Nov. 13, 2005
P.J.: I was very impressed with Notre Dame's football team, especially offensively. We knew coming in that they had a very good offensive football team and I saw nothing today to change my mind. I felt like our kids competed and played hard. I felt like we had a chance. We were playing the game the way we needed to play in the first half. We were minimizing the possessions and trying to run the clock down. They made a huge play when it was tied at seven and we had third-and-one and we turned a couple of guys loose or they made good plays to get loose, however you want to describe it, and they tackled us for a loss and then on fourth down we came up a little bit short on the spot. That would have been huge if we could have gone up 14-7. I don't know if we could have sustained it because they moved the ball awfully well, but certainly it kind of changed the momentum and changed the game. We had trouble getting pressure on the quarterback and when you have gifted receivers like they do and a great supporting cast he's (Quinn) going to light you up and he did. Questions?
Q. Paul, the turnover right before the half really killed you.
A. Yeah, it was big. Any time we didn't score it was big, because they were scoring and they didn't need a short field. Any time that you make a mistake that is self-inflicted it's tough. We felt like we had a numbers advantage on the play and the linebacker popped, we missed the block, if we catch the ball we probably get a yard or two, it's not a great play but we have a chance to snap it again, but we took our eyes off the ball and it got on the ground and to their credit they got it. For us to have a chance to be successful today we had to play close to perfect and that's hard to do.
Q. Did you notice any difference between this year's Notre Dame teams and the teams from the past couple of years?
A. Yeah, they are all different. I think this year's team is light years better offensively. Some of the other Notre Dame teams may have been better defensively. This team has a pretty experienced offensive line and they play that way. Nobody gets close to the quarterback and when you do that and you have two good receivers and a tight end, at times they were running 16 and 18 yard dig routes, nobody is going to cover that if he has time to let a guy run across the field. They have a very nice group of offensive players. On the very first touchdown we couldn't have our guys in any better position, but they have a 6-5 receiver and they just throw a jump ball in the end zone and he got it. It's a credit to them and it's a credit to their players. They are very talented.
Q. Notre Dame was more balanced today than they have been. Did that make them harder to stop?
A. Probably. Our big deal wasn't that, our big deal was that we couldn't get any pressure on the passer. They broke off some runs, but basically they were about doing what they wanted.
Q. Do you know anything about Matt Hall's injury?
A. No. We will take him back and check it out and see what happens.
Q. Did the doctor recommend that he couldn't play after halftime?
A. Yeah, he couldn't play today.
Q. Can you talk about Rob Caldwell, who was playing in his home state and had a great game?
A. Rob's been a really good player for us all year. He's been our leading tackler and is a guy who is hard nosed and plays really hard. We are awfully glad he's on our team. He's not only a good football player but also an outstanding young man. He's definitely one of our better players. I don't know how many tackles he had today but he made several tackles, I know that. I saw him around the ball a lot.
Q. Was he looking forward to this game?
A. Yeah, I think all of our guys look forward to this game because they are playing against a totally different kind of guy. We have a lot of guys that aren't recruited and come to Navy to have a chance to play Division I football and it's a chance for them to match up against guys that were Parade High School All-Americans and guys that were more highly recruited and sought after. I'm sure that Rob grew up hoping he could play at Notre Dame or hope that somebody would recruit him so he was very excited about coming back to play, as well as a lot of our guys.
