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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 26, 2015

DeShone Kizer

South Bend, Indiana

Massachusetts - 27
Notre Dame - 62

Q. Not that you're a veteran by any stretch of the imagination, but it appears like you're feeling more comfortable in the position all the time.
DESHONE KIZER: Yeah, you know, once again, preparation this week was great. Offensive line was just balling like no other today. When everyone else around you is coming out play good ball, it's easy to be comfortable.

Hopefully we can continue to get into a routine here on the way to prepare and the way I prepare for each game when it comes to the small things. I learned from some mistakes in the last game and the way I should go about the night before and things like that, and things kind of worked a little better this week and a lot of that will roll into the following weeks.

Q. When they cut the lead down to 21-20, what were your thoughts?
DESHONE KIZER: No one is going to outscore us. That's the mindset that we have to have as an offense. We have way too many threats and way too good of an offensive line to stop us from going back and forth with a team like that. We did quite a bit of research and preparation on some of the things that they wanted to do, and we knew we had a couple plays dialed up that we were going to hopefully be able to be successful, and with those plays not being called yet, we knew we were going to be able to come out there and throw up a couple more touchdowns.

As long as we keep the confidence and the swagger that we're going to go out there and score every drive, you don't necessarily get nervous in that situation.

Q. What were your thoughts of Brandon Wimbush?
DESHONE KIZER: Awesome. Awesome. We talked all week. We knew the opportunity was going to eventually come to get him some playing time. You know, I spent a lot of time talking to him about you're a five-star athlete coming out of high school. You have all the talent in the world. That stuff can translate over to the college field if you're comfortable in what you're doing.

He was very comfortable going out there. He was obviously put in a position where there wasn't too much pressure on him, and he balled out just like we expected.

He has a really live arm. We got to see it today on that pass to Will. I mentioned earlier a couple weeks ago that it's hard to overthrow Will, but look at that kid, he overthrew him, and he has the speed and all the talent, and for him to come out tonight was awesome.

Q. Coach Kelly talked about the little extra for Will (inaudible) do you feel like this was growing experience for him to take the next step?
DESHONE KIZER: Yeah. In game planning, you've got to expect a team to do something different for look, especially with the first three games that he had, going for over 100 yards passing each week with just one guy. You've got to expect something different, and each team is going to have a different plan.

As a quarterback myself, I've got to be able to understand the plan they put in mind to stop him. This week they dropped a nail safety -- we expected that in the third quarter they would have a nail safety come up a little higher. They played him a little farther back to try and stop the post route and borrowed the safety from the backside to get over to Will. That's something that you learn and you go and you've got to be able to see and be able to adjust to it, and towards the end of the first half and starting the second half, I had a good read on it. I've just got to be able to understand a little quicker what the adjustments are on the style of offense that we have, that we haven't seen.

Q. Amir Carlisle responds with one of the more attractive options --
DESHONE KIZER: Yeah, he's a veteran. He knows how to run good routes. He knows how to get into the holes of the defense, and that's kind of the situation that we had. We had a couple plays where he was running up the seam, missed him on one, came back two, and was able to get it in his hands. He's a playmaker, and you know that once the ball is in his hands he's going to be able to get a couple extra yards after it. So it was just being able to rip some balls inside instead of just going north and south outside to Will. To have the option to be able to do both of those was awesome.

Q. You've now played in four games, started two. Heading to Clemson next week, can you do anything to simulate what you're going to experience?
DESHONE KIZER: I can assure you one thing: We're going to prepare the same way. I'm going to prepare the same way. Georgia Tech was a big game, Texas was a big game, Massachusetts was a big game, and Virginia was a big game, and I'm going to prepare the same exact way that I would for any other game, and hopefully we'll put together and I have complete confidence that we're going to put together a great game plan for Clemson, and we're going to come out with the same swagger, the same confidence, and hopefully the same comfort going into kind of a big away environment.

Q. How important was it also to get the running backs in there, as well, Josh and Dexter, to get them a little game experience?
DESHONE KIZER: It was awesome. It's awesome. The young guys can play. Obviously we see that week in and week out. Those guys are playing their butts off.

You've got to give it to the offensive line. No matter who's running behind that, there's going to be some sort of a hole or some sort of a gap. If the young guys are patient, they're going to get their yards. That's their learning. Dexter is an explosive style of guy. Josh kind of runs the ball a little different; he likes getting north and south a little more, and it brings a little more of a variance of the way the Irish are going to run the ball.

Q. Coach called you a self-corrector; what do you correct heading into a big game next week?
DESHONE KIZER: You know, obviously I haven't had the opportunity to watch film on what happened, but obviously there's some of the same issues from last week with throwing the ball in the dirt. I've got to ensure myself that that's not going to happen again. Out on the field, it was all about just being able to trust it and be decisive and letting the ball rip, and I was overthinking it a little too much. I'm trying to gauge the safeties and how they're going to treat Will, and so just throwing the ball outside reminded me to go get it.

The mental end of things was able to be corrected this week, but when it comes to long-term situations, I've got to make sure that the balls are in a catchable position, not in the dirt.

Q. Do you think that comes with experience?
DESHONE KIZER: Yeah, with experience comes comfort, with comfort comes success. I guess that's the best way of putting it. You go week to week, you get to prepare. For the first time I really got to prepare as the starter for a different defense than what the first game was.

I think we did a pretty good job. Obviously we came out and we put up some big numbers on offense, and hopefully I can continue to learn how to adjust and prepare for the next one.

Q. (Inaudible.)
DESHONE KIZER: Yeah. It was a different experience. Didn't necessarily think that was the way I was going to go in there, but things happen. You've got to be able to just step into it and not think and just play ball, and that's what happened in the Virginia game.

Q. Talk about the thing you guys do after you score an extra point. Talk about how that got started.
DESHONE KIZER: It started off when Yoon got here; I was calling him Karate Kid, and it was just a little small thing that him and Scott Daly got involved and started doing that, and I decided I was going to join them. The snapper and the kicker have to get involved, who's in between, that was me, so I had to make sure that I was getting involved with that little neat handshake that we have.

Q. In a two-minute drill type situation you guys had at the end of the first half, you ended up with a touchdown there. What did that do to stabilize everybody heading into the half?
DESHONE KIZER: It gave us a little bit of juice, a little bit of confidence, a little bit of confidence going into halftime. Allowed us to really see that we have all the tools and all the ability to go out there and drive the ball down, throwing the ball and running the ball, to put some points up on the board. Obviously it was a great learning drive that I think we're going to be able to have a good time with when it comes to watching film with a couple balls in the dirt during that drive and a couple balls that were very well placed.

I'll be able to see myself and how my footwork was on those drives. My footwork wasn't as good, so hopefully I'll really be able to learn from it and hopefully they'll be even more successful and we can be a little more efficient on those two-minute drives.

Q. (Inaudible.)
DESHONE KIZER: Awesome. We were here last year. We learned from what last year's experience was like. Now we get to continue the roll. This year we have this mindset of definitely taking it one week at a time, and we're putting all our emphasis in preparation, and it's been very good to us. Obviously we're 4-0, and hopefully that same mindset that we have about preparing the right way will continue to roll on with a couple big games coming up.

Q. What type of things do you self-correct?
DESHONE KIZER: You know, simply put, you've got to be out there ripping the ball. You've got to be out there having complete confidence in every throw that you have, and those couple balls that were low, I didn't really rip it like I wanted to, just simply because I didn't have the mindset and the confidence of getting the ball out there. When I'm out there thinking a little too much or I've got something else on my mind, the last thing I do is just let it rip, and then when I'm out there and have complete confidence in the balls, I can make the balls. I mean, there was a couple dig routes and a couple crossing routes that I was able to just let it loose. I've got to be able to do that for every throw at all times.

Q. I think there was one to Fuller where (inaudible) on the wide side of the field. Was that kind of the one that really turned (inaudible)?
DESHONE KIZER: That was one where it was quite obvious that I didn't have my footwork set to get the ball out right away. Once I got the mindset down that you've just got to go out there and play, I was able to correct.

Q. Getting the win is a primary goal, but do you feel like as an offense you checked off a lot of your secondary goals, getting those other backs in, your own improvement, the tight ends coming in and out, some of those secondary goals?
DESHONE KIZER: It was a complete team performance. We brought out quite a few of our backups who played really well today, and we were very successful with them. Kind of shows that even though you see six, seven guys go down for a season and we're starting backups and then those backups' backups are still out there and playing really good ball, it gives us a little more confidence going into the next round.

Q. I was just going to ask you about the second half versus the first half, what you think was the difference that you came out stronger? You talked a lot about confidence.
DESHONE KIZER: The way the second half went for us was exactly how the first half should have went. We had some jitters. They had a good game plan on defense. When it comes to the momentum side of the ballgame, they had a couple plays dialed up where they knew they were going to get some big shots on us, and they hit them. As an offense we're trying to go against that momentum and we're trying to keep things spinning our way.

Once we got into the second half, we had a clear plate, got the ball on the first drive and was able to drive down. That just puts into our minds the confidence and the swagger that we need to allow those drives to become a pattern and continue to move forward and get a touchdown.

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