TAXSLAYER GATOR BOWL: NOTRE DAME VS SOUTH CAROLINA

December 30, 2022

Tariq Bracy

TIAA Bank Field

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Press Conference

Notre Dame 45, South Carolina 38

Q. What were they doing the first half that had you on your heels a little bit, and how did you adjust the second half?

TARIQ BRACY: You know, just tempo kind of threw us off, and they were throwing a lot of screens on the perimeter. I don't know if we were quite ready for that yet, but once we got the adjustments, we were able to limit their explosiveness off of that. I mean, that's the biggest deal.

Q. Tariq, how did you guys respond when you lost Benjamin Morrison? How did the secondary reset after that to know you had to move on without him?

TARIQ BRACY: We have a lot of DBs in that room who's ready to step up and make plays, and losing Ben, it hurts. He's part of our core group. But we have our guys that can step in, make plays. We just made sure he was all right and just continued to do what we was doing.

Q. The defense hadn't been on the field in quite some time after you guys took the field for the last possession to try and stop South Carolina. Did you have to reset and get sort of loose after being on the sideline for a long time there?

TARIQ BRACY: Yeah, it's what we do. We play one play, one life, reset, go again. There's not much else to it.

Q. I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit obviously losing Cam and (indiscernible) for this game, what you saw your role as a leader in the secondary?

TARIQ BRACY: You know, Ramon is a baller, so we've got trust in Ramon he's going to make plays, and in regards to Cam and Brandon Joseph, like I said, it hurts. They're part of our group. I don't know, it's just make plays. We've got other players that go out and step up.