Alabama Crimson Tide College Football Pregame Quote, 12/27/2021

Tell us about your excitement about this week’s game against Cincinnati.

I’m happy to be here with my teammates. We are enjoying our team here at the Cotton Bowl. We’re just getting better as the week comes, preparing for the game. We are going to take it day by day, enjoy our time here. But, also, we’re going to get that work in.

You kind of held things together on a defensive front for Alabama this year. And Jordan Battle kind of held things together in the secondary. How has Henry To’oto’o held everything together in the middle of the defense as the on-the-field signal caller for you guys?

Henry’s like the captain of the ship. If we don’t get no call from him, he’ll probably be asked ‚Äì we all out of place. So, you know, once he give our call, he give the signal out in the call and we get to rolling from him. He play a big role in this defense.

He’s a great leader. Got a great mentality of football. I love him to death. I am glad he transferred.

Talk about a guy like Henry [To’oto’o] and also Jordan [Battle], what does it mean having guys that you know are confident in the system that you go to battle with every day?

It feels great. It shows I don’t have nothing to worry about knowing that I got those guys right behind me. Those guys come to work every day just like me, and we do a great job of picking everybody up on the defense. We try to lead by example and also with our mouth. So I’m happy to have those guys in my circle, including a lot more guys on the defense.

What do you remember most about Jerome Ford, and how do you think he’s improved just watching film?

I feel like Jerome has improved a lot. But it doesn’t surprise me because he’s always been a hard runner and he’s always been a great football player, just being here his freshman year and like that. He’s always been a great guy to be around. He’s real cool. And I’m happy to go up against him on a different side.

What’s it like going up against ‚Äì I don’t know how frequently you’ve played against a guy that you were teammates with or whatever. And I guess in the transfer portal era, there’s a lot more of that. What will it be like to be in a game like that against somebody that was a teammate? Different or not that different?

I don’t think it’s different. I mean, because for me, you know, I practiced against Jerome [Ford] in spring and fall camp, so I’m pretty familiar just playing against him.

But by him being on a different team, I feel like once you family, you family. But we’re going to war. After the game, I see him, win or lose, hug and dap him up. That’s still my family. I will always remember him as one of my brothers.

Guys before you talked about how the Texas A&M loss was your turning point for this season. Was there a specific moment or a time where you could tell the team was different, like the switch had been flipped?

Most definitely. I feel like Texas A&M was turning a point. It showed a lot of guys how it feels to lose and how it feels to be down. We got the experience early, so we know how it feels to be down and out, the world against you. So you don’t want to feel like that no more. So we just took that as motivation and try to get better every week.

We still had battles that we had to fight, but we overcame, and we stuck together as a family and got through a lot of things. I think that’s what makes this team so strong, that we fight together no matter what.

Phil, you talked about Jerome [Ford] a little bit. You guys also have some transfers on your side that have helped you guys out this season. What’s it like to see kind of the influence of the transfer portal on your team but also just on the game in general?

I’m happy for my teammates that transferred in. Those guys came in, and they created a lot of value for themselves. And I’m just proud to say they’re my teammates. No matter what, no matter what they go through, I’ll always be here to support them. That’s all I really have to say about that.

You guys really took on the underdog role before that SEC championship game and seemed to thrive in it. How do you kind of approach this game. Obviously being a favorite is not something you think about. But how do you try to find that same type of motivation to be the underdog?

I feel like we were the underdog way before that game. Coming into this game, we just got to have that mentality that it’s a two-game season. And everybody we play, they’re going to be good. They’re here for a reason. So we got to bring our best and just have that mentality that it’s win or lose, do or die. You don’t get no re-dos in this. It’s a two-game season. It can maybe be one. We just got to have that mentality that we’re going to go out here and do our job, everybody play on the same level. Everybody on the same page. It’s all about whoever wants it the most.

Coach Damon [Cogdell] talks about how important player leadership is and how it can make his job a lot easier. How have you seen this team’s player leadership evolve over the course of the season?

The team leadership, I think it does play a big role because some players, they can ‚Äì I mean, I feel like they understand it better when it’s coming from their own peers and not just coach. So I feel like he is right about that. When players hear stuff come from us, they understand, all right, they got this mindset, so we have got to have this mindset also.

A lot of the talk with Jerome [Ford] is the fact that he’s been able to get opportunities at Cincinnati and kind of run with it. I guess in your experience as a defender at Alabama, how deep and talented is this Alabama running back field year in and year out? And, I guess, how competitive and hard is it to earn opportunity in a backfield with so much talent?

Like I say, man, Jerome always been a great runner. He had to do what he had to do ‚Äì he had to make his decision on what he wanted to do. Like I say, I’m happy for him. I’m happy for his success at Cincinnati. Like I say, I’m going to support him no matter what. That’s still my brother. He’s just on a different side now. We are just going to be going to war with each other.