Nov. 12, 2005

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis

On running the ball more today than in recent games …
“Going into the game, we were hoping that would be the case. We wanted a more ball-controlled game, especially towards the end of the season because you don’t know what the weather is going to be like so you can’t just go out there thinking you can sling it on every play. We wanted to have some balance out there and we wanted to be running it a little more than we were throwing it. I think we ran it pretty efficiently.”

On Brady Quinn having good protection today …
“He did tuck it and run it a few times. One of the few times he didn’t have protection was on the interception. He actually had pressure in his face and had a receiver wide open. But, for the most part, he could stand back there and wait for someone to get open. Not every throw was on timing because there was one time he went off to his fifth receiver. You normally don’t have time to get through the whole progression but there were a couple times where he could, because the protection was really good today.”

On the running back rotation …
“It’s dictated by personnel. We’re not splitting time. There’s one personnel where we bring in the big boys to pound them and that’s with Travis [Thomas]. When we are spreading them out and playing our normal stuff it’s Darius [Walker].”

On defending Navy’s option offense …
“What happens is you go through practice and you put out scout teams to simulate the opponent’s offense and defense. The problem with that is – although you can let a look at what they are going to do – the speed at which they do it is not the same. Their offense is pretty dynamic. Although you can give an appearance of what they can do, you don’t do it at nearly the same speed or efficiency. So it usually takes a little bit of time to get used to the speed of the game. Our team has done a good job once they get used to the speed of the game. They handle it well come the second quarter.”

NOTRE DAME PLAYER QUOTES

Derek Landri, DL

On the challenge that Navy represents defensively…
“It is a great challenge for the whole defensive side of the ball. You basically have to run a whole different scheme yourself. That is what we put in this week. They have a great offense. They run what they run with perfection. We played hard and we played well and if you don’t do that in this game, against them, then you will be the victim of them putting up a lot of points.”

On Navy’s effectiveness on its first drive and early in the game…
“The problem with this type of offense is that you never really get a good look at it in practice. We started out trying to get comfortable with their speed and tempo. This is a football game where you have to get ready to go and know they are going to smack you in the mouth. We were fortunate enough to get a turnover and that changed the whole game.”

Mike Richardson, DB

On the challenge of facing a different offensive system…
“The rhythm is a lot different when they run the ball on every down. It makes the game go by a lot faster. I know that I was going to have a physical game because of the way their wide receivers crack back on the safeties. We knew that we were going to have to step up in their place.”

Anthony Fasano, TE

On Notre Dame facing different types of teams each week…
“It is a great act we play at Notre Dame and we mix it up quite a bit by playing top teams and playing different styles every week. Talking with older guys who have been here, they say you are really ahead of the curve when you come out of here and go to the next level.”

On Brady Quinn’s performance and if they knew he needed one more touchdown for the career record…
“He continues to do a great job and put us in great situations. He was kind of quiet today and still had four touchdowns. I don’t think we have an individual mindset for anyone in the huddle. You know that Navy is going to play hard for 60 minutes and I think at that point we just wanted to put it out of reach.”

University of Navy Head Coach Paul Johnson

Opening Statement…
“I was very impressed with Notre Dame’s football team, especially offensively. We knew coming in that they had a very good offensive team, and I never saw anything today that would change my mind. I felt like our kids competed and played hard. I felt that we had a chance. We played the way that we needed to play today in the first half to have an opportunity to win. We minimized their possessions and we tried to run the clock down. They made a huge play when the game was tied at 7-7. We had the ball with a third-and-one and they stopped us. Certainly, that changed the momentum and changed the game, but we had trouble getting pressure on their quarterback and when you have gifted receivers like they do it is a hard offense to stop.”

On the Navy fumble before the half…
“Yeah, that was big. Anytime we didn’t score it was big. Anytime you make a self-inflicted mistake, it is tough to recover from. We felt like we had a numbers advantage on the play, but someone missed a block and the linebacker got through to force the fumble.”

On Navy’s chance to win the game…
“For us to be successful today, we knew we needed to play a close-to-perfect game and that is hard to do.”

On Notre Dame’s offense…
“I think this team is light-years better offensively than they have been in past years. Some of the other teams may have been better defensively. Each year they are different. This team has a pretty experienced offensive line and they play that way. Nobody gets close to the quarterback, and when you do that – and you have outstanding receivers and running back like they do – that is hard to stop. They have a very good group of talented offensive players.”

NAVY PLAYER QUOTES

Rob Caldwell, ILB

Overall comments…
“They are a really great football team and they made plays that great athletes who will play on Sundays will make. We came out in the second half with a great effort, but we dug ourselves too deep in the first half and it was over from there.”

On Notre Dame’s offense…
“They have two guys at receiver who are both 6-5 and they both did a really good job today. You see some of their receivers going up and catching it with one hand and those guys are going to be playing on Sundays. They would run a lot of underneath routes and then we would bite on that. Then, they would go over top and make plays. Their offensive line is probably the best we will play against all year. Our defense couldn’t get off the field on third down and they did a great job of making the plays.”

Lamar Owens, QB

Fumble in the second quarter …
“That was a big momentum shift. Especially in big games like this, our coaches were talking about how we had to limit our mistakes. You can’t make mistakes like that against great teams. We knew coming in that we couldn’t make mistakes, and we did and it hurt us.”

Offensive execution …
“I think we proved today that we can move the ball on anybody. It is just up to us not to stop ourselves and not make mistakes and turn the ball over. We didn’t feel like we had to score on each possession, but we knew coming in that we needed to give the defense some time to rest and at least pin Notre Dame back in their end.”