Players, coordinators continue bowl week festivities

Note: The Texas A&M video will appear in corrected form shortly.

Texas A&M Aggies

Moderator: "Offensive coordinator, Jake Spavital; defensive coordinator, Mark Snyder; quarterback, Johnny Manziel; and defensive back Deshazor Everett. I'll ask each coordinator to start and then maybe get some comments from the players. Coach Spavital, if you'll give us some notes on your Bowl experience so far and what you guys have been up to."

Spavital: "Definitely.  I would say we arrived on Christmas, it was our travel day; we spent, I would say, about eight practices in College Station and we arrived here. We've been treating it like a full game week. We started off with a Monday practice on the 26th. We have gone with a Monday, Tuesday, it's kind of funny, it's Sunday but we are treating it like a Thursday now.

"We have a tough task ahead. Duke is a very good opponent. I don't care what league you're in; if it's a team that can win ten games, that's pretty tough to do. At one point they were one of the hottest teams in the country with an eight-game win streak. Defensively, they are a very well-coached team. They are very sound. They don't give up very many points. They play very hard. They have three guys that have over a hundred-plus tackles, which you don't see that very often. And I think they do a great job of getting their best players involved with the game plan and we have a very tough task ahead. But I think we are very excited to get to Tuesday and lead into the new year, hopefully, with a victory."

Moderator: "Coach Snyder, talk about your experience in whole week so far and how this has compared to others."

Snyder: "It's been a great week. Chick-fil-A has done a great job, kept us busy and I think the kids are having fun, excited to go play."

Moderator: "Johnny, we'll start with you, what's been your favorite bowl week event so far and how good a time are you guys having?"

Manziel: "Having a good time. The other night with both teams, the Madden Challenge, watching our players go against theirs, it was a good game, down to the end, pretty excited about it. Pretty good event to do with the bowl every night, and looking forward to another one getting to drive some go-carts and have some fun again tonight."

Moderator: "Deshazor, what's been your favorite event so far?"

Everett: "I definitely enjoyed Johnny (laughter)."

Moderator: "I thought we were going to make it all the way to the questions until that came up."

Everett: "I've had a good time at all the events. The shake making, that was something to watch, our players making shakes. The Madden game was exciting all the way to the end. It came down to the end. And probably the only place you can get Chick-fil-A on a Sunday, so that's exciting, too."

Jake, can you tell us what might seem different on offense than we've seen in the past?

Spavital: "There's not going to be much difference out there. I believe that we might play at a faster pace just due to communication of cutting out the middleman, going from the press box to me to Johnny, which is now just a direct communication from me to Johnny. It's mainly we are just going to try to get a lot of players involved and we are just going to have to find out early in the game who is going to — who is hot and who is playing well and we are going to try to distribute the ball as much as we possibly can. I wouldn't see too many changes."

Johnny, do you feel like things will change now that you'll have Coach Spav call the plays directly to you and being on the sideline?

Manziel: "Just like he said, I think they will just come in quicker, hopefully get in more of a rhythm. And that's what we have to do if we want to win this game; complete some passes early and get things rolling and get our tempo where we want to. So I think coming in directly from the sideline will speed that up a little bit."

Johnny, I know you're here thinking about the Bowl game but where are you in terms of looking into the NFL decision? Who have you talked to and where are new that process?

Manziel: "Nowhere even close. Just where I was back in New York, back in Orlando, I haven't had any more time with the bowl practice we had at College Station. Didn't get
a chance to really do much."

You did put your name in to get NFL feedback, correct?

Manziel: "Yes."

What kind of impact or issues do you think you might have without Darian Claiborne in the lineup?

Snyder: "Well, I think Jordan has had a really good two weeks of practice. He's been backing up Darian anyway. His reps have increased over the last three games and I know the kid is looking forward to it. He's excited. It will be exciting to see what he's going to do. We were going to make this move in the spring anyway, so this is going to give him a first chance to get a start on a big stage and we'll know a lot more after we play."

Johnny, I've been curious, going back to your redshirt freshman year, because you were excelling so much in drills, did you and Coach Sherman ever discuss you playing — not taking time from Ryan Tannehill — but maybe playing some other position instead of redshirting?

Manziel: "Yeah, back in my redshirt year, Tannehill was there, he was a starter, but he always kept telling me, no matter what game is was, just continue to be ready, continue to practice like you're going to be playing on Saturday. So I didn't really know if there would be another position or really how that was going to work but they continued to tell me to be ready in case anything were to happen or if something came up."

If you did come back next year, what do you think you could accomplish that you haven't already accomplished at the college level?

Manziel: "Well, there's a lot of team things we haven't done yet. I mean, we finished third and fourth in the SEC west, which is something that we would like to improve on, get to the SEC game and get to a national championship game. Obviously sitting here right now — but there's plenty still left to be done. I don't think I just came into college in two years and just did everything I could — not done everything I'd like to accomplish, so I think there's plenty out there."

Duke's running game has improved dramatically over the last two or three years. What's your thought about their rushing talent?

Snyder: "Consistency. Those kids have played a lot of football together.  I think that's what makes the engine go is the front, playing together and seeing it on film.  The kids have played a lot of games, started a lot of games.  I think that's why you've seen an improvement in the running game, and I think their staff has committed to running the ball more, as well."

And they are going to be playing without the leading rusher, Duncan, who was suspended from school; how will that impact?

Snyder: "Well, it's more about their offensive line.  They have lost an offensive lineman, as well, in the Florida State game.  To me they have two, now three really good running backs, but it's the offensive line that makes that thing go."

Jake, was the tempo a problem this season? And on the sidelines, you've talked about how it can improve, but if that was an issue, if it's going to improve that much, why wasn't the move made earlier to have the plays coming from the sidelines?

Spavital: "I wouldn't say it was that huge of an issue. A lot of it has to do with
getting in the rhythm of things. Past coordinators I've worked with, that came directly from them, from the play caller to the quarterback and it's all about developing a rhythm.  It was really up to Coach Sumlin. I don't really know about and deal with personnel and staff changes.  That's completely up to him.  You know, he decided to make the change and we've moved forward in that direction and we are trying to go in verse Duke and get a great rhythm established and mix it all up and see what happens from there."

What have you seen from the Duke offense and the challenges they will present you guys?

Everett: "They have a very good offense.  We have to stop both the run and the pass.  They have some good receivers.  We know (inaudible) their receiver and their tight end, so we are going to have a good challenge on our hands."

Deshazor, you've been around Johnny for a while and you go up against him every day in practice.  What kind of leader and what kind of presence does he have within the team?

Everett: "He won't quit and he'll go at you.  He's not afraid to go up against anybody.  And regardless of how many plays the defense made that day, if he feel like he can make a play against you, he's going to make that play happen.  He's going to give it his best.  He's going to give it his all and he won't back down from anybody."

What have you seen specifically from Jamison Crowder on tape, and how does he compare to some of the best receivers that you've faced in the SEC?

Everett: "He has good speed, good routes, and he goes and completes the ball.  He's a good receiver.  I can't take anything away from him just because of the conference that they are playing in.  But it's going to be a big challenge for us and we are just going to have to go out and play them just like we play every other receiver."

This may sound kind of like a simplistic question but with all the eyes on you and pressure on you, have you been able to enjoy yourself this season? And what kind of stands out to you when you think about this year?

Manziel: "I think I've absolutely been able to enjoy myself.  I've had a great time in College Station just this year, had a great group of friends, great group of teammates that have been around me since things kind of changed back in August.  But life's been good.  I've been able to enjoy things in College Station.  It's really mellowed out a lot and I've been able to go more places and do more and people are — me being around and out in the public — it really has been a great year.  I've enjoyed every second of it."

Coach Sumlin mentioned about you being beat up a little bit at the end of the season and much has been written about your thumb, your shoulder.  Can you tell us where you're at and how much that maybe did hamper you at the end of the season?

Manziel: "I feel really good today.  I wish the game was tonight.  I'm really tired and having to sit here and continue to practice and continue to wait for the game.  I think we are ready to get back on the field.  I think we are eager to play.  So I was a little banged up.  The thumb is feeling extremely well, as well as really everything else, so I feel like I'm healthy and ready to play in the bowl game."

Johnny, can you compare Duke's  defense to what you've seen on tape so far to some of those tough defenses that you've had to see in the SEC, what type of challenges they will bring to you Tuesday night?

Manziel: "I think the biggest thing about Duke is they have a lot of fire.  They swarm to the ball and they play good as a unit.  It's hard to kind of compare who they would be like in the SEC. But you look at what they did at the beginning of the Florida State game, they really slowed that high-powered offense down.  I think  they played hard more than anything and they played together as a unit."

Coach Snyder, during the Missouri game we saw a lot of progress in the defense, thought that was a pretty good defensive game.  Noticed a lot of younger defensive linemen like Jay Arnold in the game; can we expect more of that in this game?

Snyder: "Yes. Yes, you will."

Jake, could you talk about your mentors or who you're going to draw on when you become an offensive coordinator making the calls, who influenced your system or what you're going to go do?

Spavital: "There's a lot to that.  I've had the opportunity to work with Gus Malzahn and Dana Holgorsen and Kliff Kingsbury. A lot of that has to do with the type of quarterback that you have.  If you look at the past quarterbacks I've had with Johnny and Brandon and Geno Smith and Case Keenum, they are all exceptional quarterbacks, but you run the offense all differently with them.  That's part of just sitting down next year in the spring and figuring out what type of personnel we have and that's the direction that it's going to go from.

"But I would say that probably the biggest influences offensively for me have been Kliff Kingsbury and Dana Holgorsen."

Johnny, who is the team that surprised a lot of country this year, if somebody had told you back in August before the season started that you would be playing Duke in your bowl game, what would you have said?

Manziel: "I think they have done a great job of getting to where they were, and like Coach Spav said, they were one of the hottest teams in the country at one point in time, and you have to look and really give them credit for what they have done this year.  I don't think I would have expected it.  We thought we would be in a BCS bowl, maybe a National Championship, but things went how they did and we are very, very happy to be here and look forward to playing Duke."

How disappointing is Claiborne's suspension for you and what do you do moving forward in terms of tightening the screws or what have you in terms of your defenders?

Snyder: "Well, it's a learning process. We are dealing with 18-, 19-, 20-year-old kids, and you go through a maturation process. As kids go through that maturation process at times, they are going to learn some tough lessons and you have to give them some tough love. It's kind of like raising your children and that's kind of the way we approach it."

Coach Spav, talking about a BCS bowl, how — at least in this location, talking about it's going to be in the playoff format next season — how big is it to play well, especially in the location that is going to host one of those games?

Spavital: "Definitely, this is my first time going into the Georgia Dome.  It's a great venue and you can see why that it's going to be in one of those top games to compete with the National Championship. It's definitely something that we have to take very seriously and this game, it's the only game on national TV at night and it's a great recruiting tool for us, too. If we go out there and execute the way we do and we come out with a victory, it's going to spark us in spring in recruiting and at this stage it's very important to have success."
 

Can you talk about escaping pressure, and how did you develop that skill?

Manziel: "That's something that just became natural when I played football in high school, just being able to improvise and extend plays and try to keep them alive and really move the chains and get downs and score touchdowns is the main goal.  So trying to fight for these guys and extend the play and make things happen."

Does Duke remind y'all of kind of yourselves last year?

Manziel: "Maybe a little bit. Obviously we had a big signature win last year towards the end of the year, but you look at what they did with a win streak and how we had a little bit of a run there going towards the end of the year. I remember how we felt going into the Cotton Bowl and the momentum that we have and the confidence.  I'm sure they share some of that, as well."

For Jake and Johnny, have you guys been able to pinpoint what went wrong with the offense in the last two games, besides you being banged up, were you not getting enough people involved?  What were the issues?

Manziel: "I think confidence.  If I could pinpoint one thing, I would say just that would probably be the main thing, we were not playing with really the swagger or playing with the juice and energy that we needed to be. Going into the Auburn game and how that turned out in that game, it has really deflated, and you look at it -- talk the next day, it was one that stung for a long time, especially offensively.  Just going from that game and kind of transitioning to some other ones and some non-conference games thrown in there, we just kind of lost our confidence after that and never really could get it back.

"So I feel like we've had a great week of bowl practice and we continue to progress, especially since we've been here in Atlanta.  So I'm very excited and I'm very confident in these guys and I think we are all ready to go."

Daeshon Hall is a guy that has progressed as the season went along and had a nice run there in the end; what have you seen from him in bowl preparations?  Do you feel like he's a guy that can have a breakout game?

Snyder: "Well, hope so.  I mean, Dae-Dae is getting better, just like all the young guns are. As you watch the season unfold down the stretch here, I feel like we've gotten better and our confidence is coming with our group and he's definitely a part of that.Still young, first bowl experience for a lot of these guys, so it will be another chapter in their lives and the season. Hopefully the last one for — as a new experience."

How difficult was it to teach yourself to slide, to get out of bounds and to do the things that everyone said you needed to work on in the offseason to become a better, complete quarterback?

Manziel: "Well, I want to play a whole game and I don't want to get blind-sided or take a shot like I did in the Auburn game that could have been avoided.  As hard as it is in that instance and such a quick second to make that decision, sometimes you just have to chalk it up and get down, and I needed to do that a little bit more."

"But I think that you look in the NFL and you look at some of the greatest guys that do it, you know when to pick your battles, so I'm still learning how to do that and hopefully try and perfect that."

Jake, as you guys look to get that swagger and confidence back, how important and how key can a quick start be, like we saw last year with coming out and making a statement early?

Spavital: "Definitely, that's huge and that's one of the main emphasizes that we do as an offense is the fast start.  It's going to be very important to get a lot of people involved early in the game, and focus on getting first downs and hopefully that will lead into touchdowns.  But those first few drives of the game are very important to set the tone."

You talked about the sliding and learning to do that; someone mentioned yesterday that it was a little bit funny because last year you didn't do that but you weren't hurt and this year you did do it and did get hurt. Is it frustrating you worked on those things and still ended up banged up?

Manziel: "I haven't really thought about it too much like that.  I ran the ball more last year but was able to really get down and avoid quite a bit of those and never really took all that many shots and this year, that's just been how it's been. Maybe people were out to get me and want to really rip my head off, but I haven't really paid too much attention to it."
 

Two years ago, joining the SEC, would you imagine the program having so much success to start off with in the conference?

Spavital: "With the hiring of Coach Sumlin, he's very good at motivation and getting these kids to play at a high level. I wasn't a part of it last year and I got to come in for the second year, and just — I've been at programs that played Texas A&M, when I was at Oklahoma State in 2010.  And just to see the excitement that this program and this university has after one year in the SEC has been huge. And that's just with the people that Coach Sumlin has put around and the fan base and support; it doesn't surprise me at all the success they are having in the SEC."

Manziel: "I wasn't all that surprised about it. Last year we were excited and we felt like we let some games slip away before in the second half.  We were pumped up. We talked about it being the best conference in the country and we were eager to get in there and see how we stacked up, but Coach Sumlin brought a great deal of energy and really gets the most out of us."

Did you talk a little about how important it would be for this team to make it three straight Bowl wins in three straight years?

Everett: "Very important. The last game of the season is the first game of the next year.  So we want to start off next year with a win under our belt, and we haven't finished the last couple games the way we wanted to. So finishing this Bowl game is going to be the way we want to go out.  So just being able to participate in this bowl game is a benefit for our team, for the confidence level going into next year.  We just want to finish strong as a team."

Can you talk about the difference of this year not winning the Heisman Trophy and maybe the pressure being alleviated from you going into this bowl game compared to last year when you did win it going into the Cotton Bowl?

Manziel: "I didn't feel pressure going into the Cotton Bowl last year. Just kind of the same that I am right now, is really eager to play and eager to get back on the field. I think being a competitor, this time that we have off from the end of November to pretty much January 1, the new year, it's a lot of time of not getting out there on the football field and playing, playing against another opponent.

"We have seen a lot of these guys in practice; I'm really getting tired of going against him. He's been throwing everything in the world at us in practice. So tired of that and ready to get back on the field in the Georgia Dome, which is a great venue."

You mentioned having those play calls right there next to you.  Are you excited to get that tempo up and to get it back to where, like we saw it last year, where it was quick and you were getting—

Manziel: "Yeah, my biggest thing is I want to get out and if we are going to come out and throw the ball early, get some completions and get a rhythm going and I think everything comes from there. You look at some of our games earlier in the year, you start out a drive ten for ten, or five for six, five for seven and you get some easy completions, you're just playing pitch and catch and you get to see the ball completed and really gets your confidence up and gets you rolling from there, and then we can really get first downs and take it step-by-step and do what we want to do."

This is the time last year when things started just really changing for you after the Heisman. You mentioned how things have mellowed out at College Station; are you able to sum up the past year and what it's been like for you since this was the time it got cranking for you on that front?

Manziel: "Absolutely not.  So much has gone on in between last year at this point and now. I feel like every week there's almost been something.  It's been a little bit of a journey but I feel like I'm a lot better at handling it now than I was last year at this point.  Still no regrets of anything in that regard, and I'm really happy and content with where I am right now."
 

The last two games, the rain at LSU and Missouri it was really cold. Do you think playing indoors will bring the offense back better after how it affected the last few games?

Spavital: "That's just football, part of the conditions we're going to be playing in.  I see we're going to be playing in a dome, so I don't think there's going to be any wind hopefully in here.  It's going to being a good atmosphere.  It's a very fast playing field, and I enjoy that because I like to see our kids trying to play as fast as they can.

"But there's not going to be any weather conditions out there so I think we don't have any excuses going into the game, so we'll just go out there and leave it all on the line."

Manziel: "Georgia dome, the turf, it's really fast and we had fun, we're go out there running around the past couple days.  So I think we are really excited about playing in that venue and getting to play in a dome two years in a row. It should be good."

I know that Duke drove here, but for you guys to be in SEC country and be playing in an SEC venue and to the Aggie faithful that will turn out for the game...

Manziel: "I'm really excited.  I think one of the best things about A&M, whatever bowl game we would be playing, I think we travel extremely well.  Our fans are really passionate and I think they are really excited about this game. Like Coach Spav said earlier, even on TV, there's going to be tons of people that watch us, New Year's Eve, the only game on television.  I think I speak for me and Deshazor, everyone involved with the team, really glad that we get the fan base support that we do."
 

Johnny is talking about confidence; are you seeing that confidence from the offense of them kind of getting back to their old ways a little bit?

Everett: "Yeah, you see it from all the receivers which I go against daily.  I don't go against the offensive line too much.  I try to stay out of their way. The receivers, they are coming out, they run their routes and they are catching the ball in confidence.  You don't see so many dropped balls out there.  Johnny is throwing it on point and we are out there competing every day and the offense is definitely getting us ready."

If and when your last game is, what do you want your legacy to be after you have left Texas A&M?

Manziel: "I just want to be remembered as one of the best to have played at A&M. Definitely don't like coming in second or being second best at anything, so hopefully with the things that we have done here as a team, hopefully get a third bowl win, have a big win in the Cotton Bowl, Heisman Trophy (inaudible) we have four finalists going to Orlando this year. So far as a team, the past two, three years that I've been here have been awesome. I think three bowl wins, what we did last year at a team with the Cotton Bowl and with the Heisman, I just want to be remembered as one of the best."

Can you describe the relationship that you have been able to build with Johnny in this past season?

Spavital: "The way I learned from Kliff and how you handle the quarterbacks, you've got to be very close with them, because Kliff always told me that if your kid goes out there and he throws an interception, everybody in the entire stadium knows he screws up.  That's something, the relationship that you build with the quarterbacks are very, very close, because we can't call perfect plays all the time and rely on him to get us in the right place.
 
"So we work together on it and working with Johnny has been great.  I've been pretty fortunate to come in already with it inherited and taught by Kliff and I just pretty much spent the time developing a relationship with Johnny, and figuring out what he does best and what he likes and pretty much those relationships will continue on forever."

Manziel: "I just feel like beginning of this year, I was able to do what I was doing probably game eight or nine of last year, so more familiar last year with getting us into the right play and being able to do all the freedom -- more towards the end of last year and being able to have that the beginning of this year was nice. I'm sure we did it more this year just because I was able to check and do things like that more, in more games, but I don't feel like it was too different.

"I feel like Coach McKinney and Coach Spav, between the two of them, got us into some pretty good plays this year.  And if there was something I didn't like or a blitz or a bad look or something we looked at on film and saw we didn't like, then I would check us out of it. But I don't think it was much different than how I would operate the offense last year."

Duke Blue Devils

Moderator: "Offensive coordinator Kurt Roper; defensive coordinator Jim Knowles; defensive end Kenny Anunike, and guard Dave Harding. Coach Roper, why don't you start us with an opening statement, maybe just talk about your bowl week experience so far and compare it to other trips that you guys have had."

Roper: "We've had a great week.  It's a lot of fun, they keep you busy, but that's what you look forward to, learning about a city, learning about a Bowl.  They have been great to us. The hospitality has been great. The practice setup has been great.  As always, for a coach,  that's always a big concern how that's going to work and the people in the Georgia Dome have been great to us all week. So it's been an outstanding week.  I've been on, I think this is my 11th bowl in about 18 years, I've been on quite a few of them and this is obviously an outstanding place."

Knowles: "For me it's just given me longer time to look at Texas A&M and really amazed at what they do offensively. That extra week sometimes for defensive coordinators can be not a good thing because you keep trying to look at different ways to come up and stop their potent offense.  A lot of times, that's not a good thing. But I know for the families and for our players, which I consider the bowl for really, for guys like Kurt and I, we just work harder and work harder and work harder, but I think what the Chick-fil-A people have done and everybody on the bowl is really taken care of our players and our families. They are having a wonderful experience and every now and then, they let Kurt and I out to be a part of it, too, so we get to have fun, also, every now and then.

"Practice setup, like Kurt has said, has been really exceptional, really exceptional.  Has not affected our routine at all and that is something that you concern yourself with when you're trying to get a team ready."

Moderator: "Dave, talk about the experience from a player's perspective and maybe what's been your favorite event of the week so far."
 
Harding: "It's been a great experience, starting from the night we got here, everything's been set up really nicely for us and they have made the transition into really becoming an Atlanta resident pretty easy. Like to reiterate what both coaches said in practice, from a player's standpoint, has been kind of a seamless transition and been able to get better this week. You know, the bowl events and all the fun things have been great, and they have also allowed us to have meeting time and practice time necessary to focus on our top priority and our No. 1 objective."

Moderator: "We need somebody to break down what happened in the basketball skills competition last night."

Anunike: "That was part of the battle for the Chick-fil-A here in bowl week.  We had a few of our guys, Jamison Crowder and Isaac Blakeney, quarterback Anthony Boone and DeVon Edwards versus Johnny Manziel, a few other of their players and it looks like we were going to win that thing.  I had a nice slam dunk to start it off, DeVon had the free throws.  And then they gave the ball to Texas A&M and it was their turn, Johnny Manziel, runs up there, he goes up for the layup, he missed."

Moderator: "We covered that in the first session, believe me."

Anunike: "That kind of cost them some time but they rallied back -- at first the lady said we won but then somebody back there from Texas A&M had something to do with that and they changed the tally, so they won.  But it's all good.  We still have two more events.  Today we have the Andretti car racing.  We have some speedsters on the Duke Blue Devils squad and then we have the Family Feud to top it off."

You guys are seeing some mobile quarterbacks this year but none more so than Johnny Manziel.  What's the defensive strategy to limit his wild scrambling ability?

Anunike: "Well, obviously this is my defensive coordinator here—"

Knowles: "You'll be playing. I will not be making any tackles."

Anunike: "You'll be living vicariously through me. Basically Coach Knowles' philosophy on this and Coach Petrie is always telling us on the D-line, collapse that pocket, make sure that he does not have a scramble lane.  Because we know that Johnny Manziel, like you said, is a mobile quarterback and he likes to get out of the pocket, scramble, make plays, put on a show.So we just have to make sure that we get in there and get some power rushes, keep the upfield (indiscernible) shoulder and just make sure he stays right there in that pocket and keep that lockdown coverage in the back end."

Knowles: "Yeah, he's the best, obviously, that I think anyone has seen in our profession at ad-libbing and extending plays.  We usually talk about five-second plays, and we are able to count many occasions during the games that he plays where the plays become ten seconds long, and particularly on our back end — Kenny is right — we have to work hard on our contained rush and really change it up with different people spying and triggering at different times and certain type of blitzes that maybe, maybe, can predict which way he's going to go, but it is so hard with him because he is so dynamic.

"But the most important part is in the back end, so get those guys not to be watchers; you know, don't watch the paint dry in the back, because he does put on a great show.  But our guys need to cover in the back.  They need to cover in the back and let the people up front chase him all over. So we'll be playing plenty of guys, because that's the other key to it, too, is you've got to stay fresh because people have to chase and run and those plays can become ten seconds long."

You guys have had a couple of personnel losses on offense with Duncan and Simmons; any concerns about the running game being as effective as it has been before without those guys?

Harding: "Obviously those guys have been major role players in our offense and the success that we've had this season, but one of the things we've been talking about all year is the depth that we have in both the offensive line and at the running back position -- in our stable of running backs. We are confident in the abilities of Josh Snead and Juwan Thompson to come in there and carry the load.  They are confident in their abilities, as well.

"And as far as the offensive line is concerned, Lucas Patrick has been our sixth man all year long, filling in for me quite a bit, coming in at tackle positions.  Really the only position he has not played is center but he's been taking reps at that in practice, and so he's done a great job of filling in for Perry at right tackle. And then as far as his backup, we have just been shifting some people around, me included.  So we've got guys that are ready to step up to the challenge, a lot of experience, offensive linemen won't be phased by a position change during the game."

Who in your career does Johnny Manziel most remind you of in terms of what he can do in extending plays and the pressure it puts on you guys?

Knowles: "I wouldn't say in my career, but when I was a kid, I was a Minnesota Vikings fan, and that's a long story, because I grew up in inner city Philadelphia but I ended up being a Vikings fan.  There was a guy, all of the old-timers will remember Fran Tarkenton and I was just amazed as a kid at the way he ran around, extended plays at a time when that was very unique and different.

"Now we have an era of running quarterbacks, but defending Johnny is completely different because these are not — these are not called runs most of the time.  It's just him ad-libbing and making plays.  It becomes more of like a basketball on the football field, and you have to have — having one guy form is not enough.  You really need to have two to have a chance, and like I said, try to pressure him in different ways. But the first guy that comes to mind really is Fran Tarkenton.  I guess that goes keep back to me when I was a kid.  Loved watching him, and he was extremely successful at doing it.  Johnny Manziel is the best that I've seen as a coach or player."

How much are you trying to soak in the final couple of days with your Duke family before you head off to Gainesville?

Roper: "It's been a great six years.  I told the players this the other day; it's been the most magical season I've ever been a part of, and I've been a part of a National Championship season. But this group of guys, I think what we all enjoy the most is the friendships that we create and there is a coach/player relationship, but these guys are my friends and I'll stay close with these guys for a long time.  Going to miss them.  That's what it really gets down to.

"I think you try to enjoy every day with these guys the same.  I have not really put it in those terms in my mind of soak it in, but I'm going to miss being around this group of offensive players and quarterbacks.  I think if Dave was staying it would be harder, but he's walking out the door with me. I tell you what, it's been a great group of guys.  I love them.  I love them to death."

Jim, could you talk about how satisfying is it for you to be sitting here with Kenny after all he's gone through and to have him enjoy the success that he's had?

Knowles: "You know, I look at Kenny and Mickey and I see our program.  You can look into his eyes, you can look at what his body has been through and you see Duke football.  You see a program and a man where it's taken a lot of hard work, a lot of perseverance, an attitude to never quit; a positive attitude. Kenny and I have been through some tough times together where we have taken the field and really been out-matched and we have lived through those.

"It's great for me to see him be recognized and to see his team and his defense be able to step up and say that we can play with anybody in the country.  Kenny has put a lot of time into this program and he kept coming back when other guys would have walked away. So now he and I are at a press conference at one of the premiere bowls in the country, and for Duke, it's an incredible success story, and he embodies the whole of it."

Anunike: "Appreciate that, Coach."

Knowles: "Night Train, too.  He goes by the Night Train."

You talked a little bit about losing Perry but what kind of role has he played since the injury in working with the rest of the offensive line, and particularly Lucas, making sure you guys are all prepared for this week?

Harding: "He's been at every practice and every meeting.  He's been very visible and vocal throughout the whole Bowl preparation.  He's a leader of this offensive line and of this team.  He's a little quieter than some.  He's not a vocal leader but he's somebody that you can count on to be there early and to give it his all and to just be committed to the process. So he's been a huge help to Lucas and to all the young tackles that we have.

"We have a lot of young guys coming up through the system and they have bright futures ahead of them and Perry realizes that and he has a chance to leave his legacy in a different way.  He's been a huge help to me as well watching film.  He'll come over and say, 'Hey, why don't you try doing this?' He's a really smart guy and has been able to contribute even in his absence from the field."

You've faced a lot of good quarterbacks in the ACC. How challenging is it for you as a defensive lineman to play somebody like Manziel where you want to be aggressive but at the same point you have to be disciplined and balanced in the heat of the competition?

Anunike: "That's exactly right.  As Coach Knowles can tell you, I'm a very aggressive guy coming off the edge. When you are playing a quarterback like Johnny Manziel who will take advantage of something like that and has a good game, then you have to limit your rush.  Certain things you just can't do. You can't zoom high, and when we say
zoom high, it's going — taking off behind the offensive tackle and trying to get the quarterback from behind, because Johnny Manziel steps up in the pocket and his line will continue to block and he will take off right up the middle, and that will hurt us and that's how they hurt teams in the past.

"So Coach Knowles and Coach Petrie always talk about leveling your rush so, when you get to level the quarterback, try to use a long arm, try to get back in his face and you just have to coordinate with your other defensive linemen.  If I'm going high, then I have to make sure my left hand adjustment spot is going to come low so we can contain him. So it's all just about collapsing that pocket, and like Coach Knowles was talking about, making sure our guys stay locked in in coverage, don't watch the show, because that's how the receivers keep the play alive and they can hurt you."

Could you talk about the pressure Johnny Manziel puts on your unit to keep him off the field and score more, does it change your philosophy at all?

Roper: "I think you always go into the same game with the same thought process, let's take care of the football, let's try to make plays when the opportunity is there to make plays and get the game into the fourth quarter.  But you never know how a game, the flow of a game is going to go. So obviously if he's having a lot of success, then you've got to try to match that success.

"It's not a lot different than when you play an option team like Georgia Tech who has the ability to minimize your possessions and put points on the score board obviously. So does it add any pressure, no.  It's the same thought process as a play caller, but I think your thought process has to change based on how the game is flowing."

Do you take anything from the LSU and Missouri ball games where the A&M defense struggled sometimes or does the time that they have had to recover erase all that?

Roper: "Well, obviously you watch a lot of tape you and plan and you try to come up with your best plan.  I think the best teams find out what their identity is and they hang their hat on that identity. Our identity is different than an LSU. We are going to be a team that plays with more spread formations, more space, and we are going to try to put guys in that space.  But while we're in spread formations, we still like to be a physical football team. And so we are going to be true to our identity.  We are going to be ourselves.  We are going to run the plays that we have run all year and go try to execute them."

I guess you got to see a pretty good running quarterback in practice a lot in Brandon Connette. How does seeing him in practice help you against a guy like Manziel, and also, who is running the scout team quarterback for you guys as Manziel?

Anunike: "Yeah, that's definitely getting a good look from a guy like Brandon Connette, who is a pretty fast quarterback.  And then like the offensive coordinators tell those guys, sometimes hold the ball and not pass it and scramble.  So we have had a scramble drill with Coach Knowles, and that's helped tremendously, especially on the scout team quarterbacks, one of the scout team quarterbacks, Quay Chambers, he's a very fast guy, and that scramble drill was extremely tiring. We ran it over and over again so now we are used to it.

"But that's a tremendous help and those guys on our scout team, they go in the film room and study guys like Manziel and the backs that they have and try to emulate exactly what they do so we can get the best look possible, so when it comes to game time, we are ready; we've already seen it."

What has back-to-back bowl games done for the Duke program?

Roper: "Well, I think it's been the most satisfying experience of my career the last two years, and Coach Knowles really said earlier: It kind of embodies Duke football now. It was a challenge when we got here six years ago and guys like Kenny and Dave had to say, 'We believe in your vision.'

"When you're selling a vision as a coach, you don't always 100 percent know if it's going to come true. You don't know that. You work to try to accomplish those things and when it does come true and the guys that believed in you and bought in, there's nothing like it to say, 'Hey, thank you,' to those guys for believing.  Like I say, it's been the most gratifying experience of my career."

Knowles: "I think it's amazing what you can accomplish with a group of guys when no one cares who gets the credit, and that's what we have.  We are losing Kurt and that's a big deal to me personally and to us, because there are no egos on our staff. We came into Duke and we all knew what our goal was and that was to be sitting here and we didn't know how long it would take but we knew we had good people.  Kurt and I were together at Ole Miss, and so we all know how to win and what it takes and these guys believed in us, they listened, they are coachable. 

"So it's been a joy. Now we all know in life, a lot of times it still doesn't work out.  The good guy doesn't always win but we feel like we've done things the right way, with good people, with no egos, nobody had a separate agenda of where they wanted to be or what they wanted to do, and everybody was really pulling in the same direction."

Once again, Duke finds itself as underdog for this game, a position you've been in all season.  What does it mean to get another chance to disprove that, except this time on a national scale?

Harding: "I think the implications for this game are huge, reiterating what both coaches just said. This program has come so far since I first got here. We've improved so much. A lot of that has been changing a culture around with our fans who support us and the people in North Carolina and across the country really realizing we are serious about football at Duke University and we are coming into every game expecting to win and having prepared to win.  This year has been huge for that, having an historic season and racking up ten wins has been great.  You can slowly see the perception of our program change, which is a lot of fun.

"But with that being said, it's nowhere where we want it to be. We have a lot of work to do and we know that as seniors and as coaches, that we need to leave the next year's team in a good position, and the best way to do that is to get that 11th win, something that's unprecedented around Duke University, and we know that this is the biggest stage that we have played on, the date, primetime, on New Year's Eve, and we have a lot of recruits watching and a lot of naysayers, and we are ready to prove them wrong, just like we have the rest of this year."

Anunike: "Like Dave said, this is an opportunity on a national scale to show the direction this program is moving in.  We have accomplished tremendous milestones along this journey and it's been a magical journey.  We are looking to cap it off with a win here against Texas A&M. I tell you, being the underdog, we've been underdogs my whole career since I've been here.  That's nothing new.  Has not changed.  But what has changed, though, is the expectations.  This team, it's something different.  Going into every game, we expected to win and the results have been awesome, as you can see, going up against ranked teams like Virginia Tech and Miami, we went into those games with a different mind-set than we have in the past.

"We went into those games expecting to win, and the outcome has been great. So this game, we are not going to treat it any differently.  We are going in with an expectation to win, and that's the culture, the culture that Coach Cutcliffe grew since me and Dave since the whole coaching staff has come to this university to embark on; and that was to change this culture and just really make it a place that's just used to winning, just like our basketball team.

"Now going around campus, people are talking about, man, we are becoming a football
school.  To hear that, it's awesome.  It's really just -- it blows my mind.  I'm just so proud to be playing my last game as a Blue Devil against the Texas A&M Aggies here in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Can't wait."

So follow-up on the Florida State question — what impressed you the most after playing them that you didn't get a full picture of on film that when you're actually playing them you get a better sense of?

Anunike: "I was just going to say, actually the speed, the speed of their offense.  Their running backs, their receivers, you could tell a lot by what you see on tape but when you're actually out there, it's just a whole different ballgame.  Because whatever the team has done in the previous games, they might switch it up on you; you never know.  That's why we are defensive players, we react.  We react to anything you throw at us. I would the overall speed — and they were strong.  They were strong.

"But I think we just didn't play our best game.  We didn't play to our full potential.  I think that if we had done that, the outcome might have been a little different but that's in the past and we are not looking at that anymore."
 
Knowles: "Florida State across the board in all positions, that's what I would say, the depth of their offensive line is extremely impressive to me.  We knew their receivers and their quarterback -- he's a lot bigger and stronger in person.  But they don't have any real weaknesses.  They are playing for the National Championship and they deserve it."

Playing in a dome sometimes changes the pace and the tempo of a game. In what ways do you think that favors your team and in what ways do you think that could favor Texas A&M?

Roper: "You know, I don't see the tempo being much different than what we've done all year.  We are going to -- like I say, we've done this 13 games, now going on our 14th game, so we are going to be us. So the tempo is going to be the same.  We are going to be no-huddle.  We are going to be at times really fast and we are going to be at times a little slower, but we are going to play with some tempo in this game.
 
"So I think the only benefits you see after playing 13 straight games is our guys have a comfort of what we are asking them to do."

Knowles: "Yeah, I think we have a beautiful new indoor at Duke, and being in the dome does feel a lot like all the practices that Kurt and I had where our offense goes and can go as fast as anybody in the country.  We were able to work a lot of things out defensively as Kenny can tell you, in terms of getting lined up, getting into the right place, not giving the offense anything, because of how we practice. If you've seen our practices, they all feel  very much like they are in a controlled dome, almost laboratory kind of environment because it's extremely fast-paced and it's nonstop and there's music playing and blaring at all times. 

"Guys like to make fun of me because I like to yell out on the field and tell guys what to do; can't do that any more but we have prepared for that because we blare music all the time.  We go indoors a lot.  So I think we are really prepared for this opportunity."

When you look at this A&M defense on film, could you talk about which players jump out at you as really might make a difference in this game?

Roper: "I think No. 72, defensive end (Gavin Stansbury), has a quick first step and he can really challenge a tackle. I think he's a guy that can get after your quarterback and make plays. I think No. 8 is a physical linebacker. I think they will miss 48 obviously, but I think 8 is a physical linebacker and likes to play the game in a box and really try to get after you. I think No. 1, their corner, is aggressive, has some obviously really good speed, but I think he likes to challenge some receivers. That will be something that is tough duty for our wide receivers to win some one-on-one battles against him.  I think they have got talented players at each level of the defense."