Givens sheds some light on Irish expectations
By TED FOX
Sports Writer
It's almost May, and that can only mean one thing.
Football.
As a lot of students are getting ready to leave campus for the summer, a select few are already looking forward to next fall.
The Notre Dame football team, which played the 72nd annual Blue-Gold spring game Saturday (don't ask about the score — I'm still trying to figure out that 17 point touchdown), is already in the midst of preparation for the 2001 season.
In what seems to be becoming a "Fox Sports ... Almost" tradition, if anyone besides myself remembers what I wrote about a year ago, I talked to rising senior wideout David Givens about everything from next season's goals to trash talking before the play starts.
Oh, and incidentally, it was announced on Saturday that David is one of the four co-captains of the 2001 squad.
I heard that rumors he would be featured in this column catapulted him to that position.
Hey. Stop laughing.
Anyway, what follows is part of our conversation. My first question refers to what David told me a year ago, that Notre Dame's goal for 2000 was to win the national title.
TF: Do you think after this last season you proved to them [critics] that it's realistic [to win it all], and were you guys satisfied with last season, or is there still a lot more you want to do?
DG: I think it's possible that we could win a national championship this coming year. It's our goal, still. As any player, it's going to be your goal every year coming into a season. It's an attainable goal. I'm not reaching too far. It's not a goal that I've set too high for us. But sure, that's the goal, coming up this year.
TF: After the 5-7 season, people were saying: "Notre Dame can't get players because their admissions standards are too high," and I remember you told me that: "We can play with anyone in the country." Do you think after last year ... you kind of showed people what you knew all along?
DG: Yeah, I think we did make a pretty strong statement that having high academic standards doesn't make any difference as far as having good athletes. If it was a change of two different plays, we could be [11-0] this year. The Michigan State game and the Nebraska game, we're one play away from winning both of those games.
So I think we did prove ourselves ... pretty well.
TF: Obviously, the Fiesta Bowl didn't go the way you guys wanted it to go. Can you just talk about that a little, in terms of the game itself, and if you guys now use that as something to ... motivate you for this upcoming season.
DG: The Fiesta Bowl wasn't a good display for our team as a whole. We played bad all the way around. It is a big motivation due to the fact that we think we are better this year as a team than we were last year. And we did make it to the Fiesta Bowl.
It's just something that we can look forward to next year to go to a bigger bowl.
But we don't sit there everyday in practice and reminisce on the Fiesta Bowl.
That's behind us. We put the negative behind us and build on from there.
TF: No "Remember Tempe"?
DG: Yeah.
TF: Having a chance to go play a Nebraska at Nebraska — is that something you guys really look forward to being able to do that?
DG: Any big game, we're looking forward to, period. Not necessarily playing them on the road, but I don't think that's going to be a factor. Last year we played Nebraska [at] home, and it felt like a road game. Playing them next year, away, is going to be just like playing them here last year. I didn't really appreciate that too much ... and I don't think any of [my] teammates did, and I hope that never happens again.
Those away games are just like home games. You go in the game focused, and it's time to play when the ball is kicked off. Whether it be home or away, it's time to play ball.
TF: When you line up as a wide receiver ... is there anything in particular that you're thinking? Are you thinking about how you're going to beat the defensive back? Are you talking to the defensive back?
DG: First of all, every time I step on the field, no matter where it is, what position ... I feel like I'm the best player on the field. That's just my mentality, my focus on the field, there's nobody out there better than me. I may talk a little trash. Talking trash is not part of the game, but getting into the other player's head is part of the game.
TF: Now everyone's seen that you were a BCS team [last year]. Is there something that you still think that drives this team ... that people don't know about Notre Dame football right now, that you think when you guys go out there and take the field in September that you're going to surprise them again?
DG: I think the number one thing that we'll probably surprise people with is our speed this year. A lot of times, in the media, it says Notre Dame has no speed, they have no good athletes. But we've got at least 10 guys who ran either 4.4 40's, or below. I think the number one thing will be our speed, and you'll see guys out there having fun. In the past, when we were 5-7, as a viewer of the game, sitting on the sideline, watching guys play, it looked like they weren't having too much fun. It probably looked the same in the audience. We will be enthusiastic out there, having fun, and you will see lots of guys flying around.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessairly those of The Observer.
All Sports Stories for Monday, April 30, 2001
