Michael Mayer addresses his record-breaking night, praises teammates after BYU win
Even after his record-breaking night, Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer declined to steal the spotlight from his teammates. Not only did Mayer break the program record — which he set — for catches in a single game by a tight end with 11, but he also became the all-time leader in receptions at the position.
But in his postgame interview, Mayer had little interest in talking about his personal accolades. Instead, he put the focus on the 28-20 victory against No. 16 BYU, the third straight for the Fighting Irish after they started the season 0-2.
“Tonight’s not about me,” he said. “Today’s about the team getting a big win. Kind of feels like we’re getting back on track now after a little shaky start to the season. The offense played great. The defense played great. I’m proud of this team. We did what we had to do. We came to Vegas and got a W. That’s all that mattered.”
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Mayer also gave a shout out to quarterback Drew Pyne, who received some criticism for his performance over the past couple of weeks. But Pyne looked the part Saturday, finishing 22-of-28 passing for 262 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
As Mayer said after the game, he couldn’t have broken the record without his quarterback.
“Three weeks ago, half the country didn’t believe in him,” Mayer said. “Everybody’s saying everything on Twitter, social media and all that stuff. All that kid does it battle, fight and come to work every day. Me and him are doing extra routes after practice for 30 minutes trying to get that connection going. I’m proud of that guy. I really am. He’s worked his tail off since Day 1 and he deserves this win more than anybody. Drew Pyne deserves this win.
“…(The record) feels good. It really does. But then again, I can’t do that without Drew Pyne throwing me the ball, without the O-line blocking for Drew, without the other receivers knowing what routes they’re running. It’s a big time team effort and it’s gonna be the rest of the season. That’s how it always is here at Notre Dame.”
Just a few weeks ago, things were looking bleak for Notre Dame. But thanks not only to Mayer, but the rest of the team, things are finally starting to fall into place.
“We’re coming together,” he said. “Not saying that we weren’t at the beginning of the year, but I think there needed to be a little bit more team camaraderie within the locker room, within the program. I love every single person on this team and they would say the same thing about me. I think that’s kind of what got us rolling right now. We’re feeling good about ourselves, we love our teammates and we’re just gonna try to keep it rolling.”
The Fighting Irish will hope to keep up their winning ways next week when they face Stanford at 7:30 p.m. ET.