• last year
Transcript
00:00 - Blane said after the game that, you know,
00:03 that last offense possession he says
00:05 kind of coming from you guys that,
00:07 he kind of says that he felt like
00:08 y'all were gonna go to that score.
00:10 Did you feel that on that last possession?
00:12 - Yeah, absolutely.
00:13 I felt like we had been in that position before.
00:16 I felt like we had been moving the ball the whole game,
00:18 so I never felt like once that, you know,
00:21 they had the upper hand or anything like that,
00:23 so that was really common that was going on.
00:27 - I know that's true. - I kind of did it
00:30 a little too fast, but.
00:30 - I think it's back to where I was going.
00:32 - Wait, was the talk to us about that conversation
00:34 that you had, where it was mid-40 left,
00:35 and you came back and you scored too fast,
00:37 and Blane was like, "At least just be positive,"
00:39 and all that.
00:40 Did you go much, or are you just gonna walk us through
00:41 kind of those moments?
00:42 - Yeah, well, we're a tempo offense, so we go fast.
00:47 I kind of blame it on Coach Weiss and Coach Kittman
00:50 for calling too good of plays,
00:51 'cause we were coming in that fast, but yeah.
00:54 No, I know, I guess a quarterback,
00:55 when you see that much time,
00:57 and you see that they also had two timeouts,
01:01 it's kind of like, okay, that's a lot of time to deal with.
01:03 So, but at the same time, you know,
01:05 I had a lot of confidence in our defense.
01:07 You know, they've been there, they've won us games
01:09 in those kinds of situations many times,
01:11 and I just knew we were gonna be able to get it done.
01:15 - Obviously, you guys already have more than enough
01:17 motivation coming into an SEC game,
01:19 but how much more did they add?
01:21 I mean, we all saw the Instagram comments and all that.
01:24 I mean, just to talk about,
01:26 that was used as a bulletin board in this area as well.
01:28 - Yeah, absolutely.
01:30 You know, we did quite, coming in,
01:31 they were, you know, a top 10 defense in the country.
01:35 They were really talented and all that stuff,
01:36 and, you know, felt like we had
01:38 one of the best offenses in the country, so.
01:41 You know, coming into it, we had a lot of confidence already,
01:44 and then them doing that, you know,
01:45 all it did was just boost it even more.
01:48 I know the O-line, specifically, they took that to heart,
01:52 especially 'cause of how many defense alignment,
01:54 you know, commented on it, but, you know,
01:57 I guess they don't get enough attention
01:58 from the games they're losing, so.
02:01 It was a good one for us.
02:03 - Obviously, the offense goes out
02:04 and expects to score every possession, every drive,
02:07 but this conference that we've been talking about today,
02:08 is there a moment, if this season,
02:10 you've kind of done that, or are y'all as an offensive group
02:12 battling that kind of conference,
02:14 that, you know, we're just gonna go out there
02:15 and score when we need to?
02:16 - Yeah, absolutely.
02:17 I mean, that's confidence that you just have to have
02:19 as a group, so.
02:20 You know, we come to work every single day,
02:24 the same approach, taking it day by day, rep by rep,
02:27 possession by possession throughout the game,
02:29 and, you know, we just felt like we prepared
02:33 really well this week.
02:34 I thought that we had, like,
02:34 some of our best weeks of practice,
02:36 especially on offense aside from also,
02:39 I felt like coach had a great game plan for us,
02:40 so we were really confident going into it.
02:42 - Right after the LSU game, he told us that Trey Harris
02:44 was, like, eerily calm that day.
02:47 What was he like today,
02:47 because he had a tough point in the game?
02:50 - Well, we woke up this morning and had breakfast,
02:54 and then I came back in the room,
02:56 and, you know, he was, like, gonna go back to sleep,
02:59 and I was like, "Bro, how can you go to sleep?"
03:02 (laughing)
03:03 I'm wide awake, you know, we have to play an early game,
03:07 so I was, like, already juiced up,
03:09 and so I guess he was just super calm again
03:11 and was able to go back to sleep.
03:13 - Well, the play where you had to leave for a play,
03:16 did you just kind of get your gut rolling on that one?
03:18 - Yeah, I just had one knocked out of me.
03:20 - It looked like you were, like, trying to stay in
03:22 and go in.
03:24 Is that just kind of your mentality right now,
03:25 that you just don't want to be off the field at all?
03:28 - Yeah, absolutely.
03:29 That's just where I've always been.
03:31 Just really wasn't able to breathe at that time.
03:35 - Is this as well as you played?
03:37 - Like, in college, I would probably say so.
03:41 Not that, you know, high school is a little bit different,
03:44 but playing at the newly high school,
03:46 or played at the newly leveled high school senior year.
03:49 But, no, I just like, it was finally nice,
03:52 and Coach kind of talked about it going into the game,
03:53 that we had all the guys around,
03:56 and this was, like, the most healthy that our team has been.
03:58 So, you know, it's really nice to be able to,
04:01 you know, throw it up to Trey, to Jaywalk, to D-Wade,
04:04 pre-scoring all those guys, and they're able to make plays,
04:07 make my job easier.
04:08 - You told me, in, I guess it was August,
04:12 you said that there were times last year,
04:14 decision-making, things looked kind of gray,
04:16 'cause it was still sort of new, you know,
04:17 you thought you were making the right decision,
04:19 and it was more positive.
04:20 This year, it looks like you're pretty positive.
04:23 Does the game look different to you
04:25 in year two in this offense?
04:26 - Yeah, absolutely.
04:27 I think just the more experience that you get,
04:29 the more reps you have, so I got to play
04:31 in a lot of big-time football,
04:33 and I've seen a lot of different looks.
04:35 So, I kind of just feel like the game
04:38 has just slowed down for me,
04:39 being able to go through my progressions.
04:41 I mean, you're gonna make the same mistakes every game,
04:43 but it's minimizing those and playing the next play,
04:46 and I'm not getting too down on the mistake,
04:48 and I just like my mentality about the standpoint
04:51 has changed a lot, and I've been able
04:52 to mature well from it.
04:55 - Jackson, you talked about, you know,
04:56 the talent Texas A&M has defensively
04:58 when you overcame them today.
05:00 How do you continue to build on the momentum
05:02 you've garnered as you face another,
05:03 even tougher defense in Georgia on the road?
05:06 - Yeah, well, first of all, they were super freaky.
05:08 I mean, they definitely won the pregame, you know,
05:11 look contest, you know, just going out on the field
05:13 seeing how big they are, how talented they were.
05:16 I mean, that's an elite group,
05:18 but a lot of elite talent in the majority of the guys
05:20 can go to the NFL.
05:21 But I think just going forward, this is the SEC.
05:25 You're gonna play great defenses inside and out.
05:27 That's what the SEC is known for,
05:28 is defense, and especially, you know, the trenches.
05:31 So, like I said earlier, like,
05:34 our mindset needs to remain the same,
05:36 a week in and a week out of, you know,
05:38 just how can we prepare, not get too high, get too low,
05:41 and play each game as just one game.
05:44 - Jackson, how did you experience that block field goal?
05:52 Where were you and what did you see?
05:54 - I was just on the sideline next to Coach Kiffin.
05:58 Yeah, it was kind of a tournament event, for sure.
06:02 I feel like we had completely dominated the game.
06:05 You know, that's just football sometimes, you know.
06:08 They have really good players in their teams
06:10 so they're gonna make plays.
06:11 And, you know, they made a great play
06:14 and made us pay for it.
06:16 I thought it was really big how we were able
06:17 to come back and answer on the next try.
06:20 - Sorry, the block field goal at the end.
06:22 - Oh, sorry, I thought about that.
06:24 (laughing)
06:25 I was kind of in the back, kind of by jail,
06:27 I kind of where I was, against LSU.
06:30 I pegged my nails like crazy, I was super anxious.
06:36 But, you know, Austin Thomas said,
06:38 before they kicked it, you know, called the timeout.
06:41 And he just kept saying over and over,
06:42 like, we're gonna block this, we're gonna block this.
06:44 And now just hearing him say that
06:47 and just seeing how confident that he was,
06:49 a lot of confidence in me that we were gonna win that.
06:52 - What was the post-game celebration like?
06:54 - I don't know, I kind of walked out,
06:56 just running around and screaming.
06:58 - It actually threw for almost 400 yards
07:02 and Winshawn broke 100 yards.
07:04 Can't do that without the offensive line playing well.
07:07 One sack against a team that leads the nation on sacks.
07:11 You know, talk to me about your offensive line,
07:13 a little of--
07:14 - Yeah, absolutely, I feel like they've been able
07:16 to play better each and every single week.
07:19 I think a big part of that is just their confidence
07:21 and just seeing the results.
07:23 You know, coming into this game,
07:26 they, like I said earlier,
07:28 they had a lot of motivation coming into it
07:30 and then a chip on their shoulder
07:31 and they wanted to make a statement.
07:33 And I thought you saw that throughout the whole game.
07:37 Just the physicality, the demeanor that they have
07:39 to kind of just impose their will,
07:43 especially on that defensive line
07:45 where they have so much talent and that stuff.
07:47 So I thought their mindset coming into this week
07:50 was an all-time high for them
07:52 and they were super confident
07:54 and they really wanted to make a statement
07:55 and really credit to them
07:56 'cause our offense goes to them.
07:58 - Go, Todd.
07:59 - I'm sure you'd be happy winning every game 70 to nothing,
08:02 but how much do you enjoy or relish that opportunity
08:05 to go in there and ice the game for your team
08:07 with a touchdown on the game when you drive?
08:09 - Yeah, I'd honestly probably prefer
08:11 to just have it in my hands
08:14 so I can have some control over it.
08:15 It's hard to sit and not be out on the field,
08:18 but I've had a lot of those one-score games, tie games,
08:23 and I just credit that to the culture that we've built here
08:26 and just being able to lean on each other
08:30 when we face adversity or in times like that
08:33 where it comes down to the last play of the game.
08:35 - We've seen, like we've talked about,
08:40 your growing confidence,
08:41 and Coach even said that he's really,
08:44 really proud of you today.
08:46 Does that add to your confidence?
08:48 How does that make you feel?
08:50 - Definitely makes me feel good,
08:51 but at the same time, I'm gonna keep my same approach
08:54 of taking it day by day.
08:56 Just gonna focus on my preparation.
08:59 We got a lot of ball left,
09:00 so there's a lot of things to accomplish
09:03 and we haven't made it there yet,
09:05 so gotta stay level-headed and keep the same approach.
09:08 - Last question.
09:11 - Just in your mind, Jackson,
09:13 what's it gonna take for you guys to be able to,
09:15 or what has to happen for you guys
09:17 to be able to upset Georgia and Athens?
09:19 - Obviously, they're a really good team.
09:23 I think they're a really good team, too,
09:24 so in that day, it's gonna come down to execution.
09:28 Who executes the most?
09:30 They got talented guys like we do.
09:33 I think a lot of it's gonna come down to
09:36 winning one-on-one match-ups
09:38 and winning the line of scrimmage.