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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 20, 2017

Mike McGlinchey

South Bend, Indiana

Q. I know that you have a big family tie to Boston College where you were last week. I'm just wondering, how big was the family turnout for that game?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: You know what, it was rather small. It was about like 15, so yeah.

Q. What was that experience like? I know it was your first time playing there; obviously with the history in your family, what was it like to have success in that kind of atmosphere?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: Well, it was definitely cool. I had my uncle back with all his college roommates and buddies and all those people that I grew up hearing stories about and meeting and kind of growing into my own as a kid, and we walked through the stadium on Friday after our practice over at Harvard, and it was the first time I've gone in there and seen Matt's name retired and number retired, and that was pretty cool going in there and looking up and seeing his name in the rafters up there. You know, just kind of brings you back full circle of when I was a kid and who I looked up to and why I do what I do, obviously to make my family proud.

And it was cool to play against Matt's school and talk a little smack back and forth with him and his wife, who had played basketball there, and obviously my uncle, as well. It was a cool experience and definitely glad that we came out on the winning side.

Q. I know you mentioned your uncle who was a QB at Boston College; was he wearing BC stuff or Notre Dame stuff for that game?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: You know what, I was actually kind of pissed at him because he showed up to give me a hug after the game wearing a BC hat. You know, one of those things that you've got to stay loyal to who you are, I guess. No, it was a good joke.

Q. Other than getting a win, what's the best part of playing on the road?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: You know, it's just kind of a different atmosphere. The first two games you get obviously as big as it's been here for this season specifically, our new stadium, all the new things, bells and whistles that we've got going on over there, and the second game was obviously as big as it's going to get here. But it's a new atmosphere, it's a change of scenery. Just cool beating people at their own place, and you kind of get a feel of -- it's just one of those things, it's just good to win in college football in general. Winning on the road, it definitely provides a different bit of a challenge, and so I guess it makes it a little bit more gratifying in that way. But other than that, there's not really much to it.

Q. How do you approach a road game like this weekend where you have no reference of Michigan State, never been there, never played there?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: Well, we've played places like there. It's not like we haven't played in loud stadiums or haven't been to a loud stadium before. I've been to the Big House, Doak Campbell down at Florida State and Clemson, and I played in that game, so I've got experience playing in a crowd like that, and we're working on it. We've been working on it since camp started. We knew we were going to have to go on the road and play some teams that we're probably not going to be able to hear too well. But other than that, you just wait for the silent count, wait for the calls to come in as best as they can, and other than that, you've just got to go play football.

Q. What do you remember about last year's Michigan State game here and where that might come into effect Saturday night up there as far as them defensively?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: Well, I mean, the same coaching staff -- not all the same players, but there's some guys back from their team. You know, Michigan State does what they do, and they do it very, very well, and they've done it very well for a great period of time. Coach Dantonio and his staff up there have done a great job, and it brings who they are and sticking to what they do, and they know that they can work on that as best they can and be better at it than you can be blocking it or playing against it. They've had a lot of success over the years doing that, and same -- it's going to be a lot of the same things as last year that we've seen. Obviously they're going to have some new wrinkles for us because they're not going to just sit there and do the exact same things that they've done. But we know what we're going to expect from Michigan State, they know what they're going to expect from us. We've played them numerous times since I've been here. I think this is the third match-up, and four out of the last six. We've got a long history, rivalry with them. They know us, we know them, and that's what it's going to be.

Q. We spoke with Coach Kelly yesterday about the running game specifically, the various aspects of the running game, what works against certain fronts, et cetera. Everybody has their favorite portion, I guess, of the playbook. What is yours?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: My favorite?

Q. Yes.
MIKE McGLINCHEY: When I get to clean up a guy that Q, Nelson, has already set up for me. That's pretty easy. That's definitely my favorite, just any combination block I get with Q is normally a pretty good one, and he makes my job a lot easier, and it's a lot of fun to just be able to come off the ball with reckless abandon.

Q. Over the course of 60 minutes against BC, I think as a whole your team's stamina and improved strength started to show itself. Do you feel that individually, that as you get into the fourth quarter, you feel better or different than you did previously?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: Absolutely. And you know, with games, it's actually a lot easier than it is throughout the week because with games, we get breathers when the defense goes on to the field, and in the week we're just going back to back to back. We're still keeping up with our football conditioning and that aspect every week, but yeah, absolutely feel strong, feel conditioned, and feel just ready to go snap by snap for four quarters. That's a big bonus for us this year and getting Coach Balis and his staff. Our team certainly was able to utilize that in the fourth quarter against Boston College, and we got nine more games here so far so we can hopefully continue that trend as we go for the rest of the season.

Q. You're likely going up against a defensive end that is a former walk-on; do you allow that to be any part of your psyche going into a game, whether positively, or do you just eliminate that from your thought process and just do what you're supposed to do?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: Absolutely, I didn't even know that to be honest with you. But he's out there. If he's starting for Michigan State, he's probably a damned good football player. No matter what -- who the guy is, whether it's a Harold Landry from Boston College or Little Sisters of the Poor, I'm still going to be -- I still have to do my job to the best of my ability, and going out week to week, day in and day out, you've got to prepare like you're playing the best player on your schedule every single day. That's what playing O-line is about. You always look at yourself first and then you look at the defense for what they do and what they're going to bring. But other than that, you're in control of everything, and if you don't practice that way as if I'm going to -- like if I'm not practicing to get the All-American or the first-team all-pro, then I'm probably not doing my job the right way.

Q. Speaking of Landry, he had one tackle, wasn't credited with a pressure, let a lone a sack. Talk about the game plan going in for him, going into the game for him, and how you executed it.
MIKE McGLINCHEY: Well, I really can't take a whole lot of credit for it. I saw him in the 1st and 2nd downs, the majority run game. I had a couple pass pro snaps on him, but it wasn't an obvious pass. You've got to give all they credit in the world to Tommy Kraemer and Rob Hainsey. The two of them came out, odds against them, first the two of them with their third game plan each, and getting the NCAA sack leader across from him on an obvious pass is a pretty daunting task, and the two of them stepped up in a big way, got their jobs done, they trusted the technique, they trusted their coaching, and they trusted themselves, and you've got to be really, really proud of them for that, and I know I was going back and watching the film with them on Sunday and then obviously more throughout the week. The two of them stepped up in a huge way, and I guess -- I don't know if you want to call it negating Landry, but the two of them were largely responsible for what happened there.

Q. They did get a little bit of help, but the scheme --
MIKE McGLINCHEY: But it was them. They absolutely got help. They got some chips from the running back, the tight end, the slides were obviously going to the best player on their defense, but for the most part when you go back and watch the film, it was Tom and Rob that really stepped up in a big way and got their hands on him when they needed to get their hands on him and stayed in front of him as long as they could and gave Brandon enough time to make some throws out there.

Q. Going into the game, did you anticipate that you weren't going to be head-to-head with him on passing downs, 3rd downs?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: I didn't really know. I knew the year prior most majority of his snaps came from the left defensive end side, but he had mixed it up in the first two games, and we weren't really sure what we were going to see. I knew that probably in the obvious situations like 3rd and long when they knew we were going to throw the ball, he probably wasn't going to be on my side just because of the way they lined up on their defense. But like I said, you've got to prepare like you're playing the best player on your schedule every week, and I guess he's probably in the top of that category for the 12 games that we've got.

Q. What are some obvious and maybe not so obvious ways that you've noticed the defense improving over the last three weeks?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: Well, obvious, they haven't let up as many points, so that's always definitely helpful. But the not so obvious ways you've seen since January. I think I've said this multiple, multiple times, I was expecting great things out of our defense coming up this season, and a lot of people were not. The way that they've worked since we got back here in January, since the end of last season, you knew there was something that was going to be better, and it's the way that they come to work, the kind of guys that they are, and the trust that they have in our new staff over there. The staff and the players have worked tremendously hard to get in sync, to get in unison and prepare the right way and have great game plans for our opponents, and the players for the most part have executed those game plans.

I can't be prouder of our defense and they way that they have stepped up. They've kept us in games the entire time -- the entire season so far, and I only expect more of that to come from them and the group that they have over there.

Q. Is there an example you can give that I don't know if you noticed during a game or even in practice where you see someone, one of your teammates, make a play, and you're like, that would not have happened last year.
MIKE McGLINCHEY: Well, I think that we went over it in our team meeting on Monday. It was a 14-13 game at halftime -- what was it, 14-10 or 14-13 at halftime against Boston College, and you know, typically in situations like that, we went 3rd and out a bunch of times against BC to start the half or to end the half and didn't get points when we wanted to get points and stalled drives, and a lot of times last year that didn't really equate to good things for Notre Dame. And our defense stepped up, whether it be Sean Crawford with his turnovers that he created, whether it be Julian Okwara, Daelin Hayes, Jay Hayes with a sack, or the middle guys like Nyles, Tavon or the four interior linemen like Myron had a huge play on a 4th-and-1 stop that comes out of a true freshman 3 technique that you kind of just sit there and say, okay, we've got something going here.

It's one of those things that you're really, really pleased to see and really happy for those guys because they've put in that work, and it's finally starting to pay off a little bit.

Q. In your career I was curious how you've learned to deal with nerves, jitters, like the mental side of things, not necessarily just like overcoming a mistake, but just big stages, hostile crowds, all that kind of stuff. When did you get comfortable with that?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: I don't even know if I am to be honest with you. You always have those pregame jitters. It doesn't matter who the opponent is, whether it be Temple, Georgia, Boston College or Michigan State going up there. You always have that pregame or that Thursday night/Friday/Saturday morning kind of like, okay, we're getting ready to play a football game again. I guess I deal with it okay because I can go out and play, but you never really get rid of that emotion. You can't really -- it's just about, I guess, learning to put it aside and learning how to focus on what you really need to control, and that's your job, blocking everything else out, and then the more you get into the game, the more the nerves start to settle down. You know that first drive you always feel a little antsy, a little something extra behind it, and then as soon as you get that first hit on your body, like as an offensive lineman or a first catch as a receiver or something like that, you know, it kind of starts settling down for you.

It's definitely a nervousness, it's definitely an excitement that you deal with from Thursday on. It starts to build up even more. But the way you've got to control it and the way that I've learned to control it is just through preparing the best that you can and knowing that you've done everything that you can throughout the week to make sure that you're going to be okay on Saturday -- not just okay but thrive on Saturday. So that's kind of where I've -- in the preparation and then just by focusing on the smallest things that you can focus on, and then that kind of takes care of itself.

Q. Sort of in context with Brandon because he's got a lot more to look at and process every play, how do you think he's dealt with that, and how do you try to help him as an offensive lineman besides the blocking part of it?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: You know, I try not to involve myself too much with how guys deal with what they're dealing with, especially with the quarterback. He's got so many voices in his head -- not in his head but in his ear on our football team that he doesn't need mine. Brandon has done a great job with leading our football team. When things haven't gone his way, his demeanor is flawless, and he's just one of those kids that you love being around, especially in times like that.

You know, he certainly had his lumps on Saturday in the first half, and then took over the football game. You know, so it's just one of those -- he's just one of those guys that he's in full control at all times, and I don't need to say anything to him. In fact, more of the time it's him saying something to me to calm down than it is me saying something to him.

Q. This is the last game in probably a while for Notre Dame and Michigan State. There's no future games scheduled. Is this a series that you think Notre Dame should try and continue and find a place for it, and if so, why?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: Absolutely. I think all the big rivalry games and the trophy games that we have are so important to our tradition and what Notre Dame is and who those other programs are. Like I said, as an offensive lineman, I love playing against Michigan State. I love the kind of game that it is. It's always the toughest game -- one of the toughest games, one of the biggest fist fights that you're going to have to be in just because of the way they play and who they are as a team. You know, it's just something that you don't like to see fade away. You want that kind of a game and that kind of an atmosphere and that kind of a tension to continue. It's good for the programs. It's good for the sport. It's just good for you as a player individually, to get to be able to have these kinds of experiences. But whatever scheduling happens is not my call, it's way above my pay grade, and Notre Dame gets the best of the best every year, and no matter who we're playing, it's going to be a good year.

Q. How does a night game on the road differ from a day game on the road or night game at home?
MIKE McGLINCHEY: I guess it gives a lot of opposing fans a lot more time to drink, so maybe it makes it a little more challenging, a little more rowdy because of that. But you know, it's challenging -- Michigan State is one of those schools that's just a huge fan base, Big Ten school, rowdy group. You know, and their team reflects it. It's is a lot of fun to be able to go on -- like the true test that I ever had was Clemson in my junior year. I saw what Florida State was like. I saw what the Big House was like. And going there, it just provides a lot more of a different type of feel and a different type of emotion that is injected into the game just from the crowd. And it makes it more fun. It makes it a little bit more distracting if you let it.

You know, you never have a lack of energy, that's for sure.

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