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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 11, 2009Kyle McCarthyWill SmithKYLE McCARTHY: ...able to capitalize on a big stop or a turnover, so really he just gives confidence to our whole team because he has the ability to change the game at any time. Q. For both you guys, you were both here when Brady was here. Is there any similarity or difference to the confidence that Brady inspired? KYLE McCARTHY: Sure, I think so. Same thing with Brady, any time the offense went out on the field you had the confidence that they were going to be able to put points up. Going into a game, it doesn't really -- it just gives the team confidence that we can compete with anyone. Q. And again for either of you guys, Coach Weis mentioned accountability and dependability. What does that mean for you guys as captains? SCOTT SMITH: I think the biggest thing with accountability is recognizing your mistakes, correcting your mistakes, staying in the film room, understanding exactly what you have to do and doing it well. There's never been a situation where we haven't been -- the coaches haven't done everything they have scheme-wise to get us ready to play. It's always been a factor of guys making plays and being out there putting themselves in the right position to make those plays. Accountability for me is just doing what you're supposed to do every day and doing it well but recognizing when you don't do something necessarily up to what your own standards and what the team standards are. You have the ability to go back and correct it and fix it the next time and not make the same mistakes twice. Q. Is some of that recognizing the mistakes you're making? SCOTT SMITH: I think at any time in anything, whether it's football, school, anything, any time you can recognize what you may not have done well or up to the level that you wanted to, any time you can see that and put more of a focus on that during the next week or your next opportunity, it's just going to make you better in your fundamentals, your techniques, everything like that, and you're just going to put yourself in better positions to make plays. Q. Kyle, as far as the problems that defense had against Navy, how relevant is that to this week considering you couldn't be farther from a different system one week to the next? KYLE McCARTHY: Yeah, obviously it's a different system, but as far as preparation and preparing for the game, our guys need to be, like we said, accountable for the job at hand and task at hand because the coaches are going to put us in position to make plays, but it's up to the players to go out and execute and make the plays. You know, last week we struggled a little bit, so we just need to maybe prepare a little harder and pay attention to detail and hopefully get it corrected this Saturday. Q. Is it a little more comforting knowing you're going against a more conventional offense this week? KYLE McCARTHY: A little bit. I think that Pitt has great offensive weapons starting with their quarterback. I believe he's fifth in the country in passing efficiency. You know, the receiver you guys saw last year, Baldwin, awesome, awesome athlete. You know, the tight end is a great athlete. He's almost like a receiver out there. They have great weapons on offense, so we just need to put last week behind us and focus on Pitt because they have an explosive offense, definitely a different kind of offense but one that's explosive and is a good challenge to our defense this week. Q. How would you describe the style of Lewis, their running back? KYLE McCARTHY: I mean, he's not a real big guy, but for his size, he runs with a whole heck of a lot of power and has great balance and shiftiness to his running. You know, he certainly doesn't look like a freshman. You watch film, and he's definitely one of the top backs if not the top back that we've played this year. We have our hands full defensively, we've just got to come out and play. Q. For both of you guys, when controversy is stirred up and there's talk about hot seat and those kind of things for a head coach, how do you guys deal with that individually? KYLE McCARTHY: Honestly, speaking for myself, I can't speak for Scott, but it has zero effect on how we go about doing things. That's all going on outside the locker room, and inside the locker room there's no questions or anything like that. We just go out and prepare every day trusting the guys in the locker room and trusting the coaching staff. We're excited about playing Pitt this week. SCOTT SMITH: I'm exactly on the same page with Kyle. It doesn't affect me at all. As a team we're focused on doing everything we can this week to get ready to beat Pitt, and that's all that matters. Especially for Kyle and myself only having three regular season games left, we need to put all our energy and all our effort into doing everything that we can to get ready to play and also helping everybody else to get ready to play their best on Saturday against Pitt. Q. I know you guys are past Navy, but if I could ask you one more question about that one. Because it's such a unique style offense and they started to get things rolling and all of a sudden it seems like Dobbs, every decision that he makes is the right one, do you feel like you're kind of caught in the midst of -- like you're in the eye of the storm and you can't get out of it because he's making all the right decisions? KYLE McCARTHY: Well, any time you have a quarterback playing the way he played against us, especially in that offense, it makes it a little tough on the defense. They kind of get in the flow of their offense and the momentum of their offense, and it runs a little more smoothly. Sure, it was challenging playing against a guy of his athleticism and how well he's making decisions. It was a little bit challenging. But then again, if we're going to be the kind of defense that we want to be, you need to weather the storm and be able to step up and stop that, and we weren't able to do that last Saturday. So that's why we're out there every day practicing and striving to get better. Q. Coach Weis yesterday alluded to the fact that there were more people here on Monday, more players here on Monday than he had ever seen before. Just from your own personal experiences on Monday, was it different for you? What was the reason to come in extra early, and what did you do? SCOTT SMITH: I think there were a lot of guys who were anxious to get a jump on Pitt, realizing that they are one of the better teams in the country and this does present a great opportunity for us, going there, night game, national television. And I think guys just want to be as prepared as possible, so they probably took the time, I know I did, to come in and watch some extra film, get a jump on their personnel and the kind of things that they like to do. The more you watch film and the more you study your opponent, especially when you're either doing it by yourself or with a group of guys, you may pick up on things that you may not with the coaches. So it was just another opportunity for me, I know, just to learn a little bit more about them and what they do. KYLE McCARTHY: Yeah, there was a number of guys in Monday. There's always guys in on Monday, but I guess you could say there was more guys this Monday. Probably a couple reasons. One, obviously Pitt is a great team; and two, I think everyone was a little bitter and disappointed about Saturday and just kind of wanted to get back to work and get the taste out of their mouth and just start preparing for the next one because as a competitor the only way that you can get over a loss is to get back on the practice field and start working for the next one and hopefully get a big win. Q. What you alluded to as a competitor, I would think you guys almost welcome what's in front of you this week. Everything seems stacked against you, and I would imagine this week you realize you guys are all you've got, maybe even more than normally. Is that accurate? KYLE McCARTHY: You could say that. I don't think the country really feels that Notre Dame is one of the top teams in the country and has much of a chance this week. So we're not going to say much about it because we're not in a position to say much about it; we've just come off a heart-breaking loss. Really it's just the guys in the locker room need to come together and hopefully show something on Saturday. Q. Did either of you make the trip to Pitt as freshmen? KYLE McCARTHY and SCOTT SMITH: Uh-huh. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everybody. We will be back shortly with Jimmy and Eric. End of FastScripts |
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