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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 17, 2009

Pete Carroll

COACH PETE CARROLL: We gave you something to hang around for. A good win for us obviously. Anytime you come here and win it's good. Unfortunately the way it turned out, we kept giving opportunities back, let these guys hang around. They played great. I thought Notre Dame played a heck of a football game today. Made us go all the way to the end to hold onto it. That's a good thing. It was a good game.
We had to do a lot of good things late in the game to hang on to make good decisions to position our guys right to finish it off. Some of it didn't go quite the way we wanted it to. When it came down to it, we found ways to make our plays.
Thought it was an extraordinary day for our quarterback. I think you see Matt Barkley is really something. I love him, the way he plays, battles, competes, the plays he's capable of making. There's no limit. So we're just thrilled about that and the way he came through. Got great games out of Anthony McCoy and Damian Williams in particular. Those two guys were making plays, running good routes, making good things happen at the right time, making explosive plays that we need to move the football.
I was really pleased. It's awesome to play against Notre Dame when you're at USC. I know it is for them, too. We're thrilled to have had the run we've had and hope to keep this thing rolling. It's a big deal to us. It's special. So we got to hang onto it. Next time around when they come to our place, we have to get it again and see if we can keep it going.
It's really special for the SC family to continue to be on top of this rivalry. I know they're going to enjoy the heck out of it. They deserve it. Grateful to give it to them.
What do you got?

Q. Coach, Matt has now won as a true freshman at Cal, Ohio State, now here. Evaluate the poise you have seen from him.
COACH PETE CARROLL: He's just remarkable. There's no way to describe it because there's nobody else to compare him to in our history. He's just so poised and so comfortable in the arena that it doesn't really matter where we're playing; it doesn't affect him.
It's not because he's numb to it. He knows exactly where he is and what he's doing. He has this great inner strength and confidence that allows him to be unwaivered. He's just a remarkable kid. He's fun to work with. Kids love him on the team. He's a hard worker. He has tremendous savvy. His ability, as he learns more and more about where everybody is and all, he can make unbelievable plays.
He threw a few balls today that I don't know if you can appreciate where he was on the read and came back to the guy that he hit with marvelous accuracy, struck him dead again. I don't think there's any reason for us to think anything other than that. It took us a while to believe what we were seeing. He's doing everything any of the quarterbacks that have played for us have done. I'm not saying he's better than Carson or Matt. He's capable of doing anything their offense was doing when they were playing in the middle of their careers. That's remarkable. We haven't seen anything like that.
We're enjoying it. Having fun. He's having a blast. You'll see him, he's having fun with it.

Q. Pete, how did you get the defense recomposed after they thought they won the game, then the review, during that process?
COACH PETE CARROLL: Trying to enjoy the heck out of it. It was a great moment. Whether we had to go back again or not, that just doubled the fun of trying to get it done.
We had a real good call we wanted to make. We had a couple of special things we had to tell them they could have done for alerts. But basically we just had to go play another play really hard and really well, do like we always do.
There was no special plays to be made; just execute the calls we had and be confident and go for it. That's what they did perfectly. Really could have stopped a lot of situations earlier than that. Unfortunately we made it real dramatic and fun. The good part is we won so we'll take that and enjoy it.

Q. Given the stature of these two programs, how do you explain one program being able to beat the other eight times in a row?
COACH PETE CARROLL: I don't know. You guys figure that out, try to talk about it all you want. I just know when we play them, we wind up winning and we play better football on those days. If they beat us, they'd get their wins.
It's about that day. Doesn't have anything to do with the past to me, doesn't have anything to do with the future. It's that day you play the game, you go for it. We've been able to have a really consistent run at this thing. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be able to say that. There's not a whole lot more you can enjoy when you're at SC.
You want these rivalries to go in this order so our fans get used to it. They kind of get, you know, where it's what they expect. It's what we want. The expectations are difficult and challenging, but that's the only way we want it. Fortunately we're on the top end of it.

Q. You talked about the last play. As Notre Dame was making its way down the field, do you always have the sense your team is going to be able to come up with a stop?
COACH PETE CARROLL: Absolutely. Everyone in that huddle, everybody on the sidelines, that's all we've known. We prepared our mindset that's all we know. I know that may sound -- you can take it and do whatever you want with it. That's what we develop. We try to develop the mentality it doesn't matter, give us one last play.
Quite frankly, it's ironic this happened. Bud Grant was here. Famous coach from the Vikings. He used to say, All you want to do is give your team a chance to win on the last play of the game. I couldn't wait to run over and tell him after the game was over, You got it, here it is.
But that mentality is, you want to have that mentality if it goes to that last play, you have something left in the tank to finish it and win it. We've been talking that way and preparing the way we prepare to build legitimacy to that mindset. Again, we had the chance to back it up.
When it doesn't happen, it's so far out of -- we can't even relate to it when it doesn't happen. We go right back to the mindset again. Fortunately, it's a very fun way to think and prepare and to operate.

Q. Can you talk about Jimmy Clausen, what you tried to do to throw him off, what you thought of his performance.
COACH PETE CARROLL: Yeah, I thought he hung real well. Must have got a bunch of yards in the second half. Like any great quarterback, you have to do everything. Coverage, come after him, drop people off to keep him from getting his rhythm. We were successful in the first half. I really think without the knucklehead 15-yarders that kept moving the football, I think we were going to be okay.
He's a great football player. We've known that since he was 14. You're seeing the culmination of a career, all that here. He's a great player. Fortunately we got out of here. This is the best he's been. He's extraordinary. You're getting to see that. You guys are lucky to have him.

Q. Where does that mindset you talked about on the last drive go when you're up 34-14?
COACH PETE CARROLL: It's about finishing. Goes back to finishing then. When we're way up, it's not necessary, other than we don't care what the score is. It's whatever the opportunity is, we want to maximize. So if we're up by a bunch of points, that's what we're trying to see how much farther we can take it out. If it's a struggle, if it's a tough game, we're just going to keep battling knowing something good is going to happen. Only way we know how to think.

Q. Today you're up 20 though.
COACH PETE CARROLL: And stuff happens. Stuff happened. Given Golden the big takeoff route, Josh played it great, all over it, made a great play like he's been doing. I thought that was the play, the one we really didn't need to give up. Make them earn their way. 30, 50-yard shot. Josh is a great football player. He's on it. Tate comes up with the play. Great play for him and Jimmy. That was the one we shouldn't have given them. Need to make them earn it, then something good would happen.
The problem for this game for us, the ball was on the ground four times, we didn't come up with any of them. That's just horrible on our part. We had the ball out exactly how we designed it to happen. They came up with all of them, I believe. I don't believe we got a turnover today. Did we get one? I don't think so. The opportunity was there. We created it. Didn't capitalize on it. That drives me crazy.

Q. You commented on the defensive penalties. You called them 'knucklehead plays'. Can you make a comment on that.
COACH PETE CARROLL: Getting overexcited. Their guy got in Mando's face, Armstead, and he responded. That's crazy. Then it happened in the mess over there in front of their bench. When the crowd does what they do, that looks horrible. The hit out of bounds, I don't know about any of that stuff. When you're on the road, this is what happens. You have to play above and beyond those kind of decision making situations and we didn't do that. Crazy we would do that.
I think we had two penalties in the first half for five yards, playing great football, then five or six or something. Silly. Obviously, those are easy things to fix. We'll fix 'em.

End of FastScripts

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