next two weeks.
Q: Back to the kickoffs, you said David Miller would be kicking with the first team this week.
COACH DAVIE: Right.
Q: Last year he was your kickoff kicker. Any thought about maybe changing to get a little more length on the kickoffs?
COACH DAVIE: We go back and forth on it. Certainly we’ve talked about it. But what you do, the statistics don’t lie, you kick so much in practice, and you keep statistics on everything, you know, you go with the one who deserves the opportunity to do it based on how he’s performed. I’m not one to experiment in games.
But certainly if we continue to struggle, we’re going to have to look beyond the practice statistics. It’s not something that I really relish doing because I don’t like doing things blindly.
But we’ll have to do that because it does come down to performance in the game. Certainly I realize some guys perform better in the games, not many, but some do.
Yeah, I mean, we’re looking at everything. But it’s not something — it’s not like the only time we evaluate our kickers is on Saturday. It’s every day of the week.
Q: You’ve seen the highs and lows with Jim Sanson over the last four years. Where is he so far as confidence goes right now? Because of his age, because of the years that he’s spent there, does he accept this type of situation, pressure, a little more than say if it happened one or two years ago?
COACH DAVIE: I think so. You know, of course we all know talk is cheap, but I visited with Jim this morning, as I did all of our kickers. Actually I visited with Jim yesterday. You know, I said, “Don’t tell me what I want to hear, don’t tell me what you’re supposed to say or what you think you are supposed to say. Where are you right now? Do you envision yourself going out and winning a football game for us? Do you relish that opportunity to do it, or is it something that you kind of hope doesn’t really happen? Do you hope we win by not having to kick a field goal?”
He answered all the questions the right way. I think Jim Sanson is a guy who has been through an awful lot, as we all know. Part of that has to do with my decision right now. I’ve seen him have success and I’ve seen him bounce back from failure. I have every confidence in the world can he bounce back from this and go out there and win a football game for us kicking the football.
You know, based on more than what he said, it’s how I’ve seen him respond. I know he has the confidence of his teammates. He does the rest of the staff also. Who knows? We’ll see how it goes, but I think we’re making a decision based on the right reasons.
Q: When you inserted Arnaz Battle into the game, seems like the took all momentum off of the offense and fumbling around with the punt gave it back to Oklahoma. Do you see yourself continuing to insert Arnaz into games where it’s still kind of up in the air?
COACH DAVIE: That’s another thing we talked about. You know, I’m not sure we’re doing the right thing with that. I think our intentions are good in doing that because we all realize Arnaz needs to get playing time.
We put Arnaz in somewhat of a tough situation. I say that because if we’re in the game, the first play he has a penalty. It’s first down and 20. Tough to have success coming out of your own end zone when it’s first and 20.
He’s not executed at times as well as he could have. We haven’t executed as an offense at times. He really hasn’t had an opportunity.
What I don’t want to do is make that too much of a pressure situation, where he’s gone three and out in the last two weeks. Now we put him in again, it starts to mount on him.
You know, I don’t think we’re going to continue to do it. Obviously I’d like to get ahead in the game, to put him in. If we’re struggling on offense, we may put him in. But I don’t really like the idea right now of just putting him in three plays and then putting so much pressure on him making a first down. I’m not comfortable with that right now.
Plus Jarious played so well last week. Even though I think our intentions were good, I’m not sure we’re doing the right thing with that. I don’t think we’ll do that this week.
Q: Do you think that was a big factor in giving the momentum to Oklahoma at that point in the game?
COACH DAVIE: I think that holding penalty was. I think that procedure penalty we had on the next play. I think Joey dropping that snap had a lot more to do with it than Arnaz Battle did, to be honest.
Q: You’re pretty open about how you feel about some calls, officiating. Is that because you like to discuss or you think it’s healthy to be open or do you have any sort of checks and balances that you have to be concerned with?
COACH DAVIE: You know, I’ve thought about that. I know we’re not in a conference, and I know there’s a lot of rules out there with conference teams that prohibit coaches from saying too many things about officials. I need to research that just to see what that rule is, to be totally honest.
What I try to do is be as honest about everything that happens, whether it’s evaluating a call I made, evaluating a call an official made, or evaluating the way we played. I’m not sure I’m doing the politically correct thing by doing that.
I think, without a question, once again not to whine about it, this has been a unique year in a lot of ways. There have been a lot of unique things happening, including some officiating decisions.
It’s not so much the judgment calls, it’s more of the mechanics and the interpretations of some things that have happened. Some of those things I think are worth discussing. I don’t think you ever talk about a judgment call necessarily. But we’ve had some mechanical things that I think have affected the outcome of some games.
Q: Last week Tony Driver was used mostly in short yardage situations. With a lot of athletic teams on the schedule, is there much thought into trying him on defense as well as in short yardage situations?
COACH DAVIE: The reason we only limited him last week to short yardage situations, he hadn’t practiced a whole lot with that shoulder, and I just didn’t feel comfortable with him in the total package because he hasn’t practiced.
We’re going to keep him on offense, yeah.
Q: Special teams questions. You talked about looking at personnel with kickoff coverage. Can you talk about what went into your original decision to pick the guys? You have a lot of young guys, DB’s. Did you make any changes in that?
COACH DAVIE: We went with some young players and we went with some speed guys that were under-sized a little bit, which a lot of teams in the country do. We also have some offensive players on there. Julius Jones, Terrance Howard. Each and every one of those players were there for a reason because we had seen them do some good things.
But maybe when you look at it, maybe you have too many young players and too many offensive players on there. All of a sudden you look up and you look at our punt team, a lot of starters on there. You look at our kickoff return team, a lot of older players on there.
You know, we put them all on there for a reason. They were fast. They’re guys we thought could be as good as our other guys doing it. There were guys that wanted to do it. They’d shown some skills.
Like anything else, when something breaks down, you’ve got to look at everything. It all starts with the decision on who you have on there. We’ve looked at everything.
Q: Have you made some changes or are you still thinking about it?
COACH DAVIE: We’re still in the process. There will be a couple changes made. Also a little change will be made scheme-wise. I think we got carried away with pinning people and getting our coverage so overloaded to one side. So, yeah, we’re looking at all those things.
Q: Hildbold I think has one of the best net punting averages in the country, not a lot of returns against you. Can you talk about the job he’s done? I know you wish he could have caught the snap, but he did have the presence of mind?
COACH DAVIE: He did. That was a heck of a play by him to do that. I don’t mean this to be negative, sarcastic or cynical. You don’t always know where that ball is going when he punts it. Not an easy guy to return it on. Hunter Smith, he banged it out of there, kicked it a long way down the field. Joey, because of his youth right now, kind of getting his feet on the ground, the ball comes out of there in a lot of different ways. It’s a little frightening at times, but it does limit the return opportunities for the punt returner.
I think he’s done a heck of a job. I think sometimes we always expect more, but he’s a young guy that stepped in there in some pressure situations and he doesn’t really act like a freshman.
Q: Caputo I think was a punter for you in the spring. How did you select him as your holder? Has that factored into Sanson?
COACH DAVIE: No, because the kickers decide who the holder is, period. Caputo is a guy who has every minute of every practice to be down on that one knee holding that ball, where Joey Getherall or Arnaz Battle and other guys obviously don’t. He has been decided upon by the kickers. He’s done a good job. I mean, I don’t think our holder has been the problem. It’s been an overall mechanic situation with some snaps. And also on the one Jim missed on the last one, you know, when the ball’s inside the ten, we normally go unbalanced and put a tackle over so we have more protection from the wide side. We talked ourselves out of doing that because we had done it earlier, and we probably should have kept the unbalance because they had some pressure off the corner. The kid almost blocked it.
So with anything, you know, there’s a lot of things. The simple thing is to look at No. 19 and say it’s all the kicker, but it’s a combination of things.
Q: You mentioned Merandi’s injury. How has Faine looked in Merandi’s absence?
COACH DAVIE: He looks good. He has a bright, bright future here. It’s a backup center. We’ve looked at him at guard. We went out last week and we said, you know, let’s move him to guard, get him into games because he’s sitting there behind our most experienced offensive linemen, a guy who really understands the scheme and makes a lot of calls. We felt Faine coming out of the open date could come into games and help us right now.
After looking at him at guard, it was going to be too long until he grasped the scheme, so we moved him back to center. Right now he’s taking the snaps at center. Good chance he’ll play.
Q: With Ching being a little bit banged up, are you looking for more Roberts or Campbell to rotate in there? Would you like not to use Campbell?
COACH DAVIE: I’d like not to use Campbell. Boy, he’s got a bright future as well. He’s had some ankle problems. You know, he’s a guy that was a linebacker in high school and really making a transition right now. Ability-wise, there’s no question. He’s just learning the game.
It would be Ryan Roberts. Ryan Roberts has performed well for us. He’s played for us. I think he’s going to be a good football player. Ching is back. Ching is now healthy again. He’ll be back at practice today.
Q: In light of all the special team problems, have you reconsidered the thought not to have one special teams coach?
COACH DAVIE: No. I think of course I might be biased, but I think we’re coaching pretty good. It all comes down to results. That’s the frustrating thing, that every week is the potential to be something different, plus you’ve got to give Oklahoma some credit. I think Daniels, that won’t be the last kickoff he returns if they kick it to him. There also were some things that happened, there were three clips.
I think we made a lot of improvement in the kicking game. I know I probably sound crazy, because people always associate it with, “Did you make the extra point, make the field goal?” Then you see big plays, which we’ve given up some and we haven’t had any big plays. We blocked two punts.
Overall we’re better in the kicking game than we were last year. We spent an unbelievable amount of time at it. We coach it hard. I think we coach it good. I know we have to get results because all that’s just talk. I’m sure everybody coaches good.
I’m really comfortable with our special teams. I mean Steve Addazio and Jerry Rosburg have done an outstanding job. All of our coaches are involved. I don’t think that’s the answer.
Q: (Inaudible)?
COACH DAVIE: Opposite of that. Opposite. We’ve put as much emphasis on it as we can and as much emphasis as anyone in the country. You know, that’s the frustrating part of it. It hasn’t been that.
Q: When you were talking about the importance of finishing in November, you said that you’ve geared the program for that. How have you gone about that and in what way?
COACH DAVIE: I think by, first of all, the investment these kids make in this program. You stay here all summer. Let’s face it, in September everybody is going to jump up there and be excited, everybody is going to be in pretty good shape, everybody’s body is going to be pretty durable. It’s the long haul. It’s the long race.
I think by the investment these guys make in the program, I think about how we coach them, the consistency which we show. I just think the nature of what we’re doing is that, you know, I look at this team, I look at this team, I look at this schedule, I know exactly what we were faced with early in this season.
Those two things you hear me say all the time, we have some young talent and play a tough, tough schedule. I just know the future can be bright if we can improve. If we can just build, having played the type of teams we’ve played, the type of players we have, if we can just improve, we’re going to be really a good football team. That’s what I believe. That’s how it’s been structured.
Not that we didn’t scratch, claw, do whatever we could to beat Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue. That’s not my point at all. I just know what’s ahead. I’m realistic. I mean, I look at everything. I know what we’re faced with and I know where we’re headed.
I think our team sees that as well, so I think there’s a lot of football left this year, a lot of football. I look at those schedules and I see new teams playing. All it comes down to is everybody judges everything on their record. What I judge it on is who were the good teams at the end of the year. That’s what I’m pointing towards. Then going to next year, who are really the good teams. Not everything is equal because those schedules aren’t equal, I think more and more now than it’s ever been in college football.
Q: How much would that plan have been damaged if things didn’t work out the way they did on Saturday?
COACH DAVIE: That plan would still be the plan. But obviously it makes that plan a lot easier to continue to sell your players on when you win. It makes everything easier.
But in the big, big picture, it would have been harder. It’s not particularly easy now being 2-3. But it’s still what I believe. It’s still what I think is right, what reality is.
Q: Could you describe Joey Getherall’s personality, what he brings to a football team? With his size, you say he’s 80, 85 percent, but I’m sure he wouldn’t consider sitting out this weekend.
COACH DAVIE: He’s an unbelievable guy. You can see where he gets it, his dad is like that. He’s a different personality. He’s unique. He’s unique. You go in his home, there’s pictures all over that house of his sisters who play softball, and his dad who is into sports, was a softball coach, coached a national team. He’s been around it all his life. I mean, he’s truly a guy that grew up in the backyard playing sports every minute.
When we recruited him, when we brought him in, I watched the tape. I was skeptical. Brought him in and met him. He and his dad came in. I was with him five minutes sitting in the office and he sold me on what he was all about. I mean, a burning desire. I told him at that time, “You know what, you’re the kind of guy that comes here, someday there will be a movie about you. If you can do all the things you just told me, and you are what you say you are, and your attitude is what you really are, there will be a movie about you someday.”
The guy is unique. Looks like today those guys were kidding him, they said they went out to Chili’s last night, saw a bus boy that looked like Joey. You kid him about it, if the grass is too tall, if he’s out there holding on the extra point, he’s so small, you can’t see him. He’s a tough little guy. He’s got some skills, that’s the thing, some ball skills. I love him. He’s a great kid.
Q: He doesn’t seem to like to talk about himself or call attention to himself. I think he was supposed to be here today. He’s so competitive. Doesn’t seem like the kind of guy that would nag you to get the punt job back.
COACH DAVIE: He’s got to win that back. I think the other kid has gone back there, and I’m impressed with 22 making those catches. Pressure situation on Saturday.
Yeah, he doesn’t say a lot about himself. I think he’s probably like a lot of guys on this team. I think we’ve got a football team like that, probably not really comfortable talking about themselves all the time.
Yeah, I mean, he’s unique. He’s a competitive guy.
Q: You’ve taken a lot of satisfaction having plans for all kinds of things in the program. Seems like one of the things you had a plan for when you started was even how to deal with the walk-ons. Can you talk about what the procedure is for a guy to walk on and make the team? You talk about movies. Rudy may not be a representation of what a walk-on here is like. Are most of the kids probably capable of playing college football at some level someplace, perhaps even in a Division I level?
COACH DAVIE: First of all, to be a walk-on at Notre Dame, with the cost of what it takes to go, the expense, $25,000 or $26,000 a year now to go to Notre Dame, with the academic demands here, I can remember at A&M, we’d have 150 or 200 walk-ons, incredible, before they had a rule. We actually had 500 walk-ons try out. We cut it down to 200 walk-ons.
I’d be the outside linebacker coach, have 30 walk-ons. I’d have a whole team. Line up my two linebackers, 11-2 formations for the whole deal.
Here you don’t get as many because it’s hard to get in school, it’s expensive, and there’s a lot of academic pressures on kids. So our walk-ons are unique. These guys are unique now.
Rudy was probably a pretty good player. I don’t know if he’d be as good as Jonathan Heber, Jonathan Hebert does a lot for us. Wide receiver, put him in there, he blocks. He’s a good football player.
I don’t know how many Division I players we’d have. We have a bunch of guys that could be playing 1AA football, being starters. That’s what you respect about them.
I was probably in that same boat as a player. I went to the University of Arizona and probably could have stayed there. I went and wanted to play, wanted to be a starter somewhere. You have to respect the guy that comes here and just has a role and goes out there every day where he could be a starter somewhere else. I’ve got tremendous respect for those guys. We couldn’t practice without them.
We have a tailback, Tiny Tim, Tim O’Neill, how big is Tiny Tim, five feet five? Getherall towers over Tiny Tim. I said, “We’re going to get you back here on a kickoff return.” The guy every day goes out there and does an incredible job. We have a kid from Los Angeles, Juarez, knock you on your butt, 250 pounds, run ISO’s with him. I could go on and on. We have some walk-on guys that do a tremendous job. Kid named Vukelich from Pittsburgh, a fullback. We’ve had guys I shouldn’t even start listing the names because we’ll leave a bunch of guys out. We couldn’t practice without them.
They’re there every day. We come back Sunday, meet from 3 to 5, on the field from 6 to 8, they’re all there. This summer, they all stayed. When everybody else goes home for fall break, the football team stays, they stay. When everybody else goes home after finals in December, they stay.
Those are special guys.
Q: Considering the success you had running the ball, pretty much all your backs seem to play well, how is the pecking order of dividing up the time this week?
COACH DAVIE: In fact, we talked about that yesterday as well. It’s probably a good situation for us to be in. We’d like to see more Julius Jones, Terrance Howard and Tony Driver. I thought Tony Fisher got a little tired in the game Saturday, asked him to do a lot of things. I’m not sure the exact order how they get in there. I’d like to see each one of them have an opportunity to carry the football.
I don’t know the exact order they’re going to play. We’re trying to do some different things to utilize all of them. We have Fisher and Howard in there. We call it our pony backs, when Fisher is the fullback, so Terrance gets an opportunity then. Julius and Tony Driver split time with Tony Fisher.
The true pecking order will come when one of those guys break out of there and take advantage of their opportunity and make the big play. They’re all going to play.
Q: On the topic of walk-ons, John Leonard, quarterback at Arizona State, I saw a story that he had expressed an intention to come to Notre Dame as a walk-on a couple years ago. Is that true?
COACH DAVIE: I don’t know. If he would have, I think he would have been here. We allow everybody to come out as a walk-on. I don’t know that we’ve ever cut or discourage add walk-ons since I’ve been here.
Q: It was a story.
COACH DAVIE: What did it say?
Q: He had been invited to come to Notre Dame as a walk-on. Then towards the end, while the recruiting process was just about finished, Notre Dame said, “No, we’re no longer interested in you to come here,” so he had to scramble to find El Camino Community College.
COACH DAVIE: When did he come out of high school?
Q: I think in the Arizona area.
COACH DAVIE: What year?
Q: I think he’s a sophomore.
COACH DAVIE: That name — I don’t remember him coming out.
Q: With the tackle situation with Teasdale and Mahan, are they going to be a similar type of role this week?
COACH DAVIE: What we’re going to do is rotate Teasdale and Mahan pretty close to equal reps. What we’re going to try to do, a little more than last week, is alternate Black and Vollers. We felt like Vollers, when he was in there, did some pretty good things. There will be more rotation on the other side with Black and Vollers, a little bit more towards 50/50 with those guys.
Q: You were a lot more animated on the sidelines than we usually see. Are you kind of trying to infuse more passion in this football team?
COACH DAVIE: You guys must not have anything to do up there. As I did it, it wasn’t because it was something conscious effort to do that. I guess I did because you said I did. Really, there wasn’t some plan to do that or anything. I guess when you’re back in the corner, that’s how you react.
No, I didn’t.
Q: Is this team showing more passion or with the win things seem better?
COACH DAVIE: Everything seems better, everything. If I go get that little jog in, I feel somewhat athletic right now today with that little jog in. I go home Saturday night, go out in that backyard with Clay, I could return a few pass routes myself.
Life is better, not just for me, for these coaches and players, but I think everything on the campus. This is an amazing place. It comes down to winning. But I think everything feels little better. Don’t you?
Q: I wanted to see about McNair. He’s missed five weeks with the arch problem. Is this a time where you might say, “This might not be your year”?
COACH DAVIE: I think that’s a legitimate point, particularly with Mike because he’s made that transition from tailback to fullback. I know how frustrated he is. We’re frustrated because he has an opportunity right now to jump in there. So he’s frustrated by it. That’s a good point. You get to a point where you don’t want to bring him back for a couple games and lose a whole year with him. But we’re going to play it week-to-week. Obviously there’s a whole lot of football left this year.
Any decision like that would be Mike McNair’s decision, along with his father. But that’s a valid point.
Q: Linebacker situation, you had to play against a couple offenses that have been wide open, Ronnie Nicks was out, didn’t play a whole lot last week. You have a situation where you have some fresh guys, haven’t put a lot of them in.
COACH DAVIE: I think that’s a good point. Ronnie Nicks has been out since I think the Michigan game. Harrison stepped in. I’ll tell you what, he’s probably ahead of Ronnie right now. Took advantage of that opportunity.
It’s good to have Ronnie back, particularly with Arizona State, USC, teams that will line up and run the football on you. Hurt us a little against Michigan State not having him. We were fortunate that Purdue, Oklahoma were two of those three games. We had a chance to get Nicks healthy. He’s back. I think he’s going to be 100 percent for this game.
Q: Also a situation with a little more of a basic offense, not too much of that one-step drop, things like that. Particularly the defensive linemen will be a bit more aggressive maybe.
COACH DAVIE: We tried to be aggressive against Oklahoma. I think we are more aggressive up front. Arizona State has a little bit more of a conventional style offense, but they don’t have conventional players. 21-3 now.
There won’t be anything drastic scheme-wise that’s different. But as always, it comes down to those guys making plays against their guys.
Q: When had you your sit-down with Sanson, what is it he said to you? How much did his message figure in your thinking?
COACH DAVIE: I just wanted to see where he was and ask him the questions that I just mentioned about if the game was on the line, would he be excited or would he rather it wasn’t on the line and he didn’t have to go in there, just to see where he was.
Jim Sanson is a guy that cares about this football team, cares a lot about this University, or he still wouldn’t be here. I trust him. Not that I base — like I said, talk is cheap. I know human nature is to tell someone what they want to hear.
You know, it was a lot of factors in it, a lot of factors. The biggest factor comes down to right now, I say, who do I think, and this coaching staff, based on what we’ve seen, can go in there and kick a field goal and win a game for us? We feel right now it’s Jim Sanson. That’s where it is.
Q: Was he passionate about it, analytical? How did he convey his thoughts?
COACH DAVIE: You probably ought to ask him. Yeah, he said all the right things. He’s a tough guy. He’s a tough competitor, just as David Miller is a tough competitor. I have a lot of respect for David Miller. He understands the big picture in this.
I listened to everything he said and asked those questions, but that’s not the reason. It’s one of the things. I didn’t expect him to hell me, “Coach, I’ll be hiding behind that bench when it comes time to kick that field goal.” I thought he’d probably tell me he wanted to go in there.
He did say it in a way, he’s mature enough, Jim Sanson is like talking to a grown man, not like talking to a typical guy, he’s been through enough that he’s got a little hair on his chest now.
Q: Are you concerned about the execution on the option, wide on the pitches?
COACH DAVIE: We’ve struggled with it, we’ve struggled with the option. Once against, is not one thing. The thing we did do is we didn’t do silly things and pitch the football on the ground and try to create plays, but we struggled with the option.
We’re going to continue to run it because it continues to make people defense it. Arnaz is probably a bit of a better option quarterback than Jarious if you’re honest about it. But it’s something that we need to continue to do. We devoted so much time to that. I still think we can be successful running the option. It’s going to continue.
Q: I saw Grant Irons around the quarterback and the ball last week more than he has been. Can you address the situation with the pass rush and the defense in general, linebackers and secondary?
COACH DAVIE: Better, I think we’re better. Grant is playing the best he’s played right now. There’s another level for Grant, I really believe that. He’s playing the best he’s played.
It’s good to have Lance Legree back healthy, Tony Weaver now is healthy again, Lamont Bryant has been steady. We’re giving up something like 23 points a game, I think. Those aren’t great statistics. We’re giving up 340 yards a game. Those aren’t great statistics.
We’ve played really good offensive teams. We’ve had some big plays against us. We’ve had some poor field position, short fields. I think we’re playing better defense now than we’ve played the last two years. I think right now we’re playing the best defense we’ve played.
We have to get better because I think we have the personnel to get better. It’s not giving up big plays. But we’re playing pretty good now. We’re getting a bit better, a bit more aggressive, have some guys that run the ball, have some guys that will hit you. If we can eliminate those big plays, I think we can be pretty good.
Q: Are you satisfied with what you’re getting from the secondary?
COACH DAVIE: I think so. We have some limitations back there. I wouldn’t say we’re team that can just lock up and latch on you and play man with no disguise and no help. Clifford Jefferson has played well. He’s made some mistakes and got beat at times, but overall he’s played pretty good. Deveron Harper I think this is the best football of his career, without a doubt. Lee Lafayette has done some things, got beat giving up some plays. I think Johnny and Deke have played some solid football. Ron really has played, made some mistakes. Justin Smith has played and done okay. We’ve got a few limitations back there, but I think we’re playing pretty good against some good opponents.
Q: Has played against so many varied kind of offenses kind of set you up to be better for the rest of the season?
COACH DAVIE: If we can stay healthy. That’s the whole thing now. That’s kind of the point I made in the whole deal when I first started was I think when you look at it, you hope that all these things can lead you towards being a better football team late in the year. I think we can be. I think we can be.
Q: Can you take us behind the scenes from halftime and beyond last week? How did you come up with the great motivation? Do you do most of the speaking, all the coaches speak?
COACH DAVIE: I’ve got this one slogan that I’ve been saving for that exact moment. I don’t mean to be sarcastic.
I wish I could take credit for that. I think our players deserve all the credit for that. It’s solving problems and coming out in the second half and executing. No matter what you say, it comes down to when there’s ten minutes left in that game, we take the ball 80 yards. Jarious made some plays, Tony Fisher made some plays. They turn it over. Take the ball 56 yards. We go 99 yards.
Whatever you would have said I think would have been forgotten by the time it came to ten minutes left in that third quarter. It’s more of trying to solve problems, scheme-wise.
But I think one thing we did say, the word passion comes up, it’s something we talked about the last couple weeks, of having the kind of passion it takes to go win, of truly having the passion to go win. That old ‘refuse to lose’ thing, there’s some validity to that. There were some people scratching and clawing because you were hanging off the side of the cliff. You either were going to do it or you weren’t.
Saturday there was no more time for talking. If we’d have lost that game, there wouldn’t have been a whole lot of things to say. We were about at that point where all that talk and all those plans and all those tweaking things, that was about over. That’s where we were. I think that football team dug down and crawled out of that hole.
Reminds me a lot of last year against Purdue. You think back to that Purdue game where they get the ball and it’s 14 nothing before you know it. We go for a first down, fourth and one on our own 38 yard line, late in the game it’s 30-23 or 30-21, four minutes left in the game, they have the ball. That’s after the Michigan State loss. It was about that same scenario. That’s where we were. You’re either going to do it or you’re not going to do it.
Hopefully the outcome of that will be the same as we go through the season, but there’s no guarantees because Redden, he doesn’t care, Sower, he doesn’t care about that scenario of what happened last year, this year, what happened at halftime.
I wish I could take credit for all this, but it’s players. Players deserve the credit when it goes well.