Monday, September 5, 2022
Gainesville, Florida, USA
Billy Napier
Press Conference
BILLY NAPIER: I think first we need to express our gratitude to our fans for showing up and creating a really special environment. To have the largest opening day crowd in the history of the school, I think, is pretty remarkable. And to think about what we kind of set out in the very beginning to create here, for them to do their part — we talk about it being a team effort. They were a significant factor in the game and created issues for the opponent.
So we’re hopeful that we can continue that positive energy and that momentum and the impact that they can have on the game. I think we’ve got just a handful of tickets left for Kentucky.
When we evaluate the game Saturday, we were very fortunate to win the game. Very pleased with the intangibles of the team. We showed some mental toughness. I thought we showed some togetherness. We stuck together throughout the adversity of the game. We continued to respond in critical moments in really every phase of the game, both sides of the ball.
When you look at the numbers and the statistics relative to the game, the game came down to red zone effectiveness. We scored four touchdowns on offense, and I think they scored two touchdowns or two field goals and four opportunities. So two turnovers, two forced field goals ultimately could be the difference in the game.
The film is sloppy, just so we’re all on the same page. I know we’re ready to put the crown on the Gators, but the Gators got a lot of work to do to play at our expectation and our standard.
I think the big challenge with the staff and the players yesterday was to control the things we could control. We went through those things — communication, alignment, eye discipline, using the fundamentals and techniques that we’ve been coached, and then just the simple execution of your assignment and the in game decision-making as the play is taking place.
The great thing is the effort was there, the physicality was there, the toughness was there, the passion. I thought the chemistry and morale of the team was good. I thought we saw some leadership emerge. But overall, lots of areas on our team where we need to improve.
So I think we’ve got a little bit of the best of both worlds here. I think we’ve got some momentum. But we also have a team that is very self-aware. I think we’ve got a smart group. I think they understand good football. They watched the tape. They know that they can do better.
So our level of detail in how we prepare and how we play needs to improve. And I really believe we will see some improvement week 1 to week 2. I’m hopeful that we’ll see that.
So as our team — and not just players, but the entire organization gets comfortable with Sunday to Saturday and how we do that, I think we’ll see the team improve.
A lot of good, a lot of bad, some ugly. We’ve got work to do here. But it’s good to be 1-0. We’re excited about getting back and starting SEC play here. What questions we got.
Q. You kind of addressed it a little bit, Billy, but how do you avoid the pitfalls of all the emotion surrounding that? Looking at your 2020 Louisiana team, that big win against Iowa State to start the season and you guys stayed the course. How do you keep the team grounded?
BILLY NAPIER: Well, one of the things I talked to the team about Friday, you’ve got to operate in truth, right? Operate in truth, tell the truth.
I think sometimes we hear the things we want to hear and we don’t hear some of the things we need to hear. So just remaining objective, evaluate it for what exactly it is. I think sometimes we get consumed with the results. Reality is we need to always evaluate, win or loss, independent of the result. What does the film look like, and what can we do better?
I think that’s one of the things that we have refined over the last couple years is like how do we evaluate a game? How do we quality control a game independent of the outcome? What do we do well? And I think our staffs knows what winning football looks like.
We played winning football in a lot of areas on our team, but there’s some glaring areas where we need to get better. It is what it is. You find a way to win, right? Ultimately, that’s what I’m proud of is the kids. This group’s got some fight to them, and I think we’re making progress when it comes to the human element. I think we’re getting somewhere there.
Q. And the emotional component is all I was kind of driving at too. You’ve got young guys who that was an exhilarating experience.
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, I’m hopeful we have a lot of those. I think you’re right. I think that’s the big question. It’s like how is this group of players and this staff going to handle everybody patting them on the back for the next week?
I think it’s one of the things about University of Florida. You’re in a state with 21 million people. You’ve got a huge alumni network. You’ve got unbelievable amount of passion. So when it’s good, it’s good. When it’s bad, it’s bad. So learning how to navigate that, ignore some of the subjective opinions, and call it what it is. Call a spade a spade.
I think the sense I got from our team is that they know they can do much better.
Q. There was a stark difference in run defense first half and second half. How did you evaluate that when you looked at the film?
BILLY NAPIER: I think I’ve had a lot of people ask me that question. I think it comes down to precision and our play. That’s a physical team. I’ve got respect for their line of scrimmage play, their edge play. The backs are big. I think we need to align correctly. We need to communicate at a high level, align correctly, get our eyes on the right things, and use the fundamentals and techniques we’re coached to use and play team defense.
I think sometimes just one player being misaligned causes the combinations to be a little bit more you’re stressing a part of the defense. We’ve got to play team defense, first level, second level, third level. Got to work together and play team defense, right? One player is out of their gap when you’re playing a good team, you can get exposed, and I think we saw a little bit of that.
Q. On a similar note, Gervon pretty routinely lined up a yard or so off. Is there anything specific about that that you can divulge?
BILLY NAPIER: I don’t know we’re going to get that technical in a press conference here. Maybe you can figure that out. You can tell me that later.
(Laughter).
Q. Billy, O’Cyrus brings a real element of toughness here, and this has been an offensive line that’s been considered a finesse offensive line for years. Would you talk about the toughness he brings and the toughness you saw from your offensive line.
BILLY NAPIER: I think that’s one of the areas where we play the way we want to play. I thought that group showed — that’s kind of who we want to be. That’s the brand of football we played in the past. We invest in that area. We have two offensive line coaches. We put a premium on line of scrimmage play. That’s a developmental position.
But certainly O’Cyrus, he rose to the occasion. We always felt that O’Cyrus was one of the better players out there, and he showed it. He was one of our players of the game. And I think that his comfort with the system, his comfort with the routine, I think that rubs off on that group a little bit.
But Coach Stapleton and Coach Sale are really good at what they do. I think that group — there’s a lot of room for improvement there, but we’re getting closer to the identity we want that group to have.
Q. You said a minute ago there’s a lot of good, a lot of bad, and some ugly. I was curious, when you went back and watched it, what was the biggest good thing you saw and one really glaring bad or ugly?
BILLY NAPIER: That’s a long conversation there. We spent the entire day doing that yesterday. I would say half the day. I just want to see more precision, more detail in how we play across the board.
The good thing that I observed is the chemistry and morale of the team. Together this is a team, right? We stuck together — ups, downs, we responded. I think that’s probably the compliment I would give the team. They played hard in the game. Like anybody that watched that film or watched that game on TV would say, hey, the Gators played hard, man. They competed. That’s what I’m proud of.
The football, we got work to do. So without getting too specific there, that’s what I would say.
Q. There’s so many facets in building a program. Winning is minor, but yet major, right? What does a mean like that and maybe even a game like this, what can it do to maybe jump start, fast track the big picture of what you’re trying to do?
BILLY NAPIER: I think it helps — you know, when you’re new and you’re doing things a different way and you’re trying to establish trust and you’re trying to connect with people, I think that it’s important that they see progress. They taste a little bit.
I think this was our first opportunity to take some of these things we’ve been doing. We’ve been working for eight months, right? Then you’ve got to go play a game. There’s no preseason games. You don’t get to go scrimmage another team. So the player experiences, oh, man, some of these things that we learned are working. We may have a chance here.
There’s always a little bit of doubt until they see, hey, maybe we’ve got a chance here. I think early on in your tenure you’re always looking for these type of opportunities. And it ain’t over, just so we all understand that, right? We found a way to win that game, but I think each week is going to present a new set of challenges and each week will be much the same.
Q. What’s the evaluation of Anthony after seeing the film?
BILLY NAPIER: I thought the decision-making in the game was pretty good. I thought made one bad decision in the game, and that was third and ten where he forced the ball into coverage. He should have thrown an interception, truth be known. Outside of that, I thought the management of the game, decision-making of the game was good.
A few things we’d do maybe a little bit different. A little jittery early on, made a few mistakes, but ultimately he operated well.
You know, he’s his own worst critic now. He’s going to watch the film three times and tell you everything he could have done better, but he rose to the occasion is what I would say. That’s what I saw. I saw a guy who is prepared behind the scenes, is a product of his work, and it showed up.
All this work he’s been doing when there’s nobody watching, some of that showed up. And then you’ve got the physical ability to go along with that. You see that, but there’s a lot of good quarterback plays on the film, but there’s also a lot of things that he knows he got away with that he needs to clean up.
So players around the quarterback have got to play well for the quarterback to play well. I know that sounds cliche, but sometimes the quarterback looks bad, but players around him aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do. So it’s a catch-22 there.
Anthony, he’s going to get better. That’s what I would tell you.
Q. Coach, this is probably a bunch of firsts, your first SEC game. What’s your initial opinion in scouting Kentucky?
BILLY NAPIER: I think Kentucky I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach Stoops and what he’s been able to do there, just the consistency, their improvement as a program. To win ten games last year — I mean, his teams, I’ve always had a lot of respect for his teams because I think they’re sound.
I think they know who they are on offense, defense, and special teams. I see a good set of fundamentals in all three phases, and they do a good job of evaluating players, and they’ve got some height, length, and speed.
They have some good players that maybe weren’t highly regarded, but they’re just as good as anybody in the country. This is a good developmental program that I have nothing but respect for. So you’ve got to beat Kentucky. They’re going to make you beat them.
I think they’re a well-coached team, and I’ve got a lot of respect for the intangibles, the effort, the fundamentals. All the things that coaches respect, they do those things.
Q. You talked about the importance of game changers. We saw one leave the game in Marco Ortiz. Do you have an update on how he’s doing?
BILLY NAPIER: We’ll give you an update Wednesday evening with regard to the depth chart.
Q. From a recruiting standpoint, you guys have obviously built a lot with this cycle and haven’t even coached a game yet. To put a product on the field and have a recruiting weekend like that, what type of impact do you think that’s going to have?
BILLY NAPIER: If we keep doing that, I think it will be better. There’s no question that the experience of The Swamp, the experience of the fans, the passion, the tradition, that’s a unique game day venue, and I think for a kid that comes here, maybe grew up coming here, but maybe that’s the first time. He’s sitting in there and he lives that, that’s hard to ignore.
I think, when you pair that with a top five education at a university, you pair that with Gainesville, Florida, a classic college town, two hours from Orlando and Tampa, you pair that with this alumni network that Gator made, you’ve got a pretty special product that you’re selling.
All the things that we’ve done to improve with the facility, the housing, the infrastructure, that’s kind of the exclamation point to say, and you get to play in here in front of this. There’s no question that it helps, and we need to do it more. I’m hopeful we can do it again this week.
Q. Just seeing Des on the field for that volume of snaps — I haven’t counted them up yet. Were you happy with the amount he was able to go and stamina and all the things that go into that position?
BILLY NAPIER: Des is a work in progress. I think he’s addressing some of his habits. I think he’s made a different level of commitment in some of those areas, and I think he’s starting to see the returns on that, if that makes sense.
But Des can be a weapon for our team if he continues in the right direction. But very much a work in progress and a guy that we need to step up, we need to have a significant impact, because that guy, he’s a unique player. Certainly in games like last week, he can be a factor.
Again, it goes back to some of those things that I’m not singling him out, but, hey, okay, alignment, fundamentals, techniques, eye discipline, assignment, in-game decision-making, where are we at there? I think he’s a guy that, much like the entire team, there’s lots of areas for improvement.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
University of Florida Football Media Conference
Monday, September 5, 2022
Gainesville, Florida, USA
Montrell Johnson Jr.
Press Conference
Q. So how do you guys come down off that high and stay the course and get grounded for another tough opponent in a big environment?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: So basically, we just got to build on great days, get 1 percent better every day. Get back in the film room and just go to work. That’s all there is to it.
Q. Is that the message Billy imparted? Did he bring this up? Did he talk about, hey, that was great, enjoy it, it’s behind us now? What did he tell you? What was his message?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Billy’s message was just, you know, that’s behind us now. Go on to the next step. As always, get better every day. Just leave stuff like that behind, you know what I mean.
Q. What did it mean to you for Coach to come back to you after the fumble?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: It meant a lot to me because it just shows he has a lot of trust in me, a lot of trust in my game. I’m glad he did because I think I would have had a bad game of — you know, if I got the ball later in the game. So I’m glad he came back to me.
Q. How did you flush it, do you think, mentally?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Mentally, I flushed it by my teammates, like when I got back to the sideline, my teammates they came over. They encouraged me. They picked my head up when I was down. I really appreciate that out of them.
Q. You’ve been in big games before but at a different level. This is a big game in front of 90,000 people. Talk about the atmosphere that you felt, particularly late in the game when you got all these people screaming.
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Atmosphere was great, man. It was great to hear 90,000-plus cheering for you on a Saturday night. You could tell that the atmosphere was difficult for Utah’s offense and their defense as well. It really changed the outcome of the game.
Q. What will you remember from that game 10, 20, 30 years from now?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Probably that fumble (laughter).
Q. Did it bother you that much?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: It bothered me that much. I was really uncomfortable with it.
Q. Anthony joked, he said they’re going to have to roll you this week. Do you think you’re going to have to roll after practice for the fumble?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Yeah, Nay’Quan and Anthony told me that. I’m going to pay my dues, me and Trevor.
Q. How did The Swamp compare with like Texas last year or whatever? They had 90,000 there.
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Uncomparable. The Swamp was so much louder, so much more intensity, more humid. It was just way better.
Q. The biggest crowd you played for at home is 31,000?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Yes, sir. That’s not even comparable to what we saw on Saturday night.
Q. Late in the ballgame when you guys commit to running the football, you got six minutes left and you’re committed to running the football, talk about what you see from your offensive line there. You’re lining up. Do you see guys just snarling and ready to just go knock somebody off the ball?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: To my O-linemen, I give all my greatness to them. They did great all night. They were getting a lot of push off the ball, and you could see throughout the game, the defense was getting tired. We were just wearing them down by our fast-paced offense, and that really helped us a lot.
Q. How about O’Cyrus going after people?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: That man is great. You’re going to see him on Sundays.
Q. How many times do you guys watch the two-point conversion?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Oh, my God, we watched it at least five times in the meeting room, but I seen it at least 20 times on Twitter and all the type of social media.
In the game I actually thought Anthony got sacked right there, and I’m like what? It was just crazy.
Q. Can you even describe what he did?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: It’s indescribable. He pump faked, jumped in mid air, did a spin move, and then threw it. I don’t know, man. That’s just different.
Q. On the fourth down play, you make the key block. What did you see with the guy coming off the edge there? You sprung him on that fourth down play.
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Which one are you talking about?
Q. On the winning drive. It’s fourth and three. He’s back to pass. They bring the blitzer. You got the blitzer.
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: So Coach always teaches us to get our presnap read. I already knew that was my guy. I just got my presnap read and got to him just in time.
Q. How does it affect the run game to have a guy like Anthony who’s so mobile and defenses have to key on him?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: It affects the run game a lot because it takes a lot of pressure off me. When we fake the ball going this way, Anthony going the other way, the defense doesn’t know who has the ball. So it affects the run game a lot.
Q. When you have a guy who can make a play like that, the two-pointer, do you feel like you’re in any game as long as you can keep it a possession?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Yes, sir. If any team has a guy like Anthony on their team, they’re in a position to win. It doesn’t matter what’s the outcome, you know what I mean?
Q. Not to belabor, you’re stressing. You run over a guy already. Technically what did you do wrong, or was it just a great play by the defensive guy to knock it out?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: I thought it was a great play. I was in a bad position, I was trying to brace myself for the fall. I only had one hand on the ball, and he just stripped it loose. It was a great play by the defender.
Q. Were you trying to stay inbounds at the end of the game when you get down to the 2?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Yes, sir. I wasn’t trying to go out of bounds. I was trying to keep the clock running.
Q. Did you do anything like — it obviously bothers you fumbling the football as a running back.
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Yes, sir.
Q. Do you do anything extra? You always have these things, guys carrying footballs to class or whatever. I mean, are you going to do anything extra to prevent that from happening again?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Nothing that extreme. I wouldn’t carry a ball to class.
Q. Would you sleep with it? I don’t know.
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Say like this week, for example, this week during practice, I’ll probably work on like we call a stumble bum drill. You stumble and put one hand on the ground and pick the ball up tighter. So I’ll probably work on that more this week.
Q. What was practice like yesterday, just the energy coming off that game?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: The energy was great. Everybody was excited ready to get back to work and get after Kentucky.
Q. Is there a sense — the coaches have been preaching for nine months. This is the way we do things. Is there a sense of validation when you win and beat a top ten team after doing all the things you’ve done for nine months?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Yes, sir. It’s most definitely a lot of validation because it shows us the work that we put in from January to now has paid off. A lot of guys needed that.
Q. You warned us a few weeks ago that Etienne was going to be pretty special. What do you like about his game, and how is it different from you?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: I like that he’s a shifty kind of runner. He has great lateral quickness, and he gets off well, and he’s a home run threat.
Q. What’s your mindset going into this week knowing that SEC play starts and you guys got Kentucky coming to town?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Mindset is just keep building on good days. Just keep getting better each and every day, and it’s all going to come together at the end.
Q. Is it on your mind that it’s your first SEC game?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: It’s just a game in my mind.
Q. You mentioned doing a ton of things presnap. You guys did a ton of motions and stuff. How much did that benefit you to open up the run game and throw off the defense?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: The motions are great for our offense because, once we motion a player, it gives us like a type of visual like with what the defense is doing. So it helps a lot.
Q. You’re a Sun Belt guy. I guess you saw what happened with App State and you played there, and you saw what happened with them getting 40 points in the fourth quarter on North Carolina. Did that surprise you, being a Sun Belt guy, that that would happen?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: That really didn’t surprise me. App State, they’re a great team. They didn’t beat UL last year, but that didn’t surprise me.
Q. Better players in the Sun Belt than people think?
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Yes, sir, most definitely.
Q. Can you break down Trevor’s skill set after seeing him? Obviously all through preseason camp but also seeing him in the game.
MONTRELL JOHNSON JR.: Like I said before, Trevor has great lateral speed, great lateral quickness. He has great speed. He’s a home run threat. He’s going to be a great player for us in the future.
University of Florida Football Media Conference
Monday, September 5, 2022
Gainesville, Florida, USA
Tyreak Sapp
Press Conference
Q. Got in late last year. It was kind of like a learning year for you. Just what was your mindset in the off-season to kind of get yourself ready and prepared to be an impact player this year?
TYREAK SAPP: Just kind of put my mindset on just working and working for it, just working with the team, working with this D-line that I’ve never worked with before, and just ready for this season.
Just all this work in the off-season and during the spring, and then when these guys came in, they gave me new life, something to live, something to breathe for, just a new breath that we’ve got some more opportunities come in, and it’s going to be big time for me to be able to play this year. I can really provide for this team and be able to be a productive player for this team this year.
Q. So the new staff kind of rejuvenating for you?
TYREAK SAPP: Yes. Man, they came in with energy. Even though it was a new staff, it’s kind of hard to gain trust early and somebody just come in there and being able to trust them like we built over time. They told us they understood it was going to come slowly, but it was going to come surely. They kept their promise from then till now.
Q. Your emotions when you saw Amari make the interception there?
TYREAK SAPP: Oh, man, it was like — it’s unexplainable. I was just so happy and just like one of those electrifying moments in football where you can’t really explain it with words. It’s all just reactions from there. I was so happy for Amari, and that was the crazy thing, it happened on my first game ever playing. One of the best parts about it is I contributed to that.
Q. How do you come down from that emotional high, get refocused, and just stay the course?
TYREAK SAPP: You got to understand you can’t be complacent. You’ve got to understand that there’s room for improvement, and the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. You’ve got to take that for what it is and move on to the next week and have laser beam focus on the next team and get ready for your next opponent.
Q. That sounds like a Coach Chaos expression.
TYREAK SAPP: Yeah, that’s Coach Chaos (laughter). The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.
Q. Is there some validation that you guys go nine months building this thing, is there a little validation in not only winning, but beating a top ten team like that?
TYREAK SAPP: There’s a little validation, but we understand as a team there’s validation, yeah, we work for that. But we’ve got to understand there’s a lot more work to put in. We need to understand we can be a lot better and there’s a lot of things we can improve on, and we’re going to keep improving on those during the week, day in and day out.
Q. Coach Napier talked about some of the misalignment in the second half. Can you guys clean that up this week getting prepared for Kentucky?
TYREAK SAPP: Yeah, we put that film to rest, and we’re going to get that cleaned up, making sure everybody is on the same page. Obviously that was my first game ever in The Swamp, and I can tell you right now, The Swamp is real. You’ve got to buckle up and be ready for that.
I think we’re going to be better on the communication factor on things and just be a better team. Just playing team defense and understanding what we’ve got to do and our alignment just being in place.
Q. You think the crowd noise impacted that a little bit. You think you guys couldn’t hear or something?
TYREAK SAPP: Just a little bit.
Q. Just watching the film and having coaches critique you, does that bring you off your high?
TYREAK SAPP: It brings you down a little bit, but you accept that because you understand this is what you need and this is what it’s going to take for us to be better and us to improve throughout the weeks, throughout these games week in and week out, just being better against different opponents.
Q. What’s the wild dog mentality? Where does that come from?
TYREAK SAPP: Wild dog mentality, the African wild dog, that’s a pack mentality. We have a pack mentality. We play for each other every game. We play every snap for each other. We would lay our lives on the line for each other each and every snap. We make sure we do that and make sure we hold ourselves to that standard.
Q. Is that what Billy’s building? If you had to take something from that game, what is Billy and the staff building?
TYREAK SAPP: They are building a tough, mean, nasty team ready to play anybody. Any type of high combatants, we’re ready for that. That’s what we’re trying to be.
Q. At what point do you come down from, okay, you just beat the seventh ranked team in the country. That game’s over and behind you. At what point did that happen for you, and now it’s all about Kentucky?
TYREAK SAPP: Yesterday. It happened for me yesterday. Yesterday evening when we came in, we came in new week, new everything. Just got to change your focus, got to get off your game day high and got to understand we’ve got a big time formidable opponent coming in. High combatants. It’s a team we lost to last year. So we’re just looking forward to putting our focus on them and getting ready for that team.
Q. Hot combatants?
TYREAK SAPP: High combatants. They are combatants. It’s a war. This game is a war. They are combatants.
Q. I’m going to ask about the Spencer tweet again. What is the 80 percent efficiency rate? He tweeted out wild dogs lead with 80 percent efficiency rate. Do you know what he’s talking about there?
TYREAK SAPP: If he did tweet that, I don’t know about it.
Q. What does the chant sound like that you guys do?
TYREAK SAPP: So we basically say I’m a dog, I’m a villain, competition, I’m a killer.
Q. Who would you say is the leader in the front seven for you guys?
TYREAK SAPP: The leader in the front seven is most definitely V. Mill. But I always call, my big leaders that I always look to, these are guys I looked to in the game yesterday for me to keep me down because it was my first rodeo. There was a lot of emotions and a lot of nerves going on.
So I was looking at V. Mill, Cox, and Dex. Those are my guys. Those are who I look to. Those are my big brothers. They kept my head in the game, and that’s the reason I was able to play a stop and do my job for the defense.
Q. What does he do? I was going to ask you and bran ton about Ventrell. He was all over the field the other night.
TYREAK SAPP: V. Mill is a phenomenal player. He plays his heart out every play. He understands the job. He understands the situation. He’s going to do everything in his power to make sure that he gets his job done and understand and make sure everybody else get their job done because he knows he’s that general in the middle.
Q. Is there some vocal leadership that goes with that?
TYREAK SAPP: He’s most definitely a vocal leader.
Q. Could you explain a little.
TYREAK SAPP: He’s going to let you know every play, what you got going on. He’s going to reassure you everything that you need. He’s going to just keep you in. He’s one of those guys that’s played a lot of snaps in his career. So when you go on the field with a guy like that, you’re pretty comfortable. You can play pretty confident because you know you’ve got a guy behind you. He understands what’s going on.
Q. When you went to bed, did you fall asleep immediately when your head hit the pillow, or did you stay awake for two hours replaying the ballgame?
TYREAK SAPP: The night after the game, man, I’m not even going to lie. I went to sleep probably about 4:00 a.m. You’ve got to relive that moment. You just kind of gather your thoughts after the game and really just understand what happened, especially for me, especially me being my first time having the opportunity to actually put on that uniform and actually go out there and play in that game, in that caliber of a game.
It actually just took a lot for me to gather my thoughts and understood what happened. I was just proud of what happened. Immediately after the game, I got right back to work and got right back on the film.
Q. So you were running highlights in your head?
TYREAK SAPP: I wouldn’t say that (laughter). I checked in with the boys. You talk to all your boys. You make sure everybody good and everybody talk to each other, and we let each other know how we feel and our thoughts on everything.
Q. What time did you have to get up if you’re falling asleep at 4:00?
TYREAK SAPP: You pretty much could sleep in. You sleep in. They start later on.
Q. That’s good. You’ve seen Dexter’s approach to the game since you got here. Has anything changed about it? What stands out to you about the way he approaches his craft?
TYREAK SAPP: Dex is one of those guys, he has a business-like mentality, but he understands — even though he’s now been playing this game for a long time, he understands what it takes and how to actually prepare for a football game. He just lets us know week and week out we’ve got to come with a dog mentality. We’ve got to come prepared.
He’s been on a good team in 2020. He played on that team. He got an opportunity to play with them. So he understands what a championship mentality is. He understands what the preparation is and what your mental mind state has to be in to play in games like that.
Q. Did you get some headphones?
TYREAK SAPP: Oh, yeah, for sure, my boy A, man. Love the G-man. The G going to look out. He has a family mentality. He’s just a great guy to be around. He loves the team. He loves the guys. I love being around Bichy (phonetic). That’s big bro for real.
Q. What’s the bovine stand, man? I know you guys chant before the game, but what was the talk down there?
TYREAK SAPP: Our talk is we protect, we defend every blade of grass. We don’t care where it is. We defend every blade with it all. We fight for every blade of grass no matter what.
Q. If you think about Chris McClellan getting in there for his debut, what do you think about that?
TYREAK SAPP: I see him, young guy can play, man. I love that key come out with a fight. Even though he didn’t get as many opportunities, but I think that kid has a bright future ahead. He’s a big kid. He plays fast. He’s excited. Like that’s one guy who we’re going to have to watch out for. He’s going to build his way up for more playing time and get more opportunity that the ceiling goes on.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
