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NAVY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 16, 2019

Ken Niumatalolo

South Bend, Indiana

Notre Dame - 52, Navy - 20

KEN NIUMATALOLO: Got our butts whooped. It started with me coaching. Obviously we weren't ready. They played really well. They had a great plan on both sides of the ball and just a thorough butt-whipping. So tip our hats to them. A good football team, out-coached us, outplayed us. It starts with me. And we got to find a way to bounce back next week. We have a game at home, Senior day, it's always a big game for us, back in conference, but like our wounds right now and like I say, they beat the crap out of us and that was it.

Q. You knew from the outset that they were going to score some points and you had to match them. First offensive possession you went right down on the field and looked like were you in position to score a touchdown. That first fumble and the subsequent fumbles were just killers.
KEN NIUMATALOLO: You definitely can't turn the ball over against attempt like this. When you play teams that are better, you can't turn the ball over, you can't give up big plays, and we did and against a team like that, everything just gets magnified and that's what happened today. We just, it was very similar to last year, just kind of overwhelmed us in the first half and we couldn't respond. They hit us with an over hand right and we were dazed the rest of the game. So and we didn't respond very well, we haven't been in that situation this year and we were dazed the whole game and to their credit a lot of it was them. They just kept attacking both sides of the ball and they did a really good job.

Q. You did mention, you still have a lot to play for and a lot of the guys were just talking about got to put this one away snaps, obviously disappointed but still a lot of season left and a lot of your goals still there.
KEN NIUMATALOLO: No doubt. So we got to come back in conference, against SMU at home, a really good team, it's our senior day and that's a really special day for us, we just got to -- when you have kind of a nightmare game like this, you want to put it away as quickly as you can, because this one hurts. I mean they kicked us in the teeth, kicked us in the gut and they got after us, they got after us in all phases, and like I said, they had really good plans in all phases and we got to bounce back.

Q. Does it surprise you that Malcolm would do that, he's been very secure with the ball all season.
KEN NIUMATALOLO: Yeah, I mean he's had -- I mean he's been doing a really good job of taking care of the ball, obviously he carries the ball a lot and yeah I was surprised because he's been doing a great job and we expect him to bounce back. He's still our best player and we expect him to bounce back.

Q. You go to halftime after a first half like that, what does a coach do? What does coaching become at that point?
KEN NIUMATALOLO: Yeah, a lot of psychological stuff. I MVP just hang in there, heads are hanging, all of us, you're down, like I said, you're getting whooped pretty badly and just try to rally the troops, try to say hey, it's 0-0, we get the ball to start the second half, you try your best to just to press forward. But we were all in shell shock. We had been playing well all year and just disappointing to that's the best team we'll play all year and they got after us and we didn't play our best. So wish we could have had a better showing on our part, but give them all the credit in the world.

Q. Did you think they did a good job of scheming to you defensively? They had some plays where they got really fast guys matched up against safeties or linebackers that led to big plays?
KEN NIUMATALOLO: No, really two years in a row they have done a really good job, they have stayed really basic. Just schematically they didn't try to trick us or anything, they were just kind of lined up and just executed and they did that last year, so two years in a row, three years ago they the other coordinator that went to Texas A & M they were kind of moving all over the place but their knew coordinator he had a really simple sound game plan and their kids executed. Their philosophy is they're not going to try to out scheme us, they're going to know exactly what they're doing and try to whip us and that's what they did.

Q. Sounds like from what you're saying that this is just about the last thing you expected to play out this way?
KEN NIUMATALOLO: Yeah, we have been playing so well and there were a lot of good things going on this year and we just, coming into this game we had a lot of momentum and definitely didn't see that coming. So it was a shell shock to me, to all of us, and that starts with me, I mean they obviously were prepared and hit us in the lips and we couldn't respond. I still felt good early on, even though they were we were down 14 I thought hey we can still make some plays but the turnovers hurt us and they hit big plays -- turnovers and big plays, those are hard to overcome. They had some big plays, we had them locked up a couple on third down and they played big plays and got the ball back and then unfortunately the turnovers, like I said, just amplifies and amplifies everything.

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