Brian Kelly and Notre Dame snuck out of Tallahassee with the 41-38 win over Florida State. The Seminoles made a comeback against the Irish and sent the game into overtime.

However, Notre Dame ended up pulling out the big road victory, thanks to Jonathan Doerer’s 41-yard field goal.

Following the win over FSU, Kelly spoke to the media:

Opening Statement
“Hard-fought victory. Florida State played tremendous. Having Jordan Travis in there, he is very difficult to defend. McKenzie. But you know, we found a way to win. Difficult game, opener on the road. Again, I think what’s most important here is going on the road, winning the opener against the team that presented a lot of challenges and we found a way to win the game. We know we got work to do, but I like this team. We will get better and will make a lot of improvement in week two.”

Offensive style vs. last year
“I think there’s some good things there. We saw the ball pushed down the field. I think we feel good. We’ve got to run the ball better. Clearly that will be an emphasis here this week in looking at — I’ve got to watch the film to really get a better sense of what’s going on up there. But we’re not here to throw the ball all over the yard and not have a solid run game.”

Blake Fisher’s injury
“No ACL, MCL, he had a strain. So, we’ll see how that plays over the next week or so.”

4th quarter defensive struggles
“When Milton came in, we double zoned everything. He’s so accurate. You saw us in man and and we wanted to be in much more of a nickel, three down, double zone, and you got to be really good in your gaps and we let the ball get outside us a couple of times. In an opener, you got to be so good when you’re double zoning out there and try to take away a spread passing game that is pretty good. That’s where we got to get better.”

QB Jack Coan’s mindset and wanting him to make big throws
“Well, we called the plays accordingly. He had the opportunities to push the ball down the field, we missed a couple, a couple were third downs. I think if there was anything that we’re looking at critically, we needed to be better in third down, especially in the first half. We missed a number of third down opportunities. We got into that lull there where we didn’t execute as well as I would have liked to offensively. Of course defensively we gave up some big plays. So, again, I told the guys, winning is hard. You have won a lot. You’ve worked really hard, but we really got to look at this critically and to take the next step forward, we got to clean up some areas.”

On his postgame comment of “executing the entire team”
“Oh, it’s an old John McKay quote. I was kidding. It was tongue in cheek. It wasn’t funny? It’s an old John McKay quote that he used after the game. So, I was talking and making a joke about it. Why, it was taking serious? Are you people crazy? It’s a John McKay quote that he used after a game. I was stealing one of his old quotes and being funny. I guess nobody likes to be funny anymore. So yeah, if you want to take me to town on that, please do.”

On having a bunch of new players playing in a game that had a thrilling ending
“Playing in this environment on the road, we’re not playing a 1-AA team here. We’re playing a team that presented many challenges. You guys watched the game as I did. There are challenges. The backs are good. The receivers are good. They had a physicality to them. There was a good football team that was presented today. Now, the challenge will be can they play at that level each and every week. They did tonight and they challenged us, so it will get us better by being in this environment. It’ll get those individuals better for being in this game and finding a way to win this game.”

On Isaiah Foskey’s type of play
“Yes, and this was a game that he needed to be in. This was dropping into the flat, covering the back leaking out, they wanted to throw a throwback screen and he’s in good position. I know you guys don’t want to hear this, but there’s so much good teaching in a game like this and it’s a lot more fun teaching it after a win and being challenged like this. We’ve got work to do. We’ve got to clean up a lot of stuff. But I’m excited to clean it up because we got a good football team and we can get better.”

Was the Notre Dame defense worn down in the second half?
“I’d have to look at it a little bit more closely to to be definitive. We were on the field a lot defensively. We could could have controlled the ball a little bit. There was five and a half minutes to go. I thought we were going to control the clock at the end and we didn’t. We put our defense back on the field too quickly.”

Close calls didn’t go Notre Dame’s way
“Here’s what I would ask the media, what do you have to do to get a roughing a kicker call? The guy got spun around. I guess they just don’t protect them anymore. [On the fumble] How was that in just absolutely conclusive evidence? I just don’t… Look, Jack [Swarbrick] pays all of my fines. So, it’s not that bad.”

What does being challenged in the season-opener mean to the team?
“Like I said, I think I’ve made it pretty clear, this football team presents some unique challenges. We knew about Travis and we know how tough he is. We saw him last year and he was hurt and he was a problem for us last year. Then you add McKenzie, who is as accurate as anybody out there and he even showed some elusiveness as the quarterback on some pulls. Those two guys together will be a handful for anybody. Then add, obviously, some athletes at the running back position, some skill at the wide receiver, this is a good challenge in week one. You’re going to build off of this and be better because of it.”

What DC Marcus Freeman can take away from a game like this
“Well, you get to know your personnel better. You know what you can and can’t do. You know there are some things that, ‘Okay, I got to be really careful making some of these calls in these situations.’ Look, he is getting to know his personnel for the first time. It’s one thing to have them in spring ball and quick whistle and tag them off and then when you got a guy who’s shaking you down and you’re missing tackles and and not fitting up, look, we needed one more step most of the time on the quarterback. We left our feet one step early, so those things are things that he learned a lot about his defense and what we can do.”

Injury update
“Paul Moala, he’s gonna have to get an MRI on his ankle. I’ll have something for you in the next 24 hours. I can’t tell you for sure, but it didn’t look good for Paul. But we’ll get you some medical information on him. The big guy, Blake, a strain. We felt like there was no ligament involvement there. It looks like a knee strain. Bauman’s got a leg injury that’s going to have to be x-rayed when we get back tonight. Simon had a shoulder. Those are the guys that missed playing time that we will get you. once we get back and get our medical team on them we’ll get you some more information.”

You can watch Brian Kelly’s entire postgame interview below: