Everything Purdue coach Barry Odom said before facing Notre Dame football

Purdue (2-1) head coach Barry Odom spoke to the media Monday ahead of the Boilermakers’ game against Notre Dame (0-2) in South Bend on Saturday. Here’s everything he said in his nearly 20-minute long press conference.

Opening statement

“Happy Monday. What a great week. What a great opportunity. You look at the film, and I hate, hate, hate losing. It becomes, when you get to that point, you can feel it in the building after a loss. Fortunately, our guys understand that. You don’t ever want to get that feeling and you want to do everything you can not to experience those things.

“Learned a lot about ourselves and the team in the game. About our organization. I think we’re close, but close doesn’t count. We’re judged, and I’m judged, on results and not effort. That’s the bottom line, where we’re at. Name of the game, we got to win. And I got to do everything I can and our staff to get us where we need to be.

“You look back at the tape and some of the things we did well, you thought, I thought on the field, that way. Then there are obviously things that are crucial, that you can’t make mistakes against a good team like we did and expect to win. So we got to create turnovers on defense. We can’t give away three scoring opportunities in the red zone. And when you do those things, you’re going to make it really, really difficult to play winning football. And that’s kind of where we were at the other night.

“We got to continue to work to limit explosive plays defensively. We got to continue to find ways to establish the run game. I thought there were moments where we ran the ball with some efficiency. But then if you take away 60 yards and either tackles for losses or sacks, then it’s minimal to not good enough.

“We know to the point of who we’re becoming as a team. We also, and I believe this, we’re really close to being a darn good football team that plays winning football.

“So, another opportunity this week against, I think, is a terrific team in every single area. I think they’re certainly well-coached with Marcus Freeman and his staff. You look at their size, you look at their ability to run, look at them on the line of scrimmage. They’re built the right way. It will be a tremendous opportunity for us to prepare this week.

“And then first away game. It’s exciting to take a team on the road. So we’re excited about that opportunity. And our guys, we’ve had a really good Monday start to the week. We’ll create opportunities for ourselves. And excited about how good this team can get.”

On what Notre Dame means to him

“Well, if I look at what it means to me, since we’ve been studying them, I think obviously they’ve recruited very well. I got a lot of respect for their head coach. I’ve known him for a long time. They do things the right way in the way they play. They’re well-built. They execute on special teams. They understand situational football. And you’re watching them play, they block well, they do the fundamentals well. They’ve got two exceptional runners. They’re talented on the outside at receiver. And then defensively, they create problems. So, going into this week, so far yesterday and today on what this team looks like to me, I think they’re very, very talented.”

On Purdue’s offensive line vs. USC’s pass rush

“I think there’s times that we protected well and times that we didn’t. It’s easy to sit and pint fingers that it’s the offensive line. That’s sometimes the case, yes. That’s sometimes calls made by the head coach. That’s sometimes tight end in protection, running back picking up the extra defender or blitzer, that’s sometimes the receiver running the wrong route, the timing’s not there, that’s sometimes the quarterback instead of scrambling, not stepping up. So there’s so many things that go into it.

“It’s easy to look at, well, we didn’t protect very well at times. That’s the easy assessment. Sometimes that is absolutely truth. And then when you really dive into it, it’s all 11 guys plus the plan that we put together coaching wise. It’s everybody. And it starts with me on down to the coordinator and position coaches. And then it’s, can we teach our guys in that situation the calls to make? And then the players’ responsibility of going and executing. But it’s all of us together. And until we play a completely clean game on that, we haven’t gotten to where we need to be. So we’re working really hard to get there. I think we got a plan in place moving into this week that we’ll continue to get better in those things.

“And then you look at any time you give up a sack, OK, or pressure, was it a fundamental issue? Was it a schematic issue? Was there confusion or did we just get beat? And sometimes, there’s a combination of a number of those things. You’re really in a deep dive into all of those things that caused that. I think you could go a lot of different levels. And we have. And I think we’ll continue to improve in every single one of those ways.”

On Purdue’s secondary

“Obviously on the back end, you give up a play and everybody in the stadium sees it. So that’s one of the points that I made early about we got to eliminate explosive plays. The defensive line can make an error and 60,000 people don’t notice it, right? Then get to the next level, and the linebackers need to make a play. So again, it’s team defense. We got to get more pressure on the quarterback. That’s going to help our coverage on the back end.

“I think Charles Clark is the best secondary coach in college football. I believe that. I think we got the guys, athletically, that can go play really good pass defense. We got to play better team defense. And we do that, and we’re going to be better on the back end. So it all goes hand in hand.

“There’s one on one battles that we lost the other night that we got to continue to teach our guys on how to finish those plays. But again, I’m excited about the progress that they’re continuing to make. We had three opportunities the other night that, you look at it, really had opportunities to finish the plays with the ball in our hands and we didn’t complete it.

“So we got to be better. we got to be a better team. We got to be better teachers. We got to be better on the field executing that. And, again, it’s all of us on finding ways to give our guys advantages. And then, when their number’s called, we got to go execute. And that comes with experience and confidence and all of the things that go back to your habits throughout the week.”

On Purdue linebacker Winston Berglund

“I think everything’s Winston’s done since I had a chance in nine months, you can win with guys like Winston. Great work ethic. Loves this place. Id a tremendous teammate. Every single day, he does exactly what he’s supposed to do. Those guys, I mean they’re all fun to coach, but man, I want him to have great success because of the way he plays. The ways he carries himself. His care for his teammates.

“He played in the opening game, kickoff coverage, was a huge collision. Set the tone. And then he’s come through in a lot of ways, injury-wise, since we got here, with the shoulder. And he’s continued to be very resilient. I think he’s got tremendous toughness. And he made some plays the other night, which was exciting to see.

“He’s very versatile. He can run. He’s got the speed. He’s got good cover skills. He’s physical. Has a huge football IQ. So we can do a number of things with Winston because he understands it. He gets it. He’s very passionate about being a good football player.”

On prior experiences at Notre Dame

“I’ve never been there. No. My wide went on a recruiting visit with one of my sons. I didn’t go on it. Obviously, I know the history of Notre Dame and have great respect for their tradition and history since the beginning of time with football. But I have never been there personally, no.”

On getting wrapped up in the lore of Notre Dame

“Obviously, you look at the history of college football and the success that they’ve had, much respect for that. But as far as getting caught up in any of those traditions, for us — and again, great respect for them; they’ve got great players, great coaches — but our job and opportunities to create winning football start with our habits. And we step in and for four hours on Saturday afternoon go play our best ball. The tradition and all of the things that go along with that, I know that our guys will be excited to go there and they’re excited about the first opportunity to be on the road to go play.”

On if he knows what a Shillelagh is

“I do. I don’t have my notes in front of me. But I’ve seen pictures of the trophy. I’ve looked at it. I’ve studied it. And at this point, this would be where [Purdue SID Adam] Kuffner would come in and say, ‘Hey, coach, remmeber, it’s this.’ I’m still waiting on it.

“But absolutely. I know it’s the 89th meeting, I believe, if my memory serves me correct. Played a long time. And there’s been a lot of great battles over the years between the two programs. And I’m honored to have the chance to represent Purdue in a trophy game.”

On Purdue being a heavy underdog vs. Notre Dame

“It doesn’t make me feel any differently than if you would not have made that comment. I have not looked at that or thought about it. It’s about us getting ready to go play. I’m excited by the opportunity and whatever the favorite or the underdog is, I’m excited about who we are and the progress we’re making.”

On Purdue QB Ryan Browne’s progress in the read option game

“This was his fifth game that he’s really played in, meaningful snaps. So I just met with him and I’m excited about his progress five games into his career, the things he’s seeing, the throws he’s making. And he gets better every single day in practice with some of those things you just mentioned. And he’ll continue.

“He’s still so young, but he’s got unbelievable arm talent. Really, really smart in diagnosing and reading pre-snap on what he’s getting. But one of the great things is he’s able to communicate exactly what he sees, what he’s looking at.

“And throughout the week, he and coach [Josh] Henson and [Darin] Hinshaw get together and talk about things he really likes and things he would rather take out because of a comfort standpoint, and I think that’s what great quarterbacks are able to do. The amount of time he spends on what it takes to be a really good quarterback, he’s got all of those factors that I think he’s trending in the direction that he can be an elite talent at the quarterback position.”

On Purdue wide receiver Nitro Tuggle, a Georgia transfer

“I think his biggest strides, you start to see him making plays on game day because he’s practicing better. And I know that is such boring talk, but I will always believe you’re going to play exactly how you practice. And he has, early on, in fall camp, you would see glimpses and then he would disappear for a little bit. He’s been much more consistent. Love the way that he’s continuing to practice. He’s playing well when the ball’s not in his hands, blocking on the perimeter, doing some of those things that we ask those guys to do. I think he’s got a tremendous future for us.”

On Notre Dame being 0-2 and if that changes the way he approaches this game

“No. I know what their record is. I know who they’ve played. I look at what they’ve got not only schematically but skill set-wise, they’re a talented football team. So we’ve got to do a great job preparing, and then we’ve got to go execute. All of those things really have no bearing at all on our preparation or the way we approach the upcoming opponent.”

On the the rivalry experience in college football in the transfer portal era

“I mentioned this morning when I introduced the opponent that it was a trophy game. I introduced the history of how many times that we’ve played each other. We inherit things and also are expected to uphold tradition and responsibility of representing this university in the things that you inherit, and that’s one of them.

“So we’ll continue as the game gets closer, or I will, teaching about those moments and what it means. I still— there is a deep responsibility that I have as a leader of this team, is to represent people that were here long before I was. Long before this team. And no matter if you’ve got four months with us or five years, it’s about Purdue. And we got to uphold the standard of what that’s got to look like. I’ve got to continue to teach that.

“With no matter if we’ve got 82 new guys or 20, every single year there’s things that go with wearing the uniform and this is one of them.”

On if rivalry games facilitate cohesiveness with a roster full of new guys

“Anything that you can bring the team together, utilizing, whether it’s motivational ways or just us against them, I think those are all beneficial in building a team, for sure.”

On setting up a trophy game like Purdue vs. Notre Dame as a season goal to win it

“When we talked about this season, for a 12-week season with the two bye weeks, I addressed at one time right at the beginning before game one, before we got into the preparation of that, and I talked about the importance of our non-conference schedule. I talked about the importance of the rivalry games that are built in with the opportunity for the trophy games. And then I talked about how our schedule lays out with four weeks and a bye, and then we got seven and then a bye. So I talked just overall what that looked like. And then put all of that to rest and let’s focus on one game at a time. And then the stories that come up each week with how important it is to address that thing. It’s good to address it early, and then I can revisit those when we get into game week. OK, remember, we talked about this. Now it’s time that we’re here.”