Notre Dame Fighting Irish College Football Pregame Quote, 12/27/2018

I know last time Notre Dame was on the stage you weren’t here, the 2012 season. Clearly Alabama has beaten a lot of good teams. Alabama has overwhelmed, but it seems like people remember Notre Dame losing to Alabama. Why do you think that’s the case? I think a lot of times Notre Dame has a historic tradition of national championships but we haven’t won a national championship in 30 years and that’s

something a lot of us take a lot of pride in, bringing a new dawn to Notre Dame football and that tradition.

To see Notre Dame on that stage in ’12 and to fall short I think was probably disappointing to a lot of fans, and certainly provided a lot of air for a lot of people who didn’t like Notre Dame around the country. We’re more focused on this year. We’re not trying to be ’12. We want to be our own unique team, and we talk about putting our own name on the wall. So we’re excited to do that Saturday night against Clemson.

How important is it for this team, 2018 team, to finish where you are and to finish it out, now that you’re here? I mean, first and foremost it’s important to us. It’s important to us as a team because we’ve shed so many blood, sweat, and tears since January. Just in our off-season training, throughout the season, all the setbacks we’ve come through, all the injuries guys have battled through to get back on the field, that all culminates itself Saturday night against Clemson and we’ve got to bring our best. Certainly the playoffs because you’ve got a great group of teams with a lot of talent, a lot of experience, and may the best man win.

It’s funny to talk about Notre Dame as the Playoff newcomer because it’s such a young system. It’s a young system and Alabama and Clemson have very much dominated it in years past and Oklahoma has been a part of it as well. And so yeah, we’re the only team that hasn’t been in the playoffs yet, but I don’t know, I get an air that it feels like we’ve been here before even though we haven’t.

There’s been some talk about Coach [Brian] Kelly’s different demeanor and approach to things. Those of us not around the program very much, as a player what has been the most noticeable, whether it’s gradual or sudden change? I think first and foremost what I appreciate and admire about Coach Kelly is his ability to have a vision and put pieces in place to achieve that vision. I think you see that in 2016 when we’re coming off a turbulent time and his ability to rally the troops in a time of heartache and of trial. It was very admirable. I’ve always been very appreciative to Coach Kelly because he believed in me when not many coaches did and gave me an offer to play football at Notre Dame. And so he’s a very generous man, and I’m very thankful for that.

If there was one thing maybe you could put your finger on, is it a different guy

or a different approach or ‚Äì I mean, I think like many coaches he has times where he’s going to get on you and then times where he’s going to be more relaxed and get to know you more as a person. I think he’s very balanced in that regard. I think a lot of people just see the screaming Coach [Brian] Kelly on the sidelines in games. That’s not who he is as a person, as a coach. Certainly when he’s inspiring and engaging our team, he’ll get excited and get riled up, but he’s a great football coach. He’s been in the business a long time doing it and he’s had great success.

Not trying to compare the ’12 and ’18, but in ’12 some things happened, some breaks fell the right way for Notre Dame to be in that situation. Now it seems the foundation is firmer and more sustained. Do you get that sense, that the foundation at Notre Dame has reset kind of? I mean, I wasn’t even a Notre Dame fan in 2012 so I have no idea what was going on. I do know that, you know, we started kind of this rebuilding process last year. Guys like Mike McGlinchey, Quenton Nelson, those guys did a tremendous job of starting groundwork and laying a foundation. We’re in a position now we’re 12-0 and have a chance to compete for a national championship, and certainly departing leaders like myself hope that this legacy continues. If you achieve something one year but don’t leave a lasting legacy, it’s almost a little bittersweet in a sense. So I certainly believe we have the guys in the locker room and the coaches in place to continue that tradition. That’s something only time can tell.