Alabama Crimson Tide College Football Pregame Quote, 12/28/2021

If you would, give us an opening statement about your thoughts on being back in the College Football Playoff.

I’m just excited to get a great experience in playing a great football game. I’m very thankful. I’m pretty sure my teammates are, and I’m just excited.

As you watch film on this entire defense, can you talk about what you see in Coby Bryant and Ahmad Gardner?

I see a lot of technique. Those guys have two different styles. They like to press. They like to press big. I see a lot of things. Very talented DBs. It’s going to be a great game. It should be a great game Friday.

You’ve made some big gains this year and obviously a very outstanding secondary you go against on Friday. How much do you relish opportunities like this to put your skills up against some of the best in the country week in and week out?

I kind of like that. It’s just to see we’re going to come out, play football. We both go hard. So we’re just going to see who wants it more in the end. When it’s all said and done, we’ll just see. But the competition, I love it. That’s something I look forward to every week.

I’m curious if when you transferred to Alabama, is this kind of what you envisioned in terms of being in this stage and then also what ‚Äì what has worked for you there that has allowed you to have the season you’ve had?

Yes, I would say this is something I envisioned because I had a lot of plans, big plans, of doing what I did. And it just was things I’ve been wanting to do since I was a child, dreams I’ve had since I was a child growing up, playing football on the biggest stage, college football playoffs, chance to play for a national championship, things like that. So I would say that would be it.

Obviously Coach [Bill] O’Brien got in today. Can you just speak of what it was like to go through practice with a coach virtually and just in his first year and your first year at Alabama, how has he been able to help you get to the next level? And just talk about your relationship with him player to coach.

It was actually good going through practice. It wasn’t anything different because he was talking to us. He was giving the same corrections over the Zoom. So everything was the same. And going through things with Coach O’B, this year I feel like he helped me a lot. He has a lot of experience from being in NFL offenses and things like that. So I think he brought some of that here and used it with our offense.

And I feel like it helps me a lot. It helped me realize different routes, work on different defenses, how to get open on certain defenses, routes, and pretty much everything, really.

I want to ask you about going through practice with Coach [Bill] O’Brien being on Zoom. How’s that work exactly?

We went through practice, other coaches took over his role. So it was just like the same. We had a script and everything.

But the next day we went to Zoom. He’s on the Zoom. We can hear his voice. He’s drawing up everything. He’s talking to the O-line, receivers basically going over corrections. So that’s how that was done.

His message goes through the other coaches, and then the next day you guys review it?

Yeah, when we review it, he was on the Zoom so we can hear his voice and he’s talking to us and we’re in a big offensive meeting.

Can you just talk about John Metchie right now? Obviously he’s not going to play in the game. He’s got that bum ACL. However, I know you guys are incredibly close. Can you just speak to how he’s dealing with fighting through that injury? And is he still continuing to hang out with you guys on the sidelines? Is he there with you in practice? Talk about how he’s doing currently.

He’s doing good. I’ve seen him ‚Äì he’s with us every day. He’s at practice on the sideline. He’s on the buses with us. He kicks it with us in the hotel. So I would say he’s dealing with it very well.

I haven’t seen any bad signs. He always smiles all the time. So I would say he’s dealing with it really great actually.