Oct. 28, 2010
Junior Nate Montana returned to the Irish football team after spending last season gaining valuable game experience at Pasadena Community College. This year Montana has served as the back-up quarterback to Dayne Crist. He earned his first snaps under center for the Irish against Michigan in the second week of the season in place of an injured Crist, finishing the day eight-of-17 for 104 yards. GameDay’s Maura Jones gives Irish fans a chance to get to know Nate Montana.
Jones: What is your major and why does it interest you? >
Montana: Finance because it presents good opportunities when you graduate.
Jones: What is your favorite place on campus? >
Montana: The Grotto is my favorite place because I used to go there a lot when I was a kid.
Jones: What is your earliest football memory? >
Montana: That would have to be the first day of Pop Warner in seventh grade; just going out there and being nervous. I didn’t know anything about the game really.
Jones: What is the most important thing you have learned while playing at Notre Dame? >
Montana: Don’t take anything for granted.
Jones: What is your favorite Coach Kelly saying? >
Montana: Well he likes to call me a knucklehead a lot.
Jones: What song always gets you ready to take the field? >
Montana: It’s not just any one song- Magic by B.o.B., Hometown Hero by Big K.r.i.t, and there’s a violin orchestra composing a song called Requiem for a Dream.
Jones: When you were younger what were you always getting in trouble for? >
Montana: My friends and I used to bike around the neighborhood and throw stink bombs at people.
Jones: What do you miss most about home? >
Montana: Besides the weather, I guess just the memories back home that you make when you’re a little kid.
Jones: If you could take three things with you on a deserted island, what would you take? >
Montana: I’d just bring three friends.
Jones: What was your best Halloween costume when you were growing up? >
Montana: I was actually Thing 1 when I was little, and my brother was Thing 2. We looked very much alike, so that worked out well. My friend and I were actually Thing 1 and Thing 2 our freshman year here, so we kind of brought that back.
Jones: Do you have any fears that people do not know about? >
Montana: I’m really scared of moths. I don’t know why really, they just creep me out.
Jones: If Coach Kelly were not coaching, what would he be doing? >
Montana: He would be in charge of some disciplinary thing or maybe somewhere in the military training kids.
Jones: If you could have any job what would it be? >
Montana: A skydive instructor just for the thrill.
Jones: Who is your favorite professor on campus? >
Montana: I would have to say it’s a tie between my anthropology teacher, Professor McKenna or Father Heintz.
Jones: What is your favorite thing about the game? >
Montana: Just the thrill of it and competing. It’s a feeling you don’t get anywhere else.
Jones: What would your ideal day off consist of? >
Montana: I’d probably sleep until 10, go skydiving, bungee jumping and sledding if there was snow. I’ve actually never been sled riding, so I would like to try that out.
Jones: What is the best advice you ever received? >
Montana: Don’t let people tell you what you can’t do. A lot of people have told me that, but my parents have told me that time and time again.
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