From the Locker Room: Wake Forest Win

Notre Dame's players weren't thrilled with the 48-37 win over Wake Forest on Saturday evening. The Irish were pleased with the win, but know they will need to lock in as Notre Dame travels to Miami next weekend. 

Quarterback Brandon Wimbush

On hit before halftime: 
“It was pretty scary just to get banged up right before half and know that I couldn't finish the job, and obviously Ian Book came in and took care of business and did his job, so I knew we were in good hands when he came in.” 

On run and passing game:
“I made the plays obviously necessary to win the game, and I think I left a lot of plays out there that when we face an opponent who takes advantage of me not making those plays, it will cost us.

“I do think that obviously there is always room to improve.”

On rushing for 110 yards:
“You could put a lot of running backs behind that offensive line, and anybody will peruse. The rest of the backs did a great job of preparing throughout the week, and when they have the opportunity they are able to take advantage of it, and obviously, it's a testament to up front continuing their dominance and opening up those holes for the guys.” 

On receivers:
“I think there is a lot of points that we left up on the board, and it's scary, and I say that every week, but I think one of these weeks we will connect and everything will be clicking, but I'm not worried about those guys dropping balls. I've got to continue to give them opportunities to go make plays because those guys are playmakers.” 

On 50-yard touchdown run:
“It was a run/pass option for myself, and it was a 4-1 box and dropped back, and the backer widened out, and then I hit it up the middle, and the guys did a great job of -- I mean, anybody could have run through that hole, man, that was huge.” 

On converting 4th-and-2 when he was stopped at the line of scrimmage:
“It's just the extra strength that the guys have built, and it's just the power, and the will power to pick up that first down because it was a huge situation there. It was the right read but just gotta power through like I did.”

On being happy to win the game:
“No, I don't think any game turns into that. Coach talks about a mind-set of dominating our opponents and not just winning games, and I think that's what we've built for the past eight months.

“Obviously with the score, we had today we didn't dominate our opponent, and we will go back and evaluate the film, and next week when we head down to Miami, it will be the same outcome with a "W" but done in a more convincing way.”

Chase Claypool
On how it feels to be called one-dimensional (NC State Coach Dave Doeren called the Irish one-dimensional) and how it feels to play a good game:
“You will always find someone to hate on our offense, I am sure someone will find something to pick on. With the passing game that Brandon Wimbush had, and with the fact that he could have had a lot more if receivers like me had come down with those passes, it is exciting.”

On how the offense can ascend to the next level:
“With our ranking, we are improving during the week. Last year, it was very different, we are practicing a lot harder this year because we know we have something to fight for. One game and that is it.”

On how the offense can respond to teams scoring early the past few games: 
“We are sitting on the bench as an offense and the opposing team scores, we just continue with our conversations. We don’t let it phase us. The defense knows that we are going to go down and score and we know that if we don’t score, the defense will make a big stop. It comes with that relationship that we have been building over the past seven months.”

On if there are some positives from tonight's closer-than-expected victory:
“Oh definitely, no game is an easy win and especially with Miami coming up, Wake played a hell of a game offensively and defensively. We are definitely going to practice hard this week because we know that we cannot go into a game thinking that we are going to blow someone out.”

On evaluating his play after his nine catch, 180-yard day:
“First, I had to thank the offensive lineman that gave Brandon the time to throw the ball. Had to thank Brandon for coming back to me after I dropped a couple of passes and coming back to me on the next drive. It is obviously big to have this type of game close to the playoffs.”

On how he got the ball over the pylon on his superhuman-like touchdown:
“After I dropped that pass, I thought that there was no way I was not scoring here. I went for it, and it worked out.”

Drue Tranquill
On how the team balances the fact that Wake Forest played really well and had a really good game plan: 
“That is the first thing I told our guys, hats off to Wake Forest, offensively they came out and executed really well. The Quarterback was crisp in his reads and delivered the ball to his receivers, and they got good production out of their run game.”

On if the RPO got the defense back on their heels a little bit: 
“Whenever you have RPOs and up-tempo, it’s always hard to get your cleats in the grass and be crisp in your reads. Their quarterback was playing against this defense for three or four years now. Very experienced in that. His eyes were in the right place at every point in the game, and ours weren’t at points in the game.”

On if there was a distraction from the playoff and the number three ranking:
“I didn’t feel that from our guys, last time in our blue uniforms which is big for our seniors. Disappointed in the way we played, but glad we have an opportunity to come back next week.”

On if the team was aware that Ohio State and Penn State lost today:
“Ya, I think everyone knows now, I guess no one showed up to play defense in college football today.”

On anything specifically that the defense struggled with specifically in relation to the RPO:
“I think we just have to finish more, get into our fits, and execute more cleanly.”

On if it made a difference that Wake Forest QB John Wolford had played against the Mike Elko defense for years:
“I don’t think it had anything to do with Mike Elko, he’s one of the most talented coaches I have played for in terms of putting together a game plan. The players have to come through and execute, and we didn’t do that tonight, the coaches can’t be on the field. We have to be on the field, and we have to execute. It goes to the 11 guys on the field, to the guys on the sideline, and all that. That is how you win.”

Julian Love
On how the interceptions this year feel:
“You have to make the most of your opportunities, I could have had another today, but I dropped it. It is just getting better each week and being intentional about your film, and I think that is what has led me to those picks.”

On if the defense is expecting turnovers:
“Our goal is to create these plays because of the game plan. I guess we kind of expect it, but it is because we work for it. We rep every week about creating turnovers, we should have created more today, but that is something we will continue to work at.”

On how he evaluates the defense’s performance:
“First half, we played well, we made some good checks, and we were playing aggressive. Second half, we didn’t finish strong, and that is something you have to do in college football. You can’t take any team for granted. Wake did a good job of exposing some things, the effort was there, but it wasn’t going for us. You celebrate the win, but you hit the drawing board tomorrow.”

On what specifically about the RPO was difficult:
“There tempo was challenging, but the RPO presents a lot of options and a lot of ways to get the ball out and a lot of options for each play. Some guys can be on their job and do it very well, but if one guy wasn’t on his stuff, then that can lead to a big play.”

On the lack of rotation possible having an effect today:
“Some guys were hot, and so we kept them in there. It is also tough to rotate when they are going at such a high tempo. When the hash marks permitted it, we would rotate in.”

On if they felt like Wake Forest was taking advantage of the knowledge of Mike Elko’s game plan:
“We trust Coach Elko, and we knew he had the right game plan going in, it was just us executing. Everything was there. We knew most of their stuff, but we just weren’t executing.”

Mike McGlinchey
On the win over Wake Forest:
“It feels good. Always feels good to get a win in college football. Wake Forest came in and played their hearts out, and you’ve got to commend them for coming up here and being hungry and doing a good job. We were able to execute more plays than they did.”

On the dominating offensive performance without Josh Adams:
“It’s a team game. Obviously, Josh is as good as any running back there is in college football, and we always love having him back there. But, it’s next man in, and that’s always been our philosophy here at Notre Dame. Everybody has to get their job done, and it’s just a matter of stepping up when your name is called. Dexter, Tony, and Deon did that today. We weren’t too worried about Josh going down; we know he’s a tough guy and after he spoke to us, we knew he would be okay. Same with Brandon; he’s a guy who puts his body and soul on the line when he’s out there for our program, and we knew he would be alright. It’s just part of the game.”

On playing on the road next week at Miami:
“It’ll be a bit warmer, so we’re happy about that. Miami is a great football team, they have a big game tonight against Virginia Tech. They’ve had a lot of success so far this year, and we’re more focused on what we have to do ourselves than what Miami is going to come out and do next week. They’re just another opponent, and we’re going to do our best to keep winning and doing the things we’ve been doing.”

On not dominating an opponent but still getting the win:
“That’s not our team’s philosophy; we’re trying to dominate no matter what the score is or where we are on the field or what the other team is doing. We’re never going to try to just get out of here with a win. It’s a matter of making a couple of little changes. We were a bit sloppy today, but we’re going to celebrate the win and make sure we keep going with what we’ve been doing here at Notre Dame.”

Nic Weishar
On the win over Wake Forest:
“You know, any win in college football is a good win. We’re excited about this one; obviously, things didn’t go exactly the way we wanted to, but a win is a win. We just have to keep our momentum, enjoy our win tonight, and move on to Miami.”

On Miami next week:
“They’re a great team. We know from playing them that they’re always physical and that it’ll be a physical game. It’ll be a fun one.”

On the lack of a dominating performance this week:
“Obviously, we can’t get everything right all the time, but that dominating mindset is one we have. Coming out of this game, we’re not that thrilled with all of the missed opportunities we had. In the passing game, we had a lot of opportunities that we missed, including one that I had. We just have to capitalize on those opportunities for Brandon.”

On his chemistry with Ian Book:
“Ian’s awesome. We spent a lot of time in the spring and summer together with the second team reps, so we have good chemistry. Whenever he’s in the game is awesome, as you can see he loves to throw the tight end.”

On his touchdown play at the end of the first half:
“As soon as we lined up, I knew I was going to be open after repping that play so many times in practice. I was very confident it would work. In practice, they threw that ball to me every time, so it literally worked exactly how it did in practice.”