Sept. 21, 2002

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Notre Dame Coach Tyrone Willingham

On the game winning touchdown:
“It was one of our underneath routes and they put on a lot of pressure. Pat (Dillingham) did a nice job of getting it to him. Arnaz (Battle) caused a missed tackle, he came out the back then, and then it was just ‘could he get to the end zone.’ He did a great job.”

On Carlyle Holiday’s injury and the play of Dillingham:
“I will talk very little about it. It is a shoulder injury and we will wait to diagnose it fully later. Pat went in and was amazingly poised and had control of his game. We asked him on the sideline what he felt good about doing and we tried to move to him and he did an excellent job.”

On enjoying this victory:
“The great thing about this one is that we have a bye, so at least we can think about this one until Monday.”

On Charles Rogers and his performance:
“That’s a great player, making a great play, and he did it all day long given the opportunity, and even when he wasn’t given the opportunity because I thought our coverage on him was excellent. I go back to his first catch where Vontez (Duff) was doing a great job. I mean he (Duff) was all up into him and he (Rogers) just reached over his back and took it like he wasn’t even there. That’s a great athlete. He played a great game and you knew at some point he was going to make some plays, but I think our guys did a great job, for the most part, of keeping him quiet.”

On getting the win at Michigan State:
“You have to understand, I don’t put much stock into coming back to Michigan State. This is another football game for our football team. There is no nostalgia; there is no emotional tie. We have to come in and play our best football and that’s what we tried to do. What is really special about this is that we go 4-0 into our bye, and that’s a great place to be positioned.”