Coaches Review The Battle…..
| Lou Holtz |
Notre Dame Head Coach Lou Holtz
“I thought we played very well today overall. Purdue came out and playedwell. They made some nice throws. Our defense played especially well today.It is the second week in a row now that the defense has played well.”
Our offense played very well in the first three quarters. In the first half wegot to the 20-yard line and threw an interception and then missed a field goal butother than that, we did some good things today. In the first three quarters, we had just one turnover. The kicking game was good and we had very few penalties.”
(On the third down and long)
“We really protected the passer today, but we can’t consistently run the ballyet. We got ourselves into too many third down and nine, 10 yards to go.We aren’t going to be able to win if we keep getting ourselves into thosesituations. We need to mix the pass and run to be successful.”
(On the rain)
“I don’t care what the forecast is, it rains every time we play Purdue.I can’t remember the last time it didn’t rain when we played Purdue.”
Purdue Head Coach Jim Colletto
(On Notre Dame’s kickoff return)
“They did a good job on the kickoff. Our kids were really cranked up to play.It was a shock right off the bat.”
(On Notre Dame)
“They are a good defensive team. Their defense from last year is a year olderand stronger. They are a physical bunch of guys. You need a veteran offensiveline to deal with the things that they do. They threw a lot of different offensesat us. We didn’t handle it well. A lot of our younger players didn’t havethe experience to handle it.
“They had a lot of third down conversions. You’ve got to be able to stop themsome place. We didn’t line correctly or get in the right place. However, we did show a lotof hustle. They went 90 yards twice and you have to make a play on defenseso those drives stop.”
(On the play of Purdue)
“We didn’t block well and Billy Dickens played as well as can be expected underthe circumstances. The offensive line was no help. We have a lot of problemsand need to find some solutions.”