Coach Wannstedt had a press conference this afternoon to talk about the week and the game on Saturday.

Opening remarks:

We are here! Game week! I guess as a coach you probably feel, at least my experience has been that there’s never enough time. I don’t care if you were in training camp for six months. You’re leading into that last week, and you say, ‘Boy if I had just one more week.’ Or ‘If I could just get one more practice, then we’d be okay.’ But then you really get to the point, and we’re almost there now, where you’re ready to play. And you really sense that, I think, from the players and how they’re reacting on the field. And that’s about where we’re at.
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On a side note, I think every program encourages walk-on players to come on your roster, and it’s great, it’s fantastic, to be able to reward these guys. This past week we awarded scholarships for this year to Ron Idoko, Joe Villani and Kellen Campbell. Those three guys were awarded scholarships – two of them seniors, one of them a junior. That was a real upbeat thing for our team and primarily for those players.
On Wannstedt’s familiarity with Charlie Weis’ schemes:

With Charlie Weis running the offense, we’re going to see the majority of the (New England) Patriot stuff. Each coach is going to have an influence on the offense, I’m sure, in some form or fashion. Originally, he hired David Cutcliffe to be the offensive coordinator from Old Miss. He obviously left. They have a new coordinator, but they did bring in a guy from Old Miss. Bernie Parmalee, who’s coaching his running backs (and) who was with me at the Dolphins the last two years. I think there will be thoughts from everybody. But the nucleus of what they do — but probably more important, when they do things — that will be very similar. Guys may change their offense, but there are tendencies that people have: when they like to try the trick plays, when they like to take a shot deep. Those things are part of someone’s personality.

A lot of people are asking me about my relationship with Charlie. We’re friends and we get along, but we probably know each other from an Xs and Os standpoint a lot better than we know each other personally. We are preparing for some New England (schemes). We are preparing for a couple of other assistants that are on that staff. We looked at some of their film, but the most important thing in this game is really not as much what they do, but making sure that we execute what we’re supposed to do. And that goes for both sides of the ball. They’re going to see things for the first time from our offense and from our defense. I really think that the team that has the best grasp for their own offense and defense will be able to make the adjustments as the game goes on, and it will give that team a chance to be successful.
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On Notre Dame’s offensive strength:

I’ve got to start with their offensive line really. I think that those guys have been together for awhile, and they’ve got an experienced quarterback. They’ve really got all eleven (starters) back. And they’ve got Darius Walker, and he played most of the time last year. So they’ve got everybody back on offense. A lot of athletic ability, a lot of speed, but it’s probably going to come down to the quarterback. It usually does in high-energy games. And it may not be the great plays. Usually in early games, it’s usually not the team that makes the most great plays, but it’s usually the team that makes the fewest bad plays. And that involves the turnovers and the kicking games. Special teams is going to be huge in this game. We feel real good about our kickers, but I’m talking about our coverage units, I’m talking about our returners. It’s early on, and you’re trying to get a lot of new people and that scenario where you’re always fighting to get practice time and you’re trying to get some young kids on the field, or you have to. We’ve spent almost as much time on special teams here, in the evenings and so forth, as we would have in the NFL and for that purpose. Those first couple of games are going to be real big.

Now, before I get any further, I have to bring up this rather unfortunate choice of jacket was worn. That they used as a photo for the press conference story is just disturbing. This couldn’t be left unremarked.

Would you buy a house from this man?

Better now.

Of note in the press conference, Offensive Coordinator Matt Cavanaugh will be on the sideline for the game rather than up in the coach’s box. Seems to be a comfort thing with Palko.