UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 28, 2004

Tyrone Willingham

COACH WILLINGHAM: Wonderful choice of words, "stick with him."

COACH WILLINGHAM: I know.

COACH WILLINGHAM: We've been together now for, what, ten years or so. No. 1, Kent is smart. I think he understands defense. I think he understands offense. I think he understands young people. I would agree with the intensity that he brings; that he is all about that moment and performing at that time. He emphasizes that in his own manner to our young men and I think they respond.

COACH WILLINGHAM: First of all, I would hope I would never have to deal with that situation. I would hope our guys wouldn't do that. I think it's always great if you have a very healthy respect for your opponent, regardless of what they have done or haven't done, and I would hope that our team would approach every ballgame in that manner. I think the way we would say it to our team is that we respect, but do not fear, anyone.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I was only joking then.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I won't use the word "extreme," okay. I'll say, negative, okay. I think in your business, okay, I think the common practice is negativity sells. People want to know. So therefore, I think the media move in that direction. No, I mean, that's part of the business.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I'd say yes. I think and this is not the place for this commentary, but I think there's been a huge change in news, okay. I think agencies have gone to making the news, as opposed to reporting the news, and I think that's a major difference.

COACH WILLINGHAM: It won't take me a week to come up with an answer. (Laughter). To me, it's very simple. Life is full of ups and downs. There are goods; there are bads. I'd simply show both sides of the coin, that's it.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I think you can really focus on two points. No. 1, this is, I think, the second most common opponent that Notre Dame has, and if I'm correct, this will be No. 76, I think it is. That would be point No. 1. Point No. 2 would be that there are only about roughly three hours or so separating the two schools, and those two things usually give you a pretty intense rivalry.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I'd say that's good football.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, it only makes it even more intense; that it goes right down to the wire. I'm not sure what the statistic is, but I think the last couple of games have probably been within a touchdown or so. No, that just makes for and improves the intensity of the rivalry.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think there will be things like that, yes, that catch people's attention.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I have not focused on that. I think Purdue offers us enough challenges that we don't need to look at anything else. This is may be the best football team we play this year. I know this is probably the best quarterback we'll see this year.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, you know what, I really don't in a sense, because if we win the game with the schedule that we have at Notre Dame, we'll be exactly where we should be. It's almost impossible for us not to be there. We've already faced the No. 7 team in the country and this weekend we have the No. 15 team in the country. Somewhere things hold true, you may have the No. 1 team, the No. 8 team in the country. There are opportunities. We have to just play, and if we do that, everything will unfold in a wonderful manner.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I vote. So I have to look. I have to be aware of that. I usually know where all of the teams are.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Yes, I am.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think it's probably more pressure on the opponent.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, it's a nice place to shift it to.

COACH WILLINGHAM: If you look at him just from a statistical standpoint, he has accumulated probably by the time his career is over the second-most statistical success of any quarterback in that university's history, and they have had some pretty good quarterbacks when you go back. So just from a statistical standpoint, you know he is good. But then you watch him and you watch the little things that he does to help his team be successful, then everybody is highlighting I think the play that he orchestrated with their back against Illinois's blitz. They step up the blitz, he sees something and recognized that they have got one guy uncovered, positions the guy right where he should be, releases him and they have got a touchdown. So when you have a quarterback that can do those things, it makes him almost bulletproof because you know he can get the ball out of his hands before you can get there. You know he knows the right guy to go to, and you know he's seeing the right things. So he becomes almost impossible to defend.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, those two are truly, truly talented. Again, you have another guy that's just amassing tremendous numbers out there. I think he had, what 11 catches last week. That's impressive.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think that's not a bad start, okay. But when you think of Justin, you don't feel as good about that start because I think he would sit here and say, gosh, I should have a few more, I want a few more. And those will come, okay. It will be at a price, though, because there will be more attention. There will be backs set to him, there will be tight ends set to him, there will be double teams worked his way. It will come with a price and he will be very good.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Because he doesn't know what makes him good at it, because then it's very natural. It's something that just occurs and it's not programmed and it's not planned. He recognizes things on the run, he makes adjustments on the run, and because it is very natural, I think that's why he's good at it.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, it's not just a two-man show. If you notice their offense, I think they are averaging about over 600 yards a game in total offense, okay, and that's unbelievable. And you don't do that with just two guys. That takes a full complement of guys working very well together and they are playing very well together. Their defense is playing well, also. So it's a total team. It's not just a two-man operation.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think what's a little different, if I'm correct there was another guy that they were in tandem with last year, that took not necessarily the majority of the receptions, but he had a pretty significant year. And now you have this guy stepping in into that role of leadership. He's always been good, but now the light is on him to make the major plays for that football team, and I think he's responded and they are responding by going to him more.

COACH WILLINGHAM: He is quick, he is decisive, he has good hands and he has great confidence.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You try to look very carefully at what they do and see if you can identify a plan, a course of action that they will pursue to get first downs. Maybe there's some habits or tendencies that they have that we can lock in on.

COACH WILLINGHAM: It's extremely important, because I guess if you can hold serve, is that what they say in tennis? You have a much better chance to win, and that's what we want to do. We want to make our stadium, okay, a place that people fear coming in to play because you just can't win here.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Do you remember the weekly answer?

COACH WILLINGHAM: It hasn't changed.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, between 2002 and today, we've continued the same practice habits, working to facilitate getting fumbles and interceptions; so you are constantly working at that. But a great deal of that has to do with the young men itself. It has to do with their confidence and their ability to take risks, okay. I can go back to the Michigan State ballgame. Zbikowski could have settled for a tackle, but he didn't. He had enough confidence and he had enough presence to try to take that ball off, he picked it out cleanly and scored a touchdown. Along with all of the drills and the work, the mind set, the confidence of the young men plays a huge part of that.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, as always, you're trying to look at what you did poorly. You're trying to look at statistics of that game, other games, correlations, and you try to get a strategy, what is best for us to do to be the team we'd like to be.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You know I hate to share secrets.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, to be more aggressive.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Oh, yes.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I don't lean one way or the other. And just for the record, there are three areas.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, when you speak of talking to the team and you focused on Kyle, everyone was disappointed about losing that football game. But at the same time from a defensive perspective, there was some very good things in there. And if you take away what I think we said were maybe three big plays, you might have an outstanding defensive effort coming out of the BYU game. So, if it was speaking to our defense, you encourage them to eliminate the big plays. If you're speaking to our offense, you encourage them from the standpoint that there were, if I could say flashes, there were some things we felt like we could build on if we just keep coming. And special teams, you just focus on them trying to make better decisions coming out of that ballgame.

COACH WILLINGHAM: One of the things that I tell our football team, and I think it is related to the question that you're asking, is that we feel like we can defeat anyone. But we also feel like anyone can defeat us. So the movement of that game, it was the right thing for us to do.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Also needs to be added, because I think we get so one-sided on that question. But BYU wanted to move the game, also.

COACH WILLINGHAM: He is healthy and practicing and improving every day.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Yes, he is.

COACH WILLINGHAM: He's been improving and getting better every day.

COACH WILLINGHAM: He's been improving and getting better every day.

COACH WILLINGHAM: It's just the progress for that position is so much more difficult. The game is so much more faster for those guys than it is for anyone else. Therefore, the opportunities to get them in a position where they can play as freshmen is more difficult. So we never rule out anyone, okay. It's just a matter of how they come along and how they improve and how soon they get to that point where they are ready to play.

COACH WILLINGHAM: There are a lot of things that I think Justin offers us, and hopefully we'll try to explore some of those, okay. So I won't say we will or we won't.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I guess I'm more of a mind set that it's the season that's most important. And just like I think I said, or tried to indicate that when we defeated Michigan, one game does not a season make. Nor did the BYU make a season. If we come out and do the things that we can do, we'll have an outstanding season. Right now this ballgame that we're playing against Purdue is that game. It's that game, it can help us be the kind of team we'd like to be.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You're speaking of John O'Grady (ph)?

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, we felt that at some point last year John might have been ready to step in and I think that was because of his maturity, the way he likes to work at what he was trying to do in the system, so I think he does have a little different look to his teammate than just a red-shirted freshman.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I've been pleased with some of his play and I think there are some areas that he's still growing in and will do nothing but get better.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, the position does not allow him to be aggressive all of the time, and that's what we try to encourage, for him to be aggressive. But you want him to do so, but not making mistakes, because mistakes at that position, like all positions, can really kill you. You don't want mistakes and you don't want to emphasize mistakes, and you don't want to be overly-lenient when guys do make mistakes. But at the same time, you have to balance it by keeping him aggressive and keeping him confident, and more than anything else make sure sees a clear picture, because that's what slows the center down more than anything else is not having a clear picture.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Just didn't think it was right. Get to that point, you don't think it's the right thing to do; that there were more benefits not to play him.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think we are improving, and I mean that; that they are getting better I think each ballgame. But we still have a lot of ground to cover.

COACH WILLINGHAM: The primary concern I have is the emotional, because for them it's probably in most cases, the first time they have had an injury. It's the first time they have not been in a position to start and kind of dictate their fate. So there are a lot of emotions that go through those guys, and what we have to try to do is manage those. And if you can manage those, then they can keep their confidence, they can keep their drive, and eventually the talent and skill they have can come on.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I've been pleased with Chris. Chris is doing not a lot in the receiver core. He is getting some action there, but he's really starting to show himself as a special teams player, and I think that is a great way to learn and develop and become a receiver.

COACH WILLINGHAM: As you know, I never say that.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No. They will dictate at their own pace and their own time. What we have to do is use all of our coaching tools to make sure that they can see the clear picture, and if you do, I think in most cases they are fine.

COACH WILLINGHAM: He is that, I guess, added dimension that they need in that system. Because you hear so much and see so much about their passing attack, you kind of become deceived. What he does is add that aggressive dimension to their running attack, and I think they are averaging 200 yards a game rushing, and that to me is outstanding. So he has I think the real teeth to their offensive attack, when you add that factor of being able to run the ball and then complement it as well as they throw it.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would probably believe that he stretched it outside of the playbook. He's probably added a few they didn't have in there, and it's just because of his experience and his knowledge of the game to take advantage of things that they have not even scripted, double-checked, even coordinated some things outside of their playbook.

COACH WILLINGHAM: There's no question about that, in that ballgame, again when you don't have the ability to run the ball or move away from the run too quickly, it puts your quarterback in the situation that he's got to carry the team. And under those circumstances, I thought Brady did a marvelous job in playing and having poise and putting us in a position to try to win the football game.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think our team is looking forward to this game.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would say so. What they do, with their style of offense and the formations and the personnel, they expand and cover the entire field. I think somebody has kind of called that style, what is it, basketball at football or basketball on grass, or something of that nature, some type of term they use, descriptive term they use to describe it. When you have to defend the whole field, and then you can have a strong running attack, you put the maximum pressure on the defense possible, and that's what they do.

COACH WILLINGHAM: We just didn't execute. There were some things that we felt like we could have had that we could have missed whether it was a throw or pass or protection or the block, etc., that we just missed. And to be consistent, you have to make those plays.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would say that would be one of the steps. We are always pointing our team towards consistency and that more consistence if it would come, it would lead to us have more success throughout an entire football game.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think it started somewhere in the middle of last year and toward the latter part when we played Stanford, you saw him make some big plays. I think he has just been steadily improving and becoming better at his route running, becoming better at his toughness, becoming better at making the tough catch. And I think with that he's put himself in a position that there is a lot of confidence in his ability to make a play.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think we have one that I would probably draw comparisons to would probably be Troy Walters. Troy was a very small man, but like Matt , he played big. If you talk to him, would you probably think -- and not necessarily through his comments -- but you would get the feeling that he's kind of 6'3-ish, but he's nothing close to that. They play big and have confidence and work extremely hard to perfect their skills.

COACH WILLINGHAM: All of those are difficult. Superstar, the one guy, can make it extremely tough. I can remember once putting the triple team on Keyshawn Johnson and he still made the play. So they are all equally tough to defend. But I think when you have more weapons and more people you can go to, it really keeps a team off-balance. And when you have three backs and you have four or five major receivers that you can count on, it makes things very difficult.

COACH WILLINGHAM: One piece of advice? Be aggressive.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, all of those things are easy to say and hard or difficult to do when you face good people. And we will be facing good people. So when you want to be aggressive, you don't want to give up big plays and want to keep the ball always in front of us, those are all things that we will discuss with our defensive backs and our entire defense.

COACH WILLINGHAM: We run into each other on occasion.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think Coach Tiller has done an excellent job down there, and I think it demonstrated itself in the fact that I think they are seven Bowl games maybe in the last seven or eight years or maybe even seven years. So, no, he has done a great job I think in resurrecting that program and making it competitive in all aspects.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think obviously in a conference, there is a little bit more to play for for some degree. I think you have a conference title that is always at stake, as well as a national opportunity. We have the national opportunities and our pride will be the major thing that we will put in front of our young men.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Is there more pressure -- I'm just trying to follow you.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No. But our preference would always be to get the highest ranking Bowl we could.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, first of all, our tight ends are probably still claiming they are an afterthought. They are looking for a little bit more action, but we've been very blessed. I think we've got, at this time a pretty deep tight end core. Unfortunately I think we will lose three of them at the end of the year, three seniors, Clark, Palmer and Collins. But we have got a pretty good group. Anthony and Marcus Freeman have played, as well as the other members of the group. And when we play well, it allows us to involve them more in our system, and in most defenses, that is one area that is definitely to defend, a good tight end.

COACH WILLINGHAM: See I don't know if I would label what Jeff has done as a breakthrough. I think Jeff has been pretty good and pretty consistent for us all the time. I have labelled Jeff very simply a winner, in that if you put him in position to make plays, he makes plays.