UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 15, 2002

Tyrone Willingham

COACH WILLINGHAM: Good morning.

COACH WILLINGHAM: This is -- I think it's well noted overtime that this is a very difficult offense to prepare for. You don't get the opportunity to really simulate the blocking schemes in the manner that they will do it, even though we'll do our best job of trying to reproduce what they do. But there's no way you can probably get the speed and the confidence that they bring to it in practice.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I first better go find out what their nicknames are, make sure I am on the same page. No, we have got a group that I think first of all, before I kind of dissect them, I think the first thing you have to do is recognize how similar they are in terms of the intensity with which they play and the competitiveness in which they play. Then I think you have got Shane that's probably a little more outspoken. Could be kind of the legislator of the group, I think, one way to may be to put that. You have got Glenn that's probably a little more quiet, probably the hitter of the group the way he kind of sees himself and does things. Sapp could kind of be the overrule leader. I think you might say Vontez maybe the athletic specimen of the group and how they might fit in.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I don't know if I can say I have seen that inexperience. I think he falls prey like all defensive backs to having a mistake here or there but his play has been amazingly solid and amazingly mature in my estimation.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Areas of improvement you are always interested in every area. There's no area that's good enough - I think Carlyle would be the first to say that. But I would say that I have been pleased from Day 1 with his decision-making ability at that position. That means that as you go through an afternoon of 70 to 80 snaps there are always going to be one or two decisions that he would like to have back and I would like to have back but I have been very pleased with his decision-making ability. I have said all along that it's not necessarily physical skills that would determine how well that position is played, but more the decision-making ability therein.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Okay. Well, Courtney has definitely been a leader for this team and I think his presence was missed even though we had some great play out of Hoyte and our other linebackers, it was fantastic play. He just has that experience and ability to identify things and communicate things that other players are still learning and when you have someone in that position it's a valuable asset because it kind of calms down your defense and allows everyone to be a better player.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I think you are perfectly right in saying that I don't have any choice. Usually when I don't I kind of defer those to others that do have a choice. But it probably makes it kind of like being on the west coast in a sense it makes it more difficult for your fans to probably stay up and see the game as much as anything else. But what we'll do is go out and play the game. I mean we'll try not to have as many things or as few things as possible be distractions and just concentrate on playing the football game.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think Arnaz has done a great job of slowly learning the position and I say that in light of the fact that yes, he was a receiver a year ago but at the same time I don't think he was -- the demand of this system was placed on him last year. So in my estimation he's really just starting to learn the position. So the spring was good for him and of course there's nothing as -- to help you grow as much as a football season. So he, participating and playing every week, is allowing him to really grow and learn the position better. Whether it's the understanding how to read coverages better; how to play the ball better; or how to even run routs better; how to position yourself all those things I think he's acquiring a real skill for as we progress through the season.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I sincerely hope it does. I hope that every small and every large success that he had just allows him to grow immeasurably so we can get hopefully the kind of offense of play that we think could come out of our offense.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, it's kind of hard for myself to look at that size equation. We simply look at the production and we know that Justin is an outstanding athlete with an explosive physique to him. He's a guy that whoever he may be undersized as you were mentioning here, but he is an explosive athlete and his ability to come off the edge, get off the ball, leverage himself, and create pressure on that offensive tackle is a real plus for our defense. And with him, I think being able to add the pressure that he added, it makes the job a lot easier for the guys inside and makes them even more effective.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Their defense is very solid and I think what happens is everyone gets caught looking at their offense and worrying about that scheme, but they have done a great job. I think they are one of the top teams in turnover ratio if I am correct on that. I think may even be tied with us in terms of the number of turnover for the season that they have created or somewhere along that line. But this is a good solid defense that plays discipline football and plays very aggressive which is consistent with the way their entire team plays.

COACH WILLINGHAM: You are absolutely correct. I don't think we saw very much option other than a play or two mixed in at Stanford.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I don't know.

COACH WILLINGHAM: We lean on everyone in the staff to be able to make a contribution and give us ideas on how is the best way to defend or attack an opponent.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, we knew it when it reached a certain point with them only having I think it was one timeout that we could kill the clock at that point.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, it's to late to do that. You have to have all that hopefully calculated out before then.

COACH WILLINGHAM: We try to.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I will be the first to say that I think without any question and you have mentioned it the score is No. 1. No. 2 could be turnovers. No. 3 could be rushing, defense. Okay. And you look at those and usually those give you a pretty good indicator of who won the football game.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, you always hope to have absolutely the best offense you can have and we hope the same thing for our defense we like to get shutouts every weekend and like to score 30, 40 points every weekend. Sometimes that doesn't happen and right now we are in one of those stretches where we haven't done that from an offensive standpoint. Do we expect to get better? Yes. Do we want to get better? Yes.

COACH WILLINGHAM: What I would say to that is execution, any time a young man is thinking, the ability to execute is reduced and probably right now within our structure we still have some thinking going on. Is there a timetable exactly when you know the offense? I don't know it. Okay. We can master some things first day, Day 1, some things you don't. It's an ongoing process, hopefully we're get willing better and better and closer and closer to being the offense we'd like to be.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I don't know. I think you'd have to say that they have been able to establish some tradition and history and have a special athlete that they have carved out that they know can factor into their program every year so the overall tradition and consistency of recruiting and consistency of program I think has probably allowed them to find their place.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, what it does plays a huge burden on are your responsibilities in terms of the option, okay, so you have got to have every player coordinated well to take -- one has to take the dive; one has to take the quarterback; one has to take the pitch. And they give it to you in a variety of manners; whether it is a straight triple option or a load option, or it's some type of counter that they mix in there, so it comes you at you in a variety of ways with motions and adjustments that every player has to be very disciplined in his responsibilities and where they get you at is usually someone doesn't physically execute or someone mentally makes the mistake in their assignment and plays the wrong part of the option and out the gate they go.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Gosh, I think you have to ask God that question in a sense and I mean that seriously. Some guys have it in their makeup. They are just -- they love the physical portion of it and they play more physical than the next man. We would love to be able to have that peel, okay, so we can give it to everybody on the team and everybody would have that same skill. But I think Glenn is kind of a special guy that he really enjoys that and whatever his wiring is or makeup is, that's a huge part of what he does and how he plays.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I am not sure if the others leave enough space for him to communicate, so (laughter) -- I mean, he might just naturally take that role because that's all that's left.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think it's their overall discipline and their will to be successful and I think that's ingrained in most of our academies, it's just something about the personalities of those teams that they never quit; they are always on the aggressive, and I think that makes for them, along with their scheme, to play good, solid defense.

COACH WILLINGHAM: We have always said that we'll use any source of motivation available.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I would first say thank you because that's a huge compliment coming from Fisher because I think without question he is one of the outstanding coaches in the country and obviously has done a great job at Air Force. Other than that, gosh, I would probably say I am surprised.

COACH WILLINGHAM: That's always, I think, a difficult question to answer is how we got our team to be where we are right now because there are so many things that go into that that I am not sure you could ever put your finger on any one thing that contributed to you being successful. I think we have had a group of young men that are eager to be successful. They have been working extremely hard during the course of the spring and summer and now into the season. We have had the ball bounce our way in some cases and I think for the most part our coaches have done a great job in preparing our young men.

COACH WILLINGHAM: As long as both teams have to play at the same level, I am okay.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I think we'll run faster after training in sea level.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No, I don't think so. I think we have been rotating our guys pretty much at all of our key positions, those positions especially that we feel like we have the ability to rotate and we'll continue that.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I think, No. 1, any style of offense that you run one of the key ingredients has to be that you believe in that offense and believe in that style and that system. I don't think there's any doubt that they thoroughly believe in the option, their execution of it and therefore their players believe in it and they do a great job with it.

COACH WILLINGHAM: No. I have been very comfortable with the mixture of running and passing it in a pro-style offense.

COACH WILLINGHAM: I probably never took that look or tried to make that type of evaluation. My thoughts coming in weren't -- the game is played with the idea that you play it to win and that's the way we started to work with our football team. I would hate to be a coach that comes in and says to a senior that we're building for the future. I mean, that's not what a senior wants to hear. He wants to say coach, this is my last year. I want to be successful right now. So I would believe that any coach would make plans along that line. At least I felt like that was the right thing for myself to make. So we have gone out with the thought process that we're interested in winning the next ballgame that we play.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I have said - I think I even mentioned it somewhere today - that the group of young men that we're coaching were eager to be successful, so without question they have done the work. They have paid the price for us to have the success that we're having right now.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, I think the more people that have an active involvement in what you are doing, the stronger your team becomes because then their level of commitment goes up. It's very difficult sometimes to be committed when you are really not involved other than just in practice. So I think our ability to use as many players as possible helps us be a stronger team because of each individual's commitment to the team.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, we would hope so. In some cases it has been good and other cases you are still wondering what happened on that given play. But the key again is if you can get young people involved and again it's not just to involve young people, it has to be those that have earned and deserved a right to be involved and if so, if you believe that, then you trust that they will make the right plays at the right time.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, the key thing about field position if you were to go back and track statistically touchdowns scored, you could start at one end of the field and go to the other and the percentage would increase with each basically 15 to 10 yards that you mark off. I don't know what the -- exactly ours, but probably I would imagine if you got the ball on the 5-yard line, your 5-yard line that it would probably be maybe about three percent that you might take and march those in for touchdowns or less and as you go down the field that percentage increases. So field position is always a key element in a football game because eventually your percentage goes up just based on field position that you score a touchdown which means the more touchdowns you score the greater chance you have to win. In our case, especially in the Pittsburgh game, Joey did a fantastic job of keeping them pinned in that area that usually produces a low percentage of touchdowns scored. Even though they may have gotten two or three first downs, you still just get into mid-field in many of those cases. So it is a tremendous advantage to be able to control field position.

COACH WILLINGHAM: Well, those people that made those decisions definitely did not talk to Coach Willingham. Because -- and I said this from Day 1 -- a football game is a hard thing to win. And you can take any game and they are more than just the on-field dynamics that determines what happens with a football game. I would think if you went back to Michigan State this year, and they had I think it was California before, somehow some of their players might have felt that California was insignificant on that schedule or maybe someone had told them that that was an easy football game. That did not turn out to be an easy football game. I think you can go on and on every week in college football and have those kind of dynamics surround a football game just in itself make winning a football game very difficult. So I would never look at the schedule and say that this one is anymore difficult than the other one because I know sometimes the thought process that goes on with just players that it becomes extremely difficult to win any game at any time. Thank you.