Everything Miami University coach Chuck Martin said after loss to Notre Dame

Former Notre Dame assistant Chuck Martin brought his Miami RedHawks to South Bend on Saturday and left with a 28-3 loss to Notre Dame. Here’s everything Martin said in his postgame press conference.

Opening statement

“You play these games, you got to jump on ’em. Got to take advantage of your opportunities early. We moved the ball offensively. We got a huge turnover on our punt team. We throw a pick in the red zone again. Takes points off. We moved the ball. Our defense didn’t have to play a lot in the first half. They played great. Our offense did what we thought we could potentially do, mix it up enough and get some first downs and move the football. We had the ball in plus territory. Should be a two-score advantage for us.

“They were kind of sleepwalking through it a little bit. It’s hard if you’re Notre Dame. You’re playing Miami (Ohio). It’s just hard. Those kids didn’t get recruited by Miami (Ohio). You can say whatever you want. You think it’s an easy job? No, it’s not an easy job. ‘Oh, yeah, but they just lost too.’ Yeah, but it’s still Miami (Ohio). You watch the tape, we don’t look like the teams they play.

“But again, that was our chance. We had our chance first, second quarter to be up 10-0, 13-0, whatever. And again, self-inflicted wounds. Very frustrating. Thought our defense did well. They got really good backs, including their quarterback. They can run it. They do some really good stuff in the run game. I thought our kids really fought. Obviously, they lost some O-linemen. Probably a factor. But I like that our kids were not getting knocked off the ball there.

“We didn’t get open. They played a lot of zone. We didn’t get open. They won the battle of man, their DBs against us. They do a good job of getting their hands on ya, and we couldn’t really — play all that man and you don’t make them pay, it’s going to be a long day.

“But had our opportunities early, didn’t cash in, and just disappointed, to be honest with you.”

On the Miami running game vs. Notre Dame’s defense

“I thought we ran it good. They’re a physical, physical group. I thought we ran it probably better, to be honest, than I thought we would. But our guys worked hard all week and we got some things going there. There was at least enough air there. We weren’t behind the chains. Leaves us second and 8, second and 7, second and 4. So yeah, we ran it. I’m pleased with how we ran it. I’m pleased how we ran and defended the run. We had a couple late, but we got them in enough third downs and we knew if we get them in third down we got to win third down against their offense and we did it for the first two and a half quarters.”

On playing well but not getting the result

“If I had that answer, I’d write a really good book. Help a lot of people out when things don’t go well. I just go back to my upbringing. Whenever it doesn’t go the way you want, I think of my mom and dad and how they raised me. You could make excuses and you could quit but you weren’t going to live in that house anymore if you were going to quit. It’s all we know. It’s hard. We have really high expectations this year and we’re 0-3. Really high. Coming off a great team. We got a lot of guys back.

“I think people can see we have a shot to be a good football team, but at the end of the day you’re 0-3. No one looks to see who you play. No one cares who you play. We’re 0-3. It’s a very frustrated group in there. It’s a very disappointed group in there. And we got a lot of work to do. We got a good team coming in next week that handled Toledo. Didn’t beat Toledo, but again, the easy thing for us would be, ‘Oh, we’re not playing a Power Five team. We’ll be fine. We did pretty good against non-Power Five teams.’ That’s the trap you fall in.

“We’re mentally — it takes a lot. We’re mentally and physically, we got a lot left. Our quarterback’s been hit a lot in three weeks. It’s a physical toll. He won’t feel good tomorrow. He got hit a bunch today. But he got hit a bunch vs. Northwestern. He got hit a bunch against Cincinnati. He’s trying to win games. He’s a competitor. He’s scratching and clawing. But it’s a mental toll too. You try as hard, you work through it, you got high expectations and you’re 0-3. I don’t have a great answer other than we don’t have a choice.”

On what he takes from another loss to a power conference team

“You play Notre Dame, you play Northwestern, you play Cincinnati, every mistake gets exposed. You’re not where you’re supposed to go, Riley Leonard goes 50 yards the other way for a touchdown. It’s over. That’s what you take. What did we do well? We’ve done a lot of things well the first three weeks. We gotta hone in and say, OK, because you always want to play to your strengths, and say if we’ve done this well against three Power Five opponents, it’s probably something we should be pretty good at. Let’s keep getting better at that and let’s play to who we are.

“The other thing is the negative. What’s been exposed? What aren’t we good at? Which gets exposed in a hurry on days like today.”

On not closing the first half strong and allowing Notre Dame to take a multiple-score lead

“It’s frustrating because we should be up 13-7. I was so frustrated. I felt great about how we played. Felt great. But we needed to get that lead and we needed Notre Dame to play from behind. They had some boos in the second quarter. Had a punt. We needed to get that lead and turn up the pressure. And there’s pressure there. Anybody who follows this place knows that. Things can tighten in a hurry. If we just had a lead and could make them play from behind a little bit, maybe they make a couple errors. Just frustrating because we did what we wanted to do and we had opportunities. We just didn’t take advantage of opportunities.”

On Miami taking its own path to the football team it wants to be

“We were ready to roll. I feel great about how we came out of the chute. We had a good week of practice. First half, we had to move the ball. We moved the ball. For a period then, I wasn’t delusional, but I feel like we were in control of the game. This couldn’t have gone better to script. Three-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out, you can’t do that. Their defense is so stingy. We were moving it and we were getting in plus territory and our defense was sitting on the sideline so I was like, OK, now you gotta get points. We talked in the meeting before the game, you’re only going to have five to six opportunities to really put them in a bind. You got to cash in. We didn’t cash in on any of them offensively. So that was — felt good about how we were playing, but I felt like, God, we didn’t kind of — our opportunity was right there and we didn’t take it. We were trying to take it. We just didn’t execute. And they’re good and they made plays. A lot of that is due to the other team too. It’s why we didn’t do what we were supposed to.”