Notre Dame QB says making big plays will quiet loud crowd

Kizer said making big plays will help quiet a tough crowd (Photo by Matt Cashore)

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Sep 30 16:42:49 GMT-04:00 2015

Notre Dame quarterback Deshone Kizer met with the media this week to talk about his team's trip to Clemson this weekend, and Kizer (who will be making his first career road start) said he thinks he has the experience to handle Clemson's environment.

Notre Dame traveled to Florida St. last season and lost 31-27 late. Kizer made the trip (he didn't play) and said he thinks that experience will help him this weekend.

"Florida State is something that I've thought about quite a bit this week," Kizer said. "It was a very, very loud environment. I've never heard anything so loud in my life, something where, you know, it feels like your insides are shaking on third down. But with that being said, being able to feel that and being able to go through the emotions and being able to see Everett almost conquer that loud crowd gives me a little more confidence going into, you know, a bigger environment like this against Clemson that although it can get loud, the best way of coping with it is being -- you know, doing the extra small things, making sure you're being quick in getting up there and relaying the play a couple times down and getting back into your stance so you can be able to make a check. And also with that being said, the best way of quieting a crowd down is making big plays, and I got to experience that last year against Florida State where every time we got some momentum going, it wasn't as hard to communicate. So we gotta make sure that we get things rolling as soon as possible and hopefully at least take it down a couple of notches on the loudness scale."

Kizer said he knew FSU was different as soon as the game started.

"As soon as the first tomahawk thing, it was unreal," he said. "I never really expected it to be as loud as it was. We heard it all week at practice. We're out on the grass field and Coach Kelly played it over and over and over again. But once I really heard it and felt it and got to understand how loud it was going to be on game, which is probably the first kickoff, that's when I really started knowing how loud and how crazy an experience it was going to be to play at an environment like that."

Kizer said the Irish are making plans to deal with Clemson's crowd noise.

"You know, I think I've done a pretty good job so far with being able to cope with the hype of each game," Kizer said. "There's always been something new for me, whether it be coming in late in the game when Malik goes down against Virginia, having my first start at home against Georgia Tech. There's always some sort of a hype. We're Notre Dame. Every game is going to be a big game in its own sense, and obviously this is the first time that I'll really be playing in front of 90,000-plus screaming fans from down south. But we won't necessarily have the following that we normally have at away games and home games.

"When it comes to my preparation, I just know that as long as I'm comfortable in my own shoes and I believe in the game plan and I fully get the game plan. But if we can get the communication down, which we're doing a good job of it so far with good practice mindset, having the music on loud and crowd noise on during practice, then we'll be completely all right and we'll be able to do the things that we always do from week to week."