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From The Locker Room: Virginia Tech

Sam Mustipher (left) and Quenton Nelson block a Virginia Tech defender.
Sam Mustipher (left) and Quenton Nelson block a Virginia Tech defender. (Bill Panzica)

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly …

On losing on Senior Day: “These kids are wonderful kids. I’m at loss for words really as to what to tell them. It’s just been a difficult year. They work so hard. They play so hard.

“They have been ahead in so many of these games and been so close in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, it’s just one of those years — I haven’t had one like this in my 25, 26 years of being a head coach — where it hasn’t gone our way.”

On keeping the team mentally focused: “I have no doubts that they will have the effort, the intensity, all those things necessary. But they’re going to have to battle again late in the game and find a way to win the football game.

“We have not been able to shake the little things that keep cropping up.”

Notre Dame junior quarterback DeShone Kizer …

On his confidence level on the attempted game-winning drive: “Any time the ball’s in my hand I think we’re going to score. With the guys that we have out there at skill positions and one of the best offensive lines in the country, you’ve got to have all the confidence in the world that things are going to end up the way they’re supposed to.

“Obviously, we go out and try to execute what the coaches call. When you don’t execute, you don’t win.”

On losing the home finale: “For the guys who are guaranteed for that to be their last opportunity to play in the stadium, I think that it’s very frustrating. Those guys go out and block for me, they block for everyone who carries the ball, they hit, they put their bodies on the line, they go through a lot for success.

“And when you don’t have success as a leader and a quarterback of this team, it’s very frustrating.”

Notre Dame senior cornerback Cole Luke …

On keeping the team together: “That’s not even a question on our team. There’s so much trust all around this organization, and if there isn’t, you’re not really a team. We are together as a whole; we’re a family. Everybody in that locker room trusts each other, from left to right. That’s just what it is.

“I’ve never thought about that, because that’s just given. It’s what we are, a family and a team.”

Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente …

Opening statement: “Awfully proud of our football team today. Things did not start well for us in any phase of the game. They continued to battle back in an absolutely beautiful environment; a really special celebration of college football. My first trip here. It’s everything that I had been led that it would be.

“Also, before I take questions want to thank the Hokie Nation. Hokie Nation. It was a fantastic turnout. They were loud and proud and a lot of fun to play for.”

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