Oregon Ducks College Football Pregame Quote, 12/30/2023

Q. Tell me about what the mindset is like going into this game? I know everybody is playing to win and you maybe have a little bit of a lopsided matchup on paper, but what would it mean for you guys to win? What is your mindset going into this one?

TYSHEEM JOHNSON: Everyone wants to go out there with a lot of energy. We had, like, a month off. So this game will mean a lot. I was talking to somebody else, this is first game of the new year. What better way to start off a new year than with a win?

Q. Are you expecting anything personally from yourself, like a certain number of tackles or snaps that you want to play, anything like that?

TYSHEEM JOHNSON: Personally, I want to win defensive MVP.

Q. Okay, but I heard one of your teammates wants to, too. So how do you make sure that the right person gets it?

TYSHEEM JOHNSON: Well, if either one of us win it, I’m happy with it, but we are all trying to win it. So we are all just going to go out there and put our best foot forward.

Q. So can you talk about your preparation for the Fiesta Bowl? Did you do anything different? Did you change up your routine anything differently compared to what you would do for a regular season game?

TYSHEEM JOHNSON: No, no preparation change. Same preparation for every game. We treat every game like the same. So ain’t nothing, just a bigger stage, but same type of preparation. Probably just a little bit more.

Q. Back on Selection Sunday, can you tell us how you felt when you saw where Oregon was placed?

TYSHEEM JOHNSON: We definitely were disappointed we couldn’t make the final four, but when we had a chance to come to the Fiesta Bowl, we got very excited. So we just wanted to finish off this year with a win, the right way with a win, and start 2024 off right.

Q. And what do you think about playing Liberty? They’re undefeated. Have you played anybody this season that you feel like you could compare them to, or is this going to be new experience for y’all?

TYSHEEM JOHNSON: I’m very excited about Liberty. They bring a loose style offense to their team, something different and I’ve got a lot of different weapons and things they can do. So I’m excited to play and excited for the challenge.

Q. And then the Pac-12 Championship game, how do you shake that off just personally, like mentally? How do you shake that off, put that behind you and move on and get ready for the next thing?

TYSHEEM JOHNSON: Yeah, it’s hard. You just got to say the next game mentality. Put the game behind us and we can’t get it back. We only can learn from it and we got to try to do our best to learn everything we can and use that to help us win the next game.