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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 6, 2010Carlo CalabreseDarrin WallsQ. Darrin, after all these years is there still anything to playing Pittsburgh for you, anything that gets you more involved, more interested, just by guys you know or being your hometown? DARRIN WALLS: Every time I play Pittsburgh, this is the second time now, it's exciting. Just knowing a few guys on the team and playing against my hometown is always exciting, and I'm always looking forward to it. Q. You made some very interesting comments before the Michigan game where he were asked to assess your career and at that point you were kind of hard on yourself. I'm wondering if this season has undated those thoughts when you said you had like an average career back then. Through five games has anything changed, have you updated that assessment in any way? DARRIN WALLS: I think from a career standpoint, these first five games have put me on the way to the season where I think I want to be. I don't know, I think it's going good so far, so I'm just going to try to continue to make it better. Q. Coach Kelly said yesterday that your approach is very professional. What does that mean to you? How would you characterize your approach? DARRIN WALLS: I think probably just being at the center of the game, learning every day what it's going to take and knowing my opponents, I think that's probably what he's getting at. But I just go out there every day and try to get better, as we all should. I think that's what professionals do. Q. How banged up are you? How much have you played through so far? CARLO CALABRESE: I'm pretty banged up, but I've been going at it every day and getting through it, so that's a part of the game I'm pretty sure half the country is banged upright now. Q. Starting with you, Carlo, you've used the term proper fit in talking to you several times, and it's something Coach Diaco refers to. How would you explain when you talk about getting the proper fit defensively? Explain what that means from your perspective? CARLO CALABRESE: I think there's a reason for your keys, and just knowing the formation and knowing what they're going to do, like the plays out of that formation and just reading your keys and just knowing where the ball is going to be. Q. Does it also refer to your path or your lane to the football? CARLO CALABRESE: Oh, yeah. There's different paths, different steps you've got to take to the football. Q. Darrin, how about your perspective on that question? DARRIN WALLS: Going off of Carlo's answer, I think we have a responsibility in our defense, and that's just being where we're supposed to be in every defense, and there's a different assignment on different defenses. So just making sure we're where we're supposed to be so the ball doesn't crease us. Q. Carlo, Coach Kelly made a reference a couple weeks ago about he wasn't quite sure what they were going to get from you in a game because they weren't sure quite what they were getting from you in a practice situation. Do you feel like on game day you're just a better player than you are on the practice field or is that an inaccurate depiction of your practice mode? CARLO CALABRESE: It's a lot different in the game, speed is different, and just the looks. And I just think it's a lot clearer during the games what the team is trying to do, and you know, I just make my reads and just play ball. Q. Is it hard to get motivated for practice every day? CARLO CALABRESE: No, not for me. Q. Do you know who Bob Ross is? CARLO CALABRESE: Bob Ross? Q. He's that guy that you and Manti watch paint? CARLO CALABRESE: Oh, yeah. Q. Can you talk about how that got started? CARLO CALABRESE: Me and Manti, we go down, eat breakfast, have a couple meetings and then come back up to the room, and we've got some time before the game before we leave, and we're just flicking through the channels, ESPN, whatever is on, and then one time we flicked to a channel and it was just this guy with an afro painting. I was just looking at it, and I like art and all that, so I was like, okay, what's this. And then I looked at Manti, and he was liking it, so we just started watching it, and now we watch it every week. Q. Can you kind of talk about you guys' relationship, you and Manti? CARLO CALABRESE: Yeah, we got real close this year with me lining up next to him and just watching film with him. We're real close. Q. Manti said yesterday that you're responsible for teaching him how to play like Tiger Woods Golf or something like that. How is he? CARLO CALABRESE: I still beat him all the time. I don't know if he can beat me at Tiger Woods. But yeah, me and him in the dorm rooms, we played in the summer, and he was usually a Call of Duty guy. I was like, come on, you've got to try this game. Me and him played it, we tried it and he started liking it, but he was horrible in the beginning but then he got better and better, and he started liking it. Q. Has he ever come close to beating you? CARLO CALABRESE: Sometimes, but I always win. Q. Darrin, kind of going back with the Pittsburgh angle, Jonathan Baldwin said this week that he wasn't really sure who you were last year. Is that kind of a little bit of bulletin board material for you and what are your thoughts on that? DARRIN WALLS: I mean, I've seen what he said. I mean, I really don't care really about it. I know that I'm a different player from last year, and so is he. I don't really talk much, and we'll see a lot on Saturday. Q. What is the biggest challenge that he presents? What's the toughest part about his game to defend? DARRIN WALLS: Probably just going up and beating him for the ball. He's sort of tall and goes after the ball. He catches everything. I haven't really seen any tapes where he's dropping balls. I think that's big, catching the ball, is a hot point, and out-defending him? Q. I guess when a guy is 6'5" and he catches the ball at his highest point is there a lot you can do about that, because unless you've got a 50-inch vertical jump it's hard to get up there? DARRIN WALLS: Yeah, his vertical is probably about 40 inches. We use different techniques that will be used on Saturday. Q. What's the technique, try to get into his body a little bit more? DARRIN WALLS: That will be displayed this week. Q. Darrin, just continuing on the big picture aspect, can you just talk about maybe the meaning of this game facing against Pitt from how far you've come from missing a season, just what it means to you to be playing against a hometown team for the final time? DARRIN WALLS: I mean, really just another game for me. I'm just trying to go out there and help my team win, and we need to play well and we need everyone else to play well. That's the mindset I have going into this game. It's big because I'm from Pittsburgh, but the ultimate thing here is the big three. Q. Being from Pittsburgh, not getting the victory last year, that must mean all the more reason for you to want to get a victory here. DARRIN WALLS: Yeah, we have to come out with a win, and I think we're doing everything this week to do that and get that done. Q. What's been the biggest part of your game that has changed over the last two years that has allowed you to get to this point? DARRIN WALLS: I'd say the biggest thing is just playing with confidence and not guessing so much, just knowing what the offenses are going to do and receiver routes and knowing where the quarterback is going with the ball. I think just playing with confidence and knowing that my preparation has prepared me to play well. Q. Carlo, can you just talk about the energy level when you guys are out there and you or Manti are making a big play, how you guys feed off each other in terms of the excitement when you get a big tackle or a sack? CARLO CALABRESE: Yeah, the energy level is through the charts. If Manti makes a big hit, it pumps me up and it makes me want to make a big hit the next play, so we're feeding off each other a lot, and we're not only feeding off each other, we're feeding off the whole defense and the whole team. The offense, if they score a touchdown, we're pumped and we want to get a three-and-out. Everybody is feeding off each other on this team. Q. You saw Ray Graham had 277 yards rushing. What was the first thought that went through your mind? CARLO CALABRESE: I know he's a good player and he's a playmaker. I know he's a big key for their team, and we've just got to do what we do on defense. We can't do anyone else's job, we've got to do our job and just stop him. Q. My question is for Darrin. Can you talk about the year that you had off? What was it like to go through that, and when you went to Notre Dame did you see the quadruple overtime game there or did you see it at home, and what was it like to see the game decided on a fade pass on a guy you might have been covering? How hard was that for you to deal with? DARRIN WALLS: The year off, it was tough watching at home. But I kept my energy up and my -- kept talking to the guys, and my spirits didn't get down too much. Yeah, I came up for the game, and it was tough watching knowing that I could have and should have been out there with my teammates. But yeah, I was down on the sidelines when the game went into overtime and it was tough watching, but I mean, I was rooting for my team, and we didn't get it done, so it was tough. Q. Can you talk about -- coach talked about you having a more professional approach to it. How much did that year off change everything, the way you came back and wanted to have a different attitude? DARRIN WALLS: Yeah, I think I just looked at the game differently. When you see it from a distance, it's not the same, and I think I matured from it and learned a lot just watching. I think the biggest thing I learned was not taking anything for granted, and this year is probably one of my biggest years I need to have for my team and for myself, and just knowing that I can't take anything for granted, I'm just going to do the best I can to prepare myself and play well. Q. To bring you back to the recruiting thing, Pitt was one of the schools that recruited you heavily. How close of it was a call picking Notre Dame over Pitt, if it was a close call, and is that ever extra motivation for these type of games? Could you have seen yourself on the other side of this rivalry? DARRIN WALLS: Now that I'm here, I don't see myself anywhere else. Pittsburgh was in the running. It was between Pittsburgh, Florida, Michigan and Notre Dame, and I chose Notre Dame. But yeah, now that I'm here, I couldn't see myself anywhere else, and I think I made the best decision to come here. End of FastScripts |
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