Andrew Hendrix thinks calling his approach to the Notre Dame quarterback competition a philosophy sounds too corny.
But he does have a clear vision of how to handle competing with Tommy Rees, Everett Golson and Gunner Kiel for the starting job.
"I'm really focusing just on myself," Hendrix said. "When I see Tommy do well or I see Everett or Gunner do well, I learn from it. I see that's not how that should look like. I see that's how it should look like. So the next time I do it, I'm going to apply it to my situation as well. It's learning from everyone else's mistakes, getting mental reps.
"I don't look at like I dropped down to here today, or I was good today, I'm up there. You can't look at it like that. You have to focus on day by day, practice, practice, practice, and at the end of the long run, we will see how it ends up."
Hendrix's role with Notre Dame increased throughout last season, and he received more attention and practice time after Dayne Crist publicly announced his decision to leave the Irish before the Champs Sports Bowl.
Hendrix played in five games last season, running for 162 yards and a touchdown and throwing for 249 yards with a TD.
His signature play was a 78-yard run that ended just short of the end zone against Air Force, but he was an underwhelming 3 for 8 for 24 yards with an interception against Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl.
Offensive coordinator Chuck Martin said Hendrix's mentality in the race for the starting position is trying to show he can overtake the most experienced Rees for the job.
And while Hendrix has the tools to run the spread offense, Martin said the junior-to-be needs to show the attitude that he is a starting quarterback.
"A bad play happened. Andrew got that little body language that he gets when things go bad because he cares so much and he practices so hard," Martin said.
"I'm like, 'Here's the first thing we got to correct. When it goes bad, Andrew, you got to turn around like you're Brett Favre. Because even the defensive guys look at you.'
"Hey, you threw the ball bad. Who cares? Everybody makes mistakes."
