What NIU coach Thomas Hammock said about Notre Dame football

Northern Illinois head coach Thomas Hammock addressed the local media in DeKalb on Tuesday just a few days before his program’s first-ever meeting with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Here’s what he had to say.

Opening statement

“Obviously we have a tremendous opponent this week in Notre Dame. A great opportunity for us. One thing as a head coach hen I watch an opponent the first thing I look at is special teams. That gives you a feel for the type of feel and culture of the opponent, and one thing I can tell you is Notre Dame is exceptional on special teams. Normally those are the guys who are fighting to get on the bus, fighting to get on the field by any means necessary. They do a great job in that regard.

“I have a ton of respect for coach Freeman. To be a head coach at Notre Dame with everything that comes with it, obviously he has to be an outstanding person. I don’t know him personally but I had the chance to watch him progress throughout his coaching from afar. But he has a physical football team. As a former linebacker, you would expect that. They play physical. They play downhill. They have tremendous athletes. It’s going to be a great challenge for us.

“For us it’s a tremendous challenge. We obviously know it’s going to be a hostile environment. We’ll work crowd noise this week. There are going to be a lot of things that go into the preparation standpoint. But for us, it’s about making it about us and how we prepare and how we go execute. We know it’s going to be physical. Notre Dame is going to stand in the middle of the ring, and we got to go to the middle of the ring and match their intensity.”

On the Notre Dame offense (opening statement)

“Offensively, they have a new coordinator from LSU. He’s running some different things than they did last year. Part of that is personnel based. We know the quarterback is a tremendous player. I had a chance to watch a crossover game when he was at Duke and we played Boston College. He can throw it. He can run it. He’s big. He’s physical. Obviously they have some big and physical downhill backs. Deland McCullough is a guy I know. We were in the NFL together. Very impressed by what he’s done with that backfield.

“The offensive line has a bunch of young guys gaining valuable experience. Joe Rudolph and I worked together at Wisconsin, so I know him well. Know what type of coach he is. He’s got that unit playing at a high level. And then at the receiver position, they have big, big receivers, physical, that can run after the catch. So we got to do a great job defensively of gang tackling. That’s going to be important in a game like this.”

On the Notre Dame defense (opening statement)

“Defensively, coach Golden, the defensive coordinator, obviously he’s been a head coach. He’s been around. Coached in the NFL. Has a tremendous scheme. They can attack you from different fronts. They can attack you from different blitz looks. And they’re aggressive. They’re physical, and they’re downhill. They’ve got a really good front four that sets the tone for their defense. Their linebackers play downhill. And then on the back-end of their defense No. 0 is a great player. No. 20 is a great player. They’ve got some guys who can be erasers on the back end of their defense, which allows them to play good defense on all three levels.”

On if Notre Dame is the best team he’s faced in six years at NIU

“I’m not going to compare teams. I don’t think that’s fair to the opponent or the teams that we’ve played. We’re not going to get into that. But this is a very good football team. One that we respect, and they have our full attention this week.”

On bringing such a veteran team to Notre Dame

“All throughout this whole offseason the maturity that these guys have shown gives me confidence. I talked to them today about the competitive maturity for this week. We bumped some things around this week from a practice standpoint to take advantage of Monday being a day off with Labor Day and no school. We are in morning practice, so if you can have the chance to let these guys sleep in a little bit and get some preparation done, we did that. And they handled it the way I expected. Everything we’ve put in front of them, they’ve handled. When young people come together and work together and have confidence in one another, I think good things can happen.”

On his biggest concerns going into Notre Dame

“We just want to play our best football, right? Don’t let the moment be too big. Don’t let the environment be too big. Don’t let the opponent be too big. They put their pants on just like we put our pants on. Just handle it early and settle into the game then play the way we know how to play. Like I tell our players all the time, I don’t need you to be Superman. I just need you to be your best. If we play our best, then we’ll live with the results whatever they may be.”

On what he notices the most about Notre Dame

“As a team, they play without hesitation which, to me, if you are a physical player, you like to see. But nobody hesitates on their team from the offensive players to the defensive players to their special teams players. If they’re going to hit you, they’re going to hit you full speed. You have to understand that and understand how to offset that and counter that. And you have to match that level of intensity. We know what’s coming and we know what it looks like and we have to be ready to fight back.”

On how to channel the intensity of Notre Dame week

“The whole week we have a steady crescendo of building up to Saturday. We had an excellent practice on Monday night. Turned around and had an excellent practice this morning. So I like where our guys are at right now. So now it’s about the details of the work the rest of the week. What are the details of your position? What are the details to get your job done, your assignments? They have some very good blitzes, blitz packages. They have a lot of defensive fronts. We can put a lot of film work into the preparation and then go out there and be excited to play and have fun. Once you get to Saturday, what you’re going to be is what you’re going to be. Now, we got two good days of physical work already done and in the bank. Now it’s the mental preparation, keep polishing up some different things from the game plan and then go execute.”

On what it would mean for the program and the MAC to beat Notre Dame

“Yeah, obviously we all know what that would mean, right? So, I guess I’m not looking at it like that. I’m looking at it like let’s go play the game first then we’ll talk about all those things afterwards. But I’m excited to play, right? We’re going to go in there and give it our best and play our best. We respect them, and hopefully after the game they respect us.”

On NIU’s walkthrough schedule

“We’re going to get there Friday and have a look at the stadium. These kids are different, right? They want to take their pictures and do the social media. The quicker we can get that done with on Friday the better we can be on Saturday. I think we have to be off the field by 4 o’clock, so we’re going to move things up earlier on Friday. Drive over there, see the stadium, let them take their pictures or whatever, that’s just part of it these days, then obviously on Saturday we’ll be locked in and ready to play.”

On the helmet communication inside Notre Dame Stadium

“I’m interested to see that challenge. You watch some games on TV and you see the quarterbacks putting their hands over their ears. Obviously we have to be ready for that. We can have a signaling system too if for some reason with the helmet communication we were having a problem. Would hate to use a timeout if we didn’t get a play call in. We have to pick up our urgency. We used crowd noise the last two days. We had it blaring, and they executed well. Obviously in a game you may have a tendency to slow down just a little bit. But I thought for the most part they handled the crowd noise well. I know the Notre Dame fight song by heart now as many times as they played it. So it shouldn’t be a big deal on Saturday.”

On the benefits of playing a program like Notre Dame

“It’s a litmus test to see where you’re at. They’re aren’t going to be too many teams on our schedule better than Notre Dame. What a great opportunity we have to go out there and compete and show where we’re at, and that should give us confidence heading into the conference season. It’s a great game to play. These are the games you live for, national TV. NBC. I’m sure everyone is going to be watching these guys.

“Like I tell them, you score a touchdown, don’t do anything extra. Act like you’ve been there before because everybody knows you scored. I was watching the LSU game and the kid, he scored, and he got a penalty and that changed the game because USC came back down the next drive. We try to give those scenarios to our players so when they’re in that moment, you make an interception, you score a touchdown, listen, we expect you to that. Act like you’ve been there before. Give the ball to the ref. Celebrate with your teammates. And then move on.”

On going against Notre Dame’s stout secondary

“They have a tremendous secondary. We understand that. We respect them. But at the same time we have to find ways to create space, create separation with so our guys can make plays.”

On if his players have seen Rudy

“They probably weren’t born when Rudy [came out]. Rudy was when I was young. I’m sure they’re not going to the archive to see Rudy, I can promise you that. What a great movie though.”

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