• last year
Transcript
00:00 A lot has been said since before you got in here about your physicality, that you ran the ball a lot, got over the century mark in the rushing category.
00:08 Was that an emphasis for you coming into tonight and is that kind of an emphasis in your game, I would say?
00:14 Quite honestly going into the game I did not think I was going to run as much as I did.
00:19 But after the first few drives, I talked to Coach Weiss and Coach Gilbert and they kind of told me that it was just going to be that kind of a game.
00:28 I love that part of the sport, I love that part of football.
00:33 My dad always raised me to be a football player before quarterback.
00:36 I just always loved the physicality of it for sure.
00:40 What was this week like for you, knowing you weren't going to have Trey, you weren't going to have Kane, you might not have Quinn Schelling?
00:46 Just knowing there was going to be a lot of weapons not there potentially.
00:51 I definitely saw things on media that it was going to be a close game or upset alert, stuff like that.
00:59 I think we just kind of challenged our guys to step up.
01:03 We have a lot of really good players, we have a lot of depth.
01:08 Obviously Trey is great and has done stuff that you can't teach it, he's just one of those type of athletes.
01:19 We have a lot of really good receivers that can make some great plays and it definitely showed at the end of the game tonight.
01:27 How excited are you, how prepared do you feel like you guys are to get ready for conference play, specifically Alabama next week?
01:34 This is a game that I feel like our whole team has really been looking forward to.
01:39 Especially with how things ended with last game, last time we played them towards the end of the game.
01:44 Obviously they're Alabama, so you know what to expect from them.
01:49 I think all of us as kids, we've always grown up and seen them at the top, so we're excited for the challenge.
01:56 How much trust and confidence do you have in Jordan Watkins?
02:00 I think the perfect example of how much trust I have is the game on the line against Mississippi State last year, fourth down.
02:09 I put the ball up to him, he's just so reliable, so dependable.
02:15 He comes to work every single day and I feel like I've said this before, but he's like another coach out there.
02:20 Obviously he's really talented and he just has a great feel for the game, so he's definitely a mismatch.
02:26 Through three games, where do you think the offense is and what do you think you have to improve on as you get into conference play?
02:33 I would say coming into today, a big emphasis was to improve in the run game.
02:40 I feel like we did that tonight and got a little bit better in that category.
02:44 I just feel like we're a really balanced offense.
02:47 I feel like we can attack people in a lot of different ways.
02:51 We're just super versatile.
02:54 I think at the end of the day, we're still kind of a new team.
02:58 We have a lot of pieces that are new from transfers and stuff like that.
03:02 We're just going to continually get better and I'm really looking forward to seeing how we progress.
03:08 Question up top.
03:09 When guys are banged up, specifically on that offensive side, do you feel the sense that you need to step up as a leader
03:17 and just on a field, whether it be running for 136 yards or whatever, do you feel the need to step up and win those guys around?
03:23 I think just as a quarterback, it's kind of just your job to operate the system and the scheme that's placed on your shoulders.
03:31 I feel like a big improvement of myself from last year to this year is just trying to take what the defense gives me
03:38 and not just trying to take the big play all the time and stuff like that.
03:42 I put too much pressure on myself because I feel like that gets you in trouble as a quarterback.
03:46 A big emphasis for me, regardless of who's playing, is just to operate the system and get the ball in the playmaker's hands so they can make plays.
03:55 I know you said you were raised as a football player before quarterback, but are you ever going to slide
03:59 or does your game feed off of barreling over defenders?
04:03 No, I definitely start doing that.
04:06 My mom tells me every single day on the walk, she actually tells me, "You remember to slide today."
04:12 I guess I just forgot.
04:15 Just through games, what have you learned about yourself and this offensive role?
04:21 I don't really think I've learned too much about myself.
04:24 I've always known the kind of player that I was, and I just knew the more comfortable I was going to be in the system,
04:31 the things were going to just start coaching.
04:33 Offensively, I think we're in a good spot, and I think we're just going to keep continuing to get better.
04:39 Jackson, you said a little bit ago that you still feel like this team is new.
04:52 What excites you about the potential, I guess, because it seems like you're implying maybe it's not all come together quite yet.
05:00 I think the biggest point that I'll try to make is you see how we can make adjustments in the second half and stuff like that,
05:09 whereas last year we weren't really as much of a second-half team.
05:14 I just feel like coaching-wise, player-wise, the more the game goes on, I feel like the better that we get.
05:22 I think that as the season will go on, we'll start to gain confidence in each other from the first nap to the last nap.
05:32 I just think that there's going to be times during this year where we might face some adversity,
05:38 but I think as things keep going on, we're going to start to find ourselves playing a full-complete game.
05:43 Last question back on top.
05:45 With the run game struggling the first two weeks, just how good is it to have a game like this
05:49 where the entire offense runs for nearly 300 yards?
05:52 Yeah, it was awesome. It kind of just got back to our identity of being a balanced offense.
05:59 Coming off of last week, we felt like it was a disappointment of what we did in the run game.
06:05 Player-wise, we took ownership of that, and we had a lot of player conversations and unit conversations of,
06:13 "We can't let that stuff happen again." I just thought that this whole week of practice, we just ran the ball a lot better.
06:21 I thought the guys were more locked in on that side of things.
06:25 When you practice good, you play good. Those were the results.