Opening comments:
“Notre Dame played a very good football game and we didn’t. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit; a lot credit to what they did on third downs, either defending us or their third down opportunities that they converted on.
“We’ve got to go back to work, and we will as a team. You don’t want to have four turnovers in a game — that doesn’t help you. The red zone, we didn’t help ourselves in there. From the penalty side, we put ourselves behind the sticks offensively. And again, you’ve got to give them a lot of the credit too. But we will bounce back, because this is a very resilient, hard-working group of young men, who know what it takes to win.”
On the offense falling apart after moving it well on the first two possessions:
“I think a little bit that it’s never one guy, it’s never one piece of the offensive line, or the quarterback, or the routes, or whatever. When those things happen, I think they happen as a team. [Gardner] started six-for-six. I think we’ve got to give them — we crossed the 50 and they were going to bring more pressure. That’s what they did.”
On the status of Raymon Taylor:
“I’m not going to talk about any of those injuries. No. 1, I don’t know enough about them.”
On if Jabrill Peppers could have played in the game:
“If he could have played, we would have played him. We evaluated all those guys before the game.”
On him being dressed for the game:
“Well he went out because we were evaluating him before the game.”
On how the team bounces back from such a humbling loss:
“Yeah it is [a humbling loss], but I think they’ve all been humbled sometime in their lives. I think that’s part of the resiliency that this group has.”
On if he was surprised how lopsided the game was in light of the players being very motivated:
“This game? Yeah.”
On if he considered pulling Gardner from the game:
“No. No. He’s our quarterback. Unless he somehow doesn’t come to work every day, doesn’t come to learn, he’s our quarterback. We wanted to put points on the board.”
On if he slipped into some of his bad habits from last year:
“I don’t think he slipped into all those habits. I think he’s a better quarterback — I know he is. He’s a better quarterback than he demonstrated today.”
On if the team needs personnel changes:
“I think that is hard to know [in the immediate aftermath]. I think when you evaluate it, and we’ll evaluate it on the bus on the way home; how guys played, who didn’t play well, who did play well. Because there were some guys that played pretty well. Jake Ryan I thought played a pretty good football game. You could feel him out there. Jack Miller did some good things when you watch that.
“The bad part was we got behind the sticks too many times and got out of rhythm offensively. Because we were running the ball halfway decent. That was encouraging to see. But then obviously, I think at halftime, it turned into a game where we needed to throw it a little more.”
On the difference between Everett Golson in this game and where he was two years ago:
“I think they use him well. I think Brian [Kelly] does a good job. There’s a lot of three-step game in [the offense]. A lot of slants. I think he’s matured. I think I said that this week coming in. He’s a much better quarterback than he was two years ago, just from watching the Rice game, and I would say the same thing after watching our game.”
On shuffling the lineup in the secondary a lot:
“Some of that was because of the injuries.”
On taking Blake Countess out of the game for a time:
“We’ve played a lot of guys back there in the past. [Channing] Stribling we wanted to get some live reps in there. Sometimes you take a guy out and he gets a chance to watch from the sideline a little bit, and maybe he picks up a few things. We didn’t play well in man coverage. You get called for two interference calls — and we’ve got to play smarter early, and the guys get a little bit worried about playing press.”
On struggling on the road against rivals and what needs to be done:
“You win the game. You play. You don’t turn over the ball. You don’t give up big plays.”
On if it is a mental thing:
“You talk about it enough into being a mental thing. I don’t think it’s a mental thing.”
On what he thinks the problem is then:
“Just what I said. You can’t give up big plays. Can’t turn the ball over.”
On why Gardner was still playing the fourth quarter when he was being exposed to hits:
“Because he’s our quarterback. He’s our quarterback. We’re going to play some other really big games on the road this year. For him to keep improving, he needs to play quarterback.”
On if that’s a huge risk though:
“Anything’s a risk. To me, the risk was starting him maybe. I don’t know. We’re trying to develop a team.”
On what his message to the team was after the game:
“No. 1, give Notre Dame credit for how they played. It was a total butt kicking all the way around that we all took. Going back to work tomorrow as a team like they will. And we’ve got to get a lot better. I think we learned some things that we’ve got to get better at.”
On Gardner facing a lot of pressure and Golson not facing much pressure:
“I don’t know about that. He had to run enough. He did a good job evading a lot of rush, Everett did. So I think there was pressure there. And it’s sometimes hard to get pressure on three-step game.”
On if he worries about the team getting mentally off track:
“I really don’t. Not with this team.”
On why not:
“Because of what we’ve seen every day from them. From their work ethic. From how they care about each other. All those things.”
On Gardner taking a shot at the end and if he’s okay:
“Like I said, I’ll talk about those injuries when I know more.”