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

Chip, I know you have the game to prepare for. But do you expect Brandon [Wimbush] to transfer? You really got to ask him. Him being a grad transfer is completely up to him. That’s what I told him, ‘I’m behind you 100%, whatever you decide to do.’

This period of football seems to be tough on defensive coordinators. What separates Brent Venables, aside from obviously the fact that he’s got great players? But why was he able to be successful when so few guys are? I think Clemson does a good job offensively of staying up to date with their offense, too. Those guys are seeing it every single day. So week in and week out, there’s not really a trend that comes that they’re not going to see. I think that helps an overall team.

They’ve got great players on offense. They’ve got great players on defense. So build your team and being able to change up the looks, they’re able to go into games with confidence. They’ve seen certain things and know how to adjust to it and play defense.

So many places across the country, when there’s a quarterback switch, you see one obviously transfer or the guys not have a great relationship. What did you observe about the way that Brandon [Wimbush] and Ian [Book] maintained a friendship and have been able to help prepare each other? They’ve been great. Ian was right there with Brandon when he was the guy. Brandon is a great teammate, great person. He loves being around his teammates, and he loves Notre Dame. And that’s why he came to Notre Dame, is to be a part of it. He’s won a lot of big games for us.

To go in and have to go through that and still come in and play as well as he did against Florida State, it’s just a testament to him and the kind of person he is. That’s why he’s going to be a success the rest of his life.

Will that change your approach at all, Dexter [Lawrence] not being there? They hit a couple of shots, 50/50 balls that made some plays. guys broke a couple of tackles. Had one play scrambling one way, throws it back across the field and safety makes a play and go 80 yards. Have chump plays like that, looks like

they exposed the secondary where there was a lot of good luck and just some missed opportunities by Clemson. Not necessarily a schematic advantage.

Anything in that game you can take and use potentially? You know, not really, to be honest with you. Like our last game against USC, you had two tired football teams playing football. A lot of swings and two teams healthy, it’s going to be a battle is what I take from it.

What were your main observations from the two teams that had the most success against Clemson, A&M and South Carolina? What were your take-aways? Two great battles. Clemson going on the road playing Texas A&M. Like any big-time game, you’re going to have a lot of big plays, chunk plays. You know, you’re still figuring out your team by that point and they hit some big plays and made some adjustments.

Do you think the narrative that Clemson’s secondary, their corners are their weak point, do you think that’s silly at all? Absolutely, I think that’s silly.

What have you liked about them? Their corners are tough, physical, they do a great job mixing up their looks and they play ‚Äì they’re around the football. They’re not just cover guys. You know, their size helps and their safeties are really good tacklers. You know, it’s everything you expected when you talk about defense. All of them will play in the NFL one day, no question about that.

Have you met Brent Venables before? I haven’t. He’s done a great job everywhere he’s been. Guys, players, feed off of his personality and he’s been successful everywhere he’s been, K-State, Oklahoma, and Clemson.

How challenging is his scheme when you look at it, the different pressures he brings and because of all the Clemson athletes? He does a great job, game plan for each game, mixes it up well. Like I said, he has his players playing hard, which is half the battle. but he always

tries to stay a step ahead and he does a really good job. That’s why he’s one of the best in the business.

I know one of the things he likes to do is wait until the last second to make that call. How challenging is that? We’ve seen it a few times. We go at our tempo and stuff like that. And that’s just, you know, his way of doing things. So we see both and it doesn’t really affect us offensively as much, you know, to be honest with you.