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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE


September 4, 2010


Danny Hope


COACH HOPE: I thought we played hard and stayed together and still had a chance to compete, to win at the end of the game. I think we grew up some today as a football team. I don't know what the official count is, I believe we probably played as many as 20 new guys in a game today and that's a lot of new people that's never played in a college football game or a new position. So I figure we did some good things. We were not as consistent as we needed to be.
A lot of people counted us way out in this game; so I'm proud of our football team for being in position and having a chance to challenge at the end. Things did not always go our way but I thought we did a good job of sticking together and still finding a way to compete. I believe there were some times today standing on the sidelines watching our team play, I was watching them grow up as a football team. I could see it happening right in front of us.
Disappointed with the loss. But I feel like we grew up some as a football team, and we have time on our side. We have some home games coming up. We'll get better and better and I think when it's all said and done, we're going to have one heck of a football team.

Q. Danny, talk about the play you got from Robert Marve, and in particular, his touchdown run and dive into the end zone which he got flagged for?
COACH HOPE: He has calmed down a little bit. He's got a fast most motor. We have to get him a cup of decaf in the morning, rather than regular coffee. He was running awful fast today. They did some great things and I know when we go this tomorrow with Robert, he'll see some receivers that he should have thrown the ball to early in the game, and he'll learn from that. He has not played football in a real game in a long time, in a long time. He always gives you great effort. He always competes. He's our quarterback and he'll get better and we can win with him.

Q. Can you talk about the job that Notre Dame defensive front did and the problems that they caused you at times?
COACH HOPE: I was relatively pleased with our offensive line. Out there in practice, we have had a brand new center, a guy that's never played the position and we moved him there when camp started and he's never played in a college football game before and he's never played in a game and never played center before. He played 80 snaps today and didn't have a bad snap and he did good job protection-wise. We had Nick Mondek at right tackle and he's never played on offense before, he missed all of spring and didn't get any reps on the offensive line in spring. He struggled throughout the course of camp and had a setback blocked the wide rushing ends, Kerrigan and Gooden.
I was tickled to death what I saw Nick Mondek do today and Peters Drey do today. I don't believe they sacked us in the first half; I could be mistaken. I don't follow the stats as much as you guys do. We got a little disjointed at times in the second half and didn't get off on the count in time, and Robert held the ball a couple of times and we manufactured some sacks and aided in their effort from a stack standpoint.
For the most part, I was pleased with the overall offensive line. It was a position that was supposed to be a total rebuilding job and a position that a lot of people thought would be very poor for us. I thought they did an admirable job in the first game. I would like to take some of those plays back, but some guys that's never played, we had two starters back on the offensive line and Justin Pierce has played some, and then no one else has played any, in the games or even at their position.
I stood out there on the sidelines and disappointed we could not execute some things better at times but I really felt like I was watching our team grow up right there before my eyes.

Q. Is there an area or two you that thought they grew up in today?
COACH HOPE: All of them. None of the secondary guys had played. Albert Evans had played a little bit. I don't think Al Williams has had 50 snaps since he's been here. We have a bunch of guys in the game that's never played at all. They got their feet wet and they competed against a very, very talented football team in a hostile environment and in a very emotional game.
Notre Dame was excited about playing today and it was a huge challenge for our young guys, so I think our secondary grew up some. I think our offensive line grew up some. Our quarterback definitely grew up some today. There were some times in the second half that we were out there moving the football and I thought that we were in command. And there were some times defensively out there we had our backs to the wall and held them to a field goal and put our offense back out on the field. There were times today it was fourth and short and we went for it, and other clubs and teams may have punted or went for a field goal, but we came here for a win.
One of our key objectives coming down here today was we were not going to be afraid of losing. There's no way you come down being in this environment being afraid to lose. We came out trying to fire out of both holsters, and if we came forth and short some times in the game and we had decide whether to go for it or kick a field goal, we went for it because we came here to win. We did not execute in all phases to come away with the win but we laid it on the line and took our chances, disappointed we lost, but I see some real promise and a great potential as a football team, no question.

Q. How much of what you saw today was what you've been studying Cincinnati all year?
COACH HOPE: Most of it. The difference always is the personnel. I thought No. 5, he's a great player, I thought he was the biggest difference maker in the game today. We tackled well some and we tackled very poorly some and a lot of our poor tackling was against him and he can make you miss, and cut across, he's an outstanding player. He's very, very hard to tackle and it was evident today. He's going to make a lot of other people, miss, too, throughout the course of the season but personally looking at the film, I thought he was the difference-maker in the game. We could not tackle No. 5 on a consistent enough basis. He kept the sticks moving.

Q. Any sense of who is going to be replacing Ralph Bolden?
COACH HOPE: We have a host of guys we are flying out. The problem is keeping them healthy where we have a chance to have confidence in some of those guys being able to execute all of the plays that we want them to be able to execute in our offense.
And Al-Terek McBurse is a heck of a player but he's missed a lot of practice. Danny Dierking has gotten all of the reps and he knows exactly where to go and knows the runners' routes and which linebacker to pick up on the blitzes.
We are so excited about Al-Terek McBurse. He's an excellent football player. He did not get a whole lot of represents not near enough practice time coming into a game like this today to go out there and do all of the things we needed him to do; so we just used him a little bit.

Q. Can you just talk about the job Rob Henry did? Did you hope to get him in a little bit? Obviously pretty effective what he did.
COACH HOPE: We were hoping to get Rob in more than what we did today, Rob Henry; he's a great athlete. He is our No. 2 passer on our football team right now, so we wanted to get him in there and throw the ball at him some more. There were some looks that we took advantage of and we utilized him more as a runner today. We would have liked to got him in there and he passed the ball a little bit more.
Robert Marve was hot and cold some today. Sometimes he was really, really good. And there was other times we felt like if we kept him out there that either he would figure it out and it would be good for his development. So we would like to take Rob Henry a little about it more but we felt it was important for the course of the game for Robert Marve to stay in there. And there were some times in the second half we were moving the chains and manufacturing some offense and looked like we had a chance to win, so we stuck with Robert Marve.

Q. What do you see different or maybe better about Notre Dame's defense than maybe last year?
COACH HOPE: I would have to look at the film to make an assessment of that. They blitzed almost every down last year and I thought that created some huge holes that we were able to take advantage of, and they did not blitz as much, and so the holes were smaller. They had good personnel. I thought at times we blocked them and manufactured some offense, but the biggest difference was the amount of blitzes they used to use.

Q. How big of a lift did the safety give your team?
COACH HOPE: It was huge. We were in it in the end, and that was exciting. It that gave guys some reason to go out there and continue playing hard with a chance to win. That's a lot different than just going out there and playing hard or to save face. We were playing hard with a chance to win and that was big for our football team. The safety was huge for us. A lot of new guys out there, and they brought some energy and some emotion to the game. So it was a big part of it.

Q. Crist was a guy you saw a little bit last year, today he was making his first start; what did you think?
COACH HOPE: Excellent passer, strong arm. He's accurate. It takes a lot of courage. He's had knee surgery. Robert Marve has had knee surgery, and those guys got tackled some today. But he probably got tackled more in the first half than he did in the second half. I was disappointed we could not get more hits on him in the first half. I think maybe we got to him a little bit more pressure-wise in the second half.
I thought he showed a lot of courage just like our quarterback playing a live game with a bunch of guys that are trying to tackle you. I think he showed a lot of courage. He's big and can see down the field. And he's very good vision and has a very strong arm and he's accurate with his passes today I thought. He's a very good passing quarterback, big strong arm quarterback, excellent for the shotgun.

Q. Did you view it as a positive or negative that you were going against a coach making his Notre Dame debut?
COACH HOPE: That's irrelevant to me. Nothing personal, but that wasn't the first thing I thought about this morning, what big day it was today around here. We were getting our team ready to go. He's a good coach and they have got a great program and he'll do a fine job here. You guys certainly have the right guy. But that was irrelevant to me. We are worrying about our own football team. We came here to make it our day. That was our objective.

Q. Talk about Schmitt --
COACH HOPE: I thought Jesse played pretty good. He made a couple mistakes that you guys won't be aware of, not knowing the play scheme but I thought as the game went on he became more comfortable when he caught the ball and for the most part was a physical runner when he caught the ball. One time I don't think he ran quite as physical. We are going to look at the film tomorrow, and they will, too, they will look at the film and see a bunch of plays that we could have cashed in on and we will look at the film and see a bunch of plays we could have cashed in on. The most important thing is that we learn from it and cash in on it next Saturday.
Thanks for having us.

End of FastScripts




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