Everything Purdue coach Barry Odom said after losing to Notre Dame football

Barry Odom took his Purdue Boilermakers to South Bend, Ind., on Saturday. They lost to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 56-30.

Here’s everything Odom said after the game.

Opening statement

“Thanks for sticking around. Good to see everybody. I hate that we’re in the position that we’re talking about coming up short in a loss. I would like to give Coach Freeman and his staff and their team a lot of credit. They’re talented in a lot of ways. Explosive. I think they’ve got a really good team.

“I was proud of a number of things that we did on offense tonight. I thought it continued to give us opportunities to stay in the game. There was some extra effort and toughness plays that we’ll certainly build on and stand out that I was proud of offensively.

“Defensively, we didn’t play to the standard we need to. We didn’t tackle well. We weren’t very good on the line of scrimmage. I thought Slusher and Manny and Todd, I saw them finish the way we want to finish. But we got a lot of things to fix.

“And nobody said it was going to be easy. Life is hard. You want something changed and you want to fix it, usually it’s down the work that’s called hard. And we got to find a way. I’m excited about what we can do with this team, but we can’t open up the game and give up a 65-yard touchdown. We can’t give uop a kickoff return for a touchdown. The explosive plays, we’re not going to be good enough to overcome those things.

“So we got to get it fixed, and it starts directly with the guy looking back at myself in the mirror. We got to come up with a great game plan. We got a bye week that I think happens at a perfect time for our team. We get bonus practices on Illinois, and then we’re into a seven-week stretch of conference play. We’ll get our team there. There’s a number of things to build on. There’s obviously a number of things to correct. And I’ll stop there.”

On if he saw a poor defensive game like this one coming

“Not really. I Thought we were hesitant. I thought we played a step slow. I thought we were overthinking some things and not trusting this to cut loose and go play and go take a shot. You have to always look back on reasons for what that happened. It certainly didn’t show up in practice. They’re a talented team, but also, I think we got some talent on defense too. I thought they controlled the line of scrimmage on that side of the ball.”

On if he was surprised the Purdue defense struggled so much vs. Notre Dame

“I was, yeah.”

On why the Purdue defense struggled so much vs. Notre Dame

“I would never say lack of talent. Nuh-uh. No. I think from a coaching staff standpoint, looking back, is there something we missed? Do we feel like that was the best plan? We made some adjustments. We didn’t get off blocks very well. I thought they controlled the line of scrimmage. I also thought 4 and 24 for them are two of the best runners in college football. We’re going to face great players every week. We got to be able to populate the ball. We got to be able to get them down. And we got to be able to find the ways to play a little more aggressive in our coverage.”

On playing catch-up all game vs. Notre Dame

“You got to be so mentally tough. And you got to be stoic in your nature and you just got to understand that every single play is a game within itself. And when you can get that as a competitor in your mind that that’s what it’s going to be and what it’s going to take, then eventually you break down that wall on it doesn’t matter what the opponent does. We’re going to bounce back. And I thought, offensively tonight, we did that. A couple times. Especially after the kick return for a touchdown. I don’t know what was on the clock. About a minute, I think. Fifty seconds or something. We came back down and scored. That was big-time. We’ll grow from there. We got enough playmakers on both sides of the ball to play winning ball. We’re get there.”

On the touchdown pass from RB Devin Mockobee to QB Ryan Browne

“Coach Henson and offensively, they continue to build ways to get our playmakers the ball and find advantages. We needed a certain look to get that call. They gave us the look. Coach made the call. Players executed at a high level. And when things work, it’s really good. Just like Coach Shibest and the fake punt. We knew if it was going to be on that hash, and that’s where we were, we were going to call one. Every week, we build a number of those things in the playbook. Deceptives that we have that we’ll carry. And we’ll just continue to work on them. And you got to call them. You got to be aggressive to give your guys a chance. And I thought those two calls continue to help us gain some momentum and play well.”

On Indiana native Nitro Tuggle’s touchdown catch

“I thought it was a big-time throw. And as equal of that a great catch. And he had another one, Ryan tried another one down on the other end early in the game, he had a finger-tip catch. We got some playmakers. Also think that we got a quarterback that can get them the ball. That’s exciting. We’ll build on it. We’re going to be able to score points. The guys continue to prove that. We got to find a way to be a complete team.”

On Purdue’s offensive speed

“You look at the physical characteristics of what it takes for a receiver, some guys have tremendous speed. Some guys have good speed but run great routes. Nitro is a little bit of a combination of all of it. He’s physical. Run after catch. He does a nice job fighting through press coverage. He does have good hands. He is a competitor. And he’s a young football player. He hasn’t played much ball. I think I said it last week to somebody; he’s got a chance to continue to improve and be a big-time player for us.”

On Purdue not being able to run vs. Notre Dame

“I need to look at it a little more in depth on how many sack yards we had and how many TFL yards we had and what we gave up. We’re going to be able to run the ball. It may not be— the thing that we can’t do on first down is get behind the sticks. Tonight, we did. I thought we were playing catch-up on second down a lot. Those are something that we really got to get corrected and fixed. Just through a defensive lens, if you can get a one-yard gain or negative yards on first down, then man, it makes it a lot easier to make plays, calls. We understand through everything that we’re going through offensively, we got to improve in a lot of ways. And rushing would be one. And first down efficiency would certainly be there as well.”

On injured Purdue player George Burhenn

“I don’t know. He was out for the game, and I haven’t had a chance to meet with the trainer yet to see any other injuries we had … It was an arm injury. But I don’t know specifically what it was.”

On Purdue settling for field goals when chasing the game

“Also, we’re building confidence in what our kicker is. The snap, the hold, the protection, the kick. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made in that area. He’s doing a nice job. You get in that point, in that point of the game with the first couple that we called, you get a chance in a two-score game to keep it there. I didn’t want to come away with zero, obviously. And then I look at, OK, how much are we going to get on third down? Talking to Coach Henson. OK, is it fourth and six? How good do we feel about executing there on fourth and six? OK, let’s get three points. So, there will be a point when we get close to the 35-yard line that we know we can come away with three. Which, we’re kind of close to that point right now. So now we can be a little more aggressive, maybe being aggressive on second and third down calls to come away with seven instead.”

On Purdue’s bye week being now

“Obviously, we got a lot of work to do and will do. We get bonus practices. Every Sunday we do a self-scout analysis on everything we’re doing. Call-wise, offense, defense and kicking. We’ll be a little bit more deliberate about that. It’s a chance for us, three different days where we’re in the weight room with a lift, which we certainly need. We’ll have good practices. We’ll have extra rep work on the Illinois game plan. And from a fall camp, four games, I think the bye week hits about the time we need it.”