When graduate students and defensive standouts Howard Cross III and Xavier Watts — a sixth-year defensive lineman and a fifth-year safety, respectively — entered a somber press conference room at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday night, it was almost as if they could predict the barrage of questions that would be thrown at them following No. 5 Notre Dame's 16-14 upset loss at the hands of Northern Illinois that was equal parts shocking and disheartening.
Both players had battled on the field for 60 minutes, they’d no doubt heard the loudly-expressed frustration and disappointment of the crowd and they’d experienced several similar moments over the past half-decade at Notre Dame.
What went wrong? Was it a bad week of practice? Was the team not as prepared as it should have been? How do you respond as leaders of the team? Where do you go from here?
Cross ruefully joked that he’s the player the Irish public relations staff trusts most to handle “damage control,” given that he’s often tasked with speaking to the media following disappointing defeats, specifically citing losses to Cincinnati in 2021 (which snapped a 26-game home winning streak) and Marshall in 2022.
He made no effort in beating around the bush or downplaying the hurt that everyone involved in the Irish program was feeling. However, having been in this type of situation more often than almost any college football player in the nation, he expressed full confidence in his team’s ability to take the pain in stride and keep moving forward. After the Cincinnati loss in 2021, the Irish rattled off seven straight wins to close out the regular season. After the 2022 Marshall defeat, they won nine of their last 11 games, including a blowout victory over No. 4 Clemson.
“Yeah, this sucks. Alright, we know that, everybody knows that, all of our fans know that … all of our coaches and everybody [from the] top down knows that,” Cross said after the game. “But I’m going to tell you all what I told everybody [on the team]: use that. Use what everybody’s telling you. You’re going to be hearing it all week, ‘We suck.’ Alright, use that. Because with all due respect, in seven days, we’re on the field again. So are we going to be like, ‘Alright, I guess it’s over,’ in game two or are we just going to keep rolling? And I think that’s what we’re going to do, is keep moving.”
Cross emphasized the importance of preparation as the Irish look to get their once-promising season back on track, noting that there are no easy answers or quick substitutes for hard work.
“We need to prepare like [Northern Illinois is] one of the best teams in the nation. I don’t care if we go against them, I don’t care if we go against Alabama, that’s how we need to prepare, and we did prepare,” Cross said about the team’s approach prior to the game. “But we need to really lock in on what we need to focus on. From the top down, we all need to really know what we want, and I think we do. And I’m going to say the same thing I say every time: we know we’re a good team — and we can be a good team — and I have full confidence in that.”
Watts echoed Cross’ unwavering confidence in the ability of his teammates and coaching staff to respond in the face of adversity. As the reigning national defensive player of the Year, Watts (along with Cross, a preseason First Team All-American) could have easily decided to move on to the NFL. Instead, he chose to come back to South Bend because of his belief that this Irish team could be special, and one bad day did nothing to shake that belief.
“Obviously, it’s frustrating that we lost,” Watts said. “But it’s not like I’m regretting the decision [to return for a fifth year] at all. I came back because I know I believe in this team, [that] we’re going to come back and bounce back from this. At the end of the day, we lost, we’re 1-1, but we’ve got to figure out what the problem is, and we’ll come back stronger.”
Watts highlighted the importance of taking responsibility as a leader of the team to work to build Notre Dame's confidence back up after the loss, focusing on maintaining a consistent mentality regardless of outcome.
“Just bring the young guys up, older guys, just bring the whole team together,” Watts said about how the Irish can avoid letting one bad loss derail the season in the same way they’ve been able to effectively do during his previous years with the program. “Like I said, we’re 1-1, we have to accept that fact, but we still have 10 more games. [It's a] long season ahead of us, so [we'll] just get ready for the next week and just continue to improve.”
As far as getting back on track for next Saturday’s road matchup with Purdue, Watts again prioritized keeping things simple and staying the course.
“You know, we just wanted to find a way to win, and we didn’t find that way to win,” Watts said. “[We’ll] just come back in the film room, watch this game, clean up our mistakes, figure out what we did wrong and then start preparing for Purdue. Obviously, they’re going to try to exploit some of the things that happened this game, so [we’ll be] just getting ready for anything that can come at us.”
Some Irish fans might have been hoping for comments that were flashier or more concrete, a direct pledge to shake things up in a major way that would ensure that a performance like the one on Saturday won’t happen again.
But for the leaders of the Notre Dame defense — a pair of All-Americans and two of the longest-tenured Irish players who have experienced all of the highs and lows that college football has to offer while in South Bend, players who have been a key part of teams that have suffered similar losses before overcoming them — to step up to the podium mere minutes after a gut-wrenching defeat and be cool, calm and collected, to publicly state full belief and support in their teammates and coaches and to be just as steadfast in their leadership and responsibility to their team as they were after the previous week’s win over Texas A&M? That’s about as strong an endorsement as you could hope for.
Now, all there’s left to do for Cross, Watts and the Irish is to get out on the field and prove it. And in just one week’s time, they’ll travel to West Lafayette to face Purdue with the chance to do exactly that.
“Yeah, this is awful, but like, [it’s] game two. We’ve got 10 games left, at least,” Cross said about his message to the team after Saturday’s game. “We’ve got to move because we literally just started the season. So if we’re done, then that’s it, but that’s not us and I know that’s not us. So we’re going to come out strong next week, and honestly? I’m excited. I really am excited for next week.”
