The first two years were rough, and this year’s better. But we still are working to win a national championship. Hopefully that’s somewhere in the future.

We just tried to get them the ball and let them do what they do best.

We tried to get him the ball. That was one of the strategies we tried to do coming into the game. With his size and his ability, one of the things we wanted to do...

He showed up today and had a great game.

Obviously statistics will be kept and you want to get closer to perfect. But when it comes down to it, a quarterback is graded upon winning, and that’s the area I’m looking to improve the...

We still talk to this day. We had a real close relationship and used to hang out as friends and everything. It’s fun seeing them before and after the game, seeing how they’ve progressed and...

He can get it there. We are all just a little tired right now from lifting and running.

He’s so brutally honest at times that it can catch you off guard. The best thing about his honesty is that it’s fair. He doesn’t play favorites. He’s even more intense now than he was...

It all comes down to wins and losses, and today we couldn’t pull it out in the end,

He’s a great teacher. He’s taught me so many things about how to run an offense and be a leader, … A lot of things he learned in the NFL, he’s brought down to teach...

Our only goal was to keep putting points on the board.

The way he handles quarterbacks is much more intense, a much more hands-on kind of approach, and you see the intensity not only that he brings to practice, but that he brings with the quarterbacks,

A lot of guys haven’t forgotten. I think that’s something that a lot of guys will use to motivate themselves this week.

I didn’t know if it meant it was going to be a good day or a bad day.

We had the mind-set to just keep putting points on the board. One of the goals coming into the game was to keep our defense off the field, knowing that their offense had a lot...

A lot of people, commentators, you’d hear them say this or that about whether or not we were worthy of a BCS bid. But obviously things worked out. … We’re where we should be.

He’s in Hollywood, that’s where all the big entertainment is, so obviously that’s going to be part of his college experience and everything he goes through. Obviously being in South Bend, it’s not a hot...

So that was somewhat of a transition coming in, but it’s something that has allowed us to grow as a team and an offense.

We didn’t necessarily have the best day today. Looking back, it was an ugly game two years ago.

That was how it was designed. It wasn’t a last resort. It was designed to be a run.

Looking back to the season prior when we beat Michigan State, I don’t think you saw any of our players sticking flags into other fields. I think that’s not how we handle ourselves. It was...

He just wished me luck against everyone else but Michigan, obviously,

We’re starting to form together. But at the same time, we looked kind of rusty, plus it’s kind of hard to tell without pads on, to be honest.

It feels good, that’s the way it should be. But numbers are just numbers and I’m just happy we won. A lot of hard work went into this, a lot of game-planning and a lot...

I definitely feel comfortable with talking about that with Coach and giving him what I’m seeing out there, … Coach and I have built that kind of relationship where we’re able to talk about that....

[Notre Dame defeated back-to-back ranked teams (No. 23 Pittsburgh, No. 3 Michigan) on the road for the first time since 2002, when Tyrone Willingham’s squad defeated No. 18 Air Force and No. 11 Florida State.]...

It was a situation where we needed to come out with a score. I hadn’t been all that productive the entire game. There was a point in time where I needed to step up and...

When they cut it to five, I think it was expressed across the sideline that we need to stop messing around . . . and put some points on the board.

We don’t focus on (individual accolades). Everyone on our team looks at the success of our team as the most important factor.

[The Heisman hype] is obviously flattering, but at the same point in time, it’s something that’s handled after the season, so it doesn’t really matter. If everything goes well for us, good things will come.

It’s obviously a lot more comfortable when you’re calling the plays down on the field. I can come up to ‘ [ Charlie ‘ Weis ] ‘ on the sidelines and talk to him face to face. You...

I think the biggest thing is you’ve got to make sure everyone is relaxed and focused, because communicating back and forth between the o-line, the wide receivers, everyone on the field is going to be...

It’s hard to give an answer to the question.

To see him come in and talk to me, and then all of a sudden he becomes your new head coach, it was such a weird transition. I guess that’s life. Things like that happen.

I wasn’t thinking anything about revenge coming into this game. What enabled us to win was the execution of our game plan.

Physically there is a difference. He dropped a significant amount of weight, some where between 10 and 15 pounds. The biggest thing, he has a lot of stamina and can run deep routes down the...

They were a pretty good team – they hung with us for a while.

There is no question that Coach Weis sets the bar high. But he has been very sensitive to the pace at which he’s been introducing his offense to us. He wants us to learn, for...

When you look at those Xs and Os you’re pretty confident in what they are able to do.

When you come back like that, you’ve got a lot of emotion and you feel pretty good about yourself. And then when you can’t come through with the victory, I think there’s the ability to...

A lot of his plays are cool to watch just because of his effort.

I think I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t frustrating, … There were times in certain situations where I realized that someone was going to have to make a play outside of themselves in...

Coach Vaas and Coach Weis are on the same page in what they desire from their quarterbacks. The always try to get the most out of you. Coach Vaas is on us a lot of...

Two years ago at Michigan the crowd noise was pretty heavy there, obviously, with 110,000 that had to play a big factor. It was one of those situations where I think our team had to...

We feel as if we are by far the best team in the tournament. Last year the tournament was tainted, and this year we are going for blood.

Coach Weis’ scheme sets us up in favorable positions all the time. The biggest thing is the way he’s taught us as far as where to go with the ball in every single situation. You’ve...

He’ll definitely come on and be physical with a linebacker or a defensive back or whoever.

Not that anyone wanted to settle for mediocrity, but I think there were times when guys didn’t realize how far they could push themselves. That’s something Coach Weis said right when he got here, that...

Every team wants to have that in their quarterback – someone who understands the offense and how things are supposed to go. If coach is saying that, then that’s a good thing.

It almost has the feeling of going through two-a-days in training came, so it hasn’t been a hard transition at all.