Everything Notre Dame OC Gerad Parker said prior to Week 0 vs. Navy

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker met with the media for a brief, less than five-minute interview session Tuesday night. Here is everything Parker said four days before Notre Dame plays Navy in a Week 0 matchup at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland.

On the Notre Dame guard competitions won by juniors Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler

“One, you’ve got to make decisions because they’re imminent. Two, I think that anytime you give guys— the beautiful thing of the competition was we got to give guys opportunities which is good because it gives guys real reps, meaningful reps all across the board with ones, twos and threes. I thought we did a good job as a staff coming down from coach [Marcus] Freeman. You give a lot of guys meaningful things.

“Then Rocco and Coogs have certainly put themselves in position where that’s how we’ll start the year. So it’s been good for them to see that. There is a lot of trust that builds up when you allow those two to practice with those two tackles because they’re all working together. It’s five guys on a string. It’s been good to see that. There is trust built.”

On game week being different as an offensive coordinator compared to a position coach

“As you learn, fall camp goes into sections where you have to install an offense, go through the progress and making sure you stay on installations to have the ability to have a big piece of your offense in to then pull from it depending on how you game plan for a week. So then the game planning of the week changes because you have to game plan what percentage of the offense you need to attack your opponent. So that would be the biggest change and shift, being able to pull, select, not carry too much but have enough and then get it repped against the looks you believe you’re going to see.”

On what he needs to see from the Notre Dame offense Saturday

“I don’t know if that answer — it’s not being a standard, cliché, give you a cookie-cutter answer — it really is just this, though; week in, week out, we’re going to be judged on how we take care of the football. I’m going to make sure and judge us on how we take care of the football, how hard we play and physical we play, and the third piece that I’ve said to you since I was named coordinator, we’re going to play with great details. We’re going to make our plays work no matter the defense. As long as we give our guys the chance to be successful when the play is called. That’s the three.

“Certainly stats and numbers and all those things will be thrown out there, and those things, you can’t say they don’t matter, but I know this — over a number of time, the biggest factor in playing good offensive football is taking care of the football first. That will be the first piece of it. If you see a team that’s detailed, takes care of the ball and plays hard, we believe we’ve got good enough players to be able to make our plays go.”

On the timetable for the satisfaction of a game plan

“You hope by Friday you feel like you got a call sheet that you know is done and ready and ripped up for them to look at. I think all of us coaches’ biggest mistake would be you’re always looking at it and wondering about stuff and playing the what ifs, which I think is healthy too, but at the same time you’ve got to go with what your guys have repped and what they know.”

How much have you met with Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman to put a call sheet together?

“A lot. You have to. Along with [Notre Dame quarterbacks coach] Gino [Guidugli], those guys— just because his eyes, his ears, all of us together, we got to be thinking the same way. If not, we have issues. There are times, and I’ve done it before in my career, whenever you really like something, but if he just doesn’t feel it at the quarterback position, there is no room for it. You just can’t [call it]. We believe there is a great deal of trust in him. He’s very— I guess the best way to put it is very direct about what he likes because he’s had a lot of reps. In a very positive way, not in a negative way. You trust him. Let him go with it. Trust in him. And then of course the things we need, we keep.”