Alabama Crimson Tide College Football Pregame Quote, 12/29/2022

On what it’s like playing for DC Pete Golding: It’s great. I’ve known Coach Golding for obviously four years since I’ve been here, but probably six or seven years in total since he’s been recruiting me, so we have a great relationship. He’s a good coach. He’s obviously hard on us because he needs to be, but it’s great playing for him. I love him.

On the challenges of stopping K-State RB Deuce Vaughn, who is half his size: I don’t think we can really look at his size. He’s a great player: he runs hard, he runs fast, he never stops his legs, he’s patient. So, I think when you look at his size, that doesn’t really matter. Because players can be great players or bad players, and it won’t be based off their size. Based off of what he does, we have to look at how good he is and we have to see what he does, along with the offensive line, we have to look at how we can stop that.

On younger players taking advantage of the few weeks of bowl week practice leading up to the Sugar Bowl: I’ve seen them progress a lot. Eleven practices is really a lot, that’s almost three or four weeks of practices. So, it’s helped them a lot, they got to learn a lot, kind of go back to the basics. When we started bowl prep, just getting back in to everything and really work our way back up to these guys, so it’s helped them a lot I think.

On the future of the Alabama defense: I think it looks bright. I think we’ve got a lot of young players that are talented, a lot of people who are ready to come in and work, a lot of guys who have already made an impact. So, I think we have a really good shot at a really good defense, and team overall, coming in the next few years.