Coach Walt Harris Previews the Notre Dame Game

11/8/2004

Read the official press conference transcript here at www.pittsburghpanthers.com.

Walt Harris Press Conference

Nov. 8, 2004

Notre Dame Week

 

Opening Statement

?We had a hard-fought football game at Syracuse. We had our chances to win the game. If you?re a college football fan I would think that you thought it was heck of a football game. If you?re a Pittsburgh fan, you ache like we do. I felt like we had our chances to win the game and we just didn?t get it done. In the overtime we had trouble stopping them and we got stopped on fourth down. It was a hard game to lose because I think our kids played so hard and they gave us everything they had. I don?t think many players left much of anything when they came off the field. It was a hard one to lose. This week we are playing Notre Dame, a football program that has its own TV station, so to speak, on game day. It?s one of the most storied football programs in America. We look forward to the opportunity we have of getting done what we think we are capable of doing there at Notre Dame Stadium. We realize they have good football players and they have an outstanding quarterback who?s just a sophomore. I like their running backs and I think that their defense is probably the most stout defense we have seen. They?re very good up front as they were last year when we played them and that will be a strong challenge for us. I like the attitude of our players. We had a good practice last night. We?re trying to put that game behind us. We?re trying to mature. We?re trying to be a winner. What a winner is defined as is what you can do better with yourself first starting with me and permeating down to the players so we can continue to improve so we can win the game at Notre Dame Stadium.?

What has Notre Dame done to improve from the beginning of the season and how do you prevent back-to-back losses?

?I think they had a rough game against BYU. They didn?t play that game like they have played the rest of their games this season. They won a big game on the road against Tennessee. That?s not an easy place to play. I don?t really worry about that. I think the most important thing for our football team is to learn from our last game the good things that we did and the things that we didn?t quite do, players and coaches. We have to move on into this game and get it right and get it better, improve our details that will give us a better chance to be successful and whether we?ve won two in a row or lost two in a row that?s not a concern because every individual game concerns me and we have to find a way to get better. We have to put our focus on what we need to do to get better.?

How have you prepared to stop Notre Dame?s rushing attack?

?We?re trying to improve our plan and we?re trying to improve our players. I think we were a little soft at certain positions that made it hard for everybody else on certain plays. I think Syracuse did a good job of running the football. They?ve got good backs. They?ve been getting their yards against everybody. Walter Reyes has had over 100 yards in a numerous number of games. I think they surprised us in the number of ?X? formations they came out with. They hadn?t shown that in a couple of years. They found it to their liking and they kept coming with it and it made it difficult for our guys. In second half we played extremely well on defense all the way up till their last drive. That was the time our offense needed to capitalize on it but we missed a field goal which was huge because it would have put more pressure on them to score a touchdown and they made a field goal at the end to tie it. It was a back and forth game. It was a tough one.?

 

What are the issues with the kick and punt coverage units?

?I think the biggest area of concern was kickoff coverage. We averaged (46.6 yards) on punts and they had one good return on which one of our gunners didn?t keep the ball inside of him. Our kickoff coverage was lacking and we?re going to try and address that. That was something that was pretty good and Adam (Graessle) kicked the ball well enough but we really prefer him to kick it out of the end zone, which he is capable of doing. We didn?t cover or use very good technique and they split us down the middle.

?Their style of punt coverage is for them to put so many guys on the line and spread them out and we didn?t give our returner a chance. I was just thankful that our returner did a great job of holding on to the football. He did a nice job. Allen?s (Richardson) getting better at catching the ball and being consistent, but we are not giving him much help.?

Why do you think the running game has been inconsistent?

?It?s a combination of things. I?m sure we could call better plays. I think we?re calling plays that we feel we could execute. Sometimes it?s just a mixture. Sometimes we don?t quite block it right, one guy doesn?t block his technique as well, one back doesn?t run quite as hard or doesn?t quite make the right read. Those are just some of the things that make it difficult to be consistent.?

What were the situations surrounding the two missed field goals?

?The first field goal was a 45-yarder, which we feel is very much in his (Josh Cummings) range. Before the game I was told he could kick it from 60 because they were all excited about kicking on turf for the first time?I think he hooked it (45-yarder) a little bit left. The last one was a little mistimed between the signal for the snap, the snap, and when he took off. The snapper snapped the ball a little late. We work hard on trying to have a good operation time and we had a couple blocked the past few weeks in practice and so we tried to upgrade our practice time in the field goal department. Josh jumped a little bit and it didn?t help. He?s a good kicker and that?s why we take those 45 yarders. We think he can make them.?

Do you plan on giving Tyler the ball and opening it up more early in games?

?He and Greg (Lee) have done an excellent job in their first years of starting for us. In order to be good you have to be balanced to some degree. We had 39 runs and 42 passes which is fairly good. We just need to be more effective. We can?t just sit back and throw it all the time because it makes it impossible for our offensive line to pass protect. They were a good pass-rushing football team. We gave up a couple of sacks. We just try to mix it up and try to keep people off balance the best we can. Tyler is growing up as a quarterback and has worked hard on becoming a more consistent quarterback and trying to improve on some areas. They have exciting futures, both Greg and Tyler, they?re just sophomores. We?re looking forward to it and they have a big challenge this weekend.?

How do you prepare for playing at Notre Dame? Do you talk to your team about the mystique or do you downplay that?

?We talked yesterday about their storied program and I think their players understand the intensity about it. They?ve heard about Notre Dame for a long time and they?ve played them. I don?t want to oversell that part or undersell that part. We?ve got to get into what we?ve got to do to get better. We talked to them about how it?s a nice place to play and a harder place to play because they?ve added more people (stadium capacity). They?re right on the field. It makes it a great football atmosphere which I know our kids are looking forward to being involved with.?

What do you think of Coach Willingham?s success at Notre Dame?

?He?s done a good job. If you give a good football coach time at a place with that kind of history they will be able to resurrect to some degree some success. Notre Dame, with their television contract and being independent, has some advantages over a lot of people in America. Catholics, I?m sure, are a big part of our population and there are a lot of Catholic high schools (to recruit from). I think they have some natural inroads in recruiting along with their television contract and all the history that they have. He?s done a real good job.?

What are your thoughts on Notre Dame?s offensive and defensive schemes and how they compare to Syracuse?

?I think the biggest difference on offense is that they don?t run the option to any degree, which is always a factor when you?re playing Syracuse. Defensively I think they are better up front than anyone we?ve seen. Their linebackers have speed. I?m impressed with their physicalness up front and their quickness throughout their defense. Their schemes that they play will be similar. I think Notre Dame will probably do a lot more things than Syracuse in terms of fire zones and blitzing guys but they are somewhat similar.?

What was your game plan at the end of the game at Syracuse in terms of using the timeouts?

?We called timeout for measurement. We called the timeout and they had an official measurement. They came over and asked us if we wanted to use our timeout or if we wanted an official measurement. We felt like the timeout was best to keep. The time was about the same. The difference is going into a huddle versus not huddling. We had the opportunity to make that choice and we decided to keep it. Looking back at it, when Greg caught a pass and ran towards the sideline and got a first down, that would have been the time to use it. The 2nd-and-1 throw, when they measured, would have been another time we could have used it, which we did. We opted to keep it. That?s why we had the two timeouts at the end. It was an outstanding drive to give the kicker a chance. Tyler did an excellent job of getting the ball snapped and not wasting anytime.?

What are your thoughts on Notre Dame?s affiliations with the Big East?

?I think that they are a little different than a non-conference opponent because they do have an affiliation with most sports in the Big East and they have a bowl tie-in involved with the TV contract, which I mentioned to our team.?

What are your thoughts of Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn?

?Brady Quinn is a good friend of (assistant) Coach Bryan Deal, who used to coach Dublin. We couldn?t quite get him because of who we already had on the roster. He went through the growing pains of being a freshman. He?s very tough and stands in pocket extremely well. He?s got a good arm and appears to be very accurate. He?s played a lot of games so he?s a formidable quarterback to face.?

 

Coach Walt Harris Previews the Notre Dame Game

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