Notre Dame Post-Game Quotes
"First of all, congratulations to Syracuse, both the coaches and players. In the first half, turnovers stopped us, but then we couldn't stop the run, and it made it hard to stop the pass. We drew close in the second half, but then we just couldn't stop the run."
"Heading into the off-season, this could be a very difficult loss, but we can't allow it to be. We need to go back to work on being a good football team."
"I wasn't surprised by anything Syracuse did. I knew they would come with a lot of bootlegs, and those are real hard to stop when they're running the ball so well."
"(Walter) Reyes is a good back, and we knew that they run the ball well. If you don't put a hat on him, he's not going down."
"They were very aggressive on defense, and just wouldn't let us get a running game going."
"We felt that this game could have been a good springboard into the off-season. It would have given us four in a row to end the season, but we still got three of four."
WR Carlyle Holiday:
"This was a bit surprising. Our guys have been feeling that we've been on a different plane the last few weeks, so this was a big disappointment."
"Syracuse did nothing different, they just controlled the line of scrimmage."
"It's my intention to come back and do something positive for this team. But right now, I'm just going to go relax."
DB Dwight Ellick:
(on what it's like to come back to his original hometown, where he played high school football)
"I had about 40 family members here. It was special to play in the Dome, as I've never played here before. I just was hoping to come away with a win, though."
"(Walter) Reyes is definitely a feisty back. I think he's probably the fastest we faced this year. He's not the strongest back, he's not a power back, he's more of an out-run-you type of back. He sees the seam and he hits it quick. That's just what he did in the second half."
"It will probably be the hardest off-season in Notre Dame history, so we come back next year ready to be on top and be the best team in the country. We're going to hold everyone accountable for the things they have to do to become a better player and a better person so this team can step to the next level next year."
"After the game I could see in a lot of people's eyes that this motivated us. We're tired of losing like this."
Center Bob Morton:
"We didn't play the kind of ball we came here to play. We didn't play as physical or as tenacious as we wanted to play. It's real tough to swallow right now."
(on SU's Christian Ferrara):
"He was a tough kid, but what do you expect when you play a team from New York? He was real tough to reach and through some miscommunications on our line and his sheer ability, he was able to get through a couple times barely touched, which is definitely not what we're looking for."
QB Brady Quinn:
"I know I've got a bitter taste in my mouth right now, but I know that that's only going to drive me to work even harder this off-season."
RB Julius Jones:
"We didn't come out and play like we're capable of and it showed everywhere – offense and defense."
"It was really important for us to finish out even. It's not like Notre Dame to have a losing record. It just was not a good way to go out for the seniors, not a good way to go out for anybody."
