Here are some highlights from Charlie Weis’s Tuesday press conference. For the full transcript or to watch the archived video visit und.com.
On the 40th anniversary of the 1966 Notre Dame-Michigan State “Game of the Century”
“I know Michigan State has a full weekend planned to honor their team. We’re going to honor our ’66 team at the Purdue game. Both teams are going to be wearing a patches on their jerseys. “
On MSU head coach John L Smith
“Coach Smith is in his fourth season there. Just to keep things in perspective, in my head coaching career versus his, he’s won 120 more games than me. I think I have quite a long way to catch up to his success that he’s had.”
On MSU quarterback Drew Stanton
“He’s a heck of a player. He’s a dual threat who can run, he can throw, he can throw in the pocket, he can roll from the pocket, he can throw across his body. He makes some phenomenal throws where he’ll roll to his left, turn back and throw it to his right. He has a very good arm. Top-line player.”
On using the flag planting as a motivational factor
“I think we have to put the flag incident and Michigan behind us because if we sit there, and when you use something like the flag incident, try to use that as your motivation for the game, that lasts for about five minutes once the game starts. Once you start hitting each other in the mouth a few times in the game, that stuff is over with.”
On the confidence of his players and coaching staff
“After you lose like that, your confidence is always in question. Not mine personally, but you’re dealing with 105 players. You’re dealing with 15 more coaches and support staff. There’s a number of people you’re dealing with. I think it’s important that you deal with the psyche of your whole organization to make sure that everyone is resilient and ready to go.
The best thing that happens after a game like that is practicing. Today is the first day they’ll practice because Monday is their day off. I think what we need to do is get through our meetings today, get out there and start letting a little anxiety out on the field. I think once we get past that stage, I think we’ll be moved in the right direction.”
On 3rd Down Conversions on Offense
“But how about third-down conversions on offense? How about we’re converting under 30% on third downs. We have been in an exorbitant number of third-and-longs where we are converting just over 10%. Want to go to third and six and nine where we are converting at 33%? How about third, 2 to 5, we’re only converting at 44%.”
On eliminating mental mistakes
“Offensively you have to get better at executing better. It’s not by putting in more plays. It’s putting in plays and doing them better. I think there are the areas we’re really trying to emphasize this week.”
On the health of Ambrose Wooden
“I think he’s a little limited right now. This like Asaph last week where we knew it would be right to a game?time decision. This is one where in his case it’s good we’re not playing today because he’d be out there, but he just wouldn’t be full go right now. When you’re a defensive back, you can’t be limping around because people run right by you. We’ll just see how it goes this week. I’m expecting him to play. “
On the performance of the offensive line
“Well, I think as an offensive line, that’s really the heart of your offense. Between the offensive line and your quarterback is really where everything starts. I think we’re all disappointed. I’m disappointed. Brady is disappointed. The offensive line is disappointed about how this has gone so far.
We need to collectively try to make some improvements, and it’s improvements in every aspect. We want to block the run better. We want to protect the quarterback better. There’s a number of things we want to work on. I don’t want to talk about individuals because we try to talk about it as a group.”
On how to fix the problems along the offensive line
“Well, the good thing is this is week four, okay? This isn’t week 13. This is week four. I think these guys have a lot of pride. They care for each other. I expect a big bounce back out of them.”
On the health of James Aldridge
“I told you, where I look to see him going is about a week away.”
On Travis Thomas’s role on offense
“We were close to using him. See, usually he’s our slug-it-out back. The game didn’t turn into a slug-it-out game. It turned into a spread-’em-out game. That’s not really where we’re looking to use him. Because we don’t have him practicing on offense full-time, he doesn’t have the full array of everything we’re doing. He has packages that are like Travis packages that he knows those are the plays he’s responsible for, that we can still practice him in a week with taking him away from the defense a minimal amount of time.”
On the difference between dealing with college and professional players after a loss like Michigan
“The biggest difference is you have them all together here all the time. There, they go to their families and everything. Your families really suffer in the NFL because you get hammered on all the time. The biggest issue that I deal with personally, to tell you the truth, is how my kid is going to handle it when he goes into school and people start getting on him when he goes to school. I worry more about Maura and Charlie than I do myself, I can promise you. In the pros, that’s what happens because they all have families. A lot of them are married and have kids.
Here everyone goes back to the dorm. You kind of have them all together. They have each other to lean on. Whereas there, they all kind of go their own separate ways. That’s the biggest difference. It’s not the maturity factor, it’s not the age. It’s the camaraderie that the guys have in college because they’re actually living around each other, in addition to playing the game together.”
