Weis Press Conference Transcript | Assistant Coach Quotes
August 6, 2007
Senior TE John Carlson
On coming into camp this year compared to last with positions undecided…
“Honestly I try to go into every camp the same way, try to have the same mentality. It’s just to get a little better every day, work on fundamentals. It’s pretty basic, but that’s the approach I tried to take last year and it’s the same thing this year.”
On what people are asking…
“I’ve been pretty sheltered this summer, I guess, from fans and media and all of that. I’ve been working out and trying to prepare for the season so I haven’t had to deal with it much.”
On curiosity of who’s going to be the quarterback…
“I have a lot of faith in all three guys and I know that the coaching staff will put the best player out there on Saturday. I’m really not concerned.”
On the difference of each quarterback…
“I’m not a quarterback coach. I don’t really know anything about what they’re supposed to do, other than if someone’s open, they’re going to give them the ball and all three guys are capable of doing that.”
On building chemistry with a new quarterback and whether or not it’s a disadvantage…
“Not at all. College sports are fun because of this phenomenon. New players get opportunities every year. You have guys that graduate and leave – it leaves some voids and other guys have to step up. That’s the fun part of college sports. New people get opportunities every year.”
On developing a chemistry quickly…
“Well, it’s not like we’re just starting this now. We’ve been working on the chemistry since we reported back to school after the bowl game.”
On his expectations personally…
“I expect to do whatever it takes to help my team win. As far as stats, it really doesn’t matter. I need to do whatever I can to help my teammates, the younger players especially. All that other stuff will kind of take care of itself.”
On not going to the NFL Draft and coming back another year…
“There were a number of reasons. I didn’t feel like I was ready to leave this place. I wanted to come back for one more year and I was excited at the opportunity of coming back and playing here with these teammates. It’s a new challenge and I’m looking forward to that.”
On a feeling of a new era…
“Well, I wouldn’t have come back if I didn’t think this was going to be fun. I graduated in May. I didn’t have to come back here, but I’m excited at the opportunity. I’m excited at the summer we had conditioning. I feel like we’re in great shape and this is the beginning.”
Senior ILB Maurice Crum Jr.
On the rotation of the linebacker corps in the new 3-4 defense…
“All I know is me. My biggest plan is for me to be on the field. I don’t want to come off. Football is football, regardless of whether you’re playing a 3-4 or a 4-3 defense.”
On the significance of the Georgia Tech game…
“I think the home opener, or any season opener, is an important game to get headed into the right direction. You always want to start off with that big bang. We want to let everyone know that we’re ready to play.”
Senior DE Trevor Laws
On being a fifth-year senior and knowing what to expect…
“It’s definitely a lot different being here and doing this for the fifth time, as opposed to coming in here as a freshman. It makes things a little easier, but camp is camp and it’s always pretty tough. It’s definitely nice knowing what’s around the corner.”
On the different look of the defensive line this season…
“It’s a totally different defense and it allows people to come and go and bring different packages in and bring blitzes from other angles. We’re inexperienced, but the way we’ll be playing is going to bring out the strengths in everybody. So that will be good.”
On the development of the other defensive linemen…
“They are playing great. Spring was huge for them. Coming in here with a new defense has been great. The coaches really know how to teach a 3-4 and they’ve helped us along and the guys are stepping up. We had a great winter, a great spring and a great summer so I’m excited to see them on the field.”
On his goals for the season…
“I want to make a lot of plays for the defense and be a leader out there and bring guys along with me. I’ve played in a lot of games for Notre Dame and some of the other guys haven’t been out there as much as I have. So I really feel like I can help them and let them know what they’re in for and help them step up their game.”
On the motivation of people saying this is a rebuilding year…
“It’s definitely motivating. Like I’ve said before, we’re here to win games. We’re not here to maybe help these other guys win games in two years. This is my last year at Notre Dame and I want to go out with a bang, so I don’t even use that word at all.”
Senior P Geoff Price
On whether he does strength and conditioning throughout the season…
“During the season, not really. During the season, it’s not really a strength issue in terms of trying to increase how much you bench or squat, it’s more about maintaining. Summer is when you really want to build your core strength and stuff like that. During the season, it’s more about maintaining to prevent injuries. If you try and lift too hard during the season, you just wear down and break down.”
On his greatest moment on the field so far at Notre Dame…
“I really liked my 62-yard punt against Penn State in which Derrick Williams caught it, but then David Bruton and Terrail (Lambert) were right there to tackle him. It was a perfect punt, great hang time and they were right there to catch him. It was a bomb and you could here the crowd go ‘ooh’ and it’s a great feeling.”
On his improvement last season…
“I think it was just hearing some advice, focusing on a couple key things, keeping my steps short. Before, I was pressuring myself – ‘you’ve got to compete, you got to try and win the job’ – and last year, I took a little more relaxed focus and just went with it. I think that a lot of it was that I wasn’t putting as much pressure on myself. A lot of times for another position if you’re struggling, you can try and run faster, you can try and lift more, but kicking, if you try and swing too hard, you can get out of rhythm and success won’t happen. I just really tried to calm myself and try to focus on couple things.”
“It was a mental approach in terms of focusing on mechanics. Be relaxed, take short steps and just swing through the ball, your mind keeping your body from doing something it didn’t want to do. So I was focusing on staying short, staying compact and just letting the ball go, versus trying to crush it and getting into that mindset that I have to kill it. Just do these couple things and the rest will take care of itself.”
On what to work on this season…
“Last year was more about consistency and hitting a good ball and this year is more focusing on getting more hang time and directional punting, keep the ball out of the middle of the field, less on the returns and then especially get the ball up. The higher I can get the ball, no matter where it is, they’re not going to return it as well.”
Senior OC John Sullivan
On getting back to practice…
“We’ve been out here for a couple of weeks this summer, but we finally get to go out on the field and play a little football today. Everybody is chomping at the bit to get out there. It’s a young team. It’s a hungry team with a lot of good athletes which makes it really exciting.”
On helping a new quarterback…
“I try to help with having a presence in the huddle. When we get out there, I try to make sure everybody is on the same page, especially on the offensive line. I try to calm the young guys down and if they have a question, make sure we can communicate really fast before the snap.”
On working with a young offensive line…
“As an offensive line, you’re trying to protect the quarterback and make holes for the running back. It’s nothing new. That’s what we’ve been doing our entire careers.”
Senior HB Travis Thomas
On reacting to the 2006 season…
“I think we had so much potential last year, and I don’t think we achieved everything that we could have. Looking back on it now, with the talent we had on that team, there’s no telling where we could have gone. But that’s over now and I’m looking forward to starting camp today and playing Georgia Tech on September 1st.
On his expectations of playing at Notre Dame when coming out of high school…
“We had a great recruiting class when I came into Notre Dame and there was no reason why I should have thought that we couldn’t win a national championship. That’s the mentality I’m coming in with right now. With the tools we have, we can get everyone on the same page and we can still accomplish that goal, regardless of what everyone else thinks.”
Senior DS Tom Zbikowski
On getting ready to start practice…
“We ran this morning and had a conditioning test and I’m pretty sure everyone made it. Everyone looked good running and I feel really good after that. I’m really excited to get back on the field. It’s hard to explain. I lost sleep last night just waiting to get started today and I want to get these pictures and the media things over with and get to work and start practicing and getting better.”
On coming back after being hampered with an injury last season…
“I’m at 100 percent right now. I feel the best I’ve felt since I’ve been in college – from running and lifting and where my strength is at – and I’ll see more once I get on the field later today. I really don’t want to go into much of what happened last year because it’s in the past and it really doesn’t matter at all and it won’t affect anything that I do this year. I’m definitely a lot hungrier than I was going into last year.”
On why he’s more hungry this year…
“I didn’t have the season that I wanted to have last year. Plus a lot of people, as usual, are saying that we are going to win one game out of our first eight. But that’s old news and they’ve said that the past three years.”
On the impact of the new 3-4 defense on the secondary…
“We’re either going to be in zone or in man, so it’s really not that hard. We have a lot of different stuff that we are going to be doing this fall from just looking at our install. We haven’t gotten to any of it yet so I really couldn’t tell you what it is. The playbook was pretty thick going into this summer.”
On the defense having a chance to step up and have an impact this season…
“I think, just with our track record on defense, we have a lot to prove. I know with Coach (Corwin) Brown coming in, he really wants to make a statement on defense and we do, too. A new philosophy with new coaches and a new start will hopefully work out.”
— ND —