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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 1, 2017

Drue Tranquill

South Bend, Indiana

Q. Where were you when you found about the rankings, what is your feeling about it?
DRUE TRANQUILL: I had to grab some training table. I was over in the engineering library doing some homework with my roommate doing a senior design project.

Q. Did somebody text you about the ranking?
DRUE TRANQUILL: I kind of heard through some of the guys, just some of the chatter going on, yeah.

Q. What has the strength and conditioning program done for you this season?
DRUE TRANQUILL: I think it just continues to allow us to become stronger as the season goes on. I think a lot of programs are probably focused on maintenance throughout the year, just keeping their guys ready to play, whereas our staff has really focused on us getting stronger and growing as the season progresses.

Q. How much stronger do you feel now than maybe this time last season?
DRUE TRANQUILL: Oh, definitely stronger. I've kept my weight this year, whereas in the past typically you lose five pounds. I haven't lost any weight this year. Strength numbers continue to go up. Everything seems to be on the up and up. I certainly feel that.

Q. Coach Kelly talked about the speed squats on Monday. What are those sessions like? What are your speed squat numbers?
DRUE TRANQUILL: Yeah, Monday lifts are brutal. I'm still sore from Monday lift. We really crush the lower half, do a lot of different mechanics in terms of squatting, explosiveness, doing the speed squats, measuring our power output. The weight we're lifting times the velocity we're moving it at, do a lot of different lifts that hit certain areas.

Some single leg stuff, kind of isolate you in terms of how you move. You're never moving with two feet on the ground, it's kind of with one. A lot of different specialized lifts and stuff.

Q. Are Mondays always tough in the weight room?
DRUE TRANQUILL: Yeah, we do our lower body earlier in the week giving ourselves time to recover heading into Saturday.

Q. Sunday off, you know Monday is coming, it's going to be a grind the rest of the week?
DRUE TRANQUILL: Yeah, it's a grind. But it's what we want. We've seen I think the benefits from the challenge in the weight room, not necessarily just going in there to maintain, roll out, do the things that we have in the past. Guys see it as, yeah, it's tough. But we're so used to it now, our 11th month of doing it. It's kind of becoming second nature to us just to go in there and to attack it.

Q. How long did it take for you to buy into the program, it will make me a better player in the long run?
DRUE TRANQUILL: I think within the first few weeks. I think he gave a presentation in January when we came back. You could just hear the humility in his voice of how thankful he was to be here at Notre Dame, what it meant to him to be our strength coach. From that moment it made me slightly curious, wow, I really appreciate the way this guy presented himself. I'm going to see if his actions back up the way he spoke tonight.

I think he hasn't failed to back that up yet.

Q. When the rankings come out, you see there are undefeated power teams, does that give you validation that what you have done to this point is exactly what your goals are?
DRUE TRANQUILL: Yeah, I think it validates it a little bit. It's always exciting. You can't deny the emotions of it. The way I see it is if we lose to Wake on Saturday, we're out of that picture.

Like Coach Kelly said, we've been in a one-game playoff since our one-point loss to Georgia. We continue to view it as that. It's exciting. But we have to be beat Wake. We have a lot of great opponents coming up, Miami, Navy, Stanford, then obviously Wake on Saturday. We got to continue to take care of business to achieve what we want.

Q. (Question regarding Coach Elko and preparation.)
DRUE TRANQUILL: Yeah, I think when you get into the complexities of offenses nowadays, there's so many gizmos and gadgets and ways they trade motion in line. I think the way Coach Elko has gone about it has really been allowing each position to specialize in what they need to know for the week.

There might be stuff that's going on on the backside for the safety and boundary corner that are a big issue for them that week, that I don't even know about it. So I think just each player's buy-in into their position, understanding how they have to play to help our defense win, has been the biggest key. Just being able to be successful, guys are doing their job on a day-to-day basis.

Q. Are there a couple plays maybe last week or USC that jump out, exactly what you repped in practice?
DRUE TRANQUILL: Yeah, so we've had a couple instances this year. It started at Boston College where I'll be aligned in the apex between number two and the line of scrimmage. Two will jet motion the boundary, I'll slide into the box. Boston College took that and flared their back out really fast. Necessarily as I'm sliding into the box, my eyes aren't necessarily on the back, they're on my gap and my run set. NC State did the exact same thing this past game. Samuels was in the backfield. They jetted the guy out and tried to bubble Samuels out. They ended up throwing the slant to the field. That's the exact look we've been repping since Boston College to prepare for that.

Q. From a perspective of two years ago when you were in the College Football Playoffs, you came in fourth, Snapchat video went viral, the team celebrating. This year's team seems a little more reserved. Was it something you learned from '15 because the ultimate goal wasn't accomplished?
DRUE TRANQUILL: Yeah, I think every moment is a learning opportunity. For those of us who were there, we remember that. We remember maybe our emotions getting the best of us there.

But I think we've been trained this year to just realize in order for us to be where we want to be, we have to attack practice today. In order for us to be where we want to be, we have to beat Wake on Saturday. That's the only way we can get to where we want to get.

I've been surprised with our football team this year. We've got a lot of young guys playing, a lot of young guys on our team. They have for the most part seemed to be able to quiet the noise. That's been very encouraging.

Q. Back to the strength and conditioning, specifically how you got stronger. This year for you overall from what has happened in the previous two years, how much are you appreciating this process, that you're able to make the impact you are?
DRUE TRANQUILL: I think I really appreciate -- honestly it's a holistic thing for me. I really feel incredibly blessed to be a part of a team. A sport I've been part of since I was three years old. I've never been a part of what feels like a championship team. Everyone from the nutrition staff, to the strength staff, to the third string guys giving looks, everyone is so bought in, on their job, what it means for them to do their job. No one is looking for praise or glory. If you look at our defense, there's no one person making all the plays. Everybody is contributing and making big plays. Julian Love having the pick-six this past game, Shaun Crawford punching the ball at Michigan State, pivotal point in the game, recovering it, having two sacks two games ago. It's different guys every week. Each guy buying into their role, our coaches doing an incredible job of putting us in the position to be successful.

Q. Julian, his personality sort of jumps off the page, always very energetic. What is he like as a teammate?
DRUE TRANQUILL: He's a kid that carries himself with great humility, just always laughing, always smiling. Always a joy to be around. Guys really enjoy being around him. Never negative, always positive.

I think what you see from him is what you get, what we get in the locker room.

Q. The type of play-maker he is, too.
DRUE TRANQUILL: Yeah, he's an athlete. He can make the plays diving with the ball in his hands. He continues to make plays for us, to be electric for us. I think obviously we look at the pick-sixes, those stand out. Just the plays he makes down the field seem simple, and they're not. On a play-to-play basis, it makes him a special player.

Q. As a guy on the other side of the ball, what are your thoughts of Quenton Nelson?
DRUE TRANQUILL: He's a beast. In my opinion, he's the best offensive lineman in college football in terms -- maybe I'm speaking from a guard (indiscernible). He's physical, so strong, sound in his technique. He is a guy that has bought into what Coach Hiestand says. In terms of who I've gone up against, there aren't many who punch as hard, drive as hard to play as hard on a day-to-day basis.

You look at Kevin Stepherson scoring a touchdown in the end zone this past game, the refs ruling it incomplete. But not according to Quenton's book. He's sprinting down the field 30 yards with his hands in the air to give K.J. a hug, lift him up. To see how he flies around, how he plays, a special player.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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