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How did you feel about the practice?
ALEX ATKINS: I thought the effort was good. I thought the guys showed they wanted to continue working together. We need to clear up some details. This defense presents a lot of challenges with looks, pressure, and he understands how to use the football and knows what you’re going to attack from what he does. So we have to make sure we are up to par in the execution of the details.
What’s the difference from going from Tallahassee to coming down here to Orlando, what goes into the schemes?
ALEX ATKINS: No difference in schemes, just trying to control the distraction. There are many distractions. Just like going on the road, different training environment, different locker room, different schedule, different weather, more family in town, things like that. So we have to make sure we control the distractions so when the work starts, it’s about the work.
You have Pittman in the Cheez-It Room. Did they make the right choice?
ALEX ATKINS: I bet she loves it. You’ll probably see a vlog about it soon. Just be ready. He probably has his own personal camera crew there 24 hours a day.
What allowed you to manage football in the second half of the season?
ALEX ATKINS: It starts with the quarterback position. And the Run game is all about services, looks, safe spins. And the quarterback did a good job of handling the run checks, getting us into good plays, getting us into the best possible looks, not just running plays on bad looks. The first thing is Jordan.
The next thing is line continuity. We had pretty much the same guys there. So they haven’t seen too much. And then Trey Benson, I think he leads the country in tackles and fumbles and yards and stuff like that.
When you have a bad look or things aren’t blocked properly, you get second shots to break the backs. So it’s a combination of all those things, whether you’re on the right play, you’re blocking looks and nothing gets you confused and you can sustain blocks and you also have guys that can make you right when you’re not right.
I thought our running backs did a great job of breaking tackles and going through things and making tackles difficult. So I think all of those things combined give you the ability to have a pretty good game.
We heard from the head coach and a few players how important it is to focus on individuality, how important it is to keep guys together. What’s your experience with that and what are the things you tell the guys to keep going, especially for their goal of winning the 10th game?
ALEX ATKINS: When you say focus on the individual –
Personal development –
ALEX ATKINS: Ah, to be the best version of yourself. You play a team sport, a lot of times, especially in football, some guys’ mistakes don’t get exaggerated more than others because you can hide a little bit when you have 11 guys out there and some positions where you can’t.
I think what he’s saying is just be the best; the results will come. And that’s what the coach has been preaching since the day he came here until today. Even practically to this day, nothing has changed. It’s all about growth. Wherever you are, be a little better today and everything else will take care of itself.
It also comes from accountability, because one of the hardest things is holding yourself accountable for what you know. Like at the end of practice, he said it’s not about the result, it’s about whether you played your best. And only one person knows that, and that’s you. And if you can lie to yourself, then we have much more development in all other areas.
After playing with coach Venables, seeing what his defense does, obviously the team with Oklahoma is different. But what challenges does his brand typically bring?
ALEX ATKINS: You have two great defensive minds with the defensive coordinator with Coach Roof and Coach Venables putting together a lot of good stuff.
The good thing about Coach Venables is that he is versatile. It will present you with many images. But he also knows the vulnerability of his defense. So he knows what you’re going to get. He knows what you will try to attack and what you will try to use. So these guys play fast and react fast to it.
So we must be prepared to be detailed. Just because we think we have a good game and know what’s coming, they know what they’re vulnerable to. So we need to be even more detailed to execute where we need to look.
Coach Venables did a good job. He has been calling for protection for a long time. He will be prepared and well prepared and know what he wants to take. We just have to be in place to make sure we’re disciplined and don’t go back and make sure we’re in the right place.
Are you proud or grateful that so much of this team is enjoying this Bowl process and wanting to play the game? Nowadays, there are so many teams playing in these cup games that they won’t be at full capacity. How does that make you feel as a coach and competitor?
ALEX ATKINS: I’m blessed to be around a group of guys who want to be there for each other. So many times she raised a good question about the individual. The way you build a good team is when the person wants to play for someone else. I do not want to disappoint you.
I think we have a lot of that. When you talk about true brotherhood, every coach talks about brotherhood and teammates and love and family. And that all sounds good until you have to make a decision that’s bigger for the team than for yourself.
I think we’re seeing a lot of that now. We will protect them from themselves. It’s our job to watch and make sure they’re doing a good job and make sure we’re giving them the best possible things for their future. But you want it when you have to protect them from themselves because all they can think about is not letting their teammates down, and that’s a blessing.
How good has it been all season playing against the defensive line and how much does that help your offensive line, the competition? We can see it during training and it gets brutal. How much did this help?
ALEX ATKINS: It creates that I have to be on point or on the bench mentality. I tell high school players that the biggest jump from high school to college is that every practice is like a game. It’s rated the same way, it’s rated the same way, and the pressure is the same.
What you learn in college is that the games become easier for the player because there is so much pressure on every single rep from individual to team, the eyes are always on you. This creates an “okay, I’ve got to get this done or there are consequences” mindset every game.
Coach tried to use that phrase every day, it’s fourth and one. I think that level of competition, I have to be at, just elevates you more. We don’t have a dog-eat-dog mentality now, meaning hey, I’ll throw it out there and whoever comes out. No. We want to learn and develop and put you in good situations to be successful, but you have to be at the level to be on this field in the state of Florida.
The brotherhood with that team, every program strives to have that. What did you do that allowed it to happen?
ALEX ATKINS: We’ve been through it. Sometimes you never know why you pass, but you have to pass to pass. We have to do all the past experiences, all the lessons learned, all these guys – we’ve had pretty much the same staff and the same group of guys since we’ve been around.
I think of guys like Maurice Smith, Darius Washington, Jordan Travis. I think about guys that have been here and fought the long fight, Treshawn Ward, guys that have been in it, been in the fight, McLendon, it showed. And then now you have the guys in the locker room: Hey guys, I’ve seen this side, I’ve seen where this leads; it’s what I know works and what drives us forward.
So you have guys who can warn guys when they’re going down the wrong path and also praise them, be thankful for the things we have now because we learned from the lessons we went through earlier in our time here.
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