TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL: NOTRE DAME v OREGON STATE

January 1, 2001

Bob Davie

Anthony Denman

Dan O'Leary

COACH DAVIE: Well, first of all, I think it's pretty obvious we got whipped. We got outcoached, we got outplayed. I give Oregon State a lot of credit. That football team out there tonight impressed me. You know, I'm disappointed we didn't play better, but I also give credit where credit's due. I thought their speed was definitely a factor in the football game. I thought they played extremely hard. We never could get in sync offensively. Let's face it, for us, when we turned the football over three times, we gave up probably a 70-yard touchdown pass on a 2nd and 10 to make it 12-3. We had the punt return that was kind of a bizarre play. We're not going to win. When we can't run the football any more effectively than we did tonight, you know, we virtually have no chance. So we got our butt kicked. Oregon State deserves a lot of credit. I told our football team, obviously, I'm embarrassed by the way we played, but I'll never be embarrassed when it comes to this football team. We didn't play very well. We didn't play very well. I'll be happy to take any questions.

COACH DAVIE: It's always more than one play or one series. We could not run the football. We were off rhythm all night. You know, obviously the sacks had a lot to do with the total rushing yards. You know, if you had to say there was one big series, I think it was probably the first possession of the second half, when it was 12-3 and we finally stopped them. You know, we run the ball on first down, get stoned. Second down, we get sacked and turn the ball over. Just all night we were off rhythm. I have to give them credit because they jumped around and made a bunch of plays on defense.

COACH DAVIE: I think they picked on everyone (laughter). They have three of the most talented receivers I've seen on one team. I don't know that they picked on Clifford any more than any of our other two guys. I don't know that we've played against a quarterback, to be quite honest, that was as hot as the quarterback was all night. I kept telling our players that eventually he would cool down, but he never did. He made some great throws. He made two throws to the tightend that were extremely accurate. You got to give them credit. I mean, that's a good offensive football team.

COACH DAVIE: You know, they're about what I thought. I thought we would be able to maybe run the football a little bit better to neutralize their quickness a little bit on defense. But, you know, once we got behind and our quarterback got rattled a little bit, we just kind of discombobulated, you know. We never could stay on rhythm. For us, when we're not on rhythm, we have problems. They're as quick a football team as we've played. Just across the board in all areas, when you look at their runningback, their receivers; then on defense, they're extremely quick.

COACH DAVIE: We've got a lot of work to do. You know, we have an awful lot of work. I think, you know, we've got a heck of a nucleus coming back. I think this was a great experience for a young football team, particularly for a young quarterback. We have a lot of work to do because it's not going to get any easier. We need to improve in a lot of areas. You know, offensively, we cannot get ourselves off rhythm the way we were off rhythm tonight. We have to find a way to run the football north and south. Defensively, certainly we have to improve coverage-wise. So we've got an awful lot of work to do. But the positive thing is we got a bunch of the same faces back. You know, Oregon State is a senior football team. We're a young football team. But it's obvious we have a lot of work to do.

COACH DAVIE: I think the momentum changer was the first series of the second half when it was 12-3, we were able to stop them on defense. We had the ball back at about the 40-yard. That was a momentum changer. Whether he fumbled the ball on the one-yard or not, that was a touchdown. Clifford Jefferson undercut the out. Maybe could have intercepted the ball, but made a bad decision. I don't think that was the biggest play of the football game.

COACH DAVIE: Based on tonight, we've got a long way to go. A long, long way to go. But I think we're pretty realistic about what kind of football team we had all year. You know, you look at these bowl games, see how things happen in bowl games, seemed to be a little bit more personified than what happens in the regular season because of the long layoff, there's more drastic momentum swings. We've got a long way to go. We've got a long way to go. I think Oregon State is a Top 5 football team. They easily could have been 11-and-0 this year. They could have won the PAC-10 Championship. We've got a ways to go. You know, we certainly have a start on it.

COACH DAVIE: No. I think that's accurate. We never did get Joey involved. We ran the run reverse to him. Tried to make some things happen on punt return. I'm disappointed that Joey didn't get the football more. You know, it's one of those things. We were off rhythm all night; so, yeah, you know, I agree with you. Joey didn't touch the football enough.

DAN O'LEARY: We all thought we could come back into the game. Like Coach Davie said, we didn't feel at any part in the first half we could get into a rhythm. That's what we really needed. We couldn't get into the flow of the game. My hat is off to Oregon State. I think they played a heck of a game. I'm still proud of the guys. I'm proud of the guys that played their hearts out today, bled and sweat out there for us.

ANTHONY DENMAN: No. Had a lot of team speed. This year the whole defense played against a lot of teams, like USC, a lot of speed. They got a lot of breaks that went their way and they won, so...

DAN O'LEARY: I think Matt was pretty calm tonight. I don't think he changed much from what you've seen all year. Just a couple of unfortunate situations that he was put in where he couldn't get the ball off and all the receivers were covered. Sometimes he couldn't make the hot read. But I think he was as calm and collected as he's ever been. He's going to take this team to the next level next year.

DAN O'LEARY: We were pretty prepared for the team speed. I wasn't surprised at all. I saw them on film. I knew what these guys could do. The linebackers were real fast-flow guys, defensive ends were tremendously fast. It was just a matter of us getting bodies on bodies. We were unable to do that tonight.