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- No. 21 Florida vs No. 4 Ole Miss Game Thread
Florida head coach Jon Sumrall, running back Jadan Baugh, and JACK Jayden Woods met with the media on Saturday evening to discuss No. 21 Florida’s 52-28 win over No. 4 Ole Miss.
JON SUMRALL
JON SUMRALL: Really proud of our guys. Still have a lot to clean up. But the responses tonight, I thought we started fast. I thought we got off the field on third down early in the game defensively when maybe some momentum wasn’t going our way in the third quarter.
I thought our guys, the kick returns, a couple of those were huge in maybe resetting the tone of the game. The forced fumble was a big deal.
That quarterback’s an unbelievable player. And so for our guys to maybe I think keep him off balance at times, that’s the least uncomfortable I’ve ever seen him look, and he’s kicked my butt as a head coach twice last year.
And so watching him today, I thought our guys affected him. That No. 1 is a really good player for them.
But two 100-yard rushers, big deal. I mean Jadan and Duke, I thought Duke played out of his mind. He’s got all the ability in the world. He can be as good as he chooses to be.
So injury-wise, Bailey, on the shot, on the targeting call, he took a pretty significant shot to his back. Doesn’t look like anything that should keep him out long term, he came back in and obviously had the punt return. But he just wasn’t quite himself, and so didn’t play a whole lot there in the second half.
And then VBIII, a little knee tweak, nothing’s substantial, nothing’s torn, but just wasn’t quite confident in cutting it loose there after he tweaked it there late in the second quarter. Feel pretty good about him being available, but it’s too early to know moving forward.
And then obviously Singleton, being a true game-time decision, had a huge impact in the game. The one late, they probably thought we were gonna run a post, because we had run that a couple times with him and then he hit the out route, the corner route there, to make the big catch.
I’m really proud of him because he really didn’t practice a lot this week. His work was more about just trying to see, can he run full speed and maybe could he cut a little bit? So he’s a tough dude, and a guy I’m really proud of.
Just grateful for the win, excited about the direction we’re headed. We have not arrived. We have so much room to grow and get better. And we still have to do that or we’re not going to be pleased with outcomes that we have coming up.
Q. Even without having arrived, what do you make of Vegas oddsmakers now?
JON SUMRALL: I think they’re still pretty smart. We just played better today. I wouldn’t bet against their No. 6 ever. That quarterback, I don’t bet, but if I did, I would never bet against him. That’s all I was saying the other day.
I believe in our team. I believe in the direction we’re headed. We still are not a finished product by any stretch of the imagination.
All I was saying, they had proven more to date than we had. They had beaten Louisville. They had beaten LSU. They were 16-2 in the last year coming into this game. That’s all I was saying.
I don’t know, our record the last year and a half, I think, was 7-8 or something now, so coming into the game. 16-2, 7-8, and they had that quarterback — I don’t care what they did last week, what we did last week, would just bet on that guy.
Q. You had made the point going into this game and really week over week about how if you guys don’t make the necessary improvements you won’t be able to stand in in games like this, against teams of this caliber. Where have you seen the most growth? Whether it was just this week or the bigger picture things you were looking for to go in and do this?
JON SUMRALL: Well, I think we played — even though I still wasn’t pleased maybe with the number of penalties — we had 8, they had 8, too — I felt we played cleaner. I thought we looked crisper and sharper. I thought we lined up with more urgency on both sides of the football.
And, so, to me, it’s not just what you do, it’s how you do it. We’re not just playing football, we’re trying to look like an outfit that practices and prepares and does things with attention to detail. And that’s the thing to me.
It’s not just what we do, it’s how we do it. I want to see us play efficient, clean, operate at a high level.
And I think in the secondary, like I said, that No. 1’s a really good player. In the secondary, he’s going to get his. He had seven catches for 134. He’s a dude. But I do feel like we challenged better at the top of the routes. He made a couple of really good contested plays. A couple they caught us in a bad call and that just happens sometimes.
But I think we’re playing with a little bit more awareness situationally. And I think we’re showing our football IQ is growing. So we’re just improving a little bit, step by step.
Q. You talked about awakening the beast. And while you’re not a finished product, do you feel like it’s at least stirring a little bit at this point?
JON SUMRALL: It’s not sleep. But it ain’t fully awake yet. It’s being kind of stirred up a little bit. So we’re gonna get there. But yeah, it’s coming. Like, I promise you, I didn’t come here for us to be average. We’re gonna work tirelessly — coaches, players, everybody — to put a product on the field that we can be proud of.
I will say this. We had some recruits here this weekend. I mean, a recruiting list that we get a lot of those guys to say yes, we’re going to wake the beast up real fast.
We’re going to wake it up with the guys we’ve got. I love the guys we’ve got. But we still have to reinforce our roster, the depth of our roster to look like maybe the top, top, top teams in the country. We still aren’t, maybe just depth, where we can roll out the next guy and it’s like there’s very little drop-off.
Q. On that point, depth at running back, though, you’ve got to feel pretty good about after tonight and even with London on the kickoffs.
JON SUMRALL: Yeah, London’s looked good. And, you know, Pryor went in there at the end and didn’t look bad at the end of the game. Byron Louis, even though he didn’t get any opportunities in tonight’s game, he’s practiced at a high level and improved.
That whole room’s improved. I think that room and the tight end room have all improved and so we feel good about — it’s nice to have Jadan Baugh, who we all know of, and then you can put Duke in and it’s, like, you don’t even feel a drop off. I mean Duke had 10 yards per carry tonight, 10.5 which is unbelievable. So both those guys, I like the depth of that room. Even the guys that didn’t get snaps tonight I like the growth of the room.
Q. Offensively Ole Miss was gonna put up points no matter what, but to get 4-of-11 on third down stops, the turnover on downs to open the game and then the takeaways, just how critical were those plays made by the defense?
JON SUMRALL: Yeah, they were, we got off the field and all the third downs in the first half, which was huge. And then they got some in the third quarter there and create some momentum.
But yeah, you get off the field on third down you get to fourth down stop early in the game and then takeaway, those were all huge momentum shifts.
And defensively I thought we rose up and we battled better than we’ve battled all year to be honest with you. The score I still don’t love giving up 28 points but holding that outfit to 28’s not hateful.
Q. Then the special teams impact on this game — the kick by Durkin and the punt by Clark — Nick de la Torre was real happy about that. If you don’t know he’s a punter’s guy that’s why I keep talking, he’s a punter’s guy. So he was happy about that point. And then obviously Montgomery with the kickoff return and then Bailey Stockton — I know the flag brought it back but his punt return.
JON SUMRALL: Yeah, I think we won the special teams battle. You could tell that we put a lot of emphasis on it. I think we practiced with probably as much did detail as anybody in America on special teams. I take it very seriously. It’s part of who we are. It’s what we’re gonna be about.
We put great players on special teams too. We don’t just, like, whoever. You gotta earn the right to play through playing special teams on offense and defense here.
Huge momentum shifts in the game. Really was hoping — Clark there, the punt, we were using the time, gonna use the timeouts there if we could stop them and try the kick after fair catch — that we’re going to try to implement that rule if we could you know where you can put that kickoff team out there and kick for a field goal uncontested. That’s been in pro football forever. We were about to see if we could keep them pinned fair catch and try to run the kickoff team out there and kick a field goal. That was sort of the thought of mind.
But all those guys played good. So many guys elevated tonight. You know, the first kickoff return that we did bring out wasn’t a great one. But the next two were huge plays. And then Bailey’s return after already taking that shot and not feeling great, to go out and make the play he did was very impressive.
Q. They say teams take on the personality of their coach. How much are they taking on your personality, you think, through four games?
JON SUMRALL: They’re crazy and so they’ve probably got some of it. But, no, I think they’re taking on the personality of everybody in our building. It’s not just me. It’s everybody. I mean it’s the entire coaching staff. It’s got very little to do with me. I’m just the guy that tells everybody what direction to go and tries to make sure we keep the standards really high.
But it’s Rusty Whitt. It’s the coordinators. It’s the position coaches. And then it’s the players. I’ve told them a million times, good teams can be coach-led; great teams have to be player-led. I feel like our player leadership is growing. But, yeah, I’m just proud that they’re playing with confidence, edge, swagger and a little bit of demeanor about them where we’re not gonna back down to anybody.
Q. Going for it on fourth-and-2 early, what kind of message do you have think that sent even though you guys didn’t convert?
JON SUMRALL: It should have been a touchdown. Like we got a guy wide open and I’m kicking myself a little bit at halftime. And Buster’s like, Coach, that is the right thing to do. You did the right thing.
And I just, to me, teams like that, I go back to their Louisville game. The first half they played Louisville and it was kind of a low-scoring slugfest, and all of a sudden it was like they didn’t get stopped the rest of the game. It’s just touchdown, touchdown, touchdown.
And so knowing who No. 6 was and really the talent around him, I felt it was going to take 42 points to win tonight, potentially. When you get to fourth-and-1s and fourth-and-2s, we’re pretty aggressive in nature anyways, but felt like we had a good look. We liked the call. We just didn’t quite capitalize on it. But have to be a little bit better next time.
Q. Would you talk about the seven-minute drive here in the second quarter and how important that was to really kind of shift momentum in your direction and Buster’s play calling during that drive?
JON SUMRALL: I think Buster did a nice job sequencing the plays, keeping them a little bit off balance, keeping them off balance, and then just us sustaining momentum. I think when you can keep an offense like that off the field, it’s very helpful for your defense, lets your defense rest a little bit. And it kind of takes the air out of them a little bit when you’re able to sustain those long drives.
Q. Take me back to that first Duke Clark touchdown, 45 yards. You lose your headset, you’re boogying up the sideline, and it seemed like it really struck a deep cord within you. First and foremost, what happened to the headset? And then also why did that play mean so much to you?
JON SUMRALL: I was still a little bit ticked off about the play right before it. I wanted something called that I can’t talk about. All right? So I’ll get fined, so I won’t say anything. They called a great game there.
But I was livid about that. Then they got the replacement headset which had to be brought out because I broke the other one, which I’ve done a couple times before. And I click it, get the other one clicked on just in time to catch the play call.
And obviously Duke scoring, I was like, all right, great, it’s worth losing a headset over. But really a great run by him, blocked up well. Thought he ran behind his pads and really asserted his will there.
Q. I know you say you haven’t arrived, but it’s the first time since 2001 Florida scored 40-plus points in their first four games, so what do you feel like this team has proven to people?
JON SUMRALL: I think that we do have some explosive playmakers. I think we’ve got good players. I think there’s a lot of positive that’s going on. I see the warts. I see us practice every day. So the things that maybe don’t look the way I want, if we have championship expectations and dreams and goals here, you can have no flaws.
While I do think we’re doing a lot of great things and I think we’re being explosive in scoring and doing some things really well in flashes or in spurts, I think the consistency has to be even greater. But I like the direction we’re headed.
I’m not Eeyore, mad at life — I just want us to be the best we can be all the time. I’m just driven to be really good all the time.
Q. There were points left on the field. You guys may have been able to score 70. How good can the offense be?
JON SUMRALL: I think the sky’s the limit. As we started to have some attrition at receiver tonight, it felt like maybe we were going to have to change how we played, play the game of more 12 personnel with two tight ends, pick and choose our spots to take some shots down the field in throw game. So it forced us a little bit to maybe at halftime recalibrate. I spent as much time at halftime this week in the training room just checking on V.B. and Bailey and all the guys that we’re trying to figure out what their availability looked like so I could relay that information to the offense as they were meeting down the hall.
But, look, we’ve been really efficient at scoring points per drive, points per possession this year, and if we do that, we’ll have a chance every week. And we just have to continue to capitalize on our opportunities.
Q. You said early on that it was going to be very important for you guys to be strong and even so you gutted the weight room and made it what you wanted. How important was it for your wide receivers to be able to block tonight and also your linemen to be able to go outside and to open these pathways for these running backs?
JON SUMRALL: Yeah, well, first off, very grateful to our administration for letting us do that to the weight room. You’ve got a building that’s only four years old. And literally the day I got announced the head coach, I’m walking in the building, I’m like, I don’t like this. I didn’t love the layout, the flow. I made it pretty public, I didn’t love that we had turf in our weight room.
But our administration, when we asked for some changes, they said whatever it takes for us to be successful, let’s do it. So after spring, we gutted it. I think rusty and his staff do a great job. I think our guys have embraced the weight room. It’s created a mindset and an edge — like somebody brought up the team taking on my personality. They take on Witt’s too. They take on everybody’s.
So there’s nowhere in our program that we’re not urgent, hardworking, tough blue-collar. So that bleeds through by how you play. There is very little that brings joy to my heart more than watching wide receivers block. And I love watching them catch touchdowns too. But what you do without the football in your hand as a skill player on offense says as much about your character as anything you do. It shows selflessness, team, buy-in, togetherness, a care for each other.
So watching those guys block out there fires me up. And then really the offensive line, that was probably, when I got here, my biggest, like, oh, no, I just didn’t feel like we were moving the weight we needed to move. Those guys have moved some weight now. And they’ve improved in how we are from a strength and physicality standpoint, and I think you can see that in the way they’re playing.
Q. Talk about the momentum of that first drive for Ole Miss getting the stop on fourth down and then, in general, I mean, then forced two more turnovers, including that one in the second half that kind of stopped it from being a shootout left and right.
JON SUMRALL: Yeah, I’d say this, the fourth down stop, you’re talking about on the minus side of the field when they went for it, I think that just ignited the stadium.
And unbelievable effort by our guys, Aaron Chiles and those guys that came in to make that stop. But then also you just felt like, in games like this, when you’re at home, you need a couple plays to get the crowd fully amped. And they were amped from the jump. But like you just felt things kind of set off a little bit there after that play.
This game, those critical situations of fourth down stops or fourth down conversions, that’s the difference between winning and losing in this league. The margins for how you win in SEC play, even though the scoreboard may not exactly look like that, every game’s a little closer than you think always. There’s a handful of plays that swing it. And we made a lot of those critical plays tonight. And hats off to our guys for making them.
JADAN BAUGH
Q. You rushed for 302 yards tonight. How much joy do you take in being able to just do that to another defense?
JADAN BAUGH: Honestly, I feel that that boosted our confidence just in the running back room. Not just the running back room, the whole team, honestly. We prepare so much, and we prepare hard. And the coach is not going to let us ride our high horse each and every week.
If we are slacking off at any point, coach, they’re going to tell us about ourselves and they’re going to get us to understand that we’ve got a lot more to go.
Q. You’re the first Florida quarterback to have five straight 100 games since Fred Taylor, and the only other guy is Emmitt Smith. You probably know this by now. What does that mean to you? And the other thing is also seeing your other guys getting involved, Duke and also London with the kickoffs?
JADAN BAUGH: That means everything to me, just having my name up there with those guys, like you just named, they did so much when they were here. And being able to just follow in their footsteps and excel, that means just so much.
Those guys you just named, as in London Montgomery and Duke Clark, they worked their butt off each and every week. Being able to see them improve and just to be able to put their talent out there, it means so much to me.
Q. You continue to impress. You’re running downhill. Talk a little bit about what you see when you’re out there cutting and running off tackle and running guys over and scoring.
JADAN BAUGH: Green grass, honestly. Just being able to go out there and just display my talent, and not just my talent, just seeing my guys work their butts off, honestly. I want to give a shout out to the tight ends. They’ve been doing amazing the last couple of weeks. They prepare so hard.
And Coach McKissack, he prepares them harder than I think some of the other coaches on the team, just because he’s always yelling. But he’s always there with good vibes. And they just practice their butts off each and every week.
Q. Every time Chambliss kept bringing the team down the field and scoring, it was at three points, you guys scored. Talk a little about the confidence that this team has that even when they get to three points, you have that extra, that overdrive to just take it to another level. What’s the confidence level like for this team right now offensively?
JADAN BAUGH: Our confidence is high. We feel that we can put a bunch of points on the board. We feel we left points on the board, honestly. I think it was the second or third drive, I missed the hole. It could have been a touchdown. Coach told me that. But being able to keep our heads down when bad things happen, we always say good. Coach, he says it all the time, he say good when bad things happen just because we’re gonna see how we’re going to overcome it. I feel that we have so much grit and resilience than anybody in the country. I feel that nobody can mess with us.
Q. Was there a point in time tonight when your guys would line up and you’re looking at them defensively and you say they have no chance to stop us running the ball?
JADAN BAUGH: I feel like that every week, honestly. I feel that no defense in the country could stop us from putting up points. As you all see, we put up a lot of points each and every week, but we have so much to work on to put more points on the board. I tell the guys, I’m trying to put up 70, trying to put up 60, and they understand that and they’re ready to go.
Q. You’re 866 rushing yards over the last five games. Breaks a program record over that stretch. What’s your reaction to that, and did you know that?
JADAN BAUGH: I didn’t, honestly, but we’ve got a next game. So being able to just focus on the next step and being able to be where our feet are. Like today we’re gonna celebrate the win, and it’s good for the guys. The team, they beat us last year, and we felt that they shouldn’t have, and being able to come out here and just get the W, that meant everything to me and my teammates.
Q. I know you’re a pretty team-driven guy. But you are the fastest Gator to reach 10 touchdowns in a season since Tim Tebow nearly two decades ago in just four games. Has it set in that you’re stringing together one of the, arguably, greatest seasons in program history? Has it set in for you?
JADAN BAUGH: No, not really, honestly. That’s a great accomplishment. But at the same time, we have a lot more to go. The season is probably — like a quarter of the season just passed. But being able to go out there and stay where our feet are and just continue to improve each and every week, I feel like that’s the best thing that ever happened to me and it feels very, very good.
Q. I think I asked Duke this last week, and he credited you for being a mentor. What kind of a mentor do you try to be to him, and what would you try to show him?
JADAN BAUGH: That’s my little brother. He is hardheaded. Where he at? He’s so hardheaded right there.
But Duke keeps his head down, and it don’t matter what comes at him, no matter what obstacles he has in front of him, he’s gonna overcome it. I love that about him. So each and every week, I just try to keep his head and focus on just stay where your feet are, if you can’t stay where your feet are, it’s gonna be hard. But Duke took the mentoring in and he just displaying his talent each and every week, and I can’t wait to see what he do next week.
Q. He’s not as big as you, but he kind of runs like a little physical and so forth. What’s it like to watch him run?
JADAN BAUGH: It’s very exciting. If y’all seen me on the field, I was standing right there with my hands up the whole time, just because I was just so proud of him just because he has come back from a lot.
And it’s kind of hard for guys like him to come in, sit behind somebody and act like I should be doing this, I should be doing that. I feel like none of our guys in the room like that, we all support each other, and when our numbers’s called, we’re gonna be ready to go.
Q. (Question about James play)?
JADAN BAUGH: I was on the side. I was at the 30. And as soon as he broke, my main thing, I was so proud of him, just making the cut. Duke sometimes don’t make a cut, he try to run by past everybody. But being able to see that and just see him improve each and every week, that means so much to me, and he don’t even know it.
Q. We heard Sumrall’s message to the team last week was work the cut. It sounds like this week it was so what, now what? What was just kind of the point he wanted to get across to y’all this week about this match-up?
JADAN BAUGH: Last with week happened. Whatever happens last week doesn’t matter; it doesn’t carry on to this week.
Honestly, like I said, if we stay where our feet are and focus on the task at hand, I don’t feel like nobody in the world can stop us.
Q. Then what does a win like this do for the team’s confidence moving forward?
JADAN BAUGH: It gives us a lot of confidence, honestly, but I feel that this team is so gritty and ready to go for the next challenge. It’s gonna be hard to stop anything that comes in front of us.
Q. What do you think the best way to explain this turnaround would be?
JADAN BAUGH: It’s a turnaround. Something that we worked so hard for since Coach Sumrall came in. He kept our heads down to just go out there and grind. Each and every week, we’re gonna go out there and play harder than anybody. We’re going to play longer than anybody. And if they can’t stand in front of us for five, six quarters, then I think it’s gonna be a hard day for them.
Q. You said after the FAU game that hitting the Heisman pose was kind of a statement for you and for the team. How has that evolved over the last few weeks?
JADAN BAUGH: Honestly, if we had a mic on the sideline, I too much don’t even want to too much do it. It’s the guys in front, like my guys want me to do it. They tell me every time, like, did you do it? Did you do it? I’m like, yeah, I did it, just for y’all.
Just because it means so much to me, but I think it means so much to them as well, just because having somebody on the team who could potentially win this award, that means the world to them. Literally, everybody on the sideline, they always ask me, did you do it? Yeah, I did it. My little brother actually did it at his football game, I think, Wednesday.
JAYDEN WOODS
Q. Early fourth down stops to create some momentum for this defense especially given the challenge that this Ole Miss offense presented you guys?
JAYDEN WOODS: Very crucial. Momentum is a huge thing, especially at home. If you can get the crowd into the game, it helps a ton.
Q. What is the challenge of Trinidad Chambliss, what’s he like defending?
JAYDEN WOODS: We knew coming into the game he was gonna be great throwing and running, and that presents a good challenge for the front and the back too. So we knew we had to rush smart, contain him in the lanes, rush smart, but not rush scared, too. Up front we trusted guys on the back half to do their thing so we all just worked as one unit and came out successful.
Q. When you forced that fumble, did you see he was kind of sitting on the field kind of dejected for a momentum? Did you notice that. Did you see him?
JAYDEN WOODS: I need some time to process. I kind of blacked out after I came off the edge freeze, so I probably need a few hours to process and think back to what I saw.
Q. Because do you feel like that play, he kept on kind of trying to answer and answer, and then do you feel like that play kind of like — I’m not saying it was a knockout blow, but really kind of put you guys — gave you guys the momentum, that fumble?
JAYDEN WOODS: It might have. Our offense was doing their thing all night. So I don’t want to credit it to just one play, but it was good to give the ball back to our offense. That was my biggest thing.
Q. Coach Sumrall challenged the offensive line at the end of spring ball. It looks like they’ve really developed. I mean, what have you seen from that group that you can say, hey, wow? I mean, it’s really been an improvement seeing those guys every day in practice.
JAYDEN WOODS: Yeah, huge improvement. Like they’re all like top-to-bottom hard workers, like even the guys on scout like, they go just as hard in practice as starters. Top to bottom I appreciate all of them. It’s great competition every day in practice. They get me better every day.
Q. And you’ve seen their play elevate. Has it been palpable in practice going against those guys?
JAYDEN WOODS: Yeah, from spring to summer, to fall camp, to the season, they’ve made huge jumps the whole year.
Q. Just talk about the kind of momentum of holding them no touchdowns in the first half. Then just even though they did get going in the second half, how that just kind of set the tempo knowing that in the first half, hey, we could stop one of the best offenses in the country?
JAYDEN WOODS: Yeah, that’s huge. It’s huge for us, like I said earlier, to be able to do that at home and get the crowd into the game, to get that momentum started off, it’s huge for us as a team.
Q. I know you’re on the defensive side, but what’s it like watching guys like Jadan Baugh and Duke Clark and the rest of those guys put in work the way they did with the run game tonight?
JAYDEN WOODS: Man, it’s awesome. Like, to see your brother succeed, especially the hard work that we all put in as a whole entire collective team, like to see your brothers have success, like there’s no better feeling.
Q. That 15-play, 87-yard drive there in the second quarter keeps your defensive guys off the field for seven minutes. How important was that as far as giving you all a rest and giving the momentum to the team as well?
JAYDEN WOODS: Yeah, I mean, it’s huge. Our offense, they help us out as a defense a ton. Like you said, giving us that much time off the field, most importantly, rest, but also to get into the film and get into our corrections and all that, it’s huge for us as a defense.
Q. How much of the outside noise that talks about the defense being the weak part of this team motivates you guys on a weekly basis?
JAYDEN WOODS: It does a little bit, for sure. But I think we’re more so internally motivated as a team. And as a unit, we mainly just focus on doing our best every week and doing it for the guy next to us.
Q. When Jon Sumrall came to you see you in January, did he talk about nights like this? What was the pitch he gave you to get back here?
JAYDEN WOODS: He promised me that we would win. He promised that he would give me his all if I gave my all to him. So as soon as I heard that, that’s the guy that I’m going to go 110 percent for every day.
Q. Could you take us through the strip sack?
JAYDEN WOODS: Yeah, for sure. So shoot, like I said earlier, I probably need a little bit more time to process, but off the top of my head, I just remember coming off the edge, I remember I tried to swipe. Didn’t quite hit. So I brought with a rip. Of course, like I’m taught. And then just ran the hoop. And then as soon as I ran the hoop, I saw he was right there and his eyes were downfield, and first instinct is to go for the ball. And after that, I need some time to process.
Q. How much do you see this team kind of taking on Coach Sumrall’s personality at this point with the energy that you guys are playing with?
JAYDEN WOODS: It’s huge. I see it probably in almost every facet of our team, to be honest. I would say most importantly our urgency, like as a team. Urgency in a bend but don’t break mentality.
Whenever we face adversity, you know, like we purposely do it in practice, put us in those hard situations so that when we get to the game, we’re easily, you know, bend but don’t break.
Q. You knew the nature of the beast that you were going against in Chambliss. And did you guys, in your mind, your own mind, team’s mind, know of a certain number of points you had to hold him down to, and mainly could it be a high number because of how your offense is running at this point?
JAYDEN WOODS: Yeah, the offense helps a ton for sure. Our goal as a defense is zero every week. It’s a shutout. We never want the offense to score any points at all. We’re just trying to go out there, do the best we can, but our offense definitely helps us a ton with that.
Q. Unbeaten in September for the first time since 2019. First top five wins since 2015. What do those kinds of things say about the direction of this program already?
JAYDEN WOODS: Yeah, so I would say positive, of course, you know, winning’s fun. It’s good to win. It’s a good indicator of the hard work that you put in.
But the most important thing about winning is to not let yourself get complacent. We gotta keep going back to the chalkboard, practice just as hard, if not harder, as we did last week, just keep things going.
Q. The ceiling for this team, just talk a little bit about the talent level and the work you guys are putting in and getting the results you want.
JAYDEN WOODS: I’d say the work that we’re putting in is probably the biggest piece for us. Every week, no matter the result, coach says put a blanket over the scoreboard and just go to work. Every day we have that mentality. We don’t worry about the past week or the week ahead of us, we just worry about the day that we have.
Q. Over these past few weeks, you’ve improved your game, having more production week after week. What’s your mentality week after week to make sure you’re playing at your highest level in every phase of the game?
JAYDEN WOODS: My mentality is just to do my job, to be completely honest. I want to do the best I can for the team. The stat line is cool at the end of the day, but if we can win and I can do my job, that’s the most important thing to me.
Transcripts courtesy ASAP | Videos courtesy GatorVision on YouTube
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