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

Myron, can you just reflect back on the season and just talk about your thoughts going into the Fiesta Bowl.

Yeah, first and foremost, I’m just blessed to be in this position. The season, it is a fun season.

Starting off at the beginning of the year having a new defensive coordinator, it was exciting to learn a whole new defense. It’s just been really exciting this entire season, the journey that it’s been, things that took place throughout this year.

There’s some loss in the season, but all I can say is I’m just grateful and blessed to be here. We’re excited for the Fiesta Bowl, yeah, just excited to be here.

Myron, without diving into state secrets here, but with Coach [Mike] Elston taking over as the playcaller, has his emphasis been trying to keep it similar and just continue to do what Coach [Marcus] Freeman did? One, not throw a bunch of new stuff on you guys and, two, considering the in-season improvement you guys have made under what Coach Freeman was trying to do and his vision.

Yes, I think the emphasis was to keep it simple. The way this defense works, the way we like to run with this defense is just keep it simple and let’s play fast, free, and physical.

Before we go out on every drive, we always huddle up and we tell each other, hey, like, we set the tone and we have the perfect play calls to go out there and make plays. when Coach Elston took over, there wasn’t any fall-off because he understood that. The guys in here just want to play. Just put the ball down anywhere and just put us in the perfect position to make the best plays.

And that’s pretty much what it’s always been. And Coach Elston has done a great job in putting us in great positions to be successful.

Myron, this is sort of building off that, but we were talking to Marcus [Freeman] the other day and he sort of went through the season about how it started and the defense wasn’t exactly lining up with how he thought it would be. And then he got to a point in the year where it was just like, you know what, we’re doing too much. Let’s do less but do it better. Could you kind of detail what that point in the season was like and why the defense sort of clicked at that point and why things improved at a point where, okay, let’s do less?

Yeah, I think going into the Wisconsin game, that really set the tone for our defense. The biggest thing was we understood that we just had to be physical. We had to play fast and play free.

The way our defense is structured is just effort, effort and attitude. The way we play is everybody has to get to the ball. And the way you are going to see us play is wherever the ball is, you are going to see 11 guys swarming. You will see 11 blue jerseys swarming and 11 gold helmets swarming.

That’s the attitude and mindset that we have. The ball is not down until the carrier is down. And so Coach Marcus Freeman has always emphasized ‘Through it, not to it.’ That’s pretty much been our mindset this whole year, is just flying around and getting to the ball.

As someone who played defensive tackle before, I’m curious, how have you seen Jayson Ademilola develop in that role this season?

It’s been exciting to see Jayson have the success that he’s having. First of all, it just starts in practice. The way he works, he doesn’t take any plays off. He’s just a hard worker. He never complains.

In practice, it’s actually funny, whenever we go on scouts and he feels he doesn’t get the look he needs, he will be yelling and he will get frustrated but we got to calm him down.

He’s just the type of person that always wants to put forward his best foot. That’s what you guys have been seeing this whole year, how productive he’s been, the amount of explosive plays that he’s made. He’s just been a force this year, and I’m excited for his future endeavors.

As a caption for the Irish, what do you feel is your biggest personal goal for this bowl game and what exactly does it mean to you?

I think the biggest goal for us is sending our seniors home the right way. There’s a lot of guys in here that have helped build this program to put it in the place where it is right now. Guys like Kurt [Hinish], Drew [Pyne], Josh Lugg, all those guys, Avery Davis.

Been here with these guys, been here at this place with these guys for five years. It would be great to just send these guys home with a W.

Firstly, when I was watching Monday Night Football, I was thinking about you because it was your former teammate, Ian Book, versus your cousin Tua [Tagovailoan]. And I said, This must be tough for Myron to choose who to root for.

Secondly, you have been part of two Notre Dame teams that made runs to the college football playoffs. Coming into this season, not many people expected Notre Dame to do really good. They said it was a rebuilding year. What do you think has made this team so successful and outlive all of those expectations?

I think the culture is what really puts Notre Dame on top. You come in here and you just have got to leave your own principles at the door. What you have got to understand is Notre Dame has tradition and culture that’s built, that you have to take in and understand.

And that’s what makes Notre Dame successful, is there’s a culture here built upon trust, upon love, and above all, about the brotherhood. You will hear us talk about the brotherhood day in and day out because that’s truly what it’s about. It’s about playing the sport that we love for your brothers, and it’s all about the team. That’s really what it is.