UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 14, 2023

Audric Estime

Press Conference

Notre Dame 48, USC 20

Q. Audric, I'm going to ask a defensive question first. As they were going through the week, when did you sense they had this kind of game in them?

AUDRIC ESTIME: We kind of sensed it on Sunday honestly. We knew that this would be a good game. When USC comes or we go to USC it's always a whole different atmosphere. We had a great week of preparation and we knew something big was about to happen.

Q. With the run game with you and the offensive line, what kind of attitude did you guys go into that produced this kind of result?

AUDRIC ESTIME: Yeah, so we just wanted to come in and play physical, as hard as possible, come in and impose our will. We knew it wasn't going to be a pretty game. We knew there was going to be some times when they stop us. We also knew there would be explosive plays, and we just had to take one play at time, and all five of the offensive linemen did great with the tight ends, and we just got the job done.

Q. The moment right before the Chris Tyree touchdown, give me a sense of what the mood was like. It was starting to feel a little bit tenser. How did that break things open for you guys?

AUDRIC ESTIME: Yeah, so we kind of don't really try to get into the energy. Like USC started picking up momentum, but we just had to keep on swinging back. We had to take one play at time, and that was the result. You can have a bunch of bad plays and then one big play happens and that can change the whole ballgame. So sticking with the motto, one play, one life.

Q. Marcus said on Monday he challenged you guys to be an anti-fragile program. What does that mean and how does a team become that?

AUDRIC ESTIME: Yeah, so when you have a loss like that, you either win or learn. Last week was a learning experience. What anti-fragile means is you get stronger from adversity; we did that. We had a great week of practice and came out today and that was the result, being stronger from last week.

Q. Building off that, how badly did you guys need this one going into a bye? Obviously alternative being two straight losses and sitting on this for two weeks.

AUDRIC ESTIME: We weren't thinking about we need this one badly. We were thinking we got to reach our full potential this week. Past couple weeks, two, three week we came up short of reaching our full potential.

But, yeah, we're not really chasing wins. We're chasing our full potential, and that's what we did.

Q. Feels like the fan base needed this one. What was that moment like sharing that with them on the field?

AUDRIC ESTIME: Yeah, that was amazing. Notre Dame's fan base is the best in the country. Losing is hard for them. It's hard for us, but definitely hard for those die-hard fans, so this hopefully this win was good enough for them and hopefully they can cheer with them.