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STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 7, 2006

Walt Harris

COACH WALT HARRIS: We congratulate Notre Dame on a victory here today. Obviously they played good and our guys played hard.
I thought our guys from our perspective played a little better. We had some unfortunate things happen that were weren't quite able to capitalize on the plays that we needed to capitalize in order to make it a lot closer game, but that's football; it doesn't always bounce the way you want it to bounce. We have a lot of work to do, but we have some improvements that I thought offensively at times, defensively I think it still continues to get a little better. Special teams was better today. But once again, we ran into a good football team with a good quarterback, and they protected him tremendously well and they operated like you expected them to. I thought Darius Walker did a nice job. Obviously their front was the difference for us on offense.
Any questions?

Q. You mentioned the mistakes that your receivers dropped two pretty open balls. Do you see it as one of them was a touchdown that could have changed the tenor of the game?
COACH WALT HARRIS: We thought both of them had a chance, one for sure in the end zone and the other one had a chance to be a good gain, but that's the way it is. As far as football, you've got to try to fight your way through it, and they weren't able to do it.

Q. Is there something that Victor Abiamiri does against you guys that allows him to be so successful? Is there kind of a kink in your scheme that allows him to do that?
COACH WALT HARRIS: No, I just think he's a good football player. Correct me if I'm wrong, we won't have to face him again? I'm sure Charlie will come up with some others. He can't wait to play us, that's what it looks like. We wish him well.

Q. Notre Dame started with a long drive. Do you think defensively, do you think that the guys sort of wore down as the half went on?
COACH WALT HARRIS: I'm sure they did. I don't think that drive was so -- wore us out as much as we came back with a 14-play drive, but then we had three drives and three downs to punt. That wore our defense out. We weren't able to get it done.
Once again, I think you have to give credit to the defensive front. I thought they were -- they dominated us in the short yardage situation and also pass protection.

Q. You ran the double pass for a touchdown. Did you see something in their scheme, something that personnel makes that vulnerable to that kind of play?
COACH WALT HARRIS: Well, whenever you try a play like that, it could be real good or it could be real bad. We thought they had a chance. It took a while to come down, and we were praying pretty hard. Fortunately our guy camped underneath it and got it done. It was one of those plays, I wish we were at the point where we don't have to do that kind of stuff, we just go down and execute it, but sometimes we have to do that.

Q. You've been plagued by injuries. How would you assess your backups in the running game today?
COACH WALT HARRIS: How would I assess our backups?

Q. Like Toby, the guys who ran the ball today.
COACH WALT HARRIS: It was great to have Anthony Kimble back, he was physical for us, and I thought Toby did, too. I think the thing I can't wait to watch is we really had trouble pass protecting and yet we ran the ball effectively most of the time. It's the same guys blocking, same guys defending. I thought we had a good plan to run the ball and we tried to run the ball. One of my goals personally was to stick with the run game longer and see if it would help us. I think we improved, so that's positive for our picture.

Q. Notre Dame's offensive line has at times struggled this year. What was your assessment of it?
COACH WALT HARRIS: Well, I think Brady Quinn had a lot of time to pass on a consistent basis. Not every time, but on a consistent basis. They're big and physical, and it's nice to have a freshman come in and play as a true freshman. You've got to look way up to see him. We're hoping he graduates early.
You know, they're good up front. They play a tough schedule and they've got physical guys. I think that most of those guys are veteran football players except for him. That makes it a lot better for Brady.

Q. You had a 4th and 1 play midfield. Was that something you saw in the defense?
COACH WALT HARRIS: We would sure like to maybe try something different, but we felt like we had to come into the game and try to make something happen. To play conservative, I don't think that that's what we needed to do in order to give our players a chance to win. A lot of times when you do that, you decide you wish you would have called a different play or maybe wish you had kicked. But I just was trying to help our team because I thought we were in for a tough battle here in a hostile environment, and I thought it would help. Unfortunately we didn't get it done.

Q. Would you compare this team to the Notre Dame team you saw last November? Do you think it's a better team?
COACH WALT HARRIS: They're both good teams. They both beat us. They have a fifth year senior quarterback, who I just talked to him briefly before the game. He's really matured, and like Coach Weis said, he's already played through a lot before Coach Weis ever got a hold of him. Obviously he gave him an excellent offense to play in. But he's seen it, so he doesn't get rattled and he has great composure and he's a very good scrambler. He makes the plays and that really helps their pass protection, makes it hard on the defense.

Q. There's been several times this year where you evaluate receivers during the game and make substitutions based on their play. What was the decision of the different evaluation of receivers you had to keep them in the game?
COACH WALT HARRIS: Yancy got hurt and was out for quite a while, so that was a big reason why Mike -- he actually came back in the game. The only other one -- we don't have that many. The only other one was Sherman, and Coach Waugh, an outstanding receiving coach, thought it would be best to go with the other guys.

Q. Marcus McCutcheon didn't practice warming up before the game. Coach's decision or doctor's advice for him to not play today?
COACH WALT HARRIS: No, I think it's hard to come back from a somewhat serious knee injury and be out for four weeks and come right back in and the first game he has to play is in Notre Dame Stadium. He's been able to run around with a regular -- and be able to be touched by somebody. I think we want to take care of our guys, and we still have some games to go, so we're looking -- he should be better this week with another week under his belt and still be confident. He really wants to play. There's no question he's chomping at the bit.

Q. Looking at the stats right here, Stanford was 1 for 8 on 3rd down and Notre Dame was 7 for 13. Can you talk about how big that was and what you've got to do to try to change that?
COACH WALT HARRIS: That's been a challenge for us all year. That's how you win games, that's how you lose games. You've got to get it done on 3rd down, and we weren't able to and they were. It's simple. We know it's plagued us, and that's why you have those three plays, then out. That's our challenge right now.

Q. You talked earlier about you wanted to stick with the running game today. Both of your top two runners averaged over four yards per carry. Are you surprised that that did not help open up a better passing game?
COACH WALT HARRIS: I don't think the passing game wasn't open. I think that's not a fair statement. I think the passing game was open, we just couldn't get to it.

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