UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 21, 2004

Tyrone Willingham

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, the first thing that would be the natural evolution of football. You know, things go around. You start with one style. All of a sudden the option was very popular and people figured out ways to defense the option. Then you change that, you multiply it, you grow, you improve and that's what football is. It's going to be that constant retooling of offensive schemes to change and adjust when things catch up. That's what you're going through.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No. Probably the biggest thing that's slowing most people down to pass the football is zone blitz. That's the biggest thing and being able to recognize and deal with that and figure out the appropriate scheme tore if.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I could not be more excited with his approach. I think that's the way it should be played. And that it probably fits better with the current rule as we had a couple years with the hallow rule. That's the right approach.

COACH WILLINGHAM: His aggressive. He wants to be.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Today, yes. Do you have another candidate?

COACH WILLINGHAM: I'll benefit from anything you can give me.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You sure? (Laughter).

COACH WILLINGHAM: I want to make sure.

COACH WILLINGHAM: It is a big deal and it should be a big deal. The officials need to be able to do their job and you really don't want the officials in most case on the field. You want them in that area so they can work and do their job. And I and Lee did not allow them to do that well enough; so therefore, they warned us.

COACH WILLINGHAM: That was my initial thought that either we would be penalized on the kickoff or it could be taken away, the touchdown. And of course I didn't want either one of those.

COACH WILLINGHAM: That is always a concern because when you get into the red zone, the goal is to score touchdowns, not field goals, but touchdowns. And when you do neither of those, you really put yourself in jeopardy because you feel like you've just squandered opportunities and eventually it comes back to haunt you.

COACH WILLINGHAM: It's something that we work on every week. You work on red zone, scoring and making those plays and being very productive in that area.

COACH WILLINGHAM: That's all the same. You want to score at every opportunity you can. So you emphasize that. Where it becomes more important is when you get close and you don't do it, so you want to score and if we start on our own 3 we want to take the ball down and score.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You'd like, honestly, and you've already stated it, you'd like to score every time. That's the goal. You'd like every time that you get close, you want to come away with points. Your preference is touchdowns, but if you can't get a touchdown, you'll take a field goal.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would probably say yes, but we've still got a lot of room to. Improve, a lot of things we have to improve on our offense in order for us to be the kind of offense we'd like to be.

COACH WILLINGHAM: What concerns me most is first of all, their record, because I think it is deceiving. I think they have played some very good football and that record could very easily be 2-0 as opposed to 0-2. It can often create a mindset that this team is not as skilled as it is; so once we get past that issue, then comes the actual skill. I am really frightened by their running back, No. 7. They seem to be very difficult to tackle, and they are playing behind a pretty big offensive line that seems to be athletic, also. There seems to be some question about who their quarterback will be, and in that rotation and they have done a great job of producing points, even with that instability. And of course the receiver, I think, is a big play guy. He makes plays. And defensively, they have given up some yardage, but they look to be like most Washington teams, physical and athletic. And it just is a surprise that they have given up the yardage that they have given up. So to me this is a football team that is very capable of coming in and getting a Victory.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, the things you look for in your quarterback, you want him to have command of the system. You want him to be able to provide the leadership. You want him from a passing standpoint to be able to get the ball quickly out of his hands and to move it to the open receiver. So that requires being able to go through his progression. And Brady continues to improve and get better and better at those things.

COACH WILLINGHAM: It shouldn't. I think Thomas is a good back and he stepped in and did some good things. It's unfortunate that he fumbled. But Ryan Grant was not available to us at that time and I felt like we needed a runner that could take the ball down the field and that's one of the strong areas for Travis.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I do not know yet.

COACH WILLINGHAM: The way you ask that really concerns me, okay.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You don't think?

COACH WILLINGHAM: You lost me there.

COACH WILLINGHAM: What we do is we constantly are gathering information on things that may work, may not work, how you can implement those things. You are constantly trying to borrow from almost any and everywhere to see if there are new things that may fit in your system. Whether you introduce it or you introduce it from an outside source and still trying to find what works best and what makes you go. It's a constant change, week-to-week year-to-year.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Absolutely.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I don't.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I call it offense. I like your reference, though.

COACH WILLINGHAM: That it can be very productive; and it can allow not only the team success, but allow them success as individuals.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Some kids you do.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Who are you going -- where are you going? Help me out. What are you trying to get to?

COACH WILLINGHAM: It depends on the players and their individual adjustments, so you don't have a timetable. I think Nebraska is maybe seeing some of that right now.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Oh, yes, but you have to be very careful, too, that you don't overload players.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You keep letting him know that at some point, the opportunity will present itself, and that when that opportunity arises we have confidence in him and we will expect him to rise to the occasion.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Gosh, Darius's development is ongoing, but I think we've been very pleased with what we've seen to date. He continues to learn more and grow within the system.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would hope we would be able to have success in the run game. Again, I think you have to be very careful because this is a very athletic defense. I don't want to walk into a situation believing something will be there and it not be there and we don't execute to our potential.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, it's all about hopefully the execution, okay, that you continue to get better at that. You get better at understanding the system. You get better in the reads, you get better in the production. Those are the things you look for, to see if you're constantly improving.

COACH WILLINGHAM: We let down, and in other weeks those areas had been solid for us and had been good for us. We let down in those areas we got the punt block and gave up a kickoff return. You don't like those things to happen. Hopefully we can make all of the corrections so it won't happen again. But those are two areas that we did not perform well.

COACH WILLINGHAM: One has been very limited and has had some injuries and slowed his progress down. David Wolke has continued to grow and better yet he has not been given an opportunity to get on the field and really show his true progress.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think he does some very good things. But still, you've got an amazing adjustment that takes place from being a four-year starter in high school to coming into the college game. So I think he is still experiencing that transition, but yet he's made a lot of progress.

COACH WILLINGHAM: He would be behind Pat.

COACH WILLINGHAM: If you're looking for a number, yes, that would be it.

COACH WILLINGHAM: We do not know. We'll start to look at Maurice as he comes to practice today, but yes he was with a boot on his foot.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Jeff was primarily in the rotation, but we did not have Maurice available to us at that time, yes.

COACH WILLINGHAM: There always is. Winning is a great feeling, a great emotion. When you lose, you are not very happy. I think the term or the example they're cited over the years is that even the water tastes better when you win, and you know that in most of the cases what I drink is tasteless. So that means there is a difference between those two and being human. You fluctuate with those. You try not to.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would hope that we would have tremendous impact on those emotions. And my preference, of course is to have a nice, sweet environment.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Are you speaking of Wolke?

COACH WILLINGHAM: You didn't see him? So I have to print a new one this week. Okay. I'll have your copy later.

COACH WILLINGHAM: It is more difficult without question. That's why the spring is so critical, because it does allow you a little bit more leeway; that you don't have a true game to prepare for each week. So you can spend more time on fundamentals and you hope that the base that you build up from the spring is really carried over to the fall. But you still can work on things. I think we try to make sure that every day we work on certain things which don't get too far away from the fundamentals, because if you do that it really adversely affects the way you play.

COACH WILLINGHAM: First of all, I think it comes natural with the position. I think as a quarterback, there's just a natural mantle of leadership that's placed on you, and I think most guys in that position readily accept that. But as you grow and have greater confidence and greater knowledge of all of the other facets of the game, then you naturally expand into a greater leadership role, also.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I think he's able to lend a more vocal leadership to the team than probably the other year and I think that will continue to grow.

COACH WILLINGHAM: That was a spectacular game on Tommy's part and much needed from a team standpoint. To have make that strip, okay, and take it for a touchdown was a great play, but that might be one that you write about for a long time. It's exciting and that's what you expect from big-time players.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I think he will continue to grow as I think there are other players that will continue to grow. As they gain more confidence and more experience and you will see them hopefully be able to expand the things that they do on the field.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Oh, yeah, he is extremely well-woven into the fabric of our football team. Had a lot of layers, social layers, in terms of leadership in terms of his work ethic. He is an integral part of our team.

COACH WILLINGHAM: That's probably -- the advantages of boxing obviously would be like any of the karates or anything of those natures, the hand speed, those things help. It's probably a little more difficult for him because of the nature of sport to be involved in boxing and football.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, Matt has been really, I think you can just about go to the Stanford game a year ago. He is showcasing his speed and his ability to get the ball and make plays and that has continued from last year to this year. Jeff, I said long ago that he is a winner. He's just a guy that makes plays and you put him in a situation and he finds a way to get it done.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I am hopeful that he is very well grounded, because you don't want anything that happens to a young man to take away from what he's doing. And you don't want him to get caught on himself or not be able to really move forward. But Matt has been not a surprise. We believe that he has had the potential to do the things that he is doing and it's just great that he is making those plays and really stepping forward.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, there's always a real thin line that you walk between having just enough and too much. You're always trying to balance that. You do want a team that is very confident and believe it can get something done, but you do not want a team so confident that it forgets how to work or what it took to get where they are at. So hopefully that's where our other coaches step in at; that we can not keep them very well grounded and understand what's most important is this next game we play, and that the next team coming in will have no concern about what we did last week.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I didn't fare very well against them. There was probably about three occasions that we had them beat and let them slip out. So I'm very hopeful that this will be the charm.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I spoke with Carlyle yesterday so we had that talk. (Laughter).

COACH WILLINGHAM: What it does for us, it can really change our point of emphasis with our offensive attack and based on the skills of those guys. Right now you see Darius do a wonderful job of getting to the corners of the defense, which now forces them to expand the field which also has opportunities for him inside; also allowing Ryan or whoever our next back is to come in and do work inside and outside, changes what they have to do from a pass receiving standpoint. So all of those things are made more difficult for the defense when you have contrasting styles of back in your offense.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I wasn't sure exactly how it could come to play. You're hopeful that you can find two guys that can give you different styles, and really two guys that can give you consistent play because in that, then you can keep your backs fresh and you can always be the aggressor.

COACH WILLINGHAM: First of all, you tell them to always be honest. You tell them that our business is not necessarily the business of the public and there are certain things that should stay in the locker room and should only be the business of the team. And to enjoy the experience.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Every so often I'll remind them in very subtle ways.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You just talk to them and provide them with examples of where you see another player in another sport or the game of football that might have made when you think is a mistake, and you try to bring that to their attention so they won't make similar mistakes.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would say that is a real advantage, because unfortunately you have a tendency sometimes when you see a little guy to not believe that he can beat you or do certain things against you. When you catch an opponent by surprise, it is a wonderful thing in terms of being an advantage for.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, when you've completed the big plays that he has, I think yes, people have to pay attention to him. And what that does for us is allow that attention to go to him and we can go to another avenue, which forces them to pay attention to that avenue; so you can go back to Matt or go to someone else.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think for the most part we have been fairly well pleased with the play of our receivers. And we asked them not just to be receivers, but we asked them to make a contribution in all aspects of the football game and they have been willing participants in that. So with that, Shelton has stepped up when he's been called up. Chase has had some opportunities and we need to give him some more. Probably going to give Carlyle a little bit more but Rhema has stepped up and also Maurice. So I've been overall pleased with the group. And I might even have forgotten one guy in there, but it's been a real solid group and they worked well together and they seem to complement the things that we are trying to do in our offensive scheme.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, that is something that we're trying to improve because we think we can improve on our kicks, not just in distance and hang time, but also the location. You have a tendency to improve your coverage, so we're trying to look at that and see if we can improve distance, improve hang time and also direction.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would say it depends on having a very grounded and balanced outlook on themselves and their surroundings; that they never become overwhelmed with high expectations, and that they always continually are driving themselves towards their own high expectations. And those guys usually seem to be successful because they are always hungry, always trying to reach that next level of accomplishment.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think you can learn it but human nature is very difficult to deal with. It's always a constant battle within themselves to be able to maintain that balance.

COACH WILLINGHAM: First of all, I think you start with a pretty strong quarterback background, and that gives him a source of strength that some other players might not have. He also has, I think, a pretty good arm. He has good physical skills and if I remember correctly I thought he was a bright young man coming out of high school. I think he's got a lot of fundamentals that you like to see in a quarterback.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I thought we had some initial conversations with him, but I thought he was early on his decision if I'm correct.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You hope with that background comes some experience that they gained without having to actually experience it themselves that was passed on from a father or brother or someone very close to them. So they can be a few steps ahead of the average guy if they were stepping in those situations.

COACH WILLINGHAM: They really do. I think on the West Coast they have been one of the more successful teams over the last couple of decades. They have a rich, rich history and tradition and high expectations. I have often described going into their stadium as the only place in the country where they check colors. If you won't wear purple, you don't get in. It's a pretty strong following and I'm quite sure they will be back here in numbers if there are tickets available.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Absolutely. I think with each day you age, you learn more, you're experienced more, you see things a little bit different. So hopefully I've naturally changed in a lot of areas.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I just think the background when you're put in a different environment you have to respond to it differently. You have to make adjustments for it. You're coaching a different team, different mentally, live in a different part of the country, I think all of that is very natural.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Yes.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Yes. (Laughter).

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, it didn't. There was absolutely no contact while I was at the Seattle Bowl.

COACH WILLINGHAM: It was really his athleticism and his history we felt like he had enough toughness to make that transition. I originally thought he might be able to play corner for us because I really liked his feet. But it turned out that I think probably the safety position is probably a better position for him.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, you try to I think look at him as an athlete and try to envision those qualities you need at a position and then try to project them and believe that they will have the ability to get those things done. I don't know if I can say it's that scientific.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think it is, because I think if you were talking with almost any coach I think one of the things that would jump out at you that we would request of a player would be toughness. And it's hard to be a good boxer if you're not tough. So that is a quality that we all seek and it's a quality that is very much in demand on all football teams. You want tough players, very physical approach to the game.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No. That would not have been the proper thing for me to give him advice on, on that diary. And yes, I did read it.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Probably not in favor of it. Because I do think there are conversation that is take place between a player, coach and coach and recruit that are more personal and don't necessarily involve public announcement.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, that is not my responsibility nor should it be my place to do that.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I don't think so. I think you look at the things they have done and the way they have played and it's not a mystery. The only mystery would be the fact that they don't have a win yet. But if you look at the way they have played, you see that this team is very capable, and I've been really impressed with what I've seen. And I think our coaches will say that I think after our players have an opportunity to look at them they will agree also.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No. Because I think for the most part it will -- changes in personnel will dictate some changes in the scheme, but for the most part I think they feel pretty good about the things they are doing schematically and trying to plug in the right people when and if they say they are making changes.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, that is always a concern. But again, hopefully what we will be is an experienced football team that can look at the videos that we'll receive on them and understand that this is a very capable football team.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would say that they are probably similar; that we are creating a great deal -- or we are creating turnovers, which is it something that we try to press each day with our football team, to be aggressive in that area and practice those skills that will allow you to create turnovers. We are always focused on trying to stop the run, because we believe from the defensive philosophy standpoint that it reduces the game down and gives you a better opportunity to win if you only have to face one dimension. So I would say that it's very similar in terms of what we are trying to get accomplished with the defenses that we have had in the past.