Q. All the wins you've strung together now, have you noticed a rise in the team's confidence? They seem to be playing more like a team that expects to win and know that they are better?
COACH WEIS: I think their expectation level is going up. Just like every fan and follower of Notre Dame football, when things around them start helping, when other teams start losing, that causes optimism for them as well.
So I think that they are playing a little bit better, and then, you know, we've got Senior Week coming up this week. I think that they will all be fired up to play their last home game here. We'll go on from there. They know that we are basically in the playoffs now, that's how I presented this on Friday night. I said yesterday was the first round of the playoffs.
So we're going into the second round of playoffs this week because, I think not to give an NFL analogy, but I think that's where we are right now, and I think that's the way I'm trying to get them to think.
Q. Because you're quote, unquote, in the playoffs right now, do you think the big prize could be at the end of that?
COACH WEIS: I think you've got to win the second round. I think that's what too many teams tried to do yesterday from what I was watching. They got knocked out in the first round. I mean, I think you'd better win the second round and not worry about the third and fourth round yet.
Q. It doesn't change what you guys do on Saturday, but how much of a lift does it give you and the other players seeing that other teams are opening the door for you?
COACH WEIS: Well, you guys, some of the people at the press conference yesterday told me about Cal, I didn't know about them, I had heard about the other games. But if you would have heard the roar on the plane when the K?State/Texas game was announced when we landed, I started to send Ruben back there to find out what was going on. Literally I turned to Ruben and I said, "Go and find out what's going on back there." There was literally a roar in the back of the plane when that came out. They are well aware of ?? these kids are dialed in just like the rest of us are. They know what's going on.
Q. Does that give you potentially another extra spring in your step this week?
COACH WEIS: No, I think that ?? I think that I'll try to approach it the same. I really think that it's good if you can have one area of focus each week. This past week for me was, this is the first round of the playoffs. This week for me, it's Senior Week. I think you've got a pretty good idea of what's following after that.
So I think that, you know, Senior Week, that should be enough of an impetus for everyone to focus on who you're playing against and what you need to do. If that doesn't get it done, if you can't get ready to play your potentially last game, or in most cases it is their last game, ever, at Notre Dame Stadium, both the players and the coaches, then we have a problem.
