	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 8, 2017

Josh Adams

South Bend, Indiana

Q. I wonder if you would take us back to Saturday and what occurred and what took you out of the game?
JOSH ADAMS: So I was getting like headaches before the game the day before, and I don't know, just football, hitting the other guy kind of disrupted me a little bit.

Headaches cleared up going into halftime. I think at that moment we were already up by a fair margin. So I guess they just thought it was safer just to play it safe rather than continuing to play football, I guess.

But I was just -- I don't know, it was a rough week for me as far as papers and getting enough sleep and really taking care of my body. So I think a lot of that had an impact on the game as well.

But it was a great learning moment for me moving forward, learning how to correctly take care of myself and getting enough sleep and continuing to do the things that got me here like going to treatment, taking care of my body, stuff like that. So that was nothing but just minor headaches.

Q. It seemed like the play that occurred was a fumble that Brandon had. And before, you looked like you were trying to block somebody and you hit somebody's -- a Wake Forest player's helmet. Then you went diving for the football. And looked like you had a pain at that time too?
JOSH ADAMS: Yeah, that was a big dude. He was ready. I couldn't catch him off guard. I just hit him and made the headache a little worse. But, like I said, it cleared up going into halftime. I felt fine. I was warming up great. I was ready to go back in, but just better to play it safe.

Q. Talk about the maturation of Brandon Wimbush as you've seen it from last season to this and through this season.
JOSH ADAMS: So I think he didn't play at all last season.

Q. No. He was --
JOSH ADAMS: Oh, right. I mean, just the way he approaches everything. I mean, he's kind of grown into the player that he wants to be. It's nothing new. He always makes plays for us. It's just exciting to see him go out there and kind of do his thing.

He broke a long one in the game last Saturday. I mean, that was just amazing just to show you the type of things he can do on his feet. He had an exciting game throwing the ball.

Yeah, he's overall just a great player for us to have. I mean, we enjoy having him there at quarterback, and we have a lot of fun playing with him. You just never know what he's going to do and he does whatever he can to help the team out, just like every guy on the offense.

Q. Did you have a chance to watch some of the Miami Virginia Tech game after Saturday's game here?
JOSH ADAMS: No. I was a little bit too tired to watch anymore football. So, I room with Tony Jones, Jr. and he likes to watch football before we play. I can't do that. We get enough football. Let's watch some SpongeBob or something, relax a little bit. But, no, I don't watch any football after I play.

Q. Obviously you want to be out there any time you can, but even when you're not to be out there does it give you peace of mind that you have Tony Jones, Jr., people like that behind you who can put up numbers and produce?
JOSH ADAMS: Yeah, I'm sure for anybody it's rough just sitting there and not being able to go back in and knowing that you just want to do whatever you can to contribute to the team. But with that being said, even if I'm not -- I can always do something to help out. I mean, like when those guys are in, telling what I'm seeing, just little things of maybe I would have done it differently or asking them what they saw.

Any one of those guys has the ability to go in there and do tremendous things for the offense, like you've seen in the game -- Tony getting in the end zone; Deon, of course, breaking tackles and scoring and stuff like that; Dexter, you know, breaking away and doing what he does, which is nothing new.

It's exciting to see all those guys get out there and do their thing because we have so much love for each other and we are constantly competing with each other just to see who can do the best and who can make the most plays. And that's what makes us such a great group that we are is we're constantly competing with each other and see who can do better and pushing each other and pushing our limits.

It's a lot of fun watching those guys go out there and have fun and do their thing. And you just want to be out there with them. But whoever is out there, we're playing for each other. So you know that the mind is right and regardless of who is not out there, they're playing for the guys who can't be.

Q. What comes to mind when you think of the Notre Dame/Miami rivalry?
JOSH ADAMS: We played them last year. They say it was a rivalry but just felt like another game. Maybe it's because I'm young. I was born in '96 so I don't know much about the whole rivalry thing. But I don't know, it just felt like another game.

Of course, it felt like it was another opponent trying to beat us. But that's pretty much every week. But just feels like another game that we have to prepare for, another opportunity for us to show what we can do and another team that's going to give us their best.

But other than that, I know we have a few guys from Florida I'm sure they're excited to get home to some warm weather. But it's just another game that we have to do our best at.

Q. Have you ever seen the "30 for 30"s on the Catholics versus Convicts series?
JOSH ADAMS: I haven't. I used to watch a lot of "30 for 30"s when I was little, but I haven't seen that one.

Q. When it comes to a game with this high of an atmosphere going on, you guys have played in games like this already this season, so that helps. But it was also here at home. How does it change a little bit more now that you're playing in a spotlight like this away from South Bend?
JOSH ADAMS: It's always hard to play on the road. For any team it's difficult to go into an environment that you're not used to and try to bring out a win. So for us we've been on a few home games early on in our season. So I'm sure we're used to traveling by now.

But, like I said, it's going to be another game for us to prove what we can do. We just have to play as we've always played -- focusing on us and not on our opponent and trying to execute and dominate in our own fashion. So home or away we have to continue to play football and continue to stick to the things that got us this far.

Q. And you kind of look at the story line going into this one, too. Both these programs last year below-average seasons from their standpoint and just the way that these two programs have now been able to play in a top 10 matchup like this so late in the season.
JOSH ADAMS: I don't really know how they did last year. But obviously they're doing very well this year. I just know from our side of the things that we're not done where we're going so far this year. We have a lot of things that we still want to accomplish. And it's just another opponent that we have to face and have to overcome to get to where we want to be. And that's pretty much it. We're moving forward; we're not looking back.

Q. Just the challenges that they're going to bring to you guys as an offense defensively?
JOSH ADAMS: Of course they're going to bring something that we haven't seen. It's going to be new. They're going to have a lot of energy. Like I said, playing away is never easy.

But, again, we just have to focus on the things that we can control. We have to go out and practice and execute. We have to continue to get better. We have to learn from our film. And we just have to become a better offense.

And the great thing about having guys on our team is that they're constantly trying to do that, pushing each other, holding each other to a standard and not letting anybody fall below that. We had a great practice yesterday in terms of leadership and guys holding each other accountable and really forcing each other to get better and to not settle for less and to execute at a high level because we know we can do that type of stuff.

So we know it all carries over to the game. So we're going to approach today's practice better than we did yesterday and hopefully try to execute at a higher level just to know that it will pay off on Sunday -- I mean Saturday.

Q. What was your academic schedule like last week?
JOSH ADAMS: Geez, so I had like two papers due on Wednesday and I didn't get a lot of sleep. I had a couple of classes on Thursday. I had a meeting to go to on Thursday. Friday, I actually have the practicum class, which is a little lighter but exciting. But also had a Spanish assessment on Friday.

So, I mean, just wasn't able to get a lot of sleep. It's pretty much normal when you have that much work in terms of school. But I was able to complete all the work. So that's a positive. But I just gotta do a better job managing my schedule.

Q. What were the papers?
JOSH ADAMS: So for the practicum we have to do a weekly response. So that's nothing new. It's like two to three pages response. We have to do the readings and stuff like that.

I had Spanish paper, you have to write in Spanish. So that's always hard. So that took me a little bit of time to do that.

I'm in a poetry class so we have to read poetry and do response papers on that. I had to do that too. A lot of this stuff I could have got done earlier on in the week, but coming off a game you just want to sleep. I just gotta do a better job of managing that kind of stuff.

Q. How is this week going so far?
JOSH ADAMS: It's going great. I'm feeling good. I'm getting a lot of sleep. I also don't have a lot of work this week. So a little lighter schedule. I'm sure next week will be fun.

But, no, I'm doing a better job. I definitely learned from last week, which is a great thing about football. You're constantly learning and have to do better. So taking care of my body a little bit more and feeling good.

Q. Aside from just fatigue and headaches, I think you took a shot in the back and your ankle got pinned under the pile on the fumble scrum there. Did any of that factor into, like, not my day?
JOSH ADAMS: And it was raining, too (laughter).

Q. That too.
JOSH ADAMS: That's football. A guy fell on my back, getting tackled, twisted up. That's part of the game, really. Other than the headache, I was feeling good. Like I said, I wanted to get back out there. It's always hard for me not being able to help.

But I mean that's just the way it goes. I'm not trying to pass that, focusing on this upcoming game against Miami.

Q. Did you say you were in a poetry class?
JOSH ADAMS: Yes. I'm in a poetry class. It's an experience. I enjoy writing poetry. I do. It's a little harder when you have to read other poets' work and try and analyze it. That's a little more difficult.

But I think it all goes together with me trying to write my own poetry. It helps to watch other authors do it, other artists and how they approach their work. But I'm getting through it.

Q. Just to be clear, you'll be fine to go play?
JOSH ADAMS: Yeah, I hope so.

Q. And what has Deon maybe told you about facing his brother?
JOSH ADAMS: His brother was on the team last year. I didn't even know that. But, I don't know, Deon, he doesn't talk a lot about his brothers and sisters. I don't know how he feels about it. I'll ask him. But just from the looks of things I'm sure he's ready to go. He's always ready to work and ready to get out there and play some football.

I told him I'm going to get a hit on your brother. But that was just me joking. I don't really know that much. But I'm sure he's excited to go home, see his family. He has a lot of family down there.

Q. I guess their defense held Virginia Tech to under 100 yards rushing. When you see that or you see it on film, how do you approach that?
JOSH ADAMS: We don't focus on our opponents that much to say, hey, we've got to change something up because they did this or did that last game. We just focus on what we can control. We're going to continue to run our offense, continue to do things that got us here. And just from a running back unit standpoint, we're going to continue to do anything we can to contribute, whether that's in the passing game or in the running game, we're going to continue to run the ball. We're going to continue to run our routes effectively and try to help out in any way that we can.

So this offense does a great job of focusing in on each other and focusing in on the guy next to him that we're not too concerned about the things that opponents try to do to stop us. We're going to focus on what we can control.

Q. You mentioned your Spanish class. I was in Spanish class in high school. You were able to choose a Spanish name for your semester is that the case in your class?
JOSH ADAMS: I'm Joshua (Spanish pronunciation).

Q. What is it?
JOSH ADAMS: Joshua. That's Joshua in Spanish. I didn't get a chance to choose a name. That was the easiest one to pick.

Q. Who is your inner SpongeBob character? Which SpongeBob character do you enjoy the most?
JOSH ADAMS: I mean, the show -- obviously it's a goofy show. I mean, who doesn't like SpongeBob? But I don't say I like any one particular character. I mean, you're never too old to laugh at a kids show, you know what I mean. Just sit back and relax and watch SpongeBob and Patrick do some goofy stuff.

I like to relax before the game, just kind of get my emotions down and just mellow out, kind of. We play enough football. We know enough about football to where we can just get away for a second, just take a step back and enjoy life. So that's just me being me. I won't say Patrick but close to it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297