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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 13, 2010Dayne CristQ. Yesterday Coach said that while losing Rudolph has been negative, he feels like for you over the long haul it would be a big positive. How do you see that and what does this force you to do? How does this force you to grow up as a quarterback a little bit? DAYNE CRIST: You know, any time you lose a guy like Kyle, it's incredibly tough on your offense, especially with just the dominance that he's had since he's been here. The matchups that he creates, you know, with other guys, it's always a match up that's in our favor. So I think with what he was saying, I think what it will really do is force me to do -- just continue to have faith in my reads and make sure that I'm upping my game because I don't have a guy that I can just rely on that I know is going to win. It's going to force me to be more accurate with everything and just make better decisions over time. Q. Have there been times in the past where you come to the line and thinking -- DAYNE CRIST: There's been a lot. That happens pretty frequently. Again, you know that you can just count on him to get open, to catch the ball; there's no worry. In situations like that, it will be third and short with a throw called, you're already thinking about the next play, because you know that he's just going to catch it. I mean, that's Kyle. That's what happens. Now it will just force you, again, to be a better player and to be a better leader on the offense and developing the other guys and making great throws and great decisions. Q. When a lot of people look at the running stat for Notre Dame, they look at carries and yards, but there are a lot of half-pass plays for the offense, what does that do for the offense overall and how does that keep the defense off balance? DAYNE CRIST: In the spread and this is something that I learned since I just continue to gain knowledge of spread philosophy, you really want to work with a five- to six-man box in the run game. You can get away with running with a six-man box, but it's a little more difficult, because I mean, obviously you've got five guys blocking most of the time. So it really depends on your box counts. We normally have a player that we are throwing off of; so if he's playing in run support, we are throwing to where he can't cover. So that's just a lot of times that you see what we are doing with swings and just things like that. So I mean, that's part of the spread philosophy and how we run things, and you can say, well, man, they are really not running the ball that much, why aren't they running more. Well, then you see Theo catch the ball and has a seven-yard average on catching swings, that's basically like a great run for us. That's just kind of how that will develop and continue to develop. Teams will either play one way or another, but that's just kind of why that run stat is a little off. Q. There's a play that we have seen the last couple of weeks where you almost throw like a basketball chest pass to Armando; the first time you see it, it almost looks like you're asking to fumble the ball. DAYNE CRIST: That's literally how it was explained to me when they were teaching the technique back in the spring of how to get that, and it just goes -- it's a quick option almost off of an end. If we continue to see that he's playing a certain way, that's just our answer to the way certain defensive ends play. But really, it's just like a chest pass just like you said in basketball. Q. The touchdown that wasn't Michael, how you saw that play unfold and just how lethal that play can be? DAYNE CRIST: That's a great man route, something that we practice -- that we've had, really, in the inventory of our offense every week. It's just a great man beater and it gave us man as we expected and I didn't see Theo pick anyone. I just saw him on his back, so I was even a little bit more confused as to what happened. But it really played out like it had in practice, and it's a play that, you know, we can definitely come back to. Q. The coaches said yesterday that when we call that play, okay, we know this is going a long way; when that play came in and you saw how the defense was playing, were you like, this is a touchdown or huge game? DAYNE CRIST: Yeah, I'm not going to say I saw a touchdown, but it looked pretty good in our favor. It was definitely everything lined up the way we wanted to. But I mean, that's football. Things go one way or the other. Q. Can you just talk about the confidence level of the teams right now and how much the win helps you guys going into this week? DAYNE CRIST: It means a lot for our offense. It means a lot for our team. You know, guys are understanding the right way to practice and showing up in ways in practice and their preparation and things like that. Guys have learned how to figure it out and put together a great week of practice and a great ask Saturday. So it went a long way for our team and right now is something that we want to continue to build on. Q. Now do you try to avoid a letdown? People are going to talk all week about how you're playing Western Michigan, you should win by 50 -- DAYNE CRIST: No, we are not good enough to have that mentality yet. Coach Kelly has made that clear to us in that Western Michigan, he's shown us statistical proof of teams that they have beaten or been very close to beating in games where I'm sure those teams went in overlooking a Western Michigan opponent. But they do some good things on offense, they do some good things on defense. It's just like any other game. If you don't prepare in a winning way, you're going to get beat. We are not just good enough to roll it out yet and see where the chips fall. We really have to go in and prepare and do everything that we need to do. Q. Inaudible. DAYNE CRIST: I was really just happy to be with my family and friends, really exhausted after the games and happy both my parents made it in and had friends in from out of town and really just everyone was more happy than anything celebrating the win. Q. Kyle doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would whine about anything, and he said as far back as July -- did you guys know this whole time? DAYNE CRIST: He's one of my best friends and you know I knew how bad he was hurting, but again, he is such a tough kid that he's not going to tell you about it. So you can tell he's going to down play everything that is apparently wrong. But you can tell he was hurting for a while, and it was something where you just didn't know if he was prone to hamstrings or whatever it was. But he's a kid that just shows up regardless every day, and just puts in his work. Q. Even last week when he dropped a pass, very uncharacteristic, what's the connection between that and the pain he was dealing with? DAYNE CRIST: If it contributed to his play, he's hurting bad, because the kid is tough and the kid will play under any circumstances. He'll show up and he'll play. Those are some things within the course of the game where when I saw those things happen, I knew that something wasn't right. And then, you know, soon after, he was kind of shut down. You have to tip your hat off to him and to his courage and how far he's come with playing with this injury and still been such a leader on offense, and still dominant, not 100%, that says a lot about Kyle as a player, and just the toughness overall is something that I don't think can be matched. Q. This is pure conjecture, but do you think you will play with him again here? DAYNE CRIST: I sure hope so but again right now is not even the appropriate time to talk about it. Really, I'm his friend first and teammate second. I'm just worried about him making sure he has a safe surgery. Going through it, I know how tough a time it is. Right now I'm just here as a friend for support and a player on his team that wants to continue winning games. We haven't even had that conversation yet. It's something that we won't have until it's an appropriate time. Right now I'm just here to be a friend and supportive and do everything I can just to help him out. Q. You must have known that one pass you threw to him where he had to stretch out and really could not do it, you probably knew then -- DAYNE CRIST: Yeah that was the first big indicator. He can move for as big as he is; I would not put a ball that far if I didn't think he could go get it. I knew then just kind of seeing him limp off afterwards, he was hurting. But it's a tough situation and something we obviously wish we weren't in but just have to deal with what's in front of us right now. Q. Following up in front of that wide position, I know Coach Kelly has said he could have used so many tight ends, what are the advantages and disadvantages of not having a tight end in the wide position? DAYNE CRIST: You mean playing with someone else that's playing that position or playing without a tight end and more receivers? Q. More receivers. Somebody has to fill the wide slot. DAYNE CRIST: Not a tight end, okay. Well, you gain a little bit, you lose a little bit. You know, just with our personnel, you know, with as much as we throw the ball, you're getting another receiver on the field which could in turn toss a matchup because it's a receiver, truly on a linebacker, more times than not. But again, you know, it's tough for them to get in the run and ask those guys to block in the same way that a tight end could. With Kyle, we really had the best of both worlds and he was the best tight end in the country and could do both those things. Now you are really choosing your personnel wisely and using those players and those situations, but however -- I have a ton of confidence in our other two tight ends, Mike Ragone and Tyler Eifert, they are great players and doing some good things for us, as well. We will continue to brings those guys along and get better with those guys because that's really our focus right now. Q. Where do you feel you are in terms of the possession throws that Coach Kelly talked about earlier in the season? Are you making improvement there? Is that a footwork issue when you don't make those throws or is it more -- DAYNE CRIST: No, there's more decision than anything else. That's just a decision not to go there, as opposed to trying to force a tighter ball a little bit deeper down the field. But I think that we are continuing to improve every week, and I know you're hearing the same thing from me every week, but that's really how I feel. It feels a little bit more comfortable each week. I'm definitely gaining a little bit more game experience every week and some things that I can take with me and apply the next week. So you know, not to keep answering the same way, but I mean, that's how it feels. I really do feel like we are improving each week. Q. Halfway through your first season as a starter, what do you feel that you've done pretty well up to this point? DAYNE CRIST: You know, I think that I've managed the offense pretty well. I think that there's obviously some things that I need to do better and from that regard, I'm never satisfied with that even if I've never played better or worse. Overall game management, I've been very comfortable with and kind of understanding how this thing has got to go and progress. Not saying that we are there right now, but I have a great understanding of where that needs to go. Q. And how do you think you've done since you and Coach Kelly had the talk about maybe wearing your emotions on your sleeve a little bit, how has that part of your game developed? DAYNE CRIST: A lot better. I think that's definitely improved. I understood what he was talking about and I think the biggest advocation of that has been in practice; you play how you practice. The more I can do that in practice, I think the better that we'll become. And as a leader of the offense, it's just making sure that your brain practices every day. He challenged yesterday to bring more energy to practice each and every day and that will be an emphasis for me today, bringing guys' energy and bringing guys along, and like you said, wearing that a little more on my sleeve. Q. What do you call that when you pitch that ahead to Armando? What do you call that chest pass to the running back? DAYNE CRIST: I don't know. It really is a chest pass like it is in basketball. It's looks like a two-hand option pitch really. We can run the same play with me running and optioning it to him but that's just our way of pitching off. Q. Did it feel weird the first couple of times you did it? DAYNE CRIST: I felt like we were going to fumble. But it feels more natural the more times you're able to do and would he have done it quite a bit and it was something that we practice. End of FastScripts |
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