What Duke coach Mike Elko said about Notre Dame football

Former Notre Dame defensive coordinator and current Duke head coach Mike Elko spoke at length about the Fighting Irish in his Monday press conference. No. 11 Notre Dame (4-1) takes on No. 17 Duke (4-0) Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET in a game preceded by the first ever appearance of ESPN’s College GameDay in Durham for football.

Here is what he said.

Opening statement

“I have a ton of respect for that program and have a lot of respect for Marcus Freeman in the job that he does. This is a complete football team for sure. Offensively, it starts with the offensive line. It’s going to be the biggest offensive line that we’ve played against. They’re massive. The left tackle Joe Alt is phenomenal. He’s a big human being, but across the board all of those guys, they’re very well coached. They know what they’re trying to do and execute in the run game and they’re able to create holes for a stable of backs. It starts with this group, but really they roll through four guys in the backfield and I think all of them are extremely talented.

“We’re very familiar with Sam [Hartman] and who he is as a quarterback and what he’s capable of doing. We have nothing but respect for how he plays the game, and he certainly has elevated his game as he’s gotten into a new offense and become a leader of that program. They have skill kids all over the place that are tall and can run and make plays. It’s going to be a challenge on offense for us to go out there and match what they’re capable of.

“Defensively they’re playing at an elite level. I think the way they’re playing defense right now is phenomenal. I think they’re pressuring the quarterback or setting edges in the run game. They’re not allowing people to run the ball and they’re suffocating in coverage. Their second level is extremely athletic and runs and makes a ton of plays. It’s a very good football team coming in here Saturday night. We’ve got to have a great week of preparation to get ourselves ready to go out and play our style of football but it should be a great stage Saturday night and we’re so excited for it.”

On if having played Clemson on a big stage prepares Duke to host Notre Dame

“Yeah, a little. We still don’t have the volume of it that the teams that were playing on this stage do and so that’s still probably an area that concerns us. It’s the first-time hosting College GameDay, with all the noise and the buzz that’s around that. I told the guys this morning, we’re getting a lot of congratulations for GameDay coming here. I’d rather wait and get some congratulations for how we play a football game Saturday night and just trying to stay focused on the task at hand. That’s going out and having really good practices and getting the game plan down and knowing what we’re trying to execute. Knowing the things that are going to be important for us to go out and have success on Saturday.

“I’m obviously more comfortable because we’ve been through it before, but it’s still not something that happens around here all the time. It’s still a little bit of a concern. Do you try to isolate the guys from it, or do you try to get them to embrace this? In this day and age, you can’t isolate them, aside from locking them in a closet somewhere so it’s not necessarily about isolating, it’s just more about educating and we have smart kids, right? It’s not like we have an overconfident group or a big-headed group. It’s just kind of educating them on how to get through the week.

“Sometimes you get into games like this, and kids start thinking about the plays that they’re going to make and how they’re going to show out on Saturday and how they’re going to deliver and all the attention that’s going to come with it and they don’t focus on all those little details that go into their ability to actually make those plays. I’m just trying to keep them educated on what it’s going to take. It’s going to take four really good practices starting this morning. It’s going to take a really good walkthrough on Friday. It’s going to take great preparation in the hotel, great pregame. It’s going to take all of those things for us to come out and play football the way we’re capable of it.”

On Duke having faced Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman when he was at Wake Forest

“Yeah, I think it’s a completely different offense. I think what you’re always trying to do is figure out what the quarterback is looking at, what is he seeing and how can you make him uncomfortable in some way shape or form and a lot of that is dictated by the offense. So, running the RPO style he was running at Wake created one set of reads. Running a more pro-style system like he’s running now at Notre Dame creates another set of challenges.

“Listen, you can be living in a cardboard box somewhere and know that Sam Hartman’s a really talented quarterback at the college level. He’s really good. We’re going to have to figure out how to control them as best as we can.”

On the Notre Dame defense

“I think they have a very firm grasp of what they’re trying to do. I think they’re able to execute their system at a high level. You don’t see a lot of busts. You don’t see a lot of bad leverage plays; you don’t look at the formation cut ups and see a lot of things that you can attack because they have great leverage and how they set edges and set formations.

“I just think they are running a really, really solid sound scheme with a bunch of kids who know exactly what they’re trying to do and are executing at a really high level. What that does is it forces you on offense to consistently win and back that. We talked about that a lot from our perspective, that’s a really hard thing for offenses to do in the college game. They don’t give you anything and you have to earn everything, so we’re going to have to come out and have a really complete performance on Saturday night.”