Notre Dame Fighting Irish College Football Pregame Quote, 12/26/2018

How does Clemson’s secondary compare to some of the units you’ve played this season? I don’t think they compare. I think they’re a lot better than the teams we’ve seen this year. I do think that, you know, the pressure that they bring, it makes it a lot harder on the receivers. Because obviously the ball is not going to come out perfect and we’ve got to go play plays.

Dabo [Swinney] said that his team should be preparing as if Dexter Lawrence won’t play. Are you preparing as if he will play? Yeah. We can’t prepare whether he’s going to play or not play, you know. Their D line is going to be great, regardless. they have a lot of players up there. So, you know, if he plays, he plays. If he doesn’t, he doesn’t. That’s not in our hands. We have to prepare as he is.

Where have you seen Chase [Claypool] developing the most of the season? I think his mentality. He’s matured over the season and he’s been a huge player for us.

Obviously a couple nights ago, I think it was Christmas Eve, the report came out that Brandon [Wimbush] was going to transfer. Did that catch any of you guys by surprise? Did you talk about it as a team? Is it true? We didn’t talk about it as a team at all. And I haven’t even talked to him about it. No. We’re all kind of focused and he’s focused, too, you know, on winning this game. He’s going to do whatever it takes to win this game as well. We’ll cross that bridge when he comes out.

Did that make you mad that it came out Christmas Eve, the middle of the week, right before the game because maybe you hoped it would come out after the championship or after this game? Yeah, I ‚Äì like I said, I had no clue that was going to go down. I mean, I’m ‚Äì I would bet he’s a little bit upset because he’s such a team guy and doesn’t want any attention on him or anything taken away from the team. So he’s probably a little upset.