Oct. 5, 2002

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Notre Dame Head Coach Tyrone Willingham Quotes

On the game…
“In the first half, we kept shooting ourselves in the foot. I think we had some good drives going, but ended them on our own with a penalty or a dropped pass. Fortunately, we were good enough to overcome these bad situations and win the game. If we can eliminate the mistakes, we can be a much better football team.”

On the play of sophomore quarterback Pat Dillingham…
“I’m going to be cautious in evaluating how well Pat (Dillingham) played today because I think it is too early to do so. Once I have a chance to look at the film, then I will have a better idea on he played. I believe he did some good things for sure, though. He did a wonderful job getting through the first series of the game and handling the offense.”

On the Notre Dame defense…
“We’ve had great defensive play all year. I expect great things from the offense, too. I told both the offense and the defense they would need to step it up today. There was a stretch in the third quarter where I felt it all came together for both sides of the ball.”

On the fans…
“It was great to see the fans respond to form a “sea of green.” You could feel their energy. They ignited our players when they needed it most. They made the stadium have a special atmosphere today and added to the Notre Dame tradition. The fans helped contribute to our winning the game.”

On being 5-0 and the national rankings…
“There are still a lot of games to be played and good teams know that. Right now, we just need to keep taking everything one game at a time. We didn’t pay attention to the rankings this week and we will continue not to do so. The only thing I want is for our team to be at its best every Saturday afternoon.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Notre Dame Kicker Nicholas Setta

On missing field goals
“I know I’m going to make the next one… I just look back to the ones I did make, looking back to the ones that I did make and the feeling I got after making it.”

On knowing he’s made 67 straight extra points
“You know it, but while you’re out there you’re not really thinking about it.”

Notre Dame Linebacker Courtney Watson

On making plays off of turnovers
“When you pick off the ball you want to get it into the end zone. When you pick up a fumble, you want to get it into the end zone. That’s just your mindset going into the game.”

On defending Stanford in the second half “They threw everything they could at us in the first half….We knew they couldn’t beat us doing what they wanted to do.”

Notre Dame Quarterback Pat Dillingham

On the change from the first half to the second half
“I think first half we had some big penalties that held us back. I think during the second half we really showed what kind of team we are.”

On his play
“I made some mistakes. I have to go in and watch the game on film to see what it looked like. We came out with a victory, so I think I played well enough to win.”

Notre Dame Running Back Rashon Powers-Neal

On his touchdown…
I wanted it bad, I wanted it really bad….I saw the hole and went one-on-one with the linebacker and took it into the endzone.

On the play of the offensive line…
They did an excellent job, all I had to do was run hard. All they ask us to do is run hard and for the blockers to block…so they did an excellent job today.

Notre Dame Defensive Lineman Darrell Campbell

On his sack…
I would not have been able to make that sack with out the help of Ryan Roberts, that is what this Notre Dame team is all about helping each other out.

On being down 7-3 and the mindset at that point in the game…
Never panic, we were always poised and controlled…that’s Coach Willingham’s philosophy and our team’s philosophy, that is what we do every game.

Notre Dame Cornerback Shane Walton

On the turning point of the game…
I think it was Campbell’s sack, I think it was Glen Earl’s hit, this team thrives on great plays. I told the team that someone had to step up and make a big play and there was Sapp’s play and Earl’s hit for example.

On his interception and the development of that play…
They were killing us on that fullback flare and Coach told us at halftime we had to stop that and on the other side I blitzed in and I just had to roll with the fullback. It is what we are coached to do every day at practice.

Stanford Head Coach Buddy Teevens-

On their game-
“Turnovers have been the nemesis for us all year. The first thirty minutes was a solid ball game by both teams but in the third quarter, turnovers really killed us. Critical to have all segments execute together and it didn’t happen in the third and fourth quarters.”

On Irish Pat Dillingham-
” I give a lot of credit to Dillingham. He made a lot of smart plays and a lot of smart choices. We thought Dillingham was a great quarterback and they weren’t asking him to do great things on his own. He was supported well across the board.”

On Notre Dame Head Coach Tyrone Willingham-
” Tyrone did a wonderful job at Stanford and he will do a wonderful job here as well. There is no conflict on my end”.

On Notre Dame’s performance-
” They took some chances. I was impressed. They were opportunistic when we turned over the ball.”

Stanford Player Quotes

Senior RB Kerry Carter:

On emotions of game…
“We came in pretty confident. We came off a bad loss last week, but we had a really good week of practice, so we were coming in on a positive note. We stayed pretty positive throughout the whole game. Nobody hung their heads. They just had a couple key turnovers that changed the momentum and got them rolling.”

On reunion with Coach Willingham and staff…
“Some of our emotions showed after the game, not only with Coach Willingham but also with some of the other positional coaches. Overall it was good to see them even though it was hard to see them this way after a tough loss.”

On play of Notre Dame’s front seven…
“They were pretty good up front. They came with lot of blitzes later on; they changed it up on us. They got to the quarterback a bunch of times.”

Sophomore WR Teyo Johnson:

On impression of game…
“We helped them win. We made turnovers and stuff like that which makes it tough to win. We beat ourselves. You can’t give away two touchdowns when we have the ball on offense. You take those two plays away and it would be a much closer ball game. Things kind of snowballed.”

On play of Notre Dame secondary…
“I saw double coverage the entire day. They bracketed a lot, but they made some big plays; they made some interceptions. They scored more points than our offense, so congrats to them.”

On on-field intensity between the two squads…
“Both teams are really aggressive teams. Lots of times it is hard to hear the whistle so one guy would stop and the other guy wouldn’t hear it and that’s when you get the altercations.”

Junior QB Chris Lewis:

On Stanford season…
“We just got to keep at it. Things will work out for us. We are a young team, but still have a lot of positives to look at. We’re going to work on coming out next week and putting it behind us.”