TI correspondent Gavin Oliver accompanied me to the West End Zone today and came away with these nuggets from interviews:
Deon Cain
-- Said when Mike Williams went down, he knew his time was coming faster than he thought it would. “I just tried to put in more work, try to get more comfortable in that position and really learn from Charone (Peake), ask a lot of questions so I can just know the things I have to do to be a great 9-man.”
-- Said he wanted to take advantage of the opportunities he received Saturday and execute. Said to get those opportunities, he worked hard on every snap in practice, stayed after to work on the little things, such as certain steps on routes, and be crisp on everything so he could “step up and be the man at that position.”
-- Said he didn’t think about the corners in front of him, his mind just told him to “dominate.”
“I just try to go in and do my thing. I don’t really worry about the other corners. I just know me and what I’m capable of and what my team allows me to do, and I’m just going to take advantage of everything.”
-- Said he’ll trash-talk back to an opposing player who does, but if not, just relaxes and does his thing.
-- Said his roommate is cornerback Denzel Johnson, and college life “it’s not that bad as everyone tries to make it seem. But college life is fun. I’m having a lot of fun since I got here, learned a lot of new things. When I got here, I was a little bit homesick, but you have to face it. You have to grow up one day, so I really just put that behind me and try to focus more on my goals. I know why I came here — school and football, so just trying to stay in my school and execute on the football field.”
Jordan Leggett
-- Leggett, who had his best game in a Clemson uniform on Saturday, said it felt good touching the ball on numerous occasions again after playing receiver in high school. “It made me feel like I could bring back out my athletic ability that hasn’t went away.”
-- Said he and Deshaun have been working on routes and syncing timing after practice, and thinks his quarterback knows he’s his biggest target and mismatch on the field. “They’re going to either match me up on a safety or a linebacker, but I don’t think any safety or linebacker can cover me. It’s just a mismatch because I’m a red-zone threat, so I like to take advantage of my size whenever I’m that close to the end zone.”
-- Said the touchdown play at the end of the first half (his corner route) is designed for him to be the first option but depends on the coverage. Knew the ball was coming to him once he saw the defense in man.
-- Said the meeting this afternoon will be looking at Boston College to game plan and learn tendencies, but his initial thoughts are “the whole defense looks really talented” and they’ll see a lot of man against the Eagles this week.
-- Asked what is different about Boston College’s defense compared to others faced thus far, said it has its share of good athletes at linebacker who are bigger and quicker, though Notre Dame has big and quick backers as well, and also “it’s just all the talk about them being the No. 1 defense (in total, passing and rushing defense), but it really doesn’t mean anything to us.”
-- Said the defense is physical and has a mindset of stuffing the run, but has confidence Clemson will be able to run the ball.
-- On Dabo’s tirade in postgame press conference: “I thought it was pretty awesome. I feel like that word just triggered something in his head. None of us like the word, so he just spazzed on whoever said it.
“It just gives us a sense that we know that our head coach has our back. He doesn’t like to take anything from anybody, and he just defends us in any situation.”
-- Said everyone on the team liked it, thought it was funny, but there also was some surprise in that they’d never seen that side of Swinney before. “He definitely expresses it towards us whenever we do stupid stuff or something like that, but I’ve never seen him do it toward somebody else.”
Zac Brooks
-- On his touchdown Saturday: “Touchdown was great. Hopefully get a whole lot more with my opportunities and stuff like that, but it was awesome.”
-- Said his body feels fine and he’s ready to go. “You never play this game at 100-percent healthy, so I’m as good as I’m going to get.”
-- Said after his foot injury, with the type of running game Clemson has, it took a while to get the feel for it and the timing of it back, as he “didn’t get the meat of the physical-ness because I had a lot of little stuff going on, so I kind of missed out on all the ‘fast-fast’ motions of the game.”
-- Said his support system — his faith in God, his family and the coaching staff — helped keep his spirits up when he was down with injury.
-- Said he hasn’t done anything special to sort of become the No. 2 running back behind Gallman. “Continue to be me, continue to work hard and continue to take advantage of every opportunity I have because opportunities don’t come every day. There’s not a lot of those, so when you get them, you have to take advantage, and I feel like I’ve just waited for my opportunities and I take them as they come.”
-- Said he’s really proud of Gallman. “I watched him come in, I watched him grow, I watched him put in the work. He deserves what he’s getting. I wish him more. I wish him the best. It’s always awesome to see a brother do good — it’s somebody that you put in work with, somebody that you’ve seen earn it. He’s earned what he’s got. He’s done a great job.”
-- Said the running backs push each other, keep one another focused and extend aid and encouragement. “We see each other as a flock of geese. Every geese has his part in leading the pack.”
-- Said Elliot made it known early in the spring that the running game would be a big part of the offense. “It’s pretty self-explanatory to see what we have in the backfield, knowing the type of coach we have and knowing what we all can do. Why wouldn’t we run the ball heavy?”
-- Said he expects to see exotic packages from Boston College on third down, and the Eagles to play hard and try to prove they’re the No. 1 defense.
-- On Dabo’s presser: “I loved it. It was great. I had to show my dad. It was awesome because it’s true, what he said. It’s great just to have somebody speak up for us.”
Cordrea Tankersley
-- Said the secondary has challenged each other to live up to their motto, “no-fly zone”. “We want to be the best, and we compete against the best in practice every day.”
-- Said his mentality, after winning the job opposite Mackensie Alexander, is he doesn’t want to come off the field at all because it’s fun being out there and making plays. “I just want to go out, I just want help my team every which way — special teams, defense, it doesn’t matter.”
-- Said he felt pressure at the beginning of the season knowing he was going to be targeted significantly more than Alexander, but now he’s getting used to the ball coming his way and looking for it.
-- On his personal success making plays on the ball: “It’s felt really good because we all go out and we compete in practice, we work on this all the time, so I just want to transfer it over to the field and try to make those plays.”
-- Said he doesn’t do much trash talking, maybe just to receivers who say something first, but doesn’t knock Alexander for doing so. “That’s him. That’s how he makes plays. That’s how he plays ball. However you can do it, you can do it.
“Me, I’m kind of like this guy, I have bad luck if I get to talking trash. If they throw a deep ball, maybe I slip and fall, so I just want to stay quiet. I let him talk for both of us.”
-- Pointed to Boulware, Dodd, Kearse, Lawson as leaders of the defense who have emerged to “push you and challenge you to go out and make those plays and stay focused, have fun. Those are, I think, our leaders that you want to follow behind, and they will lead us in the right direction.”
-- Thinks Saturday will be a defensive battle. “We just want to prove that we have the better defense, so our preparation this week is we’re going to have to step it up a notch, and we’re going to have to go out there and show that we’re the better defense.”
-- On Boston College’s offense: “They do a lot of motion, they do a lot of eye candy stuff, but they’re a type of team capable of beating us, so we have to be real disciplined. They can move the ball, they have a decent quarterback, so we just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing and play our assignments.”
Christian Wilkins
-- Wilkins, a native of Springfield, Mass., said Boston College was a top-five school in his recruiting process. Said he knows a good amount of the players on the team, including a couple that are good friends of his.
-- Said he expected to be a big part of the defense this early. “I was prepared for it. I came in with the mindset that I was going to play, and it’s really just no pressure at all for me right now. It’s not a shock because all the players that are older than me did a good job of getting me mentally ready, as well as the coaches, because I just wanted a big role to be able to help the team.”
-- Said he has mostly rotated with Watkins and Pagano. “We do a pretty good job out there together, and we compliment each other pretty well.”
-- Said he’s looking forward to competing against an offensive line with a consistent reputation of being physical. Said this week, the defensive line is going to have to be tougher, play with a lower pad level, take mental reps and focus on the little things.
-- Said he’s excited as a competitor to potentially be in a defensive struggle.
-- Said he’s having a lot of fun so far. “I really am. It’s football, and it’s a great time always, especially when we’re winning. There’s nothing better than that feeling, and I feel like I feed off the players when they’re doing well, and I try to give them something to feed off when I do something. I just really get excited.”
-- On Swinney’s rant: “I felt like there was nothing wrong with what he said. We work hard — that really shouldn’t be a phrase used anymore.”
Deon Cain
-- Said when Mike Williams went down, he knew his time was coming faster than he thought it would. “I just tried to put in more work, try to get more comfortable in that position and really learn from Charone (Peake), ask a lot of questions so I can just know the things I have to do to be a great 9-man.”
-- Said he wanted to take advantage of the opportunities he received Saturday and execute. Said to get those opportunities, he worked hard on every snap in practice, stayed after to work on the little things, such as certain steps on routes, and be crisp on everything so he could “step up and be the man at that position.”
-- Said he didn’t think about the corners in front of him, his mind just told him to “dominate.”
“I just try to go in and do my thing. I don’t really worry about the other corners. I just know me and what I’m capable of and what my team allows me to do, and I’m just going to take advantage of everything.”
-- Said he’ll trash-talk back to an opposing player who does, but if not, just relaxes and does his thing.
-- Said his roommate is cornerback Denzel Johnson, and college life “it’s not that bad as everyone tries to make it seem. But college life is fun. I’m having a lot of fun since I got here, learned a lot of new things. When I got here, I was a little bit homesick, but you have to face it. You have to grow up one day, so I really just put that behind me and try to focus more on my goals. I know why I came here — school and football, so just trying to stay in my school and execute on the football field.”
Jordan Leggett
-- Leggett, who had his best game in a Clemson uniform on Saturday, said it felt good touching the ball on numerous occasions again after playing receiver in high school. “It made me feel like I could bring back out my athletic ability that hasn’t went away.”
-- Said he and Deshaun have been working on routes and syncing timing after practice, and thinks his quarterback knows he’s his biggest target and mismatch on the field. “They’re going to either match me up on a safety or a linebacker, but I don’t think any safety or linebacker can cover me. It’s just a mismatch because I’m a red-zone threat, so I like to take advantage of my size whenever I’m that close to the end zone.”
-- Said the touchdown play at the end of the first half (his corner route) is designed for him to be the first option but depends on the coverage. Knew the ball was coming to him once he saw the defense in man.
-- Said the meeting this afternoon will be looking at Boston College to game plan and learn tendencies, but his initial thoughts are “the whole defense looks really talented” and they’ll see a lot of man against the Eagles this week.
-- Asked what is different about Boston College’s defense compared to others faced thus far, said it has its share of good athletes at linebacker who are bigger and quicker, though Notre Dame has big and quick backers as well, and also “it’s just all the talk about them being the No. 1 defense (in total, passing and rushing defense), but it really doesn’t mean anything to us.”
-- Said the defense is physical and has a mindset of stuffing the run, but has confidence Clemson will be able to run the ball.
-- On Dabo’s tirade in postgame press conference: “I thought it was pretty awesome. I feel like that word just triggered something in his head. None of us like the word, so he just spazzed on whoever said it.
“It just gives us a sense that we know that our head coach has our back. He doesn’t like to take anything from anybody, and he just defends us in any situation.”
-- Said everyone on the team liked it, thought it was funny, but there also was some surprise in that they’d never seen that side of Swinney before. “He definitely expresses it towards us whenever we do stupid stuff or something like that, but I’ve never seen him do it toward somebody else.”
Zac Brooks
-- On his touchdown Saturday: “Touchdown was great. Hopefully get a whole lot more with my opportunities and stuff like that, but it was awesome.”
-- Said his body feels fine and he’s ready to go. “You never play this game at 100-percent healthy, so I’m as good as I’m going to get.”
-- Said after his foot injury, with the type of running game Clemson has, it took a while to get the feel for it and the timing of it back, as he “didn’t get the meat of the physical-ness because I had a lot of little stuff going on, so I kind of missed out on all the ‘fast-fast’ motions of the game.”
-- Said his support system — his faith in God, his family and the coaching staff — helped keep his spirits up when he was down with injury.
-- Said he hasn’t done anything special to sort of become the No. 2 running back behind Gallman. “Continue to be me, continue to work hard and continue to take advantage of every opportunity I have because opportunities don’t come every day. There’s not a lot of those, so when you get them, you have to take advantage, and I feel like I’ve just waited for my opportunities and I take them as they come.”
-- Said he’s really proud of Gallman. “I watched him come in, I watched him grow, I watched him put in the work. He deserves what he’s getting. I wish him more. I wish him the best. It’s always awesome to see a brother do good — it’s somebody that you put in work with, somebody that you’ve seen earn it. He’s earned what he’s got. He’s done a great job.”
-- Said the running backs push each other, keep one another focused and extend aid and encouragement. “We see each other as a flock of geese. Every geese has his part in leading the pack.”
-- Said Elliot made it known early in the spring that the running game would be a big part of the offense. “It’s pretty self-explanatory to see what we have in the backfield, knowing the type of coach we have and knowing what we all can do. Why wouldn’t we run the ball heavy?”
-- Said he expects to see exotic packages from Boston College on third down, and the Eagles to play hard and try to prove they’re the No. 1 defense.
-- On Dabo’s presser: “I loved it. It was great. I had to show my dad. It was awesome because it’s true, what he said. It’s great just to have somebody speak up for us.”
Cordrea Tankersley
-- Said the secondary has challenged each other to live up to their motto, “no-fly zone”. “We want to be the best, and we compete against the best in practice every day.”
-- Said his mentality, after winning the job opposite Mackensie Alexander, is he doesn’t want to come off the field at all because it’s fun being out there and making plays. “I just want to go out, I just want help my team every which way — special teams, defense, it doesn’t matter.”
-- Said he felt pressure at the beginning of the season knowing he was going to be targeted significantly more than Alexander, but now he’s getting used to the ball coming his way and looking for it.
-- On his personal success making plays on the ball: “It’s felt really good because we all go out and we compete in practice, we work on this all the time, so I just want to transfer it over to the field and try to make those plays.”
-- Said he doesn’t do much trash talking, maybe just to receivers who say something first, but doesn’t knock Alexander for doing so. “That’s him. That’s how he makes plays. That’s how he plays ball. However you can do it, you can do it.
“Me, I’m kind of like this guy, I have bad luck if I get to talking trash. If they throw a deep ball, maybe I slip and fall, so I just want to stay quiet. I let him talk for both of us.”
-- Pointed to Boulware, Dodd, Kearse, Lawson as leaders of the defense who have emerged to “push you and challenge you to go out and make those plays and stay focused, have fun. Those are, I think, our leaders that you want to follow behind, and they will lead us in the right direction.”
-- Thinks Saturday will be a defensive battle. “We just want to prove that we have the better defense, so our preparation this week is we’re going to have to step it up a notch, and we’re going to have to go out there and show that we’re the better defense.”
-- On Boston College’s offense: “They do a lot of motion, they do a lot of eye candy stuff, but they’re a type of team capable of beating us, so we have to be real disciplined. They can move the ball, they have a decent quarterback, so we just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing and play our assignments.”
Christian Wilkins
-- Wilkins, a native of Springfield, Mass., said Boston College was a top-five school in his recruiting process. Said he knows a good amount of the players on the team, including a couple that are good friends of his.
-- Said he expected to be a big part of the defense this early. “I was prepared for it. I came in with the mindset that I was going to play, and it’s really just no pressure at all for me right now. It’s not a shock because all the players that are older than me did a good job of getting me mentally ready, as well as the coaches, because I just wanted a big role to be able to help the team.”
-- Said he has mostly rotated with Watkins and Pagano. “We do a pretty good job out there together, and we compliment each other pretty well.”
-- Said he’s looking forward to competing against an offensive line with a consistent reputation of being physical. Said this week, the defensive line is going to have to be tougher, play with a lower pad level, take mental reps and focus on the little things.
-- Said he’s excited as a competitor to potentially be in a defensive struggle.
-- Said he’s having a lot of fun so far. “I really am. It’s football, and it’s a great time always, especially when we’re winning. There’s nothing better than that feeling, and I feel like I feed off the players when they’re doing well, and I try to give them something to feed off when I do something. I just really get excited.”
-- On Swinney’s rant: “I felt like there was nothing wrong with what he said. We work hard — that really shouldn’t be a phrase used anymore.”
