Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly addressed the media after a 45-21 win over Syracuse.

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“As we went along during the week, Tommy had made it clear that, in his last home game, he wanted to play, and once he was cleared by our doctors, we saw that there was no need not to get him in the game. Then with the weather situation, it was a little cold. I didn't want to keep him out very long. So I asked Jeff [Quinn] to get them in after the second series. So we got him in. I didn't want him standing around the sideline too long. He got in, felt really good. Jeff liked his production in there. But we wanted to keep both him and [Dillan] Gibbons in the game and continue to build that depth.

“Josh Lugg did well. He developed a big welt on his hand, and he tried to work through it. He didn't bring it up to us until after the bad snap. It really wasn't a bad snap to be quite frank with you. It just was a little bit different than what Ian [Book] had been getting. It really came up and rolled up on his wrist a little bit more and he couldn't handle the snap. I thought he played solid in there, and I'll have to watch the film. We'll evaluate the film tomorrow and have a better-detailed understanding of what we did upfront, but as you know, the longer we stuck with it in terms of our offensive running production, the better we were.”

“As it relates to the ACC, we're obviously extremely grateful for Commissioner [John] Swofford for giving us this opportunity. Then it's like anything else, we've taken full advantage of the opportunity. They've played the 10 games that we have in front of us and now we're playing for an ACC championship.

“I have been really impressed with the procedures and protocols that the ACC has put in place during this COVID time and excited to go to Charlotte and play for an ACC Championship.”

“He accounted for five touchdowns. So five times six, that's 30 points. If he could kick we should try to work on getting him to be a kicker, too. But accounting for five touchdowns, he's a great Leader. He just continues to get better each and every week.

“He'd probably tell you it wasn't his 'A' game. It was probably a game where he played well. He wants to play better. But that's the great part about him. He hasn't played his best game yet in his eyes. But he's still accounted for five touchdowns and threw some great balls. [Javon] McKinley played really well for us. Kyren Williams, obviously, ran the ball [well].

“We started running the ball much better. They were extremely aggressive. We had to dig out some safeties and extra hats that were rotating down and were hard to get to early on. We were able to fit them up a little bit later in the game and run the ball a little bit more effectively. But it allowed Ian some opportunities in the passing game earlier, and I thought he took advantage of it.”

“He gets a lot of credit. Our defense gets some credit. We weren't executing very well. It was either a missed read, block or drop. We weren't executing at the level that we're capable of. Then all of a sudden, we executed at the level that our standard has been set at. It was not just Ian. It was the other 10 guys on offense executing at the level that they're capable of.

“Invariably, it starts and ends with the quarterback, for good or bad. He's taken his share of the load on the negative end of it, and now he's reaping the rewards on the positive. He made some really good plays and some good reads. But I think early on, we weren't as effective, because we certainly weren't executing at the same level.”

“Our schedule will be Sunday. Normally, that's their day off. So they'll come into the training room, and we'll have a victory meal with them tomorrow afternoon. Monday, we'll come in and we'll weight train and meet with them on a graded film from Syracuse. Tuesday, they're off. Wednesday, we'll bring them in and weight train again and then a scouting report walkthrough for Clemson. So it'll be very light on Wednesday.

“And then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we'll begin a three-day, additional preparation for Clemson. Sunday off. Monday, we'll begin the game week preparation leading into the championship game.”

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