Everything Navy coach Brian Newberry said after losing to Notre Dame football

Navy coach Brian Newberry spent less than five minutes speaking to the media after his Midshipmen’s 51-14 loss to Notre Dame at MetLife Stadium on Saturday. Here’s everything he said.

Opening statement

“Obviously really disappointed at the outcome. We were really excited about this one, and our kids believed that we could win. I did too. Having said that, I knew we were going to have to play extremely well. We were going to have to be at our best in all three phases, and we obviously were not today.

“I thought our guys were ready to play. Thought we were confident. Thought we had a good week of preparation. Thought the stage might have been a little big for some of our players today. A lot of mistakes. We had some guys playing afraid to make mistakes. And when you play with fear in your heart like that, that’s when mistakes happen. I thought we had some guys try to do and play outside of themselves. We talk about not doing that because you just got to be yourself, be the best version of yourself, and we weren’t that today.

“Did take care of the football. We’d been really good with that. Think we went five games without turning the football over. Turned it over six times today. Put us in a bad position on defense quite a bit. Basically gave them 14 points today. Thought we were poor on special teams. Our execution of knowing when to fair catch the ball, fielding the ball.

“Hats off to Notre Dame. That’s a really, really good football team. And they were the better team today in every way. Disappointed, but I love this football team. I love these players. I’m still really proud of them. We talked about it’s only a failure if you don’t learn from it and grow from it. They’ll stay together and we’ll go back and take a look at the film and figure out what it is we have to do moving forward. And hopefully the next time we play on a stage like this we’ll be better for having to play it today. But simply wasn’t good enough all around.

“There were some bright spots. I thought we moved the ball well offensively at times. Even when we were moving the football we weren’t particularly executing at a high level. Not all bad, but obviously you can’t turn the ball over six times. You can’t beat yourself. Thought we had some chances to get off the field defensively. Against a team like this, you have to take advantage of those opportunities. And they were better than us on third and fourth down.”

On Navy’s unforced turnovers

“Like I said earlier, we’ve been phenomenal with that. Something we emphasize. You understand going into a game like this, you have to be in the plus margin in turnovers in a game like this to have a chance. We’re never going to win a game against a better opponent when we turn it over six times.”

On when he realized the game vs. Notre Dame was too big for his players

“You felt it in the first quarter, I thought. Made a lot of mistakes. Execution standpoint. Taking care of the football. Sometimes it’s just nerves when you start off a game, but I thought we continued to play that way throughout the course of the game. It’s been a great season for us. A lot of expectations. A lot of external pressure. It’s a big stage, playing in an NFL stadium. It’s Notre Dame. Seventy-five thousand people in the stands. But you’ve got to be able to focus in and do your job at a high level. I didn’t think we were able to do that consistently today.”

On the mindset of knowing it’s Notre Dame on the other sideline

“I don’t know. That’s a good question. I look forward to going back and watching the film and just evaluating everything. I think sometimes you want something so bad that you try to play outside of yourself, and I thought we did that at times today. And it hurt us.”