Quick hitters: What Notre Dame OC Gerad Parker said before Ohio State game

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker has the Fighting Irish rolling right now. He’s going to have to keep it that way with Notre Dame going against an Ohio State Buckeyes team that just poured 63 points on Western Kentucky last week.

Parker’s offense obviously does not go head-to-head against the Ohio State defense. But it goes against the Buckeyes defense, which is also loaded with next-level talent. Here is what Parker said about his Notre Dame offense and the OSU defense in his Tuesday night media session.

On adding new wrinkles to the Notre Dame offense

“Our guys as an offensive unit, they study so much. You can give them a lot. They are committed to learning. Of course, it all starts with our quarterback. If he can handle it, you’re able to build off of things. If you look at offenses and things as seasons grow, you hope you put on tape for our group and the players put on tape the ability to develop strong tendencies. If we don’t have tendencies, that probably is not good. You want to keep building strong tendencies and then grow because of our tendencies but still make it hard enough for people to fit us properly, cover us properly and all those things it takes to get through a year successfully.”

On the Ohio State defensive line

“It’s very active. They’re a base four-down front and coached of course by a long-time veteran and a coach that’s well known in coach [Larry] Johnson. They’re active. They love to generate a rush. They do a great job attacking you. They’ve got enough movement games and internal movements and twists that give you trouble in picking it up. And they’re gifted and talented everywhere across the board; first level, second level and third level. It all shows up.”

On the problem Ohio State defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau presents Notre Dame

“He’s elite. He’s elite. He can generate an elite pass rush. When he gets out, gets wide, puts both hands down and starts on his rush from a wide look, it’s a handful. Our guys know it. It’s a complement to him and what he puts on tape.”

On getting to know Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles when they were assistants together at Duke

“Personally, I didn’t get to know him as well in a year. A fast year when he was there and left. But at the same time, you were around him and his personality. The defensive staff, they had great camaraderie. He’s a great guy. Players love playing for him. He was physical. Lined up and committed to who he was. He was aggressive at Duke when he was there. Tip of the hate to him at Oklahoma State when he made his move, too. He kind of changed who he was and his philosophy based on the league he was in and the players he had and he was great there. Storied career. Phenomenal football coach. Aggressive. Lets his guys play. Empowers them.”

On not getting too willing to adjust the Notre Dame game plan within games just for the sake of adjusting

“They’re going to do stuff they haven’t put on film, and that’s the cat and mouse game, certainly. And I think it’s a thing sometimes that we try to coach too much. Those are the worst feelings throughout your career when you come off the field, the times when you walk off and you’re like, ‘If we had just ran our base, whatever this is, it would have went better.’ Those are bad feelings. Hey, we got too smart. So I think it’s enough of a blend of attack what you believe they’re going to do and having, hey guys, one of our pillars on our board is details. Make our plays work. That means we’re going to have to call our base plays and figure out what they’re doing and just go.

“They’re not always going to be right. They’re not always going to be the look we try to give them in practice. You got to make it go, figure it out and make plays.”

On Notre Dame going against Ohio State linebackers Steele Chambers and Tommy Eichenberg

“Those two guys play 80 some odd percent of their snaps. They have seen a lot of things. They’ve been attacked different ways. They’ve played in huge games. What more can you want from that? That’s what you want from a veteran defense. Those guys have seen a lot of things at them. They’ve seen how offenses try to attack in different ways schematically and physically. It shows up on tape. They’ve seen a lot. They know how to defend it. They know how to fit it. They know how to fix it.”