Notre Dame coaches and players often sound like robots while answering media questions. The occasional exception is a breath of fresh air, which is what made defensive coordinator Corwin Brown's recent rant a welcome diversion. Brown spoke with passion while summing up the state of the program. 

Hopefully, he'll be encouraged to do more of the same in the future. Nothing wrong with letting the media --- and by extension the fans ---- know how much you care.

"Sometimes when you take a certain guy and you put him in the right puzzle, it fits," Brown said. "That's what we're trying to do here. We're trying to put the right puzzle with the right guys with the right coaches. Once you work at that and everybody figures it out, that's how you win. We got a bunch of good pieces here. We're just putting it together. But it's here.

"The difference in this year and last year is, last year we weren't in the game like we [are now]. Everybody's talking about, well, you're playing this competition level. No. Just about everybody we play, we're in the games. We've got a chance to win those games and we expect to win them. It's a little thing here, a little thing there. 

"I've been around winning teams. I know good people. Good places. I know that. Do I know it all? Absolutely not. But I've been around enough good people and I've studied enough good people to know what it takes for guys to win. I know we've got good players here and I know we have good coaches and I know we're on the right track. 

"Do we always do it? Absolutely not. But we're making progress."