The No. 2-ranked and 7-0 Fighting Irish, off the heels of upsetting previous No. 1 Clemson, take to the road this weekend to face 5-3 Boston College. The Eagles will be led by junior quarterback Phil Jurkovec, a backup at Notre Dame in 2018-19. The telecast will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
On Overall Team Health
“Injuries, none that we believe will hold anybody out from playing this weekend. It was certainly a physical game [versus Clemson]. We’ve got some guys that have some bumps and bruises and some healing that will have to take place.
“As it relates to the COVID, we tested yesterday and we should have all of our testing numbers [later today], so I will have a better feel for that. My concerns are not great in terms of the post-game students on the field. Those students were tested during the week, and our players were aware that they needed to get off the field in a timely fashion.
“We don’t believe that’s going to be a situation that going to affect our football team, but we’ll have plans in place in case it becomes an issue.”
On Running Back Kyren Williams’ Pass Blocking
“The focus was for our backs to be more active in protection. Clemson ran a lot of twist games and stunt games that knocks off your offensive linemen. Even though we were in a six-man protection, the back didn’t get out a lot and it limited us a little bit in some of our check-down opportunities.
“We gave up some potential check-down opportunities that Ian [Book] could have had but did not have because we left the back in to pick up some of those games that inevitably knock off a lineman. ... We felt we needed to give something up, and that was a back not getting out.
On Getting Wide Receivers More Involved As Pass Catchers Of Late
“You can talk about it all you want, but you’ve got to actually lean on it during the week of practice. I added more practice time to our [skeletal] periods, committed more time for work with our wide receivers and quarterbacks. I think that helped us quite a bit.
“And just knowing that if we were going to take that next step, the ball needed to be pushed out there. Plays needed to be called. Tommy [Rees] and I being on the same page, we felt the same way, and ultimately you have to call those plays.”
On Raising The Level Of Play To Build Off Of Last Week
“The first thing is a constant application of our process. Staying consistent with what we’ve been doing…that’s something we’ve done now for close to four years. So continue on that front, which is smart work, working with a purpose and having a good practice habits — and certainly productive practice. It’s one thing to go out there and run around but not having productive practice.
“The constant application of our process starts with the ability to understand how important each day is in our preparation. … We have to be a better football team. There are a number of areas that have to be cleaned up technically and tactically in all three phases.”
On Notre Dame’s Highly Ranked Third-Down Defense
“There’s a lot to it: Tendencies, personnel groupings. … If I could tell you how much time we spend on third down, you’d be amazed. First and second down, those meetings go pretty fast. Third down goes for a couple of days.
“There’s a lot of intense study, there’s a lot of intense situation substitution, you’re looking at matchups, you’re looking at how you can leverage yourself defensively for the best situations.
“At the end of the day you’re trying to keep the offense in longer third-down situations for the most part. When they have that third-and-short, the national average is jumping up there into the 75 percentile. I don’t care how many days you spend on third-and-short, you’re coming out on the short end.
“You need to be five-plus, six-plus and we’ve done really well in those areas in keeping it third-and-long. Once you get to third-and-long, now the numbers start to tilt towards you and that’s where we’ve been really effective."
On Where Phil Jurkovec’s Game Has Progressed Most
“Phil’s in a different type of offense than the one that we were asking him to be part of last year… In high school he was in a spread offense, catch and throw. He was in an RPO [run-pass option] last year. He is in a play-action, six-man, seven-man protection offense this year. So it’s really hard to compare where he is to where he was last year because they are so dissimilar from an offensive perspective.
“What he’s doing this year on film is he’s making plays outside the realm of the offense — which he was very accustomed to doing when he was in high school and when he was here as well. Outside the pocket he’s a great scrambler, he can throw on the run, he’s got a strong arm, great size and he’s a tough kid.
“But I would say the offenses are so dissimilar, it’s hard to really compare where that progression is. But the one constant is he can make plays outside the pocket."
On The Field Corner Competition Between TaRiq Bracy And Clarence Lewis
“That battle is constant. Clark [Lea]and Mike [Mickens] felt like Clarence was the best call for us [versus Clemson]. We’re going to do what we feel is best for Notre Dame’s defense and so we went with Clarence … TaRiq could be the starter this weekend and we’ll see how it plays out during the week.”
On What Championship Teams Look Like
“The physicality of Alabama [in 2013 BCS Championship] was such that we needed to duplicate that in our program. And here we are where I feel like our physicality was a separator in terms of the ability to control the line of scrimmage [against Clemson]. We rushed for over 200 yards, we kept them under 50 yards.
“Controlling the line of scrimmage was what my vision was in terms of what a championship football team looked like. And those other pieces come together in different forms, but that physicality was certainly at the heart of it.”
On Braden Lenzy’s Hamstring Injury Rehab
“Braden was running full-speed ahead straight line on Friday. We will begin change of direction today. We’ll see how he responds. If he looks good today, we will put him in practice [on Tuesday]. And then it will be how he handles portions of the practice as to whether he would be ready to play this week.
“If not, then he will have the bye week [Nov. 21] and he’ll certainly be ready for North Carolina.”
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