UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 5, 2002

Tyrone Willingham

COACH WILLINGHAM: First of all, we'll get a lot of questions about color of jerseys, so we might as well just speak on that right now. The color of the jersey had nothing to do with us not winning the football game or holding on to the football or any of those other things. The color of the jersey was not to get our football team up. We recognized that Boston College was an important team on our schedule and the things we wanted to accomplish, we needed to beat them. We just failed in some areas to execute our game plan, and therefore did not allow ourselves the opportunity to beat them.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I don't buy "can't do it." I think he is correct that it is difficult to get a team up every week and have them play at the same level. But, no, I don't believe the human condition says that you can't do something.

COACH WILLINGHAM: That will be a decision made when I feel like it's appropriate.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I don't think so. If I'm correct, I think that happened about the time that he threw the touchdown, right around that time. Then I think he was out of the lineup.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Yes.

COACH WILLINGHAM: We'll keep our same focus and concentration on protecting the football and trying to create turnovers. We do that every day in our practice. We will go back and look at our fundamentals, as we always do, try to make sure everyone is sound there. We think that will probably cure the problems that we have - or shall I say that we had - coming out of the of the weekend.

COACH WILLINGHAM: We hope he'll be ready to play. He's been getting closer and closer each week.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, the first thing is it takes a great deal for anyone to make those plays in those clutch situations. But those two guys continue to get better and better each week. It's such a simple thing, but when you start the process, you start with them not knowing a great deal about your offense. The majority of that is, even though they may have run a curl rout in high school, it's a little different when it comes to college, the college environment, college defense. All of that changes along with the vocabulary, then being able to put all that together. Those two guys I think are doing a great job of continuing to learn the system and improve and be able for us to feel confident about putting them in those key situations.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I want them to win the next weekend. I mean, that's it, okay? Whatever it takes. It's so difficult to say, "What is the right personality for a team?" Every team takes its own personality. Some guys will be very upset, might even want to throw chairs. I don't think that's necessary. But there's a lot of different personalities along that spectrum. What we're interested in is being able to come out the next weekend and win the football game.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Yes. I think you have to be very careful. As disappointed as I am, as disappointed as our players are, to my knowledge we're 8-1.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, we always want to have direction in our program. We want to know what's out there, what are the potentials, what are the possibilities. Do you focus on that? No. It's very easy in focusing on that big picture that you get away from what's most important. The most important game we will play will be Navy.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would say that's the defining attitude of a true team. I think a championship player, a player that believes he is a great player, will look at his performance and not be satisfied with it, say he can do more. I think our defense expects that of themselves. I think our offense expects that of themselves.

COACH WILLINGHAM: It depends. I think the best example I could give you of that is just this past weekend. I mean, there were a few other people that (fell/failed?) this weekend besides us. It created an interesting scenario for college football.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No. If you're looking at Pat, he had basically one bad decision, one bad play. Over the course of our ballgame, I'm willing to bet we had several players in that ballgame that had one bad decision and one bad play. We don't like any of them. I don't think the young man likes any of them. But, no, I'm pleased with what Pat has done to date.

COACH WILLINGHAM: As you know on our defensive team, offensive team for that matter, we have a lot of guys that fit into that category, that have done exceptional jobs. Some of them have great stats and some of them don't. Without any one of them, we would not be the same defensive or offensive team or team in general and have the success that we're having. But there is no question that one of the key ingredients to our success is Gerome Sapp. He's been a play-maker. I think as you look at the interception he had Saturday, that had to be one of the finest interceptions that I've seen in a long time. But he not only does those type of plays, he also provides great leadership, is very much a quarterback in our secondary. He does take on that kind of persona of one of the most valuable players in our defensive scheme.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, none whatsoever. I think, again, anyone that is a real competitor pushes himself to that level. That's why we're having the success we've had with our defense. They do push themselves to that level.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Nothing that I would care to comment on.

COACH WILLINGHAM: If you're looking at them, their real strength has been their offense. They are running the football at a pace that puts them as one of the Top 10, Top 5 teams in the country. That has been their strength. As always, when a team comes with the option, it makes it very difficult. We have I guess the luxury of saying we have defended the option once this year. But it will come at us in a little different package; they will do things a little bit different. What will be my greatest concern is that we don't take that fact for granted that we have played the option, yet pay great attention to detail because this will be a different package and successful package.

COACH WILLINGHAM: They do some different things. Their motion is different. Their blocking schemes are different. Where they try to put their focus at is different.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think it's surprising to everyone to see that. That was something that we didn't anticipate. There were no inklings of it before or things of that nature. It just all of a sudden showed up. But what we'll go back and do as always is stress our fundamentals, work on those things to make sure we alleviate any and all problems.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think both guys at some point had some fairly high interest. I'm not sure where Rhema was declining at that point because of the events or what. But we just simply went in and hopefully showed those two young men what we felt like they could be productive in our system. We didn't know when their productivity would show itself, whether it would be as freshmen or whether it would come later. We were committed to giving them the opportunity, as we do with all our players, to demonstrate their skills. If their skills show up better than the next guy, we'd find a way to work them into the lineup.

COACH WILLINGHAM: With Coach Williams' dismissal, it saddens me. I know it saddens the Michigan State family because in the coaching fraternity, you hate to see that come to any coach. It's disappointment, sadness, but at the same time I wish him well and also wish the University well.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Once again, we really get our young men for the truly first time today. Tuesday is the day that we basically start the week. We start to shape and see all the attitudes. But, one, you have to have an awareness, but sometimes you don't want to look for a certain thing. In looking so hard for it, you can create it. What we want to do is stay the course. We've been very strong, very positive to this date. Our young men are focused. There's still a great deal we can accomplish. If we go out with that mindset, we'll probably eliminate some of that hangover. There's no question that when you lose, it hurts, okay? It hurts coaches, it hurts players. That's there. That's why you compete. Those emotions are part of it. But at the same time I think our young men are mature enough and pointed in the right direction that we want to go out and accomplish some great things, and the next group that stands in our way is the naval academy.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I get concerned when you go off topic. I want to you know that (laughter).

COACH WILLINGHAM: Is there anyplace you'd like to go to? I'm just asking (laughter)?

COACH WILLINGHAM: I'll bring it up at the next discussion.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You want to go to Rome, too (laughter)?

COACH WILLINGHAM: First of all, I guess I beg to differ with the latter part of that. I don't want my answer to be associated with the latter part of that. The truth of the matter is this relationship is a little bit deeper than just a football game, if I am correct. Therefore, there is great precedence for this game and this rivalry to take place.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I really haven't. I've been asked I guess several questions about the rankings and different things throughout the year. That has not necessarily been our focus. I think I consistently said it's great for people to say nice things about you. I'm not sure exactly what number we are as we report today. I still think there are people saying nice things about us, and that's good. But we have to go out on the field and prove it. If we do it on the field, people will eventually respect what you do.

COACH WILLINGHAM: That is a very valid point. I think all of our freshmen, whether they're playing or not playing, it's a very difficult transition. To be the stars in their high schools, the stars in their state, they're coming here, not getting time, getting some time, it's not the time they'd like. We try to make sure in our program that everyone is focused on one thing, add that's our team. It's not about the individual, even though the individual is extremely important. We try to make sure that our focus is our team. The biggest aspect of that is winning. We all should get great satisfaction when we win and seek to make every contribution that we can. In some cases it may not be in your production. Eventually, in the case of these two freshmen, their production will come.

COACH WILLINGHAM: At different parts of our camp, we've done those things, especially if we believe they're going to play. Otherwise, you want them to be similar in their experience being with another freshman. There are things we try to do along the course of the season in terms of my visiting with them or visiting with the entire class to make sure they're all on the same page.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No. Coming in, I think I weighed all of that knowledge, that anything we do as a college coach nowadays, half will approve and half will disapprove. Whether we had won or not, you're going to get that type of reaction. That's the environment we live in. But I felt like that particular decision was a good decision. We went forward.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, we've consistently had to face the latter portion of your question each week. That was something I knew coming to Notre Dame. For most of the teams we play, it would indeed be the biggest game of the year. I think our young men are aware of that. We're also aware of the fact that if we don't play well, we will not win that football game. That for us is consistent every week. Every team we play, if you don't play well, you don't win. Then you have to have things fall your way. I think our young men in our team are aware of that. I don't look at it, I know our coaches don't look at it, as though someone on the outside might, that we won a certain number in a row, and therefore the law of averages dictate this or that. We understand you have to go out and play football next Saturday. If we don't do that, then we won't be successful.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think we're all pretty much on the same page that we try to look at any and every tendency that you can find: field position, down and distance, formation, personnel. Just about everything you try to put down in some form so you can statistically look at it, analyze it, see if you can come one the right call. There's no question Boston College did some good things on Saturday. I think at the same time we did some good things and had we not come short with some fumbles and miscues from that standpoint, it could have easily been a different ballgame. But that's not what's important. What's important is we didn't make those plays, and they made the ones we needed to win the football game.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would say all of it's being done by computer. It first has to start with the hand. The hand has to take it off and put it on the computer, which is probably able to break down more factors, include more factors in the breakdown than maybe we might have been doing by hand years ago.