Notre Dame up to No. 22 in BCS standings, no change in Charlie Weis outlook

On whether freshman receiver Shaquelle Evans is in the "doghouse" or not: "He is not in the doghouse. I've heard this several times in the last few weeks. The last week and a half, he's actually practiced better and better to put himself in position to get significant time. The issue is, he's in position to go ahead and play in multiple wide receiver sets, and the guys playing ahead of him are playing too good to take out. When it came time for substituting (against Washington State), his group was in, and we were in more two wide receiver sets. Deion (Walker) and he share one position in two wide receiver sets. That time of game, in that situation, I wasn't calling very many three wide-receiver sets. Because I was running the football. I promise you, may God strike me dead, there's no doghouse for No. 11."

On when Jimmy Clausen actually graduates from school: "That's a good question; in December, I think he's pretty close. But I don't think he's done in December. I think he needs at least another semester. I'd have to check on that. Right now, that isn't the plan. My plan is for him to graduate next year, after another heckuva season for us. But we'll see how that goes."

On Dayne Crist's play, pre-injury: "He got off to a slow start. That first pass, that one-hopper over there to Golden (Tate), wasn't the way he wanted to go. Then he threw the comeback short. But the seam (for a 64-yard score) he threw to (John Goodman) was as good a throw as anyone could make. That window wasn't really big."

On immediately turning attention to Navy: "We weren't in the locker room five seconds, and if they didn't understand, they understood by the time I finished talking (Saturday night). They understand what we're into. There were so many players (Sunday) that were already asking for DVDs so they can start watching stuff on their own. A lot of guys wanted to get a jumpstart to make sure they saw what they were going against."

On defensive line rotation Saturday: "Those three (defensive ends), having that three-man rotation is pretty nice now. You get that much athleticism rolling in and out, fresh legs, just turning them loose. They were active. And the interior guys were pretty active, too. That most of the night was a three-man rotation as well. Most of night, Ian (Williams), Ethan (Johnson) and Kapron (Lewis-Moore) were rolling through there. Those guys all had pretty active nights."

On preventing "explosive" pass plays Saturday: "Number one, they really practiced hard. Number two, I thought there was good pressure. When we did't blitz guys, I thought the front four was getting good pressure. We had a mixture of blitz zones and eight-man drops. The quarterback got quite confused when he saw that."

On planning with Evan Sharpley, and not Dayne Crist, as the backup quarterback: "I would keep the exact same game pan. What you do is cut it down, though. I do the same thing with Dayne -- after we get through Thursday's practice, Dayne, Ron (Powlus) and I get together and eliminate all the plays he's uncomfprtable with if he's in the game. We don't put in new plays; we just don't call the plays he didn't get chance to rep or is uncomfortable with. We'd do the same thing with Evan."