Clemson Tigers College Football Pregame Quote, 12/27/2018

How much does this experience playing, the fact that you’ve been here, been in cities like this, how much do you think it’s going to help you out to get through the week and all the controversy? How much does being in AT&T Stadium inspire you for Sundays, to come back and see this place in an NFL jersey? No, I mean, it’s definitely ‚Äì experience is always a good thing. It can be a good and bad thing. A little complacency can set in. I feel in our case, got a lot of veteran leaders who know how to handle themselves and kind of know how to take care of business and show up and grind every day, put their best foot forward and bring the young guys along, and so that’s definitely great. And it’s just fun.

This is an awesome venue. The Cotton Bowl does a good job. It’s an awesome venue. It’s going to be a lot of fun. A joy practicing on it and you can see the lights and the cameras and just everything. Everything gets going and it looks really good, looks really cool. It will be fun. Look forward to the game.

How much do you talk about last year? Nobody has talked about last year’s semifinals. Should you talk about that or that’s another team? That was last year’s team. This year is a whole new team and we’ve got a different opportunity. Yeah, that happened, whatever, that’s last year’s game. This is a different team, different year, and we’re looking forward to this team’s opportunity and what we’ll have a chance to do and being the best we can be.

And has the Dexter [Lawrence] situation been a rallying point for you to do what you need to do on Saturday to keep it going? Really we’re just behind Dex, too, obviously and the other guys as well, too. We have to keep the main thing the main thing. We still have to focus. We obviously feel for them, but we still know we have a game to win, a game to play, so we can’t let that be a distraction for us. But we’re obviously there in Dexter’s corner and the other guys’ corners.

What are two or three keys to get that W on Saturday? Games like this always come down to the trenches. That’s obviously where it starts and where it ends, in the trenches. Both sides of the game have to be on ‚Äì our offensive line and defensive line have to play well because they’re so talented and good. We definitely have our work cut out for us, too. Special teams, I feel like games like this come down to playing special teams. That’s my experience. You can set the tone for the game on special teams and, you know, that’s where so many different things can happen.

You could be playing on Sundays too right now. Was there a reason you wanted another year of college? You graduated already. So one of the bigger surprises heading into the season was that you did come back. Do you think you had more to prove or you wanted to do it for your team, you enjoyed college? Just like I said, you know, just one of my reasons, like I told you now, putting an exclamation mark on my career, finishing out the right way and enjoying my experience.

So what do you think that you were missing that you accomplished this year to add to that? Really this year I mean I just feel like I improved in a lot of ways, got closer to my teammates. You know, and a lot of things just ‚Äì this has just been my most enjoyable year by far in college. Just with my team, had the most fun and, you know, I just my experience is just great. You can’t put a price, you know, on just the relationships I’ve built and that’s been awesome for me.

Sitting here in an NFL stadium do you think about the future? Do you think about Sundays? Do you think about maybe did you improve your draft stock and things like that? No, I’m always present in the moment focused on the task at hand. Focusing on being the best I can for my teammates. If it results in improvement as a result of that that’s cool. I really try to be present in the moment, be the best I can for my teammates so I can try to lead as well as I can so we could put the best result out there on the field.

A year ago you guys were back in this spot, you’ve been in this spot several times, did you think you would be back here? I definitely felt we had a shot at being back in the situation for sure. Our goal at the beginning of the year is always to be the best we can. And if something like this is a result of it, that’s great. I know, I just feel like that was our

mind set. I really felt like at the beginning of the year this was a chance we had to come back here. So no, I’m definitely grateful that we’re in the position that we’re in. You know, we’ve definitely got our work cut out for us coming up in a couple of days because Notre Dame is a good team so I’m looking forward to that opportunity.