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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 5, 2019

Ian Book

South Bend, Indiana

Notre Dame - 52, Bowling Green - 0.

Q. Coach said that he was going to challenge you guys this week to try and be as gritty as you can regardless of the opponent. How do you guys feel like you did towards that goal?
IAN BOOK: Definitely happy with the performance tonight. He challenged us this week to just focus on ourselves. He talks about every week having a faceless opponent. Great teams go out there and win no matter what.

A lot of respect for Bowling Green, but we wanted to go out there and put up a lot of points and just really focus on ourselves, focus on the small details, and especially on the offense just get better.

Q. Ian, the chunk plays on offense today, just how important are those, not necessarily today but big picture for what you guys want to do?
IAN BOOK: Very important. My job is to get the ball out there on the perimeter. We've got some really skilled guys out there. It's my job to get the ball to them, and I was definitely happy with the way the O-line protected today. They did great job. I had a lot of time. I was able to push the ball downfield, and Coach Long talks about it all the time, great players make big plays, and that's what we needed.

We had a few of those tonight, we're going to need it for the rest of the season.

Q. Ian, all five of your touchdown drives were like three minutes or less. When you guys get going like that, is it hard to stop your offense?
IAN BOOK: I believe so, yeah. We pride ourselves on having tempo, and something we really focused on this week was just getting into rhythm and really pushing the tempo and just moving fast. That's part of our identity as an offense is going fast like that, so it definitely helps us.

Q. Was it important for you guys to get multiple players involved? Four guys had touchdown catches there in the first half.
IAN BOOK: Yeah, we have a lot of great players and we want to get everyone in as much as we can, and it was great to see. Like I said earlier, guys stepping up, making big plays, big chunk plays.

Q. You mentioned the offensive line giving you plenty of time. Did you kind of need to reset your clock in the pocket? Was it something as the game went along you realized, look, I've got to make plays with my legs but I can reset in the pocket here?
IAN BOOK: Yeah, just personally it's something I'm focusing on ever week. Going through all my progressions, staying in the pocket, delivering the ball, getting the ball to playmakers. It was a great week to do that. I've got to do it every week, and yeah, like I said, the O-line did a great job. They've done a great job this whole entire season. I trust all of them, so it's on me to get the ball out there.

Q. What was it like to see Phil get a little run there and perform that way, and what did you say to him to kind of calm him down?
IAN BOOK: Well, first, it was awesome to see him. You can tell he had so much fun out there. He works hard day in and day out in practice, so it's great to see him go out there and have success, lead the offense and just have total command. That's what we're asked to do at the quarterback position. But then to see him have a great run, too, he's really athletic, he's faster than people think, and again, just really, really happy for him.

Q. You certainly have had plenty of success before, but does a game like this change your confidence level at all moving forward for the season?
IAN BOOK: I don't think it changes anything. I'm as confident I think as you can get in this offense. I know what we can do. I think everyone on the offense knows kind of where our bar is at and what we can achieve. It's about us believing in each other, playing for each other, and focusing on the details going out there every single day and doing it.

Q. Chase had an ankle issue last week, and it looked like he limped off at one point today but came back out there and continued to play. What does that say and what kind of message does that send to the rest of the team that even though he probably could have taken today off after that happened that he came back out there?
IAN BOOK: Chase is a great team player. He worked hard all week. You get banged up in football, that's what it's about. He's got a lot of younger receivers looking up to him, so when someone like that comes out and plays, doesn't take himself out or anything, it's great. It's great leadership, and that's what we need.

Q. What aspects of your game did you focus on most in the last week?
IAN BOOK: This last week? Getting through all my progressions. That's really what I wanted to work on is first, second, third reads. We have these designed plays, they're going to work, I've just got to get through my progression and get the ball to the guys.

Q. Can you give us some insight on the last week with Coach Long and Coach Rees in terms of how you get through your progressions more, the film that you're watching, the time that you're putting in?
IAN BOOK: Yeah, just more studying, going out there and practicing, challenging myself every day to go through those reads, and really just trusting in my eyes. We practice it. I know what's going on. It's about translating from practice to the games and going out there and doing it.

Q. The concept of trusting your eyes, was that something you feel like you needed to improve from the first four games of the year?
IAN BOOK: There's always room for improvement, but yeah, I challenge myself a lot on a lot of things, so that was definitely one that I wanted to focus on.

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