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Notre Dame Football

From the Locker Room: Notre Dame & Georgia Player Quotes

September 10, 2017
3,878

Nyles Morgan

On tackling compared to last week:

“I think we did a pretty good job, they still had some long runs but I think we did a pretty good job.”

On if this is a missed opportunity as a program:

“I would never say this is a missed opportunity, it is just a way to get better. We have to look at the film and see how we are going to get better and then move on.”

On how hard this game was to swallow:

“Just like every loss, it’s tough. We are just pushing forward.”

On Coach Brian Kelly’s message to the team after the game:

“Coach said to keep pushing forward and we will get better.”

On the hardest part of the message:

“The best part about playing football is that there is always the next game and that is our mentality. Now it is on to Boston College.”

On the crowd tonight:

“I think it was pretty good.”


On if it was a surprise how much red there was:

“No, I saw them on campus earlier.”

On what was going on inside his mind when the offense took the field for the two minute drill:

“I was thinking that I want our team to score.”

On the positives of the game:

“From my perspective, the defense played very well. We shut down the run game, but they got some good plays in.”

On if the Georgia running backs surprised him:

“No”

On the evaluation of the tackling:

“Good”

On what needs to be fixed for next week:

“I would say focus on the Boston College, we haven’t gotten to the game plan yet.”

Greer Martini

On how the defense has improved since last year:

Yeah, I mean we’re definitely heading in the right direction. Obviously, this hurts, but the defense played hard, and we played gritty where last year we maybe would have fallen apart in the fourth quarter. We came out and got the ball back to the offense. I think it was a big step in the right direction for us.

On how the defense handled Georgia’s two good running backs:

I think the defensive line especially played really well in stopping them. They’re obviously very special backs, but I think we handled them.

On the mood in the locker room after the game:

Obviously, it was morose; we wanted to win that game. Now it’s all about what we can do to get better so we don’t lose another one.

On whether or not the team can bounce back:

Yeah, I think so. I think this feeling will push us to dominate teams in the future, because we don’t want to feel like this again.

On whether this loss feels different from last year’s losses:

No, a loss is a loss. It always feels the same, it’s pretty shit. I think going forward, we have 20 hours to soak it in, but then when it comes Monday it’s back to business to beat Boston College.

On Coach Lea’s comments on the linebacker corps:

He basically told us that there’s areas to improve on, but he believes that we can be one of the best linebacking corps in the country as long as we keep working towards that goal every week.

Mike McGlinchey

On how impressed he was with Georgia’s defense:

They were a great football team with a great front seven. We knew they were going to try to stop the run, and they did that all day. We gotta execute better all day and finish off on the things that were there. We’re gonna have to keep moving forward, and bounce back from it. They were quick, big, good with their hands, and they came in with a game plan. They played their hearts out today, as did we, but it came down to execution, and we didn’t get the job done.

On what he said to Brandon afterwards:

I told him “I’m sorry.” I didn’t do my job at the end of the game, and that’s not on Brandon Wimbush. He had a hell of a game. That’s a tough atmosphere to play in, and he played well all day. I told him that I was sorry, and I blew it on the last play. Brandon is obviously a good teammate and said it wasn’t my fault, but anyone who watches football knows that it was.

On whether this loss feels any different from previous losses:

A little bit different, just because the last play was my fault. It definitely hurts a bit more, knowing that it was my responsibility. We played our hearts out all four quarters, and it just comes down to executing on a couple of plays, and I certainly didn’t get my job done. There were a couple of things we left on the board today.

On specific execution issues:

Finishing off blocks and runs, as well as some passes that were there that didn’t happen. It’s just the little things that happen throughout the day that we didn’t take advantage on, and we have to be better than that.

On Georgia playing over the guards and center a lot:

That was something we expected to see. They played a 3 down, with tackles and centers covered all day. They shifted to 4 down in some obvious passing situations. For the most part, they did what we thought they would do.

On the final plays of the game:

We knew we would get their best pass rush, since it was an obvious passing situation and we needed to march down the field and get our job done. What was going through my head was just to do my job, and it just didn’t happen.

On positives from the game:

I think that we played really hard today, and we never faltered. I think we were in it until the very end, and we showed a lot of heart today. But like I said, execution wise we need to clean it up. Another positive is that our defense played a hell of a game today, and all credit to them. Everyone has had their doubts about them, and they stepped up in a big way today.

On how to prevent this loss from snowballing:

“We’re a different team. That’s not going to happen; there’s too much character in our locker room, and there are too many great people and coaches leading this team. It’s not going to be hard to keep that from happening

WR Terry Godwin

On if he was in on his touchdown catch:

“I knew for a fact I was in and I knew that I had possession of that ball”

On Jacob Fromm’s play:

“It’s awesome for him to come out there in this type of environment and play well, even though he got hit a few times. It’s really cool for a freshman to step up and do that.”

On if it felt like a home game:

“Yes it did, the sideline was pumped up and with the fans having the lights on to start the fourth quarter, it was just like we were at home for us.”

On the impact of penalties:

“Penalties really hurt us tonight and I know we are going to go back and watch the tape and not have as many penalties.”

On if his catch was Odell Beckham quality:

“Ya, I would so say. That is a guy I look up to in the NFL and just being able to go out there and make a catch like that compared to something that he did, that’s big for me.”

On if he was worried at all during the touchdown catch:

“No, because we work on that every week in practice, touchdown drills and coming down to the ground is something that all of us receivers do every day in practice. It was a routine catch for me, I had to go up in the air and come down with the ball.”

WR Mecole Hardman 

On the atmosphere with all the Georgia fans:

“I love it, when we were making good plays you could hear our fans and when we weren’t making plays, we could hear their fans.”

On the last drive going 75 yards to kick the field goal:

“We did our job. We called our plays right and we made Jacob’s job easy.”

On what coach (Kirby Smart) said at halftime:

“Just more attention to detail, hands to the face, more disciplined. Keep your eyes on the ball and be smart with your decisions on the field.”

Lorenzo Carter 

On the goal of the game:

“Our goal is to dominate our opponent and we practice to do that every single week.”

On his level of play:

“I feel like we can always get better, we will come back tonight and watch film on the plane. We are never complacent and we have to get back to work.”

 
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