Irish use 6th practice to play in game atmosphere
By ANDREW SOUKUP
Sports Writer
And on the sixth practice, the Irish scrimmaged.
For 30 minutes of Notre Dame's two-hour practice Saturday, the Irish drew on nearly four months of studying playbooks and a week's worth of practices as they practiced full-speed in a simulated game atmosphere.
"We had a very good session, but the session was probably focused more on good things coming from our energy level and not necessarily from our execution," Irish head coach Tyrone Willingham said about the scrimmage that included officials. "There were some bright things, but overall we need a lot of work."
The Irish still have a long way to go before they completely understand the new systems that Willingham's staff is implementing. But the focus of Saturday's scrimmage was less on execution and more on intensity.
"You have to understand the process they're going through," Willingham said. "You understand that some things will not be as a coach would like it, but at the same time, there's still progress being made, even though the execution may not be flawless yet."
"The thing I was really interested in today was did we play hard?" said defensive coordinator Kent Baer. "... I know there's going to be mistakes, you just have to keep coaching and hope they don't make too many mistakes."
While the players are being asked to learn a lot of new things in a short period of time — something Willingham is more than well aware of — he says he can't forgive execution errors even at this early stage.
"You're always tough on all aspects. That's the only way we can get truly better and become the team we should become," he said. "The guys worked hard, but there's a lot of thought process in what they do right now, and that usually inhibits the execution, so we're about par for the course."
Note:
While the Irish were busy practicing Thursday, Tiger Woods shot a third-round 66 at The Masters to claim a share of the lead. Woods won the tournament Sunday.
Willingham, formerly Stanford's head football coach from 1995 to 2001, was pleased to learn after practice that Woods, who golfed for Stanford from 1994 to 96, had jumped into the lead.
"Tiger did some great things for us in terms of being a model student-athlete," Willingham said.
But the Irish coach added that he has yet to play a round with Woods.
"I would not put my game in the same foursome as Tiger," he said.
Woods, who is sponsored by Nike, has recently worn a hat with the letters "TW" embroidered on the front. After practice, a reporter wondered if Willingham would wear one of those hats.
"I don't think so," the coach laughed. "We have a conflict of sponsors."
Notre Dame is sponsored by adidas.
All Sports Stories for Monday, April 15, 2002
