What BYU coach Kalani Sitake said about Notre Dame football after Irish win
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake wanted to win Saturday’s Shamrock Series game in Las Vegas as badly as anyone. The Notre Dame players and coaches on the other sideline just didn’t make it easy enough on him to do so.
Here’s what Sitake said about Notre Dame in his postgame press conference after a 28-20 victory for the Fighting Irish.
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Opening statement
“Credit to Notre Dame. They played a great game. Such a cool experience tonight. The energy in the stadium was awesome from both sides. There was a lot of noise. The environment was special. It was a lot of fun.
“I wish Marcus Freeman and the rest of the Notre Dame team the best of luck the rest of the way. Really good team. And the way they played the game, they had a great game plan and executed really well. The tight end is a great player. I thought they did some things defensively against our offense that worked in their favor. They got off the field, and time of possession is a huge problem for us in that.
“Holding them to 28 points with that much time of possession and only scoring 20 is not going to do it for us. Got to fix it, get better, have a great attitude about it. Just thankful for all the fans who came. I appreciate all the BYU fans who made the trip and brought a lot of energy. I apologize it didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but I hope they know how much we appreciate and love them.”
On the final sequence in the fourth quarter
“They finished the game the way you want to. Convert first downs, make big plays. We had missed tackles. I feel like the defense just ran out of gas. Scheme wise, we brought a lot of pressure. Credit to them. They broke a lot of tackles. They made big runs. When you’re bringing a lot of pressure, all you have to do is pop one tackle and the rest is a foot race. That was disappointing. Especially after they got a holding call and we were set to get the ball back. It was second and long. That was disappointing.”
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On Jaren Hall’s 17 pass attempts
“How many plays did we have total? 46? That’s not going to do it. Part of that is defense, get off the field. And offense, get first downs and keep drives going. Just getting more efficient football from out team. What Notre Dame football did was right. Own the clock. Be balanced. run the ball, throw the ball. That’s what we should be doing.”
“I don’t think he was 100%. We have to look at all the decisions that we’re making and make sure our guys are in the right spot. He definitely was banged up. We have to go back and figure out what our game plan was and see what we can do. I thought he made some really good throws, especially in the second half. We’ll see how he feels after this.”
On Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer
“It was pretty evident they were trying to get the ball to 87. They were trying to get the ball to Mayer. He had 15 targets. We couldn’t make a play on that. We couldn’t get to the quarterback enough. I don’t even think we got any sacks. That’s not our football. Even in the run game, we didn’t do enough to stuff the run.”
