What Notre Dame OC Gerad Parker said about play action, key freshmen

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker spoke to the media Monday to recap the Fighting Irish’s 45-7 win over Wake Forest and to preview the regular season finale vs. Stanford. Here is some of what Parker said.

On Notre Dame freshman quarterback Kenny Minchey

“Great promise. When you start, you’re like, ‘Man, OK, what’s this demeanor about?’ You didn’t know because he is super chill. But there is a lot there. He has gained a lot of respect from the guys in the locker room. Has strong arm talent. Really studies. Has become a part of that quarterback room. Those guys hang out a lot because they spend a lot of time around the place to study and prepare. So, really happy there.”

On Notre Dame freshman wide receiver Braylon James

“Braylon James has continued to improve and work. Just has to continue to develop, absolutely. I think you guys know that. Braylon has stayed in it. Stayed with us and stayed with the older guys to learn how to continue to develop to get there. Really pleased with him.

“As far as what he’s going to have to do to develop, those young guys need bowl practice, need spring practice, need summer development. And it’s going to be good for them. Coach [Marcus] Freeman probably puts it best; those young players, you can’t compare yourself to where another person is in your class or where other guys are. This is your road. This is your bumpy road to better. Stay on your road, get better and improve. I think if that happens, young players, you see them turn into really good players. He has that possibility.”

On the Irish offense using more play action vs. Wake Forest

“Who they were as a defense promoted it. We want to be that. Be anything that gives us a chance to make the ball go that way. But they did, they showed some things that allowed you to think you could put the ball up and create conflict against them, and it paid off for us.

“There were some things that hit for us that was good to see. Every week we have to find ways. I think sometimes ‘play action’ is like these big, heavy, under center, crazy good fakes and lift the ball. But sometimes it can just be action nakeds. I thought it was good to get some of our nakeds up too. Got some good play out of that, especially coming out of the second half with the big one. It helped us, and we moved the pocket a little bit from them. There are many different ones. But it was good for us.”

On why the Irish offense was moving so well for the first time in a while

“One is a lot of two weeks of prep. There is a lot of stuff. That was a hard two weeks on all of us. This program, me, our staff. Everybody. It should be. We understand expectations. But there is a lot of good there. There is. I’m not saying that to defend myself. I’m talking about to our staff, our players. There is a lot of good there. And when you get caught in big games and road games and tough looks and all those things, the margin, just the room for error, kind of shrinks. Sometimes in conflict games, man games, whatever it is, small errors turn into big errors. We’re trying to close the gap with that no matter who we play.

“I thought for two weeks of prep, we went through the game with four missed assignments as a full offense. That’s extremely low. Missed assignments equal execution. Execution equals efficiencies on first and second down. Take a lower number of third downs. That rolls the points. That’s as simple as it really is. We were more efficient, we executed at a higher level, we knew the game plan and didn’t make as many mistakes at times. Those things turned out to obviously push us.” 

On the most missed assignments the Notre Dame offense has had in a single game this season

“Nothing like ‘oh my goodness’ but we’ve been to 10 or 12s. We’ve been to 10 or 12s. And then when you tack on big moments, that goes ‘boom.’ Some of the moments we’ve already discussed and little things you don’t see; we ran through a zone window when it was zone instead of man. I can go on and on, but we’ve been there before. And again, you tack on the big moments and it just multiples.”