UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 23, 2004

Tyrone Willingham

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think it's just the natural tendency, that you seem to focus better when you have fewer distractions. Putting your back against the wall eliminates a lot of distractions. I think it's just natural that the team would fall into that mode.

COACH WILLINGHAM: It is to a degree, but I don't think if you talk to our young men, they focus on that number. I think that is more for other people. What's upsetting to them is the fact that they lost. And their focus goes to working themselves to be the best they can be and find a way to defeat that team. But when someone has beaten you, it always shakes your confidence a little bit. You have to gather your focus, refocus and go out.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Gosh, I guess I see things a little bit different, okay? I guess that's why I coach. But I think in almost every game, you can go back and say that there are probably five or six plays that make a huge difference, and even sometimes the score doesn't indicate how close a ballgame is, okay? So I think, again, to the player, the reaction is a lot different. The point differential I don't think weighs as much as some other people think.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I think if you go back and follow this game and the series through history, that number has been important because I think this rivalry has involved so many No. 1's at some point. To have that be in place again adds something to it. There's no question that the game is big, but when you have that number there, it does add something to the ballgame.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would think it's a huge advantage for them. Not that it is just one bye week or equal bye weeks, but I think when you look at their schedule, I think this is the third bye week that somehow has been worked into their schedule. I think this is about the third time they've had this break. They've been able to really split their season up. I think it really benefits them.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think you still have to focus on the run here. There is no question, they've got some great weapons at the receivers. You thought one of them had left, but they seem to find a way to replace him. I think you still have to start with the run because I think one of the major differences that has made this team a better team is that they have a physical runner at that tailback position. And I think that's what White gives them. He gives them almost, in my opinion, their soul, their heart, the drumbeat of that football team. If you can stop that, now you're better able I think to focus on some of the other areas.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I do.

COACH WILLINGHAM: He has been a smart quarterback.

COACH WILLINGHAM: First of all, it is a sad commentary for all of us to even have to talk about that or discuss that. It shouldn't have any place in sports, period. But if the conditions do exist, then, yes, I will instruct our team, first of all, to keep their helmets on. That would be number one. Then, number two, we don't retaliate. We're there to compete and play the game the way it should be played on the field.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Right now, as you know, that is really under the guidelines of the University, okay? We would hope that their decision would be to be back. But as always, there are certain things they have to do within the University in order to be back. When those things are completed, we will know.

COACH WILLINGHAM: It is sad that you have to see or witness a legend retire from the game. There is no question that he has the utmost respect of all those that are in the profession, and he's done great things. Bringing a championship to Notre Dame, without question, will be one of I think the high points of his career. I had the opportunity to work with him, and I think it was the Hula Bowl or one of the All-Star Games out there. It is a tremendous experience of learning how to motivate young men. And he is absolutely tremendous at that, as with all facets of the game. But college football will miss, I think, Lou Holtz.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Gosh, I don't know where to begin with your question. What it is like to recruit the young man in his home? Gosh, there's so many directions you can go with that. Can you pinpoint me a little bit?

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, let me give you I guess my perspective a little bit on that. My getting out into the home is really determined about the needs of the young man. And that's where we have to do a great job of identifying of where he's at in the recruiting process, exactly where the head coach's visit fits in and the timing of that. Some will be early, some will hopefully come later in January, depending on that young man's timetable and how you place him within our Notre Dame structure. You are extremely busy at that time because, one, you're hopefully wrapping up a season. Two, there is hopefully a Bowl game in line. Then, three, you're still trying to prepare and maintain continuity within your own team structure. So it does become a very busy period. Trying to get into all the homes takes a little organization.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, most of our young men, I would say, respond best when their coach is around, when his eyes are on them watching every step they take, being able to monitor that. So you lose a little bit of that impact at your practices. Yet it is a great time because you do have a Bowl on their minds and they are excited about that. But at the same time it makes the continuity of your program lessen just a little bit in terms of the sense of urgency, but at the same time you have to be out and making those contacts with the recruits because, if not, there is somebody else that will be occupying that living room, and we need to have a presence there.

COACH WILLINGHAM: The difference in the route between?

COACH WILLINGHAM: Gosh, I think Pete has done a great job of bringing a very talented group of athletes to being a team, okay? I felt like when I was at other places, playing SC, the talent was there in abundance, but they weren't functioning as a team. I thought the strongest thing he's done is bring them together as team. Now, to be able to parallel those, gosh, our paths could be totally different, okay? It could be that my path is the fourth year, could be the fifth. I don't know.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think he's physically getting stronger and more physical in his play each year. What stood out about him more than his athletic skills, because they were tremendous, I think he was the fastest 200-meter high schooler in the country the year he came out, or pretty close to it, so the athletic talent has been there. I really enjoy the person. I thought the goals that he set for himself, his personality, his values I thought were very impressive.

COACH WILLINGHAM: It is consistent with their overall scheme because when you first mentioned Reggie Bush, you think of him as a halfback, but he's not. He is a halfback plus. He is a wide receiver, he's a slot receiver. They employ him in a lot of positions. And they have the ability to do that with several of their other athletes. You see their fullback, see them line up at wide receivers, and they function fairly well in those areas. When you look at Byrd, you're not looking at a traditional tight end. You're looking at a guy that is probably like Gonzalez with the Kansas City Chiefs, that they have as a wide receiver, and he's able to function fairly well there. That gives them a great deal of flexibility in their offense.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think he does quite a few of the things that a lot of the offenses that we see in the course of a year. He's just got great people doing it and that has a tendency to make a difference.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No. I think they are still unique to themselves in the fact that you very seldom see anything much more than once or twice. They have a lot of variety.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, the biggest stress is if you consider yourself a match-up defense, it is very difficult to match up because they will give you a base personnel in terms of the people that run onto the field, a fullback, a halfback, a tight end, two wide receivers. But now when the tight end lines up as a wide receiver and has the ability to perform as a wide receiver, now when you're trying to match up, if you put in a base package, you're not playing apples to apples. So they do that from a personnel standpoint, which puts the primary stress on you. Then if you just try to be vanilla, then they've got you from that standpoint, too. So the ability to interchange personnel is the biggest stress that I think they place on you.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Absolutely. You have to try to guard against those situations. That is one we found ourselves in a year ago when I think Bush caught the one going up their sideline toward the north end of the field.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, Derek Landri has been extremely active. That would probably be, I think, the biggest change from a year ago, is that we're getting more productivity out of Derek than we probably did our other two nose tackle and tackle, that he is making a lot more plays, being more active, and that makes you a better defense.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I don't think we've received an invitation yet. So, no. We've got to play to win in order to believe we have the best chance.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I think we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think you always play the highest-ranked team you can. But as you know, those options may not be at our choosing.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You know, it's amazing that I've used this word, and I think everyone has agreed with me, and that's rarely that everyone agrees anyway, but the word has been "inconsistent," okay? That is where we are. We've had our Pittsburgh game that we moved the ball fairly effectively both halves to some degree, still not as well as we'd like to do it. We've had other games where we've not moved it and lost that movement, had it for a while and lost it. My thing is that we've been inconsistent. In some areas we've improved. I think we're probably a little more passing yardage this year than we were last year, but at the same time we've dropped off a little bit in our run production. So we're trying to see if we can maximize all of those so that we can be a much more consistent, a much more productive offense.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You cannot rely on the fact that you have returning players. You've got to get better, okay? All of our guys that are returning have to be better. We have to, again, constantly, just as you do from game to game, week to week, year to year, you've got to go through and look at all the statistics, see what's really important, identify those areas that you can most improve in and see if you can do that.

COACH WILLINGHAM: In that system, you got to believe that there was pretty much carryover for the last 20 years, okay? Gosh, you go back, when I was there as an assistant, that was '89 I think we arrived, Denny Green was a student of Bill Walsh. Walsh was there in '77, I think it was, might have been the last times he was there. Then you had Paul Wiggins, I think, some other coaches. But that style of play has been very consistent at that particular University for quite some time. So in terms of continuity and the ability to understand that, it has always been there.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Please don't.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You give me credit for that. I love you, Eric, thank you. There's a learning curve in every situation, and you hope that you can make that as quick as possible so that you can have the production that you're seeking.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I try to just develop and grow as fast as you possibly can. My goal has always been to have as much success as soon as you can, and adjust along the way.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I think there are some things that we could take. I think if you look at them outside of the talent, okay, I think they're doing a great job as a team, which means they're doing all aspects of the game well. They're coaching well, they're doing a great job with defense, they're doing a great job at offense, they're doing a great job at special teams. Those are all the things you want to look at. Are there particular plays or schemes that you would take from them? Oh, yes. There are things that you incorporate. There may be a zone blitz that they've used particularly effectively, maybe a different variation that might help us. There would be things like that you notice from opponents, not just them, but other opponents also.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would like to have about 60 of those, okay?

COACH WILLINGHAM: I do not have a sense of that, and I have not spoken with Tuck on that issue.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, every question I think is fair, okay? I don't think you hear me ever say, "That's not a fair question." But I would imagine, and I hate to be so general to talk about human nature, but I also believe in it, but I also believe that most of us that have been parents, good parents, that we teach our kids certain things. But why do kids do something other than what we teach them? So we all pause for that answer, is that right?

COACH WILLINGHAM: It's the same thing. We hopefully instruct our guys well and try to bring them to do all the things you want to do. But things happen. They don't respond. I don't think, if I'm correct, even as we look at the No. 1 team in the country, that every play that they've run has been a great play for them. They've made some mistakes also. So it happens. But the better teams are more consistent than other teams, and that's why they win, and that's why they're successful.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Our strong suit will have to be our attitude going in, okay? We've got to carry in there a don't worry, have fun, loose attitude, nothing to lose in this contest, and go play some very physical football. If we take that, the right mindset, then I think our bodies will be able to perform at a level that we'll be very comfortable with.

COACH WILLINGHAM: That is exactly what I'm speaking about. You have to believe something can happen before it can happen. It doesn't happen in most cases by just hoping and wishing. So we've got to take the right approach in there, and you've got to execute on that approach.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Usually I say that when you start the game, that's when you really know, okay, exactly where you are.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Oh, yes. You know, you can sense whether you're a little off, you're a little ahead, your attitude is right, and then that's where you really have to adjust at.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I start figuring out a way to get it right quickly, because I probably only got about 20 minutes to do that.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I don't think so. I mean, all the good teams have that luxury. When you have a chance to add as many as 14, 15 days potentially of practice or the ability to work with your guys in some degree, that's a plus. So to me it's a real win for your football team in the long run, not just for that game. If you talk about building a team for the future, okay, you start to gain when you can get more practice and more opportunity for those guys to develop and get better.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I'm not there. I'm trying to beat SC, okay?

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, again, my biggest thing, because I think I was a few miles closer when you first arrived, is that I thought the real difference was team. I thought they are playing as one, and I think because of that the talents that they have, the great coaching that he's doing, I think it's all working together. And they have a level of confidence right now in their play that allows them to really be as good as anybody in the country.

COACH WILLINGHAM: The first thing is, no, I don't follow the line. But second of all, I wouldn't need to in this particular contest. This team has been on I think an amazing run. Almost everyone that they play is an underdog, probably a decided underdog. So hopefully our team won't be influenced by that. We'll go in there and play our best football game and come away with a victory.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Matt has had just an outstanding year, and that year has been one that obviously has been highlighted by his touchdown catches and his average per catch. But he's been a little bit more than that. Matt has added a great deal to our football team from a leadership standpoint and a performance standpoint, which is always most important. But he has continued to develop, continued to get better action and not rest on the accomplishments that he has.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You know, that is one that I say I hope he has that opportunity to play. You have to be very careful because some teams look for certain things, and you have to find the right match-up. But I would hope that he would have that opportunity.

COACH WILLINGHAM: We place a fairly significant emphasis on Southern California recruiting, and the state of California in general, because the large population base. That was something I heard many years ago, they said any time you have a collection of a million people, that you will have an Olympic-style athlete. So if that is the case, then California is truly one of our largest populated states, then there will be some very elite athletes that come out of that population, and you need to get in there and see if you can get one or two of those elite athletes out. The parity around the country? As always, with the change in scholarships over the years, television, I do think it's made a difference in everyone's recruiting around the country. So we face the challenges that all teams face. But regardless, recruiting has always been one of the more difficult things that you do.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think there are some great benefits of Notre Dame. I still think that tradition is important. I don't see many people talking about throwing out Thanksgiving or Christmas, so I do think traditions are important. And I think that's something that people respect and believe in. So we just have to get back and execute, get to the top, and add that as one of the other fine features of our great University that will attract young people.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I've used the word, I think, "more." As a head coach at Stanford, the transition to Notre Dame has been highlighted by the word "more." Everything is larger, everything is greater. There's a much greater following, a much greater sense of urgency surrounding the program.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would say yes to that. I don't think there's any question about that. This program is one of America's great programs, and it has a tremendous following, not just in this country but around the world.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Absolutely.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I think it's always been a pretty good advantage for them. But at the same time you have to block out those distractions from the Coliseum, the natural trappings that they have there, and focus on the game, focus on your execution. If you can do that, then you can minimize those things and minimize that advantage.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think it is. And I think that always depends oh than your populous because I think there are some that look at BC, some that look at some of the other games on our schedule as being the game. But I don't think you can say Notre Dame and not put the SC game in there as one of the top games or the top game.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, any time as a coach, you want to see if you can secure the focus of your football team. And I'm quite sure that Coach Carroll and his staff will be trying to get them to focus on just one game. That's where having strong leadership comes in, and that's where having a clear vision of what your goals are becomes important. And I'm quite sure that they will do that and they will have their team prepared to play just one opponent this weekend: Notre Dame.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, the Tennessee ballgame, without question, any time you're playing a Top 10 team, and you're playing them on the road, and can you go in their dwelling and come away with success, it is a tremendous feeling and sensation of accomplishment. Then we turn around the next week and we stumble right at the end. We just don't make those plays. You know, to me when you lose, it's like somebody just took a body part out. You don't feel the same. You don't feel whole. You're disappointed, you're hurt. But you learn in life that you have to recover. So the thing that you do is you go about the process of being disappointed, being angry, being upset, but you channel all that into a manner in which you can drive yourself to go out and get the next one. So that has kind of been the up and down that I go through and go through it when we have disappointment.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, it gives us another step up in that process of having the confidence and having the success against the best in the country. There are really, if I am correct, eight or nine teams this year that have had an opportunity to play the No. 1 team in the country. That is special. To have that opportunity to line up against them makes this game extremely important. Then you add into it the fact that it is one of our rivalries. I think it's described as - and rightfully so - as the greatest intersectional rivalry in the country. And you have the history and the tradition to match that. You have an opportunity where, again, it features a team that is trying to be the national champion, and that No. 1 is at stake. This is an awful important game as we try to build and take the right steps in our program, but also because of the tradition and history of this game.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I think the one that comes to mind is the one that Coach Parseghian had in which we were going in as the No. 1 team, roughly 30 minutes away from finishing the year in that manner, and all of a sudden SC came back.

COACH WILLINGHAM: They are well-coached, they are very aggressive and they play very fast. Those are the things I think that jump out at you very quickly about this defense. And because of their speed and because of their aggressiveness, they create the one thing that helps you win a football game: turnovers. The second thing would be field position. You don't get many yards against them, be it through the air or on the ground. Therefore, it becomes difficult to maintain the ball possession, field position. So they make it extremely difficult. By doing that, they put a very explosive offense in great positions to score and score quickly.

COACH WILLINGHAM: The PAC-10, as you mentioned, is known to have usually quarterbacks and skilled players, so it becomes very difficult with those athletes and it is way that they spread the field to kind of contain them. But obviously they've done a great job of playing a lot of pressure with their zone blitz concepts and keeping the safety free in the middle, not giving up any big plays, which is almost contradictory to the PAC-10 conference.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, the first thing is I don't know any team that's played a perfect game. So we don't even let that thought enter in. Do we have to play our best game? Absolutely. But what we've got to do, we've got to walk in with a mindset that we are aggressive, but at the same time we're not reckless. Their defense does take some chance, it does take some risk. What we've got to do is be able to see those, adjust, and then hit them at the right spots. If we can do that, then we can have success.

COACH WILLINGHAM: We're in the process of trying to work through some of that right now. I'm not at liberty to speak on it. But you want to make those decisions hopefully as soon as possible so the young men can prepare themselves for their future if they're not invited back.

COACH WILLINGHAM: It could cause that number probably to swell up possibly from a high teen to possibly low 20s.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Unfortunately for me I go back much further than this particular incident. I go back to a day when grocery stores were not open on Sunday afternoon. Some may say that, "That sounds very strange that you would make that correlation or that connection." But we've changed our entire thought process in our culture. Some of our values, I think there was a survey in USA Today about rating our values, if I am correct. And I don't say it's at the lowest point in terms of that percentage, but I would think a lot of people believe that we have changed over the years. It's because of that you see that there is very little respect I think for most individuals within the structure of our society. So when you have that kind of mindset, it is not surprising that you get the events that have happened over this weekend.

COACH WILLINGHAM: In this particular case, I think most people will agree that all the parties were wrong. I mean, there is really no right in this whole situation. That, again, to me speaks to a much larger picture than just the athletic event and that incident. So my belief is that we need to possibly see if we can find a way to do some changing in our culture, the way we think, the way we believe, the way we respond to each other.