Hinish Ready For The Challenge Of Stopping Bryce Perkins
It’s a big week for No. 10 Notre Dame as the Irish host No. 18 Virginia on Saturday afternoon. Notre Dame needs to bounce back after a tough loss on the road at Georgia and the captains are making sure the team stays focused on going 1-0 this week.
“They called us together and the message was about moving on to Virginia and to beat Virginia,” junior defensive lineman Kurt Hinish said of a team meeting earlier this week. “We’re just taking it week by week. Of course, we weren’t excited with the result on Saturday night, but we’re focused on Virginia.”
Virginia isn’t a program Notre Dame is overly familiar with as 2015 was the last time the two teams met, but Hinish knows the defense has to stop quarterback Bryce Perkins.
“They have a really good quarterback who is really mobile,” explained Hinish. “They have a good defense and a great head coach. The offensive is good and they’re pretty balanced. We have to bring our A-game on Saturday if we want to beat them.”
Notre Dame faced multiple mobile quarterbacks the first two weeks of 2019, so the defense should be up to speed on what they will see, but Perkins will also be the best mobile quarterback they’ve seen to date.
“It’s never easy playing a mobile quarterback, especially being 300 pounds and chasing a 205 guy around who can run a 4.5,” laughed Hinish. “I enjoy playing mobile quarterbacks because it’s a challenge for myself and the guys around me. I like the challenge.”
Hinish’s job will be to open up gaps for the linebackers to roam on Saturday and he’s as confident as ever in the guys behind him after Saturday’s performance at Georgia.
“We have a good linebacker corps,” stated Hinish. “I don’t think we’re going to miss a beat from last year with Drue (Tranquill) and Te’von (Coney). We have good guys and I’m confident in those guys.”
The interior of Notre Dame’s defense got a chance to prove itself last weekend and they passed the test for the most part. It’s not easy to replace Jerry Tillery, Coney and Tranquill, but Hinish and Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa have been putting in extra work to make sure the transition goes as smooth as possible.
“We’ve been the same the entire time,” Hinish said. “We got to show what we were capable of on Saturday. We have to get better every single week. We have to stop the run and we stay after practice to work on our pass rush or stopping the run.”
As for returning home, Hinish admitted he might enjoy playing on the road a little more as he’s a guy who embraces being hated.
“I love being in a hostile environment,” said Hinish. “It’s a lot of fun when people are throwing stuff at you and booing you. I think it’s hilarious and I feed off of it. I enjoy being at home. We don’t have to fly on a plane, travel and we’ve been to this hotel before. We’re just doing our own thing now.”