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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 17, 2015

Clay Helton

South Bend, Indiana

Notre Dame - 41 - USC - 31

CLAY HELTON: Very proud of our football team from their preparation standpoint through the week and getting to this game, facing some adversity early. Coming back to tie it at half-time really felt like we had great momentum going into the second half. And then at the end of the day, mistakes hurt us, whether it was penalties, special teams, some missed tackles and some turnovers on offense.

At the end of the day, you can't have those mistakes. It is not for a lack of effort and I'm extremely proud of how the kids fought, especially through adversity, and the mistakes got us. And that's my job as a head coach to relieve those and correct those.

Q. Did you have enough time this week?
CLAY HELTON: I tell you, we don't make excuses. It's our job as coaches to find answers, and that's why they pay us. We have a talented football team that was very hungry to come prove something in this game. We just didn't get it done tonight. Did we have enough time? Yes, sir. Everybody else has the same amount of time in the country. We had the same amount.

Q. Inaudible.
CLAY HELTON: I commend them. I think their skill is phenomenal. No. 20 and No. 7, C.J. and Fuller, they are tremendous football players. At the end of the day, they did a great job of winning their one-on-one matchups, especially in the deep ball; and commend the quarterback. I thought he did a terrific job of putting the ball in a position that let his kids make plays. And they did.

And then we had some opportunities to get the ball on the ground and sometimes we made it, sometimes we didn't. I don't think it was for a lack of fatigue. They had 60 total offensive plays. We've just got some corrections that we need to fix before we go play a good Utah team.

Q. Inaudible.
CLAY HELTON: We came in and said we were going to follow every bullet -- we drew it against the wrong coverage and then what a great job by Jalen Green in that situation, former quarterback, to come in and make a really big play that I thought gave us some momentum going into the second quarter.

Q. The guys in the second half -- that motivated them?
CLAY HELTON: I told them with every fiber of my being, every fiber, that I truly believe this is a good football team that can be great. But we have to eliminate the mistakes. There's no reason that we can't go win the Pac 12 south. We play a great Utah team this week. We have to make those corrections, all right, before we get there.

But this team, I look forward to seeing the rest of this season, add them up at the end; but this could be a good football team.

Q. Seemed like you had --
CLAY HELTON: Yes, definitely. Something that we worked all week, and commend Kizer. He did a tremendous job of executing. Really hurt us in the run game, yes.

Q. The offense --
CLAY HELTON: Say one more time.

Q. The offensive line --
CLAY HELTON: I look up and it's 590 yards of offense. They protected Cody pretty well to be able to get the ball down the field some. It's still a work-in-progress. We are not perfect but I thought they did some nice things tonight. There were some mistakes that were evident, and we've got to get them corrected.

Any time that you go out there and you get almost 600 yards, something is going right. At the end of the day, I really thought the difference in the game was you have the two turnovers in the fourth quarter which you can't have. We get a blocked kick for a touchdown and we miss a field goal. That's a ten-point differential. You take the blocked kick away from the touchdown, you make the field goal before the half; the game could be different.

Q. Inaudible.
CLAY HELTON: I tell you, just two kids trying to make a play. They saw one-on-one coverage and signaled to each other to try to hit a deep ball shot, which we allow. We want our quarterbacks and wide-outs to be able to do that if they see it. But tried to put the ball in a position to make one and their corner made a great play on it.

Q. Inaudible.
CLAY HELTON: You know, we've got to continue -- we made a huge point of emphasis this week with the past rush. I think the kids really bought into it. Again, it is a work-in-progress. I know Coach Wilson and that defensive line takes a lot of pride in it and we'll continue to get it better.

Q. Inaudible.
CLAY HELTON: Yeah, I thought they played -- when it was crunch time, I thought they did a really good job to come up with the two turnovers there at the end. Those were critical. They won the game when it was time.

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