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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCEDecember 3, 2006Brady QuinnTravis ThomasTom ZbikowskiQ. Would one of you just talk about your reaction? Were you pretty nervous watching or were you pretty sure you were going? TRAVIS THOMAS: I find of figured out, I had a clue where we would end up. I knew it was either going to be the Rose Bowl or the Sugar Bowl from what we've seen the past couple weeks, and with the upset last night with UCLA, it kind of shook things up, and I just made a guess from there and it turned out to be right. Q. Was there ever any concern? Like if Rutgers had won, Louisville might have knocked Notre Dame out of it. Did you guys think about that at all? TOM ZBIKOWSKI: We didn't know that. We're in a BCS game. That's all that matters. Q. What do you know about LSU? TOM ZBIKOWSKI: Really haven't got to see a chance to see them play much. I know I caught the end of when they played Florida; after one of our home games we got to just turn on the TV. I know they've got a pretty solid defense, got good skill players, they're a BCS team, play in the SEC so we know we're going to have a tough game, got to get ready for it, and it's in New Orleans so it will probably be a home game for them. Q. Talk about from last year, just the eight-game losing streak, I believe that ties an NCAA record. Does that weigh on your minds at all, stopping that streak? TOM ZBIKOWSKI: Yeah, we want to win a Bowl game and we want to stop answering questions about Notre Dame not being able to win Bowl games, too. That's definitely something we're aiming to do. Looking forward to playing. Q. I know you guys don't know a whole lot about LSU just on tape, but do you know any of their players from the All-Star games that you played in down in San Antonio before you guys came here? TRAVIS THOMAS: I don't remember playing with any of their players in an All-Star game. I know some of the guys from watching them on TV a little bit, but never met any of them personally or have any idea like that. Q. Charlie talked about kind of changing up the preparations for this Bowl. Has he talked to you guys about that or do you just kind of go with the flow on that? TOM ZBIKOWSKI: We're going to the flow because we have practice in about ten hours or so, 6:00 tomorrow, so we start early. I guess that's how we're going to take it. Q. As captains has he talked to you about how he wants to organize the next month in terms of maybe changing it up or being more efficient than what you were last year? TRAVIS THOMAS: Not yet. He hasn't brought that to our attention yet. Like I said, we're going to start tomorrow at 6:00 o'clock and looking forward to our preparation. Q. Did you guys ever think that -- I mean, I know the start of your career, the way your career began here, you weren't contending for BCS Bowls. Did you think you wouldn't get to this stage at any point? TOM ZBIKOWSKI: We always saw the talent on our team that we definitely could be -- we could play with anyone in the country, but when you're going 5 and 7 and 6 and 6, it's hard to say. You obviously keep telling yourself you're going to be in a BCS game, but how realistic was it. Then you're thinking obviously you came to Notre Dame to play in games like this and try and get a National Championship, but it's tough to say when you come in and you see losing seasons are .500 seasons. It's hard work, and the preparation, and to show them what this team is about and how much Coach Weis and the coaching staff has helped out when they got here. TRAVIS THOMAS: Like he said, we always knew what talent we had, and it was just a matter of time before everyone else got to see what we saw from stepping in the door. I think the coaching staff has done a great job of bringing this team around to where we are today, and once again, we're really happy to be in this game and look forward to playing? Q. Brady, same question to you. Obviously you were involved with a couple teams there that were .500 or below. It's almost to the point now where you guys assume that you're going to go to a BCS Bowl every year now. BRADY QUINN: Yeah, during that point, I think we really felt like we had enough talent to get the job done but we just really weren't performing the way we needed to to get to the Bowl games. Looking at our team this year, we feel pretty confident now that we should be in a BCS game at least every -- I mean, obviously initially we knew we had a lot of talent but we really weren't performing the way we needed to on the field. It was only a matter of time before we ended up in a BCS game. Q. You guys have played the best team in the Pac-10 and one of the best teams in the Big Ten. Any thoughts on what you've seen from the SEC and maybe where that conference ranks with other conferences? TRAVIS THOMAS: We know they have great athletes, great skill players, they bring speed to the table and try and intimidate you whenever they can, but it's not like we don't have talent and can't match up with those guys if we bring our "A" game. Q. This is for Tom. Last year against Ohio State your lack of skill showed up. LSU has a lot of really good receivers. Do you feel it's a crucial match-up to bring your defense up to a higher level? TRAVIS THOMAS: I think our defense is definitely going to have to match up with the speed of LSU's offense. I know that was one of the things after the Ohio State game from last year, last year's BCS game a lot of people questioned the speed of our defense that we're going to have to work on, and that's where we spent our time in the off season and we'll see if it pays off in the Sugar Bowl. Q. Talk about the idea of you playing (Inaudible). Do you feel like playing here is going to be a big disadvantage for you? TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I know LSU, their home games are known for being a loud crowd. It's going to be like a home game for them when they're playing in their home state. But also Notre Dame travels pretty well, so hopefully we'll come prepared. We've played in hostile environments before, so we should be ready. Q. The last thing, this week has been kind of a roller coaster week. It started out talking about you going to the Rose Bowl and then it was between LSU and Notre Dame and things like that, or the Sugar Bowl. You knew you'd be in the Sugar Bowl pretty much during the week, but then it looked like either Florida or Arkansas and now all of a sudden LSU. How much have you been paying attention to all the goings on this week and did any of you watch the game last night? TRAVIS THOMAS: We definitely paid attention to it. We knew there was a possibility of us being one of two Bowls, the Rose Bowl or the Sugar Bowl. We were waiting to see how things panned out with the few games. Things came out the way we thought it would, and here we are ending up playing LSU in the Sugar Bowl, so we're excited about that. Q. You've got to be a little surprised you're ending up playing LSU and not Arkansas or Florida. TRAVIS THOMAS: We thought it would be maybe a Florida or Arkansas or something like that, but LSU is a good team and kind of resembles those two with their speed and athleticism, so it should be a fun game to watch. Q. Brady, not to go off topic a little bit, but just the Heisman Trophy is next week. Just your thoughts on that at this point and the fact that it's kind of finally here with the ceremony? BRADY QUINN: I guess it'll be nice to get to go to New York, go to the ceremony and see how things go. I mean, obviously right now at this point, you can't really say a whole lot about it. I know what's done is done with the season and everything, and we'll see what the vote ends up being on Saturday. Q. Is it kind of almost bittersweet because from reports it looks like Troy Smith is going to run away with it? BRADY QUINN: You do the best you can do throughout the year, and really when it comes down to it, you had a great season. If that ends up being the case, then you've got to take your hat off to them. They're an undefeated team right now, No. 1 in the country, and they're playing for the National Championship. Q. Just for anybody, playing in this game, knowing what happened last year in New Orleans, does that cross into your minds at all or not really? TRAVIS THOMAS: I've thought about it. I mean, you see it on the news but it's definitely going to be a little different when you see to get it firsthand. I don't think you ever really get a feel for things until you get to see it up close and personal instead of just seeing it on the news. I think giving you a chance to see it will give you a little appreciation. Q. Brady, back to the Heisman stuff real quickly, Coach Weis said the other day that he sits down with every guy who's possibly thinking of leaving early and talks to them about their prospects. Can you take me through your conversation with him last year, and how close did you come to not even playing in any games last year, much less BCS? BRADY QUINN: Really when we sat down and talked about it, it wasn't as if I was completely convinced I wasn't going to come back, although at that point in time I had really no idea if I was, where I was at exactly, coming into the draft, and what were my chances of going in the first round and everything. So I wasn't too sure about anything at that point in time. I just really wanted to come back and work on fine-tuning all my skills and everything. Heisman talk didn't really come into it. We just wanted to make sure what I was doing was the best for me as a player before anything else. Q. So you didn't talk about where you might go? He said he levels with guys and they're usually surprised with his honesty in terms of where they're going. They usually go lower. He tells them they're going to go lower than they think. No conversations like that? BRADY QUINN: We talked a little bit about draft stats and whatnot. He told me where he thought I might go. But again, I wasn't prepared at all for getting an agent or really going -- where I was going to go train or any of that stuff. At this point in time now I'm much more prepared for all that stuff that comes after your final game playing in college. Q. If you can remember, where did he think you were going to go? BRADY QUINN: I think he felt I could definitely compete with Matt and Vince Young and those guys, as long as I made it to a couple of the All-Star games and tested well and proved myself at the combine, he really thought I had a chance of going as one of those top quarterbacks. Q. In hindsight now, obviously the right choice. Tell me about your growth and progression this year. BRADY QUINN: I think I've just matured a lot as a quarterback, more mentally than anything else. It was the right decision for me because I knew I felt comfortable coming into my last game in my college career and being able to graduate and say I've done that. Everything feels like I've done everything the right way, regardless of how the season has turned out for us. Q. This is a question for Brady. Can you talk a little bit about probably the three toughest teams you've played in the last calendar year, Ohio State, Michigan and USC? What have you learned from those games do you think you can carry with you into this game against obviously an LSU team that's very good? BRADY QUINN: Looking back on all three of those games, the thing that we needed to do was just get off to a fast start, offensively and defensively, on special teams, all those games we got behind in the beginning, and I think that was a tough thing for us because we had a great game plan going into the game. But any time you get behind two scores, three scores, you've got to start playing catch-up and you almost kind of get desperate. We can't allow ourselves to put each other in a hole right from the getgo. Q. Brady, when you play at Notre Dame I'm sure that every team you play you give your best shot. This year there's always criticism of your schedule, things like that. When people talk about this team being overrated, do players ever pay any attention to any of that? Do you take any of it to heart? BRADY QUINN: I don't think we take it to heart. I mean, you can't ignore it. It's something you're always going to hear. But again, if you go back to the last question I was just asked, if you look at the calendar year of who we've played in 2006, we played Ohio State, Michigan and USC, which are three pretty tough teams. Regardless of what the final outcome was in those games, we had an opportunity to make it close and go ahead at times and we really didn't come out on top like we needed to. Q. This is the first time we've talked you since the USC game. As you went back and watched the tape and thought about it more, what is your analysis of what happened and how you can correct that over the next month or so? TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I think looking at it, I think we weren't surprised looking at it. I mean, we really didn't see the speed that they were talking about. I mean, we watched it I don't remember guys just running completely past us. We just didn't make plays when we needed to on the defensive side. Special teams, we let up -- they returned that game for some pretty good field position and the punt block obviously helped us out with Steve Quinn. I can't really speak for the offense, what was going on there, but just for the defense I didn't really see -- Dwayne Jarrett was making some one-handed grabs, and there's not much you can do against them, but I didn't really see people just running completely past us with how much speed they have, supposedly have. You're disappointed and you get a little angry watching it that you didn't make the plays you needed to. TRAVIS THOMAS: Tying in with what Brady said, we shot ourselves in the foot and got behind from the getgo and we were really playing catch-up. We gave ourselves an opportunity to really get back in the game going into halftime with the defense really stepping up and giving the quarterback chaos and made him move around a lot. We just didn't come through when we needed to. We had opportunities and really felt we had the opportunity to win, but it just didn't pan out. Q. (Inaudible.) TRAVIS THOMAS: We looked at it just like any other game, broke down every play and corrected the mistakes, but we knew it was the last game and what was done was done. We were just waiting things out for the last week of college ball and waiting to see where we ended up. Q. The whole issue, naturally when people talk about Notre Dame, they talk about the speed or lack of speed. What do you make of that? You're talking about guys aren't running by you. Do you feel like that's just kind of a misnomer and not an accurate analysis of where you guys are? TRAVIS THOMAS: I just think it's something else that everyone says, kind of comes up with and really gives another excuse of why we lose close games, big games. We've got guys like Terrail who placed second in the Big East, and Zibby and Ambrose can run four-fours, four-threes just like guys on any other teams. Sometimes guys just make plays. They're college guys like us, and I just think it's something else that people harp on and try to make news of. Q. It seems like it kind of doesn't make a lot of sense to you that someone would say that? TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I can understand when you're putting points on the board like that and it's an explosive offense. Like I said before, it really wasn't -- you know, they made more plays than us, but I don't think it had anything to do with them being that much faster than us. They made some plays but I didn't really see speed being the main factor. They're great athletes and good players, but I didn't see that much speed differential. Q. Talk a little bit about as captains what this season has meant to you. TRAVIS THOMAS: I'm really proud of the character of this team, the fight that we have. A lot of times in games we've been down and really rallied together and fought back and pulled it off. So I think this team has a lot of heart and a lot of character. They work really hard, and just one of the things I'm proud about is the character of this team and how we stick together at tough times. TOM ZBIKOWSKI: I mean, there's been a couple games that were highlights. Obviously the opener against Georgia Tech, a team that was unranked at the time but ended up through the season being a pretty good ball club, going into a hostile environment and winning that opening game where a lot of people thought it was going to be a trap game and pretty much winning six or seven in a row trap games that we had down the stretch. Q. (Inaudible). TRAVIS THOMAS: I think the morale is strong. We obviously lost our last game, but that's done and we feel like we still have one more game to play, one more to win. We obviously want to end that streak of not winning Bowl games and kind of quiet people up. So everyone is really excited to be in this game. I'm really looking forward to it, and we'll start preparation tomorrow morning. End of FastScripts |
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