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

What an incredible run you’ve had. Every year you’ve played, you’ve been in a major bowl game. Even the Russell Athletic Bowl that first year. And now you’re back in this. It’s got to be nice knowing the final ride you have a chance to get back to, quite possibly, another national championship. Yeah. It’s been a blessing just to be in contention every year to go play for a national championship.

We won the one in ’16. But just having that chance is special. It’s something that when I was in Socastee (South Carolina), I dreamed about but never really knew because the Playoff wasn’t even a thing, I guess, when I was in high school. So, just to be able to have the opportunity is pretty neat.

When you guys look back, have you ever had a chance to really kind of sit back and think about what you’ve gone through so far? I mean, just because of the National Championship, the catch, you know, all that? You take a second. But you get refocused real quick. We have more goals this season. And that’s something we have. We hit goals, and we have to make new ones. And so it’s something I will look back on in a number of years and look back on. But right now we just focus on finishing.

What’s the difference between this team and last year’s team? Because the way you guys ended was not the way you wanted, especially the performance. A lot of people make a big deal about last year’s team, how we didn’t finish the way we wanted. And we didn’t. But I thought we had a great year. And I thought that we were in position. And the way we practiced last year, we just did ‚Äì somewhere on game day, we just didn’t perform well. So I think we can take lessons from that, from last year in that game. Everything is working towards that game, not just having a good week of preparation. We have to have a great week of preparation. But we have to have ‚Äì we have got to focus in on game day instead of losing.

Where did you see Notre Dame in defense compared to some of the other teams you guys faced this year? I think they’re the best defense we faced. They’re in the Playoff for a reason. Extremely talented, extremely elite in that regard.

And so we’re going to have to play our best four quarters. If not, then it might end up like last year.

When you have a chance to go and play here at the Cotton Bowl, it’s one of those stadiums, one of those places. It’s historical. What’s it mean to you and that you get a chance to play this game? The first day coming in here it was hard to focus at practice. You’re just kind of looking around at the jumbo board and looking at the ceiling, all the lights. And everything in here just so nice.

And then, when you really start thinking about it, it’s just like at Socastee. The field is the same length. I was looking ‚Äì the lines took me back to being in high school with my dad on Saturday. We painted lines on the practice field. At the end of the day, it’s the same. We talk about that a lot. But I just think about Monday, just looking at the line and taking me back to where it all started.

Your dad is probably still painting the lines? For a few more years.

Hunter, what kind of advantage do you guys have? What kind of advantage do you have having played here before? Obviously, you’d like to think you have experience. But, at the end of the day, experience doesn’t win on the field.

People make a big deal about the experience we have. And it’s something that’s going to bode well for us in the preparation process. But, when the ball kicks off at game time, all that goes out the window and you have to go and play well.

Do you want to be known as the best walk-on, with what you did after you got your scholarship, because you won that trophy this year. Yeah, that was a cool trophy. Burlsworth was generous and just an awesome event and awesome award and what it represents.

But yeah, I mean, I just try to be my best whether I was a walk-on or on scholarship. Really didn’t matter. Just trying to feel like I belonged with the team and have my teammates count on me.

How do you not think about, as a team, getting back to Alabama, not beating them, per se, but getting back to having a chance? Yeah. I mean, we have our five goals at the beginning of the season ‚Äì win the opener and then the State and then the Atlantic and ACC ‚Äì or I guess it would be the division and then State and then ACC and then the closer. So we really just focus on those. We try to keep it simple. We try to not have a broad brush and just kind of throw it against the wall and see what sticks. We try to have specific goals that we want to accomplish. And, if we can attack those goals one goal at a time, we’ll be successful.

You might have the most famous play in the short history of the College Football Playoff. What’s the best commemoration you either have maybe at home or that you’ve seen with that catch? I feel like, as a whole, just all the Clemson fans

coming up and getting me to sign ‘Sports Illustrated.’ So I can kind of have a little bit of me with them and a little bit of that team with them. Because that play just represents so much. Not just me and Deshaun [Watson] off the line, but everybody on that team. I was part of that team. That’s kind of how we wanted to finish, and we did. So it was fun.

After years now, like you mentioned, being kind of an evolution of Clemson, how much has it changed since you started here and where is it now? Yeah. I’ve talked to some people about the Notre Dame game in 2015, how that was such a big game for us and kind of a turning point. Whereas, early in a lot of seasons leading up to that year, we would lose early and we kind of regrouped and went on to have a successful year. But that year we did lose early and beat Notre Dame. And we were able to kind of stay on track and get to 4-0. And then ‚Äì we eventually went 14-0 and lost the National Championship.

But this is building. I don’t think that this surprised anyone. I think maybe on the outside. But that’s just how Coach Swinney is. He said the other day that his dream is just getting started. This isn’t the top of the mountain. We have some mountains to climb. So it’s just been cool to be a part of it.

For you, maybe the running joke is the guy is still in college. For you does it feel like how quickly or maybe how much have you been able to enjoy the process? It has. I understand. They’re warranted. I’ve been here for a while. But I’ve been here just as long as Christian Wilkins and Kendall Joseph and a lot of those of guys. But I feel like time flies when you’re having fun.

But it has been a long time. Because I’ve had one group of friends when I was a walk-on, lived one life. And then I got some notoriety and they graduated. And I have another group of friends. So it’s been cool to have two experiences in college.

Report on the guy you go up against, Tee Higgins. What makes him so good, and what’s your perspective? He’s special. A lot. Like I feel like he has body control.

But he also has feet like Deon [Cain] last year. And he’s kind of a hybrid between those two, but he’s special. I saw early on from my first days whenever he first got here, that he gets faster when he gets to the wall.

And I think that’s ‚Äì it’s interesting to see. You throw up a deep ball. And is he going to get it? Is he going to get it? And he just accelerates to it. And, when you do that, you know you’re special.

Any time you go to a bigger game, you’re treated great. What’s been the best part about coming here? It’s been unbelievable. I think it’s fun to practice in here. I know it rained yesterday. So to be able to have a place like this to practice out of the rain, get a lot of work done.

How is this bowl game different from the other experiences you have, and does it change the fact that it’s your last one? Or could be your last one? I don’t think it changes that it’s my last one. I think that we try to go play our best four quarters every game regardless. As far as experience, it’s first class. It’s awesome. Yeah, this is one of the best in college football. I heard that coming in. And everything I have seen has agreed with that.

And so just being in a place like this, being able to practice in a facility like this is pretty special. So they do everything top of the line. It’s pretty cool.

What do you think it is about these games late in the season? Clemson has relied on you so much in the past to kind of make big plays? What’s your mindset? And why do you think the team counts on you for these big bowl games? Hopefully, because I prove it in practice. I don’t try to do anything special or do anything different in the playoff or at the end of the season or any other time. I try to play every game to the best of my ability.

I think that maybe they come to me more because I just try to stick to the fundamentals, just with what got me here. I don’t try to do too much. I just try to go do what I do on the practice field every day. So I don’t know.

We’ve heard about your journey from a walk-on to where you are now. Especially in these moments, do you pinch yourself even more and take the time to reflect on your whole journey? And how would you do that? You have a great appreciation playing for games like

this and having a career which started as a walk-on. Nothing is guaranteed. It’s just every day just coming out and just having fun.