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MIAMI UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 30, 2017

Chuck Martin

South Bend, Indiana

Notre Dame - 52, Miami (OH) - 17

CHUCK MARTIN: Obviously, awesome, awesome game for Miami University. We're appreciative they scheduled us on the schedule again. Had an awesome two days. Obviously, the outcome not what we're looking for. We certainly didn't run into a bad Notre Dame team. They have a very good team this year. They're playing the game the right way, and they're only going to get better, I think.

Felt good about our compete level. Their offensive line overwhelmed us, run and pass. Wimbush is scary enough running around, but we really never made him run around. We never got close enough to him to really -- I don't know if we could have tackled him if we got guys back there. It was like Fort Knox in the passing game. They've got good receivers. I thought our DBs chased him around as much as they could, but there was just crazy too much time in the pass game, and he's back there, got clean looks, whipping the ball around.

Obviously, the run game, we tried to load the box and defend the run. We knew going in that would be a struggle. We felt we had to keep it bottled up. If Adams got loose, it was going to get ugly in a hurry. Not that it doesn't happen to other people, but we didn't feel like if he got into our back end, we're going to have it great. He proved that really quickly when he got in our back end and got in a hurry.

They ran the ball. They threw the ball. I know they were working on things they wanted to work on and try to keep improving their team, which I think they did. I felt like we had a number of guys that were fine on the field, which was awesome for them. I think there's 10 to 15 guys that could really play with the guys from Notre Dame. I'm not saying outplay them. I'm not saying they're better, but I'm just saying they belonged on the field.

We didn't have enough, obviously, and we had some positions that got really exposed. They're good MAC players. We've got to get them to bounce back and understand that hey, there were some guys that played really good against Central Michigan last week that were fine and were outmatched today. That's just part of it.

Overall a great experience. We're going to put this one to bed in a hurry. Not that we're not going to correct the errors. We're certainly going to correct the errors. We're always going to correct errors. We're not going to spend time watching good plays. They can watch this game on their own.

Second half, we got everybody in that were not redshirt, which was awesome. Everybody had a chance to play in this venue and at least get one snap. Some only got one, but they got one in. Again, a lot of kids did good things. I thought our running backs were good. I thought the receivers made plays. I thought the quarterback made plays. There's guys on defense that were fine. There's other guys that weren't fine. They've got a good team. Wish them luck the rest of the year.

Q. Chuck, what was your offensive game plan as it related to how they defended? It looked like they were on quarters most of the night.
CHUCK MARTIN: They were on quarters. They were on three cloud boundary. They've got a variety of pressures. They do a good job of disguising it and coming from depth.

Q. Did you anticipate that was going to be their approach against you?
CHUCK MARTIN: Yeah, they kind of ran what they ran. We were -- again, we're like everyone else. We're going to be dreamers. We came in with a crazy aggressive plan. We're going to try to attack and whip it around, hopefully catch them in pressures and get the ball on the seam and try to get them back on their heels, which I thought we did early.

The problem is we couldn't stop them. We wanted to get the toss. We wanted to get the ball first. I didn't want their offense on the field first. I didn't feel like that was the best match-up, even though our defense has totally outplayed our offense. And then we had the turnover. We got two scores. It could have been 21-14, I think.

We were going to be aggressive and try to get them back on their heels. I think we did a little. We'll see what they say about it. I think we had a pretty decent plan, attack all their coverages.

Q. You made them miss some tackles certainly.
CHUCK MARTIN: No, our backs are good backs.

Q. Perfect world. You don't want Ragland throwing 37 times, but in order to beat Notre Dame --
CHUCK MARTIN: No, again, I thought our O-line run blocked good tonight. We ran the ball better than I thought. We were pretty aggressive throwing early. Maybe they got a little bit more play and pass. I was actually surprised how well we ran it today. Not that we ran it great, but I was anticipating no run. They've got big guys up front, and their backers are good, and they played.

We returned 77 yards on seven plays. I know they played our twos, but we also played our twos some. I felt like defensively, we had plenty of guys that could, but we also had enough, and we're beat up. Two of our best defensive players don't play. I don't think it makes a huge one, but it makes a difference.

Q. Made a difference in the long run by Adams.
CHUCK MARTIN: Our number one and two tackles weren't on the field. Overall the kids took the challenge, they played, and took our shot. Time to move on.

Q. Gardner certainly showed some skills on those two touchdowns. It seemed like he was well guarded both times, and he just made a play.
CHUCK MARTIN: Yeah, he's big, and he's very good at catching the ball. We put the ball in good spots, and he's going to make plays. He played against Iowa last year and had a really good game. Played against Mississippi State. Obviously, he's been very good in MAC play, but when we stepped up the competition, he's played well against the best people he's played. So he had a nice game. We threw some good balls to him and gave ourselves a chance to move a little bit. They were well covered. He's not the fastest but definitely good at catching. He's typically pretty well covered.

Q. Josh Adams had 150 yards, 120 yards in the first half alone.
CHUCK MARTIN: That's all he played. He would have had 350 if he played second half. Pretty simple math. He's really good. He's been really good here. He tends to break off big runs if you give him -- he's big and strong, but he runs through those -- you can't really make him miss. He runs through arm tackles. He gets smaller DBs and makes a habit -- he could have -- I think he got dinged up on the one play. If they want to keep him -- eight for 159. He could have set some records today.

Q. What was it like being back at Notre Dame?
CHUCK MARTIN: It was actually better than I hoped, honestly. The outcome wasn't better than I hoped. I thought we could play with them a little better than we did. It was fun to see so many people I love here. That was basic. Came back to Notre Dame, that's fine. I've been to Notre Dame many times in my life. But I saw a ton of people, pregame, post-game, during the game. Not just coaches and players, but tons of other people that I got to see.

Tons of ushers. I've been here for four years. I probably saw 40 ushers that I haven't seen in four years, that I used to see on a weekly or daily basis. That part was fun to see a bunch of people that you really love.

Being in the stadium is always good for me. I love what they did with the renovations. I hadn't been in it until yesterday. Totally different. They obviously hit a home run, inside, outside, the whole deal. That part is cool. I enjoyed it.

I thought, any time you play one of these big venues and you're a MAC team and it's cool for these kids. We could have stayed on the field yesterday for four hours, and our kids wouldn't have left. It's cool to be in Notre Dame Stadium. They may not always say it. The kids that played well, they'll have that. Everybody got in the game. And kids that got their butts kicked, hey, they got their butts kicked at Notre Dame. It's not like getting your butts kicked at other places.

And it will help them play better. There's some kids that have been playing pretty good, and they realize there's a whole other level up. They're Division I football. Notre Dame is a Division I team. There's upsets of this nature. It didn't happen today, but to get to that point where we can beat a team like that, there's some kids that got to get a whole lot better, and that's also helpful to our team.

Q. What was it like honoring Coach Parseghian?
CHUCK MARTIN: It was great. So sad he passed away, but he's also 94, pretty good. Somebody tells me it's sad that I pass away at 94, that would be a heck of a deal. Just the fact that we haven't played since 1909, just the fact that he passed away the day that Miami is playing Notre Dame, as much as he's revered here, he's revered more. He's a Miami alum. He's a multi-sport athlete at Miami. There are stories of him playing at Miami and what a great player, and obviously he was one of the starting of the cradle of coaches. We got on an unbelievable run with Hall of Fame coaches, but he was kind of the first to roll through.

I drove on the bus with somebody that went to school with Ara Parseghian with Miami. As much as he's loved at Notre Dame as a National Championship winning coach, it goes way deeper at Miami because he's not only a Hall of Fame coach at Miami, but he's an alum at Miami, and people went to school with him and know what kind of person he was.

Pretty great that Miami got to play Notre Dame. I think both teams played the game the right way. We had a couple penalties we'd obviously like back, but I think we honor him -- we talked about it this week.

We owe it to Ara Parseghian to play football the right way today. No matter what the scores. At halftime it was ugly, our kids came out and competed the second half. It wasn't like, oh, whatever, let's just move on the next week. No, we're going to keep competing every snap, and both teams obviously did that. So it was pretty cool from that respect.

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