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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 24, 2016

David Cutcliffe

South Bend, Indiana

Duke - 38, Notre Dame - 35

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I was trying to keep moving myself so I didn't hold our plane up.

But to start with, I'm extremely proud of the effort, just the effort, not the victory first, but the effort our team displayed on the field, the effort our coaches displayed in coaching our team. I think some of the biggest aspects of it, for us, are being down 14-0 on the road and coming back.

We had a severe injury to one of our captains and one of the best football players I've ever been around, DeVon Edwards, and our team just rallied with that. Down in the fourth quarter and finding a way to come back. It was just a fiercely competitive game. Notre Dame as a really good football team.

We found a little bit more out about ourselves today and what our personality has to be to win. So not all that complicated, we did the things that we had to do to give ourselves a chance to win on the road, and then found a way to win it in the fourth quarter. As I said, extremely proud of all of our people and the job that they have continued to do. With that I'll take any questions you might have.

Q. You just touched on DeVon Edwards. Usually you go down 14-0, your best player goes down and everyone expected this to get away from you. Obviously, this had the reverse effect. How did everyone rally around and galvanize in that situation?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I think it goes back to last Sunday, last Tuesday, and how we responded to a loss to Northwestern. How DeVon responded as a captain, standing up in front of our team on Sunday.

College football's unique in the fact that anymore you're not hitting near as much live in spring and in August and so you kind of it takes a little longer maybe to figure out who you are.

But I felt like when, we practiced in the mornings, really early. And when we hit the field Tuesday morning, you felt like you were coaching a different team. So you can't turn those things on out there on Saturday. Tuesday and Wednesday show up on Saturday. Not every snap.

So I think if we hadn't have been as prepared, and DeVon had a big part to do with that, we wouldn't have been able to respond. But I believe in my heart we have the right kind of people and that's what you do when you're the right kind of people.

Q. Do you have any diagnosis on his injury?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: We'll have to confirm tomorrow, but it probably is going to be ligaments. So heartbreaking. Won't be confirmed until tomorrow. But I've learned those guys are pretty good at knowing what it is with the examinations that they do on the field and in the locker room and on the sidelines.

So, his mom's here, I hugged her going in at halftime, just wonderful people. I'm going to say this, because I'm emotional about it, DeVon Edward and tomorrow mass is your are two good as people I'm not talking about young men or players, I'm not categorizing them, they're two as good people that I have every known in my entire life. I'm proud that they're in my life. That's how I feel.

Q. What's your assessment of the offense today, particularly how much you struggled the last two weeks. You only had the one turnover today, the penalties were down, mistakes were less, just what did you see them do you think out there today?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I thought we were physical. It starts there. I thought we used the field really well, something that we have needed to do. I thought that we had a great plan, our offensive staff executed very well during the week Matt Guerrieri called a great game.

And what I mean by using the field, you got to use the field this day and time with big talented defenses. You use it sideline to sideline, you use it in length, you do things behind the line of scrimmage. But my hat has to go off first and foremost, any time you play a good offense, it starts with the offensive line.

Marcus Johnson, he's a great young offensive line coach. I couldn't have been more proud of a group, they have answered the bell and hopefully, we can continue to grow in that area.

Q. On the ligaments, knee ligaments, I assume?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Yes.

Q. And you think it's probably season ending?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Probably, yes.

Q. Earlier in the fourth quarter, you were hesitant to kick the field goal. Obviously, your kicker struggled early this year. What was the thought process on that?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, I thought we would make the first down and you don't ever do that unless you think you're going to make the first down. I felt like it might take a touchdown to win. I didn't think a field goal would win the game. And I love to go for it on fourth down. I didn't do a very good job of having us ready on that play. You don't get do overs in our business.

I wouldn't have kicked the field goal. I would have done a different thing offensively, which that all falls on me in that circumstance.

But I have confidence, AJ had a great week. We did make a change in our holder and Danny Stirt who is a non-scholarship player, who is as a place kicker and a punter for us, just had a great week. It built confidence in AJ and our guys believed, that unit there, they believe in him and he's got a lot of talent.

So, I knew when it came down there at the end, the field goal, there was no doubt in my mind he was going to make it. But I just felt like we needed a touchdown to win and I think we would have.

Q. Did you consider going for it on fourth down on the end there?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: When you have a team with no timeouts, you don't do that. You don't play overtime. If they have no timeouts, you kick the field goal. And you realize that they're playing on a shorter field, but they also have less time in that circumstance. So I felt good about that.

Q. What did you see in their, coming into the game what did you see in their defense that you thought you might be able exploit?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, we felt like that, again, as big and strong as they are, we wanted to make them run. We felt like we had to use the field. We felt like we have some speed, which we do, and quickness, which we do. So we felt like we could keep them off balance. They're extremely well coached, they're physical, I mean they are really physical. We just found a way to pick at them enough and make 24 first downs. That was probably as important as anything that we did to keep that offense of theirs off the field. That was obviously a big part of the plan as well. So, just finding ways to find, keep them off balance is really what we felt like we had to do.

Q. Can you share your impressions of DeShone Kizer and what were you, how were you trying to attack him maybe on their last two possessions?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well we would like to attack him, but we couldn't find a way to attack him much through that offensive line.

I watched him in high school, we have a player on our team from the same school, played with him. I think he is terrifically talented. I knew how big he was, but I went out in pregame and he was out there throwing with a ball cap on. And got great talent, he's got some great people around him, and he's a young quarterback still right now. I think his best years are ahead of him. But he can flat light you up.

Now in the end, when you are in a situation, or circumstance, where you're on a short field and what I mean by short field is the field goal range, and they are in a position to not make less than first downs, milk the clock. And his big arm made it hard. We were trying to get him from getting out of bounds with the ball.

But we wanted to keep things in front of us. We felt like they would attack deep in the middle of the field. And we got some good players who made some plays on the ball and competed and forced him to put a little more air under it than he would want to or have to. So it's a little bit cat and mouse. But from a, now that we have finished and don't play them, from a quarterback, my, being a quarterback guy, I like watching him. But on TV from now on.

Q. You're down 14-0, they score a couple easy touchdowns. Shaun brings the kick back. It seemed like it changed the game for you. How did you feel about that and what was going on on the sidelines as far as the mood of the team?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well we felt like we have been on the verge, you know we're a really, really good kick off return team. They looked like the best kick off return team for awhile today. But we know we're really good. And we told our team all week long, we're on the verge of this. And, of course, we thought it would be DeVon.

But Shaun's a great athlete, great vision and great quickness. So it did energize us, but I reminded all of them, that's not what we came up here to do, to have to look for something good to happen to play well. That's not what you don't on the road. That may sound crazy, and they were excited, but I said, you know, now let's get back to being focused on what we intended to do from the beginning. And that's to compete every play.

I thought our team did a great job of doing that through 60 minutes of this game. I didn't want it to ebb and tied with emotion. That's not what you do when you go on the road, because who is the emotion in favor of? It's in favor of them, almost every single time.

So, I thought our team fought through that. But a little help to have a nice kick off return for a touchdown. That doesn't hurt.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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