Opening remarks:
"Well, we're ready to go out for the next one, I guess. That was an exciting game. The thing I'd say is that I was very proud of how hard our kids played and how they were very resilient. The biggest thing -- we've talked about it all since we've been in it, is red zone defense is critical. If you can keep teams from scoring seven down there, you're going to win. There were so many opportunities down there, which is not always a great thing or a good thing, but that happens when you play a good football team, and I was really proud of our kids, the way they played down there."
How much do you take into account how good Notre Dame's offensive line is when you judge your defensive line?
"They're very good. They're strong, they're big, they're experienced. But I still believe that we should win the battles we're supposed to win. A couple times we gave up yardage that we shouldn't have given up because guys got out of their gaps. Guys didn't play the technique. When you're a young player, you have to play great technique. That's the only chance you have. I think a couple times we didn't do that. We weren't gap-sound a couple times as far as fitting our gaps. When you look at our tape, you're sitting there going, 'This should have been a hit.' I go back to the fact that they all stuck together, though, and they all played so hard during the game. Now it's time to move on to the next one."
Is that a youth thing or is that not an excuse?
"Oh it's definitely -- I looked, I think one time when I was watching the tape, I believe out there in the heat of the game, there might have been one senior, two juniors, and the rest were all sophomores or redshirt freshmen. That's not an excuse, because you don't need to make an excuse. That just -- you kind of went, 'Wow, those are some young guys out there right now.' But that's us. That's where we are."
You talked a lot about front four and getting pressure ...
"Some of it was technique. Some of it, when you get in the game sometimes, you just try to get after the quarterback and you don't use the technique that you're supposed to. It's not just the effort. It's a work in progress. You're not all of a sudden going to be a great pass rush team. It's like everything else. There's technique involved in it. And there's obviously recruiting involved in it. You've got to be an athlete. But at the same time you have to work great technique to do that. Another thing that happened is when you do allow them to bleed you and let them run it a little bit, sometimes the mind set is, 'Well, is this pass or isn't this pass?' That played into it. We have to improve. We have to definitely improve and we will improve. Our game plan was not to sell the farm a lot. We didn't want to put our secondary in a position where a big play could get us. That secondary, I thought, did exactly what we hoped they would do as far as the game plan of keeping the ball inside and in front."
How much patience does it take as a defensive coordinator to watch them go up and down the field while waiting for them to make a mistake?
"A lot. You know, everybody has a lot of pride as far as their defense. I have more pride in these guys maybe than I've ever had in a group because they're so young. When you sit there and you hear that voice saying, 'Get after them! Get after them!' I just kept saying, 'No. No. We're going to be fine. This is going to work out.' We just have to hold them to no big plays and then when the field shrinks, now you have to hope that [your players] do what they're taught to do and how they've been practicing, and that's what they did. The only thing that ever, ever matters is the W. You know me well enough, I'm not a big stats guy. I know you can learn from that, but to me, if you can get the W and make corrections from it, you're heading in the right direction."
Can you assess James Ross after two games?
"Well I think James Ross, if you asked him, he would say he's played better than he did in that game. Not effort -- effort, he played as hard as he could, but it's just being where he was supposed to be at times in the run and the pass. A lot of it was being overanxious. A lot of it was, 'I really want to make this play' or 'I really want to do what I have to do' instead of just being patient and saying, 'Hey, it's going to come to me.' "
MGoQuestion: Do you think stopping the run on third and short early in the game deterred Notre Dame from doing that later in the game?
"I don't know. I think that was a real big thing for us, for them to come out and first of all, to take the opening kickoff and elect to receive it and us to stop them, three and out, three and out. I think that gave the young guys the confidence at that point to say, 'Hey, we're good now. We're fine.' I don't know. Maybe it was the score, too. Maybe they felt that they couldn't mess around. They had to try to get a big one on us. I don't know what their thought was."
MGoFollowup: On the second third-down stop, Mario Ojemudia shot inside and ended up making the tackle, but it looked like he gave up the edge in doing so --
"That was a called game. He did what he was supposed to. The three-technique is ripping outside and [Ojemudia] is coming under him. That was called. And the backer will fill opposite him if it bounces."
How does tempo affect that rotation up front? Notre Dame played a little faster --
"Nothing. Nothing, because all that means is you might miss a rep but as soon as the ball gets over to your side, they tag themselves out. They just know that the rotators have to get in there but don't ever get in all the way across the hash to take a guy out. That's just understood."
Ray Taylor seems to be playing with confidence. Would you say that's fair?
"I thought he played -- when you're a corner in this arena, you have to have no conscience. I could get on him harder than anybody in the world and he'd look at you and smile. That's part of being a corner. Everybody in the stands, all those people know who that guy is. They don't know who that defensive tackle is very often, but they see that and I mean, he made some very good plays. I thought our secondary as a whole kind of came together. Coach Mallory, he did a great job of working with them, just making sure they understood what was going to happen. Those kids did a super job of executing the game plan."
How is Jake Ryan doing?
"Jake Ryan is beautiful. Every time I see Jake Ryan I smile. I think he's going to start this week. I think he's going to practice -- I'm kidding. I'm just kidding. I wake up every night thinking, 'Come on, Jake. Come on, Jake.' No but Jake's doing great. We won't play him early -- we won't do that with him -- but he's working extremely hard. Smitty and our training staff is doing a fabulous job. When the doctors say he's ready, he'll be ready."
Do you know when that might be?
"I don't know. I really don't know. Like I said, I hope it's tomorrow. He'll be there when they say."
He'll be able to come in immediately when he gets cleared?
"Well the guys playing SAM linebacker right now, Brennen [Beyer] and Cam [Gordon] are doing a nice job. I think they've played well. Obviously they all can get better and they know they can get better, but to play that game, if anybody would have said, 'You're going to play that game with Brennen and Cam,' I would have said, 'Yeah. Fine.' A lot of other people would have said, 'Ho, how they gonna do this?' But no. Those two guys, they're playing really good football. It's their position. We just have to see what happens from there."
As a defensive coordinator, do you have an appreciation for a guy like Jeremy Gallon?
"Oh man. He just goes and goes. Who knows? I don't know what the injury was or what -- but I know one thing, if I was a betting man, I'd say there probably was way more [success with him in] than not out there. I mean that guy, he's as tough as there is. He just comes to work every day. Does everything you ask. Has a smile on his face. He's Michigan. I've got so much respect for him it's unbelievable."
Jarrod Wilson?
"He did some really good things in that game. The one thing I believe that both safeties have to do -- they both had missed tackles, I think. One missed tackle, for a safety, you can't have. That's a position where you cannot miss a tackle. Jarrod, one time, he just didn't wrap up. Of course he was trying to wrap up a 6-7, 270-pound tight end. But he's still got to get him down. Thomas [Gordon], he was trying to hit the guy so hard, he was trying to blow him up than tackle him. He's got to understand the scheme of the defense, you know, 'This is your job as a safety to keep the ball inside and in front.' "
You said you didn't want to put your corners on an island. Where's your confidence level with Blake Countess and Raymon Taylor and Delonte Hollowell?
"My confidence level is very high with them, but anywhere, in the NFL, any great program. You take a wide receiver against a corner in the open field one-on-one and they could win as many as they could lose. Or win more. The team, the defense, didn't need that. We wanted them to make any play they could make, but what we needed them to do was keep the ball inside and in front, and get a chance, like Raymon did a great job of reading that hitch and making that big hit on third down, causing them to go to fourth down and stopping them. Okay, that was a great play. Now we didn't all-out blitz or play man coverage. He just had a great read. My confidence level -- they've got to improve every week. They've got to understand that. They're not anywhere near where we have to be or where we're going to be, but it was great to see us do some of the things we did in that game. This week will be key to see if we correct the things we didn't do well. If we do that, then it would be good. If we don't, then we've got to address that."