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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 4, 2010

Dayne Crist

Q. Talk about the victory.
DAYNE CRIST: Feels great, being out there with my teammates, feels great just to be back out on the field and doing when you love to do with your favorite guys in the world.

Q. How did your knee feel out there?
DAYNE CRIST: No, my knee felt fine. Physically, I felt great and I have to do a better job of protecting myself but I feel fine physically.

Q. I know you got hit in practice, you haven't been hit since last year, is the that first time you were hit -- what did it feel like? What goes through your head?
DAYNE CRIST: Just in your nerves a little bit. I've played in live competition before and part of taking hits in the game is part of being quarterback, but just felt nice to get that out of the way.

Q. What are your most pleased with about your performance and the team's performance ?
DAYNE CRIST: The win is the most important thing for me. I think our defense played great and really did a great job of helping us win today. Our offense played well and I think we left some points on the field, but that just comes with continuing growth and improvement throughout the course of the season. I think all of the guys are very focused on making sure that we enjoy the win today but we don't take the time -- that's where we are at and continue to get better.

Q. How was it, a lot of new guys on the line.
DAYNE CRIST: Oh, great. I've got all the confidence in the world in those guys. They have continually showed that their mastery of where they are at, and I have full confidence and faith in all those guys. It makes your job a little easier at the quarterback position and I think if in this case, it's on me to make sure we are in better protection and I'm making those checks. I'm very happy with those guys and I love those guys.

Q. Inaudible.
DAYNE CRIST: It's something I think a lot of guys are used to now but again, college football is exciting and fun to play in.

Q. How it played out -- in reality?
DAYNE CRIST: One of those things, playing out the situation in the game, keeps you on your toes and involved in the game and just challenges you to remain mentally focused at all times. Again, it's one of those things where a game can go so many different ways and turn on one play.
Really it's just about staying in involved in the game and what's going on from an offensive standpoint and the schematics of what we are looking to do, and just constantly staying updated with what Purdue is doing, or whoever our opponent is and what they are throwing on us.

Q. What was the atmosphere like?
DAYNE CRIST: We were all making our debuts today. It was a completely new field. It was, you know, a new era so to speak with the new staff. I think it was new for everybody. I think everyone understood and was definitely empathetic of Coach, being his first game in the stadium but we all wanted to go out equally and compete and everything like that. We all shared that together and it was a great victory.

Q. What did he tell you before the game --
DAYNE CRIST: Nothing out of the ordinary. Coach is great about delivering a clear message and getting his point across. He knew what I wanted to tell us in terms of getting us ready or pumped up for the game but really it came down to the similar themes that we were talking about all week about starting fast and just maintaining the tempo that we like to operate at.

Q. How about afterwards, what was the message then?
DAYNE CRIST: He was just saying honestly, make sure we enjoy the victory. Obviously you can't get satisfaction out of the victory unless you really enjoy it. And today is not the day to assess corrections and things like that.
Today is the day to enjoy it, and just celebrate with one another. And we'll come back tomorrow and later in the week and really assess that and then get back to where we want to be and progressing and getting better.

Q. How high was the butterfly level in the stomach today?
DAYNE CRIST: I mean, it's part of the game. Had some butterflies going out there but they doing away pretty quickly. You don't have time to think about those. Really there's no time for that.

Q. Can you tell us what happened with safety? Was there a breakdown?
DAYNE CRIST: We'll have look at that. That was just one play, one look, can't really go into too much detail on that.

Q. You had some overthrows, what made it difficult?
DAYNE CRIST: A combination of things. I'll take the responsibility for that. That's on me. Just a combination of things, pressure, just all sorts of things. We have got to continue to better, and I can only speak for myself and those things will be corrected.

Q. Is there anything that surprised you going back out playing today?
DAYNE CRIST: I think we did a pretty good job of maintaining a good game-like tempo throughout practice and the way that we operate but just being out there, there's always a little bit faster than what did you in practice, and you are forced to think faster.
Really, in practice, if you don't think fast enough, you get yelled at and you're able to correct yourself and do that. In the game, everything is alive. It just forces everyone to be that much more on point and be that much more focused. I think that would be the biggest thing.

Q. Inaudible.
DAYNE CRIST: I'm satisfied in that regard, absolutely. Again, you know, I wanted to make sure that we are taking care of the ball. That's a team offensive goal, but a lot of that falls on the quarterback and making sure that you're throwing the ball away and selecting your own picks and things like that. Really just trying to protect the ball and keep the ball moving and keep the game moving.

Q. What do you think you have to work on?
DAYNE CRIST: I think we have a lot of things. I think it really starts with changing protection and making sure we are on the best protection and that way we are not taking hits and moving forward and stuff like that. Just mastery of protections and stuff like that and obviously then how we apply that to the opponent would be huge.

Q. Can you talk about Braxston?
DAYNE CRIST: Yeah, we definitely shared that. We talked about it all week. We are best of friends, and Braxston is a great guy, a guy that you need out there, and it was a big week for both of us mentally and physically preparing for our first start and everything like that. It was nice to share that with a friend like that, but just real proud of how he played and I think he stepped up big.

Q. How was today or this week different?
DAYNE CRIST: Well, there's just a lot more ownership going into it. Again, as a starter is different than going in as a backup or preparing to be a starter. It was one of those situations where I think the biggest thing was ownership and that you did everything possible to prepare and you're keeping your team in the best situation possible.

Q. Coach said courage three times in describing you.
DAYNE CRIST: That's flattering. He's a phenomenal coach and I have a great deal of respect for him. That's flattering coming from him. That's nice to hear but again, it's doing what you can for the team. The team and those guys in there is the most important thing in the world for me. So they would do the same thing if they were in my position.

Q. Inaudible.
DAYNE CRIST: It's nice. You definitely take that with a smile, and that's just the way to get out and enjoy the win.

Q. What did you learn out there on the field?
DAYNE CRIST: I think really just that you needed to be quick with your decisions, and again, going back to protections and making sure that those checks come at you fast. Kind of there's some game experiences, whether it be pace or drawing the defense or stuff like that. There's just certain things that you can't really replicate in practice; that you really need to be out there and experience for yourself and I think I picked up a lot of those intangibles today.
I'm happy we got the win. Always striving to play better but I was just happy we were able to protect the ball and get a touchdown, that's nice. But really just the win is the most important thing to me by far.

Q. Did it feel like practice out there?
DAYNE CRIST: I mean, a lot of guys were kind of looking around like thinking that they should be a little bit more tired and things like that.
So it was nice seeing that. I think that we are in great shape and in great condition, and obviously that being said, you know, we need to make sure that we maintain that so we don't ever take a step back and that we are always on top of it and that we are always in great condition.
Again, there's always a certain speed that you can't really replicate in practice that you really need to experience out there. But I think that overall, it was pretty good and I think practice definitely prepared us.

Q. Do you guys feel like you left a lot out there?
DAYNE CRIST: I think so. You don't want to always admit that, but as an offense, you feel that you can really score at any given time and I didn't think that we had a great showing -- whether it be myself or whatever the issue was, I think that we did leave some points out there and we can't always leave that out and walk away with a W, and that's going to haunt us sooner than later. We need to make adjustments and get better each week.

Q. What was Coach like in the locker room?
DAYNE CRIST: He was very happy to get the win under our belt, made it very clear that this is a team to enjoy the win, and playing football and playing a game isn't satisfying if you can't enjoy the victory, and if you're a guy at the end, well, I should have done this or should have done that. It was nice to have him kinds of reiterate that, even myself included; there are some guys that really will think like that. It was great having him in there. He led us in the fight song which is really an exciting time and moment to share with your head coach.

Q. What was that like --
DAYNE CRIST: We are so proud of him. That's our leader and that's the guy that, you know, anybody would run through a wall for. So it's just nice seeing that, and you kind of welcome him to getting the first win under his belt and welcoming him to the program officially.

End of FastScripts

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