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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 17, 2015

DeShone Kizer

South Bend, Indiana

Notre Dame - 41 - USC - 31

Q. Talk about how important was that first play.
DESHONE KIZER: Yeah, that was a huge. As a team we always talk about starting strong. That being said, Coach Kelly puts a lot of emphasis on making sure we come out on the first play and making sure that we play with some heart. And being able to start off with a long touchdown was huge for us.

Q. Was that a specific play or did you guys --
DESHONE KIZER: There was multiple aspects of that play, but that was a look that they have given us. And they brought a strong safety down, and Will was able to go one-on-one on the outside and I was able to put the ball out there for him.

Q. How does it feel to beat USC?
DESHONE KIZER: It's huge. It's huge. For our offense, we are just trying to get our rhythm going, trying to get ourselves back on track to show the world how good and how versatile we are. And to come out here and get a signature win like that against USC is big for us and for this season moving forward.

Q. Talk about Will Fuller.
DESHONE KIZER: He's unreal. The guy, he'll make any plays for you. He's the fastest guy on the field. He's one of the smartest guys on the field. He runs great routes. On my end, it makes it a lot easier to know that there's always going to be that threat; whether it makes him a adjust so he can run some other stuff, or for us, we use him ourselves and putting the ball out there for him.

Q. There was a point in the game where the offense was a little lackluster and struggling a little bit. What is the communication like?
DESHONE KIZER: We are just talking about the way we see the game. As a quarterback group, we have a really good relationship with being able to communicate and Coach Sanford and I, we just talked about it and the different looks that they give us: Why are we doing what we're doing. Why are we not executing the plays that we're executing.

When you're able to talk it out and feel confident after each phone call, it makes it a lot easier for us on the mental end of things. You don't get as flustered when you're able to talk through the situations that were so bad. There's a lot of guys out there who they see the bad play and that's sitting in the back of their minds and they are not able to understand why it was so bad and it ends up bringing them down.

But we do a good job with being able to communicate through and push through the negatives that we go through.

Q. The punt, was that something you're planning on doing?
DESHONE KIZER: Yes, so I was a pretty good punter in high school. I wasn't able to really show it today. We were just trying to get some taps in and get the ball rolling down the field and not too much time to allow them to make a play. Something we talked about all year with Adoree' Jackson being as good as he is in the return game, we thought we would bring it out and try to keep the ball out of his hands and keep the ball inside the 20.

Q. Coach Kelly talked that your confidence is north of confident and south of cocky; where does that come from?
DESHONE KIZER: There's just a swagger about our offense. It's something that we need. We've got to be able to be out there and be confident. We went into that Texas game, the first game of the year, and you could feel how confident we are in our game plan and in our ability.

To be honest, it kind of slacked off here and there from game-to-game but today I truly felt that we had that, and you could see it in the first quarter how successful we were with our game. You know, we hit a wall but we brought it right back and the fourth quarter is a testament to us having that same confidence, as well.

Hopefully we can develop and carry that mind-set and those abilities over throughout a whole game, and once we get there, we'll be pretty well -- there's not going to be many defenses out there that can stop us.

Q. How hard is it to get over that wall?
DESHONE KIZER: You know, each game brings a different set of challenges. This game was more of a -- it's not like they gave us anything too special. It was more of our own internal issues; that we were not completing our assignments. I'm not reading blocks right in my run game and stuff like that.

So when it's all internal, it's all about just finding that switch and turning it back on and getting yourself back into gamer mode. In other games, it's more about game plan situations where the defense gives you something that you don't necessarily know how to go about where this game it wasn't the case. It was more long the lines of ourselves, and once we were able to get over that wall, we got ourselves rolling.

Q. Mental toughness?
DESHONE KIZER: Exactly. As a team he really preaches that on us and I believe with the seniors leading us the way they are and with our mind-set that we have in our preparation on a week-to-week basis, that toughness is exactly what the Irish team has.

Q. Are you the kind of guy that's able to go into a pressure situation with a cool head and that kind of confidence, or is that something you developed over time?
DESHONE KIZER: I feel like I'm always developing with that. I have been a guy back in high school where I was able to take the pressure situations and become pretty successful with them.

But as we move on, there's always going to be a new experience, a new situation in which I'm going to have to up my game and be able to up that part of my mental end of things to bring the offense up and keep us all calm.

I think this game no different in the sense that we -- pretty much -- inaudible -- two-minute drive at the end of the game or something spectacular. We just needed to put together two pretty long drives and then touchdowns and that was huge for us. I think that will help us out big time in our confidence and our game moving forward.

Q. Coach Kelly also mentioned that you're still seeing new things every game. How hard is it to keep mentally one step ahead and try to know what's coming and anticipate?
DESHONE KIZER: You know, as a quarterback, it's all about preparation. As long as you're able to be great at the simple things, then the things that come at you late in the game are a little, you know -- indiscernible -- on defense, it makes it a lot simpler to get through. If you're able to just complete the basics, then the extra stuff becomes a little easier.

As a young quarterback, I'm not seeing a lot from some -- those West Coast styles of defensive coordinators; or ACC likes to bring seven in the box. So I'm still learning those end of things what to expect and how to prepare myself in that way. But I think I've done a good job with being able to adjust on the fly and making game adjustments moving forward.

As long as we continue to do that as an offense, I think we'll continue to get better.

Q. The defense didn't give up any points for 25 minutes. Do you feel especially with your offensive line, that there are times where you and the offense you can out-score --
DESHONE KIZER: Yeah, as an offense, we have always had the mind-set that if the ball is in our hands, then we need points up on the board. We pride ourselves on being a team who can score in any situation, whether it be backed up in our own two or if we get the ball in great field position and able to just make one big play.

But when the defense is playing as well as they do, in spurts of times, we have to be able to execute and be able to put up points on the board when they are doing well.

Our biggest issue right now is our rhythm and the way that our team is working on offense and defense, isn't really going together.

When the defense is doing well, we are going out there and having three-and-outs. When the offense is doing well, other teams are putting up points with us.

If we can come to a little bit of a balance and be able to ride each other's waves, it will make the game a lot easier because now teams are starting to lose their confidence and lose their momentum because we are going for it on all cylinders.

Q. Inaudible.
DESHONE KIZER: Love them. When you are able to eat up the clock the way we do -- and as a spectator, it's beautiful to watch C.J. go out there and get two great runs, see a couple pass plays end up the way we do and then have the ball end up in 88's hands the way it did on third down. It's amazing to be able to watch a team click at every position.

Q. Speaking of those long drives, late in the third quarter down by seven, third-and-long, you rally off with a 23-yard run, get flipped at the end. What was going through your head?
DESHONE KIZER: It was time to make a play. As a quarterback, I had a lapse in the middle of the game. I missed the easy five-yard out and threw it into C.J.'s legs. And I took two sacks, one where there is an open guy on the back side and I'm keeping my eyes to the field. Just small stuff like that.

When you hit a lurch (ph) like that, you need something to get yourself going. And it was set up in the way that it was with my feet in that play. Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing, for me to try to jump over a guy, I need to learn how to slide and just take what I get. But it was definitely the spark that we needed as an offense and that I needed as a quarterback to get myself rolling.

Q. How big was this win, at this point in the season, heading into the bye week?
DESHONE KIZER: It's huge for us. The way that the season is set up for us, I believe that the coaches and the athletic directors do a great job with setting up when the bye week is and when the big games are.

To take a loss in the middle of that stretch, it allowed us to revalue vamp and get us going into the bye week but we have a lot of confidence now. It's the perfect time of the year for us to get some guys that are injured back in the field, get ourselves -- and clean up our bumps and bruises and really go back and evaluate how we were in the first six weeks and be able to keep ourselves rolling going into the second half of the season.

Q. A lot can happen in Tallahassee. Do you feel like the big picture goal is still attainable this year?
DESHONE KIZER: 100 percent. I see those types of teams playing against each other all over the country. Kind of like cannibalism across the different conferences. So that being said, we just want to make sure we are a one-loss team going into the final week, and hopefully we can accomplish that and play in the Big 10.

Q. How did you win this game?
DESHONE KIZER: The defense was unbelievable. They had a great spurt where they didn't let up points for I think 25 minutes and we put together two big drives of offense at the end of the game that really helped us out. When you have playmakers like we have with C.J. Prosise and Will Fuller, it's really tough for a defense to hold us off for all four quarters. They had a good break there in the middle with the second and third quarter but the great start and great finish we had, we ended up coming out on top.

Q. Coach Kelly said in the beginning week, beware of the wounded warrior. Can you empathize with the way they played?
DESHONE KIZER: Yeah, they came into Notre Dame, rah-rah, and they had the whole rivalry thing down pat. They were talking a little less on the side and things like that.

We did a good job with letting those-- just playing our style of ball. They hit us in the mouth early; we struck back. We got ourselves rolling a little bit and then we hit a lull and they hit a high. We just did a good job I think of staying within ourselves, figuring out our own issues, cleaning up those issues and eventually being able to compete at the right time in the game and that happened to be in the fourth quarter.

Q. Should you be ranked on top now?
DESHONE KIZER: I believe we should. I believe this offense took -- this team took itself off (ph) to Clemson. Clemson is a very good football team. I believe that moving forward, we'll have a couple more tests that can prove ourselves as a Top-10 team and I believe that we do deserve a spot to hopefully compete in the big game.

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