Michael Mayer Ready to Lead Notre Dame Through Adversity

Football is an emotional game. 

Notre Dame is experiencing the lows of college football after Saturday’s loss to Marshall to open the home schedule. 

Notre Dame captain Jarrett Patterson was visibly upset following the loss and fellow captain Michael Mayer saw it, but he also felt the pain walking off the field. 

"Our goal as a captain is to lead our team to victory,” stated Mayer. “We fell short today. I tried my best. I know JPatt tried his best, but we have to do better. I think it starts with the weekly preparation. I saw that and we're both a little frustrated. We both try to be the best leader we can be and fell a little short." 

Mayer caught eight passes for 103 yards and a touchdown. It’s easy to say he did his part, but as a leader, the junior tight end is expected to do more. 

And it starts tomorrow as Mayer will be counted on to move the Irish forward following the 0-2 start. 

"We have a long season ahead,” said Mayer. “I think people know that. Our goal is to win out the rest of the season - very tough loss. Nobody wants to lose - ever. We're going to come in tomorrow, watch the film and the coaches are going to coach us up. We're going to get ready for Cal. There's nothing else we can do." 

The Kentucky native has been part of two very good teams during his first two seasons at Notre Dame and Mayer gave an emphatic ‘no’ when asked if this team was missing something the other rosters had. 

"No,” Mayer stated. “We had a great camp. We had a great summer. We got a lot of great players on this team. I think we're still trying to figure it out a little bit. That's what we're going to have to do at practice this week and the rest of the season." 

Sophomore quarterback Tyler Buchner was always going to have growing pains as a first time starter and he had a few on Saturday. Buchner threw two picks and missed a couple deep balls, but Mayer was also encouraged by what he saw out of the young signal-caller throughout the game. 

"He's a humble dude,” explained Mayer. “He worked his tail off today. He did what he could. Obviously, the injury is horrible. I haven't talked to him about that yet. He went out there and worked his tail off. I don't think we can ask anything more of him. It comes down to the offense as a whole, everyone executing more. I wish we did that today." 

And yes, Mayer will go home and it won’t be a fun night, but he’ll also regroup and be ready to attack Sunday. 

“For me, I sulk a little bit about it,” said Mayer. “Learn what you want to learn from the game. How do you execute better? How do you lead better? 

"Then it's just on to the next week. I'm not going to be thinking about this game on Friday preparing for Cal. It's a long season. We have game three coming up. We're just going to start to win games. I'm going to be the best leader I can be and lead this team to victory." 

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