Oct. 16, 2010
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery 
COACH KELLY
COACH KELLY: We are excited about the win. I know Bill Cubit very well. And the biggest concern I had was that they had beaten three BCS teams in his tenure, and it concerned me all week going against Bill and Western Michigan. I thought they handled themselves well. They played hard, represented their university in a positive way, and you know, again, I’ve got a lot of respect for the way their program is run and how they do it on a day to day basis. So my hat’s off to them, and really appreciate, you know, just playing a team that is going to play hard and very creatively offensively. They scored points on everybody all year, and we knew that coming in. As far as our football team, I was not happy, obviously, with the first half. And really, we have not played that way this year. In other words, I felt like our enthusiasm, our attention to detail, was not where I wanted it. At halftime, we had a little chat about that, and I think that chat went pretty good. And in the second half, we played the way I expect our team to play for four quarters. I think our defense limited them to very few yards. We ran the ball in the second half effectively the way we should have, and I think we played the game the way I expected to play for four quarters. Individual performances that stand out on the offensive side of the ball, obviously Michael Floyd started the game fast. And we protected him, and certain situations, he’s not 100%. We were not sure if he was going to start today. It was a game time decision. And the same thing with Armando. He was not 100% during the week, and we really protected him today, as well. So it’s nice to get a victory with the loss of rude off and Floyd not being 100% today, and Armando; and coming out in the second half and playing much better. With that, I’ll open up to questions.
Q. In the big picture, how important can the third quarter response be to where you’re trying to take the program?
COACH KELLY: Well, I think you’re experiencing different things along the way. And the nice part about it is we are doing it while we are winning football games. And the experiences we can build on are, look, you can’t play that way in the first half. If you play the way you’re capable of playing for four quarters, obviously we are in a better situation going in at half time. So, look, they are learning every day, and this is a great learning experience for them to say, hey, we have got to come out and play disciplined football. We have got to play with great enthusiasm, because we are not good enough to play any other way.
Q. Inaudible?
COACH KELLY: Sprained ankle. We were really cautious. I think if we were in a tight ballgame, we would have got him back in there. I just talked to our trainers and doctors; nobody took a step back today. Just Theo with the ankle but it did not look to be a high ankle sprain.
Q. Inaudible.
COACH KELLY: He’s a guy that needs to get into the flow of the game, as you know. At times you wonder some of the things he’s doing out there, but once he got enough carries, he showed, obviously, that he’s got great athletic ability and it was fun to watch him.
Q. You got a chance to show some of your depth at the end of the game. You got some second and third timers. Your impression of them?
COACH KELLY: We tried to control the clock. And by the way, I’m really surprised and disappointed I didn’t get this comment made, but for the first time in two and a half years, we won time of possession. For all of you guys that live and die on time of possession, please note that we won today’s time of possession. I would say that obviously what we are trying to do is get Nate in there in a package that we feel he’s a pretty good athlete, he can complete the football in a high percentage fashion, and we can run him. It wasn’t clean some of the things, but that was his real first experience of running that, that offense, which is a zone read offense. And I thought he did a pretty good job. We were trying to get Nate into the game. Tommy was really just managing it through our spread offense where we stayed in the strayed and did a lot of reads, and I thought he did a nice job there. Again in terms of guys that got a chance to play today, I thought Tyler Eifert did some good things today. He’s a big target and can move very, very well and I would say Mike Ragone blocked well in the second half. Those are guys that had not played much but I thought showed up.
Q. Was it a day of progress? Was it a day you went sideways? How would you assess the big picture?
COACH KELLY: Oh, absolutely progress. This team was 1 3. I think when we talked about that at the time, you can go in one of two directions at 1 3. You can fall off the cliff and have a disastrous season or you can work towards 9 3. I think this is another step. Our players are learning, learning how to play football games, regardless of who the competition is. No question, a team that scores points a lot, well coached team; we are pleased that we moved in the right direction.
Q. Special teams, it looked like you shuffled some people. Can you talk about that?
COACH KELLY: Well, we got a lot of guys in there. Daniel Smith helped us out. Obviously today we wanted more athleticism on our kick teams, and I think we’ll try to protect David Ruffer from any more interviews for next week. Yeah, he’s off limits. He talked to too many people this week (laughing). But I would say that the young guys continue to show. Collins worth, outstanding, in all phases of our kick games. Daniel Smith gives us speed and athleticism in there, and obviously Bennett Jackson. So good play there.
Q. Exactly what was Floyd’s nagging thing this week?
COACH KELLY: Hamstring.
Q. I guess it’s not like he was ever trying not to be this big play guy, but how big was it to get the big plays from him a day after your tight end has hamstring surgery and he’s kind of the one guy left?
COACH KELLY: Well, he’s got to fit in there. We did a breakdown and we threw the ball to Michael Floyd leading into this game 74 times and we fed it to Kyle Rudolph 55 times. We have pretty good balance there. Michael, as we broke down who was getting the football, needed to get the football even more than that. So there was a focus in our game plan to make sure that we were creating opportunities for him, in what happened to be some one on one opportunities, he’s going to win one of those times.
Q. Defensively were there any scheme adjustments or was it just the attitude adjustment in the second?
COACH KELLY: It was keeping drives alive with penalties. Sloppy play. We got fished out of the croll (ph) two or three times, which is inexplicable, why we were not responding better to some of the routes we see all the time. It was just one of those, wake up and do what you do. They showed up in the second half and obviously that showed itself.
Q. Paul Hazel, young guy, kind of an undersized defensive end, pretty effective in the first half. What did you think of him and what was the answer in the second half?
COACH KELLY: Well, he was very fast off the edge. We needed to go back and run at him, and we did in the second half. Matter of fact, the first two run plays were making sure that we were going to run the football, because he’s quick off the edge. Look, we were in too many third and ten situations, where, you know, it’s not as manageable. So we felt like in the second half we needed to run the football, which we did. I think we rushed for about 145 yards in the second half. So that was one of the answers was he was a guy off the edge that we needed to run the football a little bit more on.
Q. Congratulations on a time of possession battle.
COACH KELLY: Appreciate it.
Q. At the same time
COACH KELLY: Still going to be hard for you by thanks for bringing it up.
Q. Scoring drives in less than a minute, is that an example of why you don’t value the time of possession stat?
COACH KELLY: Scoring points is the No. 1 thing. Any time we have an opportunity where we believe we have got a play that matches what we think we see, we are going to call those plays to score points. When we needed to control the clock in the second half, we did, and obviously took about five minutes off the clock late in the game when it was pretty much in our hands. Again, we are going to score points first and time of possession comes later down the road.
Q. Can you talk about the reverse pass from good man to Floyd?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, it was the wrong read. It he was supposed to throw it to Tyler Eifert, who was wide open. You’re never wrong if you’re right, but great pass.
Q. Putting a young guy on the ground so early, and he’s the man now, how much of a concern now is that for and you how much are you worried about his confidence?
COACH KELLY: I wasn’t worried about that as much as, you know, he clearly was engaged in the game. This was not a far and away look in his eye, where, oh, my goodness, the guy is in the play now and we’ve lost him. He was engaged and he knew what was going on. He was trying to get some extra yards on the play. I’m usually going to be pretty good in those situations, I don’t want the ball on the ground, but you can tell looking at a kid that he’s locked in and knows what he’s doing. I got a good feel from him today.
Q. You said at half time that you guys were not pleased with the way you played in the first half. How surprising was that considering that you started off with a 80 yard pass from Michael?
COACH KELLY: Well, I wasn’t pleased with our management on first and second down. I thought we made some poor decisions at the quarterback position. Dane didn’t play very well in the first half. You guys watched the same game I did, he played much better in the second half, saw some things and made some plays. We need to play at the level we are capable of, so the conversation with them was, this is not how we play. We need to get back to what we do, which is lock in, be disciplined, no more penalties, and they did a much better job.
Q. The outside linebackers today seemed more visible, back to back plays, Darius had a sack and interception. What’s your perception?
COACH KELLY: Other than Terry’s 15 yard penalty, which obviously kept the drive alive, they were more activated as pass rushers today more than anything else. This was not a team that was trying to out flank you with a run game, say, Stanford, for example, which really stresses your outside backers. These guys were really activated more so in pass rush situations and I think both of them did a pretty good job today.
Q. It seemed, also, there’s a little bit maybe closer coverage on some?
COACH KELLY: Well, we wanted to get on bodies most of all of the players that we are going against, we think we can. Describing has to be coaxed to get down there and be on body a little bit more at times. But our corners are starting to play tighter to the line of scrimmage. We want to force them to get balls down the field more that San slants and hitches that keep drives alive. I think there were two of 15 or two of 14 yeah, two of 14. So if you go back to the Michigan State game, we played some man, we played some off man, and we kept too many drives alive. So we made a decision earlier in the year that after that Michigan State game, that we were going to play a little more press.
Q. And with describing who was starting at safety, is that a reflection on his play?
COACH KELLY: Jamoris is still hobbled. He tweaked his knee in the Pittsburgh game.
Q. However you got the message across at half time, how confident were you that your defense would respond?
COACH KELLY: I was pretty confident that they were going to play much better in the second half. I felt like, you know, we were not getting knocked off the ball, we were getting pretty good pressure with the four man rush. We just needed to play with a little bit more of a sense of urgency in the second half. And we got off to a good start. I knew the wind would make decision, I told them, three and out, get in position and score and we were able to do that.
Q. Inaudible.
COACH KELLY: I think you go into it understanding that at any time when you are in a game that needs to be put away, and we have had this conversation three or four times, Purdue and maybe BC, we have been talking about this. This is something that’s been an ongoing conversation. When we feel like we can put this thing away, let’s do it. I thought we did that in the third quarter. We made this game hard to reach from Western Michigan’s standpoint from the way we played in the third quarter.
Dayne Crist: I thought the first half was very poor on our ends. There’s no excuse for that. I’ll take the majority of that, because it falls on me. I was not happy how I played. We talked at half time, made some adjustments and knew that I had to come out and play better. I think as a whole our offense played a lot better in the second half, definitely.
Q. Was it just a lack of execution?
Dayne Crist: I think it was just a lack of execution and that’s really the most frustrating thing about it because it was not a whole lot. I’ll give them credit where credit was due, and I don’t think it was really based on what they were doing. It was just a lack of execution and not a great attention to detail.
Q. What were your thoughts on Michael?
Dayne Crist: Mike is Mike. Any time you can get him the ball, like I have said before, he can score on any given play, and he showed that week in and week out. I think he’s one of the most dominating receivers in college football and we need to do a better job, me specifically, of getting him the ball.
Q. Talk about Ragone and Eifert?
Dayne Crist: I knew they could step in and play huge for us and they both did. We’ll continue to better our relationship and our chemistry, but that will come in time. We are not worried about that. I think that we are very happy with how they played, and I’m extremely proud of those guys for how they played.
Q. Looked like you were pretty upset can you talk about your response?
Dayne Crist: I think it was just toning things back after that conversation and not so much, you know, trying to force a cool or even keel and more of just being able to go out there and let your emotions just wear on your sleeve. I think that we are doing a better job of that, and I was clearly upset, you know with, that play, but that’s football. You’ve just got to bounce back and find a way to score the next one.
Q. Inaudible.
Dayne Crist: You can’t blame the refs for anything. But football is football. We get calls that we shouldn’t get and we don’t get calls that we should get. That’s just how it goes. That’s football.
Q. Was it important, do you think, to establish the tight end in this game, because Kyle was out?
Dayne Crist: Well, I mean, both Mike and Tyler are both very confident players and I wasn’t really worried about getting them involved because of confidence. It was just more of game plan and the way that they force mismatches on defenders. Again I’m very happy with both of those guys.
Q. How pleased were you with the play in the third quarter?
Dayne Crist: I was very happy with how we played in the third quarter. The offense got us together and we talked at half time and no one was happy with where we were at. Coach Kelly was not happy and we weren’t happy and it was about coming out with a sense of urgency and trying to play the way that we were capable of and making a name for ourselves in the second half.
Q. Instead of running the ball
Dayne Crist: I think it’s in the offensive scheme. I’m really just doing what I’m asked to do. I feel confident doing whatever I’m asked to do. But it was just a play call that took me there, so just doing what it takes to help our team win.
Notre Dame Player Quotes
Cierre Wood o So. o Running Back
On second half running game…
“Coach Kelly really couldn’t say anything to me at halftime because I only got one carry in the first half. In the second half I decided that whenever I got the balI I was going to make something happen.”
On getting his confidence back…
“Well I’m working at a good pace now. I just need to work on being consistent day in and day out. That will not only help my confidence, but the team’s confidence as well.”
On improving his pass protection…
“I did a real good job today in protecting (quarterback) Dayne (Crist). I know he didn’t get sacked today while I was in there, so I did my part. Hopefully coach Kelly won’t yell at me for (my pass protection) this week. The ability to go against Manti (Te’o) and Kerry (Neal) has really benefitted me.”
On his long touchdown run in the 3rd quarter…
“I was initially going through my pre-snap reads and I saw where the (Western Michigan) corner was playing. I saw he was playing off (the wide receiver) but once I saw him body up inside (on Michael Floyd) and Michael (Floyd) got a good block (on the cornerback), that whole side basically collapsed down. I was off to the races from there.”
Ethan Johnson o Jr. o Defensive End
On playing a MAC school…
“We were 3-3 coming into (today’s) game, so it wasn’t about who we were playing. It was about us, as a team, improving. The fact that they (Western Michigan) were from the MAC, didn’t matter to us. (Western Michigan) had some things for us that were difficult for us to take on in the first quarter. They had some exotic formations that we had to adjust to and they did a good job keeping us on our heels in the first quarter.”
On his play today…
“It’s hard to tell how well I played today. Statistically I thought that maybe I had a better game (today) than what I have had in the past. I felt like the defense was really flying around out there.”
On the halftime adjustments the defense made…
“There weren’t a whole lot of strategic adjustments that were made. I would say that there were more mental adjustments made. (The team) knew we needed to just come out and do what we do a lot better than what we did in the first half. We needed to take it (our game) to another level in the 2nd half.”
Tyler Eifert o So. o Tight End
On his play in the game…
“I thought I executed well today. I (completed) all of my assignments and everything that I was asked to do to help the team win.”
On the last touchdown catch…
“I actually ran the wrong route, it was supposed to be a quick out but I ran a slant. I hadn’t realized how open I was until I ran the (wrong) route, but in the end it worked out. It all happened too fast to even think about the fact that it wasn’t the play we planned. I didn’t understand the concept in general behind the quick out play, but luckily Dayne (Crist) got away and there were some good blocks down the field.”
John Goodman o Jr. o Wide Receiver
On failing to find wide-open Tyler Eifert…
“I told him (Tyler Eifert) a hundred times I’m sorry about that. It would have been pretty cool because we haven’t hooked up (for a touchdown pass) since high school, but in the end it turned out alright with the pass to Michael (Floyd). Both guys are open all the time on that play, but it just so happens that I made the wrong decision.”
On throwing a pass after the Boston College game…
“I didn’t know what else coach (Kelly) had up his sleeve but luckily the play worked out. I’m always ready to throw the ball, but we’ll see if he gets another one (play) out there.”
Manti Te’o o So. o Linebacker
On what was missing in the first half that ND had to turn around…
“There was something missing, we all could feel it. We just needed to settle down and refocus on the game. I didn’t know what it was, but we were not playing our best.”
On reasons why the team wasn’t playing well in the first half…
“Probably just the heat of the game, but we came back in the second half to win and it was great to see.”
On the importance of the third-quarter play…
“It was definitely big. We had to come out swinging defensively and we needed to start off the half with a strong tempo.”
On Coach Kelly’s advice after the first half…
“He can gauge what his players need. He reacts to what we need and responds likewise. We needed to wake up. We knew what we needed to do. We needed to refocus and that’s exactly what we did.”
Michael Floyd o Jr. o Wide Receiver
On the first offensive play of the game…
“We got the one on one coverage we expected and we executed. It got everyone on the positive side. Having a play like that led us to our goal to win.”
On former high school quarterback John Goodman’s pass…
“It was great. John (Goodman) was the quarterback in high school so we all had the confidence that he could make the play. I knew I wasn’t the first option, but we had to go with it and we made it happen.”
On Western Michigan head coach Bill Cubit’s compliments towards Michael Floyd…
“Thanks to (WMU head coach Bill Cubit) for looking at me like that kind of player. I have to put that in the back of my mind and go out there and play every game. I just try to go out there and play the best that I can to in any way help this team win.”
Darius Fleming o Jr. o Linebacker
On going into the locker room at halftime…
‘We pretty much knew what Coach Kelly was going to say and what we needed to do to perform better in the second half.”
On the defense improving…
“We need to keep doing what we’ve been doing in practice. We’re studying our opponent a lot better each week and we need to continue to believe in one another and practice hard every day. “
COACH CUBIT
Q. Your initial impressions and the first half, you guys didn’t do anything you wanted to do, but yet you were competitive.
COACH CUBIT: Yeah, the third quarter, I thought the big we turned the ball over a couple of times. We were moving the ball and the kids had a lot of confidence, especially on the offense, and the third quarter started and they started running the ball at us. And those first two drives, we got bad field position at our end there, and didn’t execute as well as what we had done the first half. So, you know, they get 14 points and all of a sudden it’s kind of over there. But we turn the ball over early, we probably could have got it you know, I think we were down ten, could have been a lot better. But you know, our kids fought hard. Obviously they are a better football team than us. There’s a reason.
Q. Talk about the quality end of the first half, no time outs, the decision to run.
COACH CUBIT: I thought you put the ball in the hands of one of your better players, saw Alex right there, and told him, sometimes you have to rush up there and just clock it, because it was a second down play. But you know, Alex, I thought, did a nice job and the guys up front did a nice job. I was a little concerned with them coming up off the corner with a blitz. It was feast or famine and we lucked out. One of those things.
Q. Were you hoping for a big day from Jordan White; can you talk about the fumble?
COACH CUBIT: We always talk about, don’t let one play beat you twice, and that’s what happened. But he’s a great kid, and, hey, he’ll come comeback. He’ll be okay.
Q. Paul Hazel?
COACH CUBIT: Paul Hazel, I thought they had a lot of problems with him. He did a great job and he’s a great pass rusher and I keep saying, he puts on another 130 pounds, he’ll be drafted. I thought we put some pressure on the quarterback early which I thought was beneficial for us in the first play. Unfortunately we got down. You know, the guy took his eyes off a little, and we came back and we made it competitive in the first half, which is always a real credit to the kids in fighting back.
Q. Can you talk about the reality of the matchup; are you happy this week’s over?
COACH CUBIT: It was a long week. You know, it’s kind of funny, of all of the places I’ve been at before, Missouri, Rutgers, Stanford, you look out there and you see the size of the kids and the physical miss matches. Then I don’t even know, whoever 33 is, that guy, holey smokes, he comes in and I’m watching, he’s bigger than half our linebackers and some of our defensive ends. That guy comes in there and you’re just holding on for dear life. We are playing as hard as we can at the end, but physical, it gets a little exhausting for some of our guys. That’s where I see it. When you get into the third quarter, the physicalness of certain teams when you play them, and we have been to a lot of great places. We have been to Nebraska and Florida State, but today really stood out to me on the type of kids. They go one deep, two deep, three deep, four deep, and you look out there, and 44 comes over, and golly, I thought I was going to lose a leg. He hit this kid so hard. But our kids battled. The physicalness of the players, that’s what you see.
Q. Getting out healthy, obviously next week
COACH CUBIT: Yeah, that’s one of the things, you hope it’s a good game and number two, you hope the check doesn’t bounce. And then the third one, you hope you’re able to come back and you don’t have many kids hurt. I didn’t see many guys hurt, and hopefully you get some guys that have been hurt that we didn’t bring with us. We were playing without our four starters and hopefully those guys can come back and get in league play.
Q. Inaudible.
COACH CUBIT: I thought he really competed. He’s a guy, he’s playing in his first six games, he’s played three real good football teams. You know, sometimes he’ll go out there, but it’s not because of lack of effort, toughness. I think his arm strength, we all like that. The more he gets more of the experience, he’s going to be a heck of a player. He’s going to do a lot of damage in this league, and even some of the teams we have in our future schedule.
Q. You guys have obviously not been shy of playing big time programs, but being the first MAC school to play at Notre Dame Stadium. Can you talk about that and how you came out and approached the task?
COACH CUBIT: Well, when we first got this, and I’m not being patronising at all; this has always been a special place, even when I was younger. And it proved that everything was exactly what we said, the first class of Notre Dame, become the host taking us all over the campus yesterday. I mean, everything here is first class, and it’s a great thing to be part of it. You know, we told the kids, you can have destiny on your side. We knew it was going to be hard. If we had we got a couple of shots here and there and they had to turn the ball over. I think we turned the ball over too many times, so that was an issue for us. But what I hope, and we’ve been in Nebraska, Florida State, Iowa, you name it, we have been there and we’ll get some more down the line. I mean, that’s just the way we do things. But I think when kids are talking to their grand kids and stuff and they see Notre Dame football in there, they can have a say, and say, you know, I played in that place there and I competed. I think that’s educationally for our kids, can’t ask for anything better than that.
Q. Could you feel some of the energy from the team, Carder scoring the touchdown before the half and the sideline explodes and you’re still down ten. That’s normally not what you would see by a team down by two scores but it looked like they had extra energy on the sidelines there.
COACH CUBIT: Yeah, we have great kids. We have kids that compete. They could have just bagged it. That first play of the game, and we just kept saying, keep playing, keep playing, keep playing. Even at the end, 33, golly, he’s one of the older guys, and we just kept telling the kids, keep playing. That’s what the game is all about, when the scoreboard says 0 0. That’s when we go home. But until ten, we just keep going at it. And I want to thank Notre Dame, and Jack, it was a heck of an experience for our kids, and any time you want us back, we’ll be right out the door to come here. Everybody in the whole operation was absolutely fantastic.
Q. What were your impressions of Floyd today?
COACH CUBIT: I was at Missouri and Roy Williams, I saw him, the guy plays for Texas and I think he’s with the Cowboys now. I didn’t think I would like to see another guy like him; well, I just saw him. He’s a great player. I’ve been fortunate to coach in a lot of great leagues and a lot of good people, but he’s as physical and as good a severe as I’ve seen. And the thing about it, he plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played. He plays with passion and there’s no show boating. He’s appreciative of the game. I’m not going to tell you it was fun to watch; maybe tomorrow it will be. But he’s a great player. He really is. I was really impressed. Those two inside linebackers, with 5 and 44, good players. They just Brian will do a great, great job here.
Q. Were you able to hear the Bronco fans up in the stands?
COACH CUBIT: No, actually I couldn’t. That was interesting. I thought I would. When we scored right before the half, I heard them there. You know, it was a great I think we had 4,000 tickets that we sold, so it was a great contingent of those people coming down here and showing the pride in the Bronco nation. I was proud of our kids and I’m proud of the university and proud of Cathy and Dr. Dunn and everybody that wants to make this a first class organization. Are you sure there’s not a free lunch or anything in there? (Laughter) Again, thank you and I hope our kids went out and made it a good game for you guys, and I think they did. Appreciate it.
Western Michigan Player Quotes
Alex Carder o So. o Quarterback
On feelings about the game…
“We’ll get them next time. I’m kind of kind of mad about some of the things we did out there. You know, three turnovers is unacceptable, especially to plan on winning the football game. I’m pretty disappointed about that. The first half, as an offense, we played pretty well and we just have to put the halves together.”
On how the turnovers affected the game…
“We moved the ball pretty well, and I guess to some extent we knew we could do that, and I though we did what we wanted to do in the first half. In the second half we just couldn’t make the same key plays like we had in the first and that cost us the game.”
On the game being a missed opportunity…
“I think we gave ourselves a shot only being down ten at halftime. In that aspect, yeah, I’m disappointed, because we definitely gave ourselves a shot in the beginning of the game.”
On what changed in the second half…
“I don’t know. I really don’t have a good answer for that. I wish I knew. I’m going to watch the film and we’ll find out then, and see exactly what changed.”
On the last play before the half…
“He (the coach) called it. It felt good. At halftime, only down ten, it was like, ‘you know, we’ve got a shot at this.’ We just didn’t get it in the second half.”
On the first Western Michigan touchdown…
“It felt good. They scored quick and it was kind of like ‘uh-oh, what’s this game going to be like?’ The offense got the ball back, and we drove on them, and we put one in.”
On being comfortable playing at Notre Dame…
“Yeah, we get up for big games and that comes from our head coach (Bill Cubit). He doesn’t mind taking us to big games. That kind of trickles down to us, and so as far as us, we play better.”
Jordan White o Sr. o Wide Receiver
On their execution…
“We were executing on the things we wanted to execute. Playing tough, the way we wanted to play. We kind of made some mistakes. I had a fumble there that cost the team. It started getting pretty windy there and I misread a punt. We started on the one-yard line and eventually had to punt which put the defense in a bad position. So I don’t think it was so much what they were doing but it was a lot of us making our own mistakes.”
On the experience of playing at Notre Dame…
“It was definitely a good experience. This is probably the most traditional school in all of college football. It was fun to play here; it was a good experience. But at the end of the day you want that win. But it was nice coming here.”
Paul Hazel o So. o Defensive End
On if Western Michigan is better than they played today…
“You’re absolutely right, there are some plays we gave up and it came down to them having to do a trick play then that means we are doing our job. We just need to focus a little more and play as hard as we can.”
On adjustments from the first to the second half…
“We were playing more aggressively and we just needed to focus on keeping the same thing going no matter what happens. It wasn’t too big of a hole for us to climb out of, we just needed to have kept fighting and fighting.”
On how they were able to get to Dayne Crist…
“As we watched film this week it came to us that the tackles have a two step kick and a turn out so I made sure to use that to my advantage. So I made sure to set up for that.”
On what Western Michigan took away from today’s game…
“That we need to keep fighting until the end and this is a one time thing, and we are still going to win the MAC.”
Juan Nunez o Sr. o Wide Receiver
On this being a memorable game…
“Even though we weren’t able to come out with a victory it’s still an experience being able to play Notre Dame. I feel like I can carry this for the rest of my life.”