Notre Dame Fighting Irish College Football Pregame Quote, 12/29/2021

You went from the transfer portal to a start at Notre Dame. How much of this is because of your work ethic combined with the trust of Marcus Freeman? And what impact has Marcus had on you this season? And can you just describe what he’s like off the field as well.

I just think once I made that decision to start that communication with Marcus to come out of the transfer portal and just build that relationship with him, it just helped me to just become more comfortable with making the decision to return for Notre Dame.

And just being around him and playing his defense, it’s just allowed me to excel as a leader and then also just to make plays for our defense. So I feel like this ‚Äì the relationship I have with Coach Freeman has been great. And I just look forward on Saturday to help him bring a win as the new head coach of Notre Dame football and just to start the new era, the Freeman era.

How would you describe the way the safety group has rallied around each other after Kyle Hamilton went down? And what sort of responsibility did you feel like you had in terms of helping prepare Xavier Watts and Ramon Henderson for their new roles?

I feel like as the safety group, even just starting in the spring, we knew how talented we were. It was always next-man mentality. So the guys just knew that they just had to come in, ask questions and just go out there and get comfortable playing the game.

You’ve seen in the last few games with Ramon Henderson and Xavier Watts coming in, being guys who’s played corner and a guy who’s played wide receiver, and just being able to come in and just make plays for our defense. And they weren’t hesitant. They went out there. They just played fast.

And those are guys that we had to depend on, and we’re continuing to depend on. These are guys who have helped our defense. And we helped become a stronger unit in the safety room.

Coach [Chris] O’Leary has helped prepare us each and every week. So there’s no reason why I believe these guys have been playing so well lately. I just feel like when Kyle went down, it was always that we have to step up as a group. Kyle always looked out for us. He helped the guys prepare during the week. And he also was giving us cues on what we should see from the offensive of the teams we were playing during the year.

So I felt like, as a unit, we all just stepped up. And we just had to go out there and just execute and do our 1/11 to be successful on Saturdays.

Can you give us some insight into the film room and breaking down Oklahoma State? How comprehensive is it? Do you go back one game or the whole season? What are you looking for?

So far I broke down the last three games. And I’ve really just been looking for tendencies from their quarterback. I noticed that when he gets outside the pocket, he can make plays with his legs. I noticed they have pretty good backs. And then they have a talented group on the perimeter in terms of the wide receiver room.

So I know it’s going to be a challenge for us, but it’s a challenge that we look forward to each and every week. It’s Notre Dame, and we play Notre Dame football.

So at the end of the day, we just got to go out there and execute, play fast, play with unit strength.

And just go out there and compete each and every play and just play one-play mindset, and just know that if we can just rely on our technique and just rely on our teaching and our preparation during the week that we should go out there victorious on Saturday.

I’m curious how much of Xavier Watts you would have seen or faced in, like, scout teams or spring practice or something before he moved to safety that might have given you an idea of what he might be able to do there? Was it kind of just, like, all right, you know, I haven’t really seen much of this guy. Let’s see what he can do.

For Xavier, I’ve always thought he was a talented athlete. Sometimes when he was playing receiver, he would make some of these wild catches, and that always caught my attention. So I knew he was going to come and play safety for us.

It was something like, all right, this is a guy that I like to see make plays and I trust. So what can I do to help him get on the field and help him make plays for our defense.

So I feel like he’s done a great job asking those questions and getting ready each and every week because he’s a guy who actually studies the film. And he wants to get better and he wants to go out there and just be successful on Saturdays. So I’m really pleased with the things that Xavier has done so far. And just look forward to see what he’s going to do in the future.