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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 27, 2006

Tom Zbikowski

Q. From an assignment perspective, the addition of the option to produce offense, from an assignment standpoint, what does that do for you guys defensively and for you in particular at safety?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: You got to make sure you're doing your job. If at any time you try to make a play you're not supposed to make, if you're supposed to have pitch, you go for the quarterback, you get a pitch, that's going to be a long run for you. It just brings in another aspect of an offense that you have to worry approximate about.
Just kind of what we were preparing for. Another spread offense with an option attack. There's always that threat of now it's 11 on 11 as opposed to 11 on 10.

Q. Who does their offense compare to that you're accustomed to?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: Just seen them, you know, pretty much from last year. It's pretty similar to last year. But also just like last week, where they're going to spread you out and try to get you in space, where once again you're going to have to be fundamentally sound in tackling because they're going to try to get you in an open space.

Q. Last week, the conditions were not ideal. I'm sure you've played in conditions worse than that when it was a lot colder. What games from your past do you recall specifically, opponent, et cetera?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: There was just a game in high school where there's pictures from newspaper clips where pretty much kids' shoes were pretty much covered in water. They're always fun to play in. They're tough conditions, no doubt about it. Any time you tackle someone, you're sliding 10 more yards. It's always fun to play in those type of conditions.

Q. Who was the opponent? Your senior year?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I think it was junior year in high school. It was actually homecoming game against Prospect High School. Fun game to play in. We still lost 6-0, but still a fun game to play in.

Q. So you were having fun Saturday night?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: Any time you come back and win you're going to have a lot more fun.

Q. Tom, talk about coming back and winning, especially a game where you guys were down. What does that do for the confidence or the morale?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I think it's big. You don't want to keep bringing up the past, but last year making a big comeback, but not winning, it makes the game interesting, a lot more exciting, but it doesn't do much if you don't get a W.
So coming back and actually getting a win is big for this team.

Q. How about the fun aspect. Obviously not fun to lose after Michigan. Poor first half. Is it fun again?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: Oh, yeah, it definitely is. Any time you lose, you're down in the dumps until your next win. Obviously you can't let it carry over and let it affect you like it did in the first half.
But once you get things rolling and once plays are starting to be made, it's fun, you know. Hard to say in practice becomes fun again, but it's not bad.

Q. Coach Weis does something special before every game where he says something to every player. What does he say to you?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: You know, just to go out there and play hard. Any time you get a face-to-face, one-on-one right before the game with the head coach, just talking about the importance of each game, it definitely gets you ready to go.

Q. You compared Purdue's offense to what you faced last week. Last week the middle of the field was open an awful lot. What kinds of things do you have to do to tighten that up some?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I think once we put -- we put a safety in the middle of the field, I think that's when pretty much over the middle passes were nonexistent. Early in the game, they had a couple passes over the middle. Then we put a safety in the middle of the field, and that's pretty much when the middle of the field was not able to be taken advantage of.
I think we'll mix in a little bit of that, but also be a little more conscious on making plays if we are at two-high safety, make sure we're overlapping.

Q. Charlie talked Tuesday about getting off to a good start in the first quarter. He says we played great defense in the second of half. Why can't we do that in the first half? Do you have an answer to that question?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I wish I did. It's hard to say what causes it, what's the effects of why we played so good in the second half but not in the first half. We just got to make everything just as important as -- the first 30 minutes just as important as the last 30 minutes.
Just got to try and come out and make plays. Get the momentum in our favor early on.

Q. Every week you face a bigtime receiver. This week it's Bryant. Talk about him a little bit.
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: Very fast. He's a guy that makes plays in space, which is why they're going to try to get him the ball and stretch you vertically, but also sideline to sideline. They'll also put him in the backfield, try to get him the ball that way.
We've got to be ready for anything, him running the ball, him catching screens or deep passes. I know he had a lot of touches against us last year. We got to be ready for it this year.

Q. Last question about last week. Probably an unpleasant memory. First run of the game when Caulcrick came at you. Talk about trying to stop that load.
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: Usually when I'm tackling people, they go down after I make a hit. The kid kept running. A big back. He took a couple guys down with him. That run and later runs. He is a big back. He's a tough back. I give him props. Watching film on that wasn't fun.

Q. When you watched that on film, do you hide your eyes a little bit?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: Yeah, I was peeking through my -- I put my hands over my face. I couldn't watch that one.

Q. You made a great tackle in the third quarter, basically saving a touchdown on Ringer. Can you talk about that play.
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I don't really remember that one. They all string together. Was that the one --

Q. Right in front of your sideline.
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: Yeah, I slid about 10 yards after that one. I just saw him start bouncing to the outside. He was just as good as a back with a little more speed. They got a good combination with a powerful back and a speed back. I saw him hit the outside, and took the proper angle to try -- dove and got him out of bounds. Just do whatever you got to do to make the play.

Q. Do you put last week away totally? I know after Michigan you wanted to put it away, focus on the next opponent. This is one where you can carry momentum and take that good feeling.
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I think so. Definitely what we were talking about, why we were slow starting. Try and take that momentum that we had in the last couple minutes of the game and bring it into the first half of this game.
But definitely you feel good about yourself after a win like that. You want to keep that upbeat tempo, that momentum into the next game.
We'll see Saturday what happens. Spirits are high here. I know that. Hopefully it will transfer over to the field.

Q. Any way to take that road mentality? It seems you guys are such road warriors. Any way to bring that home?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I think, just like we were saying before, trying to keep that momentum from that game with all the turnovers that we were creating on defense and the offense making big plays. I'd like to see what would happen if we put 60 minutes of that together.
It will be interesting to see. I know everyone's itching to get back on the field and play like we did in the second half.

Q. Do you feel like you've had a chance to breathe at all? It's been one big opponent after another so far.
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: That's been the question week in and week out, with the opponents and the receivers we're facing. That's fun. That's why you come to Notre Dame. You want to play against the best in the country. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Q. How about Lambert? He rose to the occasion. Seems like everybody knows who he is, and everybody wants to have a piece of him now.
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: We've been seeing that for a year or two now, watching him cover people, watching him make plays in practice. It was only a matter of time before a game like this happened.
I'm happy for the kid. Couldn't happen to a better kid, especially coming off the week before, coming back and making big plays like that.

Q. Do you remember being an unknown and then all of a sudden everybody knows who you are? Have you given him any advice?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: It's fun. You want to have fun. I guess any time someone on defense scores a touchdown, that's when their name is known. Hopefully some other young guys will keep making those plays. We'll keep scoring on defense.

Q. You were talking about Lambert. What kind of advice do you give him? As much of a high as he's on right now, if something bad happens against Purdue, it goes back down again.
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I think he realizes, just seeing what happened the week before. I know even one of the plays, I was supposed to be over at (indiscernible) giving him the help that he needed. But, you know, you're still going to get blamed for that.
It's highs and lows every single week. It's highs and lows, play to play when you're playing defensive back. You make one mistake, every single person in the stadium knows. Everybody on TV watching knows. It's highs and lows every single game, not just game to game.
Just to show his character coming back from a game like this, having this big of a game, I'm keeping quiet because hopefully he'll just keep playing like this. I'm not giving him any advice.

Q. Do you ever put yourself in those shoes, what it would have been like for you playing corner at this level?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: Not really. I'm happy at safety. I'll let those guys cover one-on-one, man-to-man on their own. I'm happy where I'm at.
I couldn't imagine the pressures of being put on an island, what they have to go through. You can have 60 some great plays in the game, but have you two bad plays, like I said before, everyone's going to know. You're going to be looked at as a not-so-good defensive back. That's the way it is across the country with every team.

Q. Samardzija, I know you guys have lived together. What has that been like? Any surprises about living with him?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: Well, actually I live in Knott Hall with a couple younger guys. I'm not living with him. He has an apartment. I usually stop by and hang out with him.
It's fun just being around people like that. You think our whole lives are pretty much based around sports. Once we hang out, we try and get our minds farthest away from football and sports and things like that, just relax and try and be normal college kids.

Q. In terms of so much attention with both you and him with the outside things, like the boxing, baseball, so forth, what's that that been like for you? Does the attention ever get old for you guys?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I think that's why we have a close relationship is because we just want to be normal people, normal college kids. We don't look at ourselves as anything special. We've said it before. We're like little kids that can't decide which sport they want to play when it comes to that season. That's pretty much us in a nutshell.

Q. Last year it was pretty clear. You guys had a mission, wanting to prove to people that Notre Dame really was back, you guys were really good players. What about this year? Everybody's talked about taking it one at a time, fundamentals, techniques. What is the big picture with this team, the mission you're trying to prove this year?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: It's hard to say. We still got to prove people wrong week to week. Every single game it seems like we can't win, we're not good enough to win.
I think, you know, last year it was kind of a big picture of trying to prove that we can play. I think we've proven to the country that we are capable of playing week in and week out. Now we just have to do it.
I think that's why the week-to-week approach is the best approach that we can take and not worrying about what's going to happen in the future. Just worry about having fun and playing the games that we got to play and winning 'em.

Q. Last year when you played Purdue, I think it was before Painter had come on as their leader, as their quarterback. What have you seen from him on tape through four games this year? What does he do well?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: He's an accurate passer. He's got a strong arm. He's one of the few quarterbacks that can throw the out rout with pretty high completion, with that type of arm. He's got weapons around him, too. He definitely looks like a poised quarterback that runs that offense very well.

Q. Do you see him kind of settling in on tape? Did you watch games one through four?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: Yeah, you definitely do. When you watch the progress of the game, he runs the offense the best that I've seen so far. Seems like he's very calm back there, not -- doesn't get disturbed by pressure that much. Got to just come out and play and make sure we take away his weapons to the best of our ability.

Q. What were your first impressions of Trevor Laws when you met him?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I don't remember the first time. I think the first time I met him was like probably senior year. You see the hair. I mean, you see a body like that, then the big hair. You just got talking to him. A kid that's always smiling, always laughing, always having a good time. Another one of my good friends on the team, very close with him. Fun to be around, first time to meet. Just a ball of energy, too.

Q. Some of the guys were describing him as a hippie yesterday. What does that entail off the field?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: Just having fun all the time. I mean, that's the best I can describe it.

Q. On the field, you have a panoramic view of the defense. When you have two tackles like him and Landri playing well, what do you see that do to an offense?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: They're just always causing problems, whether it be the run game when the quarterback tries to step up. Very rarely do you see two tackles that have speed and athleticism like that.
Any time you get that, they make the play in the back end that much easier. We know if we cover just for a couple seconds, they'll have time to make plays on the quarterback.

Q. Seemed like physically you stepped it up in the second half. I know you have put emphasis on that. Is it hard to bring that into the start of the game, to get to that level where you're making plays almost every time?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I don't think so. Usually the first drive, first series is usually scripted plays, so you know you're going to get their best shot. You try and hold it to the best that you can. You make your adjustments.
That's another reason we have such success in the second half, is because of coaching. They have the ability to make their checks, make their changes. We usually start shutting people down in that second half.
I think a lot of it, the first half has to be on the players, trying to make plays. You know, with that enthusiasm, momentum, just that desire to make plays. Once we make the checks, you become more dominant of a defense.

Q. With Ndu off the field, he seems like a nice guy. Seems likes he has a mean streak on the field this year. Have you noticed that?
TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I noticed that before, that he has that streak. He was always an offensive player, so when I first came in here, I had no idea how to tackle, I just tried to run into people as hard as I could.
When you're going against good players, they're going to make you miss. I think he's developed the technique to tackling, and gotten a better field for angles that he needs to take to make those plays.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Tom.

End of FastScripts...

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