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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 19, 2015

DeShone Kizer

South Bend, Indiana

Georgia Tech - 22
Notre Dame - 30

THE MODERATOR: Questions for DeShone Kizer.

Q. Is it relief, joy? What are your emotions right now?
DeSHONE KIZER: This was a very fun week of preparation. Obviously we came out there and we performed pretty well.

Obviously wasn't the prettiest of games. When you can come out and be up 37 at a time we were in the fourth quarter against a top-15 ranked opponent. We'll hope to get things cleaned up.

Q. How much confidence did you have in yourself coming in?
DeSHONE KIZER: I had quite a bit. It only took one good drive to get me to settle down and to enjoy the Irish nation. From here we'll learn from it, strive forward. That confidence and comfortness will continue to grow as we get another home game, then a big away game.

We'll learn from it, we'll prepare for UMass next week.

Q. The way you came back from the interception and threw the touchdown pass.
DeSHONE KIZER: Obviously a miscommunication between Corey and I. He was expecting a different look and he was right. Completely my fault. A freshman mistake out there. We talked about it on the sideline and moved forward. That's the way you have to go about it. Obviously the next drive is not going to be the best.

Came back out and had a pretty nice drive.

Q. (No microphone.)
DeSHONE KIZER: Yeah, unbelievable. I mean, when it comes to C.J. almost by himself the amount of yards that Georgia Tech, triple option team, has all together, it's unreal.

He's a baller. He's fast. He's strong. He does everything that we needed. Real patient when it comes to the offensive line.

Bringing up the offensive line, you don't have those types of rushing yards without an amazing offensive line.

Q. (No microphone.)
DeSHONE KIZER: A lot better obviously. Got time to prepare, got time to really feel what it was like to be a quarterback for Notre Dame. With a few days to prepare for a team, obviously it makes you a lot better out there.

They came out, and we game planned really well. They ended up doing exactly what we expected. The offensive staff, the way they prepared and had us ready to go. Now next week once again we'll get back in there and hopefully we can game plan just as successful as we did against Georgia Tech.

Q. You looked pretty comfortable out there today.
DeSHONE KIZER: It gives me a lot of confidence. It was my first walk as a starting quarterback. That was my first bus ride over as a starting quarterback. It was my first week of school as a starting quarterback. To get all that behind me, to see how it feels to be a quarterback at the University of Notre Dame, it's going to help me immensely next week and when we continue to go into different atmospheres like Clemson in two weeks, have my first rivalry games, things like that.

It's all going to be a first from me, and hopefully I can learn from it and be more comfortable as we move forward.

Q. (No microphone.)
DeSHONE KIZER: Yeah, it was unbelievable. Look back at it, it's crazy. At first when you look back at that game, you see fans cheering for Notre Dame. Now when you come out here, people would single you out, cheer for you as a quarterback, your performance, it's kind of cool. You can never dream about something as big as last week was. Now putting a game together like tonight that complements that performance next week, hopefully it can lead to bigger and better things for myself and the Irish.

Q. (No microphone.)
DeSHONE KIZER: Awesome. You pretty much got to throw it up for him. He's going to come down with it. You throw it high, he's going to jump a spectacular way and get it. To have a guy out there that saves you...

He's not the only safety net out there. You got a kid that can jump a 40-inch vertical and (indiscernible) on the other side. When it comes to having safety nets, I feel like they're all safety nets. We had a bunch of threats out there and it's hard for defenses to game plan for both sides of the field. So continue to prepare and find where the weaknesses are in the defense. I think we'll continue to be successful, I believe.

Q. (No microphone.)
DeSHONE KIZER: You know, I've always pictured myself to be in this position. My family has done a really good job. My dad played professionally overseas, and also played basketball at Bowling Green. He's been there, done that.

We always talk about preparing yourself for who you want to be, not what you are. In high school I prepared for myself to be in this position, to be here in front of you guys, talk about a great university. Now I'm here.

With the mindset of that in high school, it kind of makes it a little easier here now at the University of Notre Dame.

Q. (Question regarding the first touchdown pass.)
DeSHONE KIZER: Yeah, you know, it's all about executing what the coaches throw out there for you. You take a shot. They gave us all go's. Will Fuller is one of the best go route runners in the country. Threw it up for him, make it happen. There's nothing I can say I did amazing about it. I tried to execute and put the ball out there for him and he came up with it.

Q. (No microphone.)
DeSHONE KIZER: Yeah, yeah, completely. It doesn't necessarily make it I need to make the next pass, rather I want to make the next pass. It gets you going, blood pumping a little bit, feel what it's like for the fans to cheer for you.

If we're moving down the field the way we did today, we'll be pretty good.

Q. (No microphone.)
DeSHONE KIZER: Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I couldn't see my first start being any better than this. Obviously the performance wasn't as good as we wanted it to be. So many things we need to polish up. That first turnover comes up from an interception in the red zone. That's nothing I'm proud of, I'll tell you. We'll go back, learn from it, move forward.

Q. (No microphone.)
DeSHONE KIZER: Completely flush it. Honestly we went out there, we had another set of plays we needed to get out there. Get on film, get Georgia Tech to buy into. We came back out and completely forgot about what happened and moved forward.

Q. What was the feeling like when they announced your name?
DeSHONE KIZER: It was awesome. It was awesome. That's something you think about all week. Finally it was there. Unfortunately I've been saying it all week, I'm trying to get myself away from it, trying to block it out. It kind of hurt me. When you block it out, don't think about it, it jumps on you all at once. That was really a moment. It just kind of fell onto me.

Getting out there, getting a couple snaps, communicating with the line, seeing everything is going to be all right, the comfort level definitely went up.

Q. Was that moment where everything came to life when they announced your name? When was the moment?
DeSHONE KIZER: When they announced my name and I heard the response from the crowd, that was a pretty special moment.

Q. Reading body language, it looked like you were very comfortable pregame. How did you feel?
DeSHONE KIZER: Completely comfortable. Coach always says excellence, the way you go about your game comes from preparation. We prepared really well. We game planned really well for this team. Their defense ended up doing some of the things that we prepared for. When they're out there doing exactly what you've been seeing all week, you have no choice but to be confident.

Q. How would you describe the game plan?
DeSHONE KIZER: Like most ACC teams they like to get an extra guy in the box. Couple run-pass options out there. When they were dropping an extra guy in the box, we let some of our skill guys work.

When that was being executed the way it was, throwing the field north and south, back them up, make them play a little coverage, then we start gashing them in the run game.

When you're controlling the offense, what the defense caused, there's not much you can do.

Q. (No microphone.)
DeSHONE KIZER: 100%. 100%. Really, like it was a very safe game plan in a way. There wasn't much that Georgia Tech could do that we didn't have an answer for, whether it be throwing to the backside, bringing a tight end in and going max pro on the ball. We had a great game plan. That was great for me in my first start to be really comfortable.

Q. The pick in the end zone, are you expecting Corey to get beyond him?
DeSHONE KIZER: It was completely a bad read on him. They were bracketing him. Corner is playing outside. I threw the ball outside. Corey is going inside because the corner is playing outside.

Q. (No microphone.)
DeSHONE KIZER: We have a concept on the other side of the field that is perfectly set up for the defense that they ran. It was 100% on me. I didn't read the safety route as I was supposed to read it. I was trying to do a match-up play. He ran the route he was supposed to run. I threw the ball I wasn't supposed to throw.

Q. One you'll never repeat?
DeSHONE KIZER: Never repeat. I hope. I hope.

Q. (No microphone.)
DeSHONE KIZER: I know, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. The team is starting to roll towards me and learn how to be a player underneath the quarterback like myself. So my leadership is definitely starting to set in pretty well. The team will continue to learn and move forward as I move forward. Hopefully the games that come up with that will end up pretty well for us.

Q. (No microphone.)
DeSHONE KIZER: I had no idea who was chosen in this game. I tried to keep away from who chooses what.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter. We could be playing against the Philadelphia Eagles. Everyone in the world could choose the Eagles. What matters is the way we prepare, execute, come out and there and refuse to lose. It doesn't matter who picks us to win, who doesn't. We're going to come out and play good ball and be confident in what we do.

Q. (No microphone.)
DeSHONE KIZER: As a quarterback, you got to be the same guy. If you're changing as the vibes of the game change, no one is ever going to have complete trust in you. They're never going to know what they can get out of you. I can get aggressive and I can get goofy. I want to maintain some sort of a balance. Everyone is out there looking at how I felt in my first start.

But you got to remember, there's 10 other guys out there who played a lot of football. You got to notice how they feel with the new guy. I had to be myself and allow them to be comfortable.

Q. Was it easy to still be the same guy?
DeSHONE KIZER: Far from easy. When you're executing the things you've been doing all week in practice, kind of the only thing you can do. There's not much more I could change about tonight's performance when you're out there doing exactly what you've been doing all week.

Georgia Tech didn't do too much different. We didn't have to change the game plan, the style of play. We did exactly what we expected to do. We performed exactly how we expected to perform.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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