Sept. 27, 2009

Recap | Box Score | AP Gallery

Purdue Head Coach Danny Hope
On his thoughts from the game…
“I’m proud of the team for fighting hard. I’m disappointed, but not discouraged. We don’t give up and that’s good for a team. We’re a heck of a football team that fights to the end.”

On the amount of penalties in the game…
“Very disappointed in the amount of penalties we had tonight. Sometimes it just goes that way.”

On the timeout late in the game…
“I wanted to leave enough time to run a couple of plays. I wanted to save some time and be able to run three or four plays.”

On the way his team tackled…
“We didn’t tackle as well as we needed to. We showed some signs of improvement and we will continue to work on it in practice.”

On the play of wide receiver Keith Smith…
“He is a heck of a wide receiver and a heck of a football player. He does all you want him to do. He catches well and blocks well, and he really seems to get better as the season goes on.”

Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis
On quarterback Jimmy Clausen…
“He actually wasn’t supposed to play in the second half. He took some medication at halftime, and we tried to run a lot of shotgun formations so it would take pressure off his footwork. We talked at the beginning of the fourth quarter and he said he could go.”

On Purdue’s timeout late in the fourth quarter…
“It surprised me and helped us out a lot. We were going to clock it and then make sure we had enough time to run another play. It gave us an opportunity to gather ourselves for third and fourth down.”

On going for it on fourth-and-nine in the third quarter…
“We talked about a few situations during the timeout. We were trying to figure out if we wanted to take a delay of game or draw them off sides. We had a lot of exotic punt formations we could have tried. I have no regrets other than the fact that we didn’t get the first down.”

On the game-winning touchdown play…
“It’s a standard red-zone play. We run it in practice all the time. Kyle Rudolph ran it exactly how he should have; get two yards in the endzone and then either turn inside or, if he’s being covered, turn back toward the outside.”

On the play of quarterback Dayne Crist…
“He managed the game very well. He came in to a tight game and did a great job of leading us to a 17-7 halftime lead.”

Purdue Players
Senior Quarterback Joey Elliott
On his touchdown pass to Jaycen Taylor late in the fourth quarter…
“It was a great play call. They were playing man coverage, and we knew that Jaycen’s speed could get him open on the back side. Once again, just an excellent play call.”

On the play of wide receiver Keith Smith…
“We actually missed him a few times. He should’ve had 15 catches. He played really well. He’s a great leader and great competitor. He wants the ball in crunch time, and he executes.”

On the play of Purdue’s defense in the fourth quarter…
“They had stop after stop. We couldn’t get it into the red zone, and we forced ourselves into bad situations as an offense. The defense kept coming up with big plays to keep us in the game.”

Senior cornerback David Pender
On covering Notre Dame wide receiver Golden Tate…
“We had a game plan to come in and try to stop him. We knew he was going to be the go-to guy. We knew they would try to get him the ball as much as possible and let him make some plays. He’s a great player, and he was able to make some plays when it came down to it.”

On adjusting to Notre Dame’s different styles of offense…
“We were ready for them, and we prepared for them. We made some simple mistakes, like missed tackles. It just came down to them making plays when it counted.”

Senior linebacker Jason Werner
On overcoming Notre Dame’s advantage in time of possession…
“In the first half, we had some chances to get off the field. We didn’t execute on some plays. We did a great job of bouncing back in the second half, and getting off the field a lot better. We need to eliminate some mistakes.”

On adjusting to Notre Dame’s different styles of offense…
“They did a good job executing on offense. We had to adjust, and we did, but they did a good job early. We did a good job of finally adjusting, and had a good second half. We just needed to execute the entire game.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes
Junior quarterback Jimmy Clausen
On Notre Dame’s plan for the game-wining drive…
“We just had to go down and score. The offense did a great job, Kyle (Rudolph) did a great job.”

On the play on which Notre Dame scored the game-winning touchdown…
“After we broke the huddle, Kyle (Rudolph) came up to me and said, ‘Jimmy, get me the ball.’ I told him, ‘You’d better get up and catch the ball.'”

On the difference between last year’s Notre Dame team and this year’s squad…
“The team is very different from last year. This year, everyone is so close and just wants to help each other out. We really play like a team.”

Sophomore tight end Kyle Rudolph
On his game-winning catch…
“I was very excited. I just used my body to make some room, and Jimmy (Clausen) made a nice throw. I just wanted to hold onto it and make sure I was in the endzone.”

On Jimmy Clausen playing through a foot injury on Saturday night…
“That was a very gutsy call. I know he just wanted to be out there. He’s a competitor, and he wants the ball in his hands at all times.”

Junior running back Robert Hughes
On Notre Dame’s emphasis on running the ball in the second quarter…
“Our focus was on running the ball and keeping possession. We wanted to keep Purdue’s offense on the sideline.”

On his second-quarter touchdown…
“(Head coach Charlie Weis) called the play, and I just had to make it. All of us have to step up to the best of our abilities and just perform.”