Notre Dame’s loss to BYU fired up the fan base. In fact, it might have caused a little bit of a panic. It also, according to some Fighting Irish defenders, lit a fire under the players. The question is why they needed a fire lit at all.
Jaylen Sneed’s comments earlier this week were meant to show quiet confidence, though they will almost certainly raise questions.
“I feel like it lit a fire under this team that we had before, but didn’t have all the way,” Sneed said. “It taught this team that we can lose if we don’t prepare the right way.”
It’s the second part of the quote that Irish fans should really hone in on. It’s not that Notre Dame wasn’t fired up and ready to play BYU, but perhaps they were a bit too overconfident. No one could blame them if that were the case. After all, the only teams that really challenged them this year (Wisconsin and North Carolina) both essentially fell apart in the second half.
Jaylen Sneed says BYU loss taught Notre Dame football it can’t afford poor preparation
Notre Dame’s talent was too good for either the Badgers or Tar Heels. And no other team the Irish played all season came within 11 points of the final score.
Veteran safety Luke Talich said he thinks his teammates may have lost focus heading into the BYU game, but he knows they have what it takes to correct their mistakes and improve over the last five games of the regular season.
He also said that the BYU loss annoys him quite a bit because he grew up really not liking the Cougars.
“Personally, I’ve grown up not liking BYU my whole life, so I wanted that one more than anything,” Talich said. “I would have some beef with some buddies back home, but it’s all good, and [they’re] great people. But yeah, definitely don’t love that university.”
“I think it’s pretty clear that BYU wasn’t our proudest game,” Talich said. “We didn’t play to our standard, especially in that first half.”
Talich believes he and his teammates can find a way to make sure BYU doesn’t do that again, especially against Miami.
“I think it’s just focusing on making sure we know the situation, know what we’re doing, know the details of every call, whether it’s man, whether it’s zone, whatever our job is, just making sure that we’re executing at the right depths and the right body positions to be able to make plays,” Talich added. “The coaches are doing everything they can for us, putting us in the right positions, so we’ve just got to execute and make sure that we’re doing our part as well.”
Notre Dame’s defenders have to hope the fire really is lit and they can play with a chip for the rest of the regular season.
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