Ryder, for starter, man, just how's your camp going?
I guess where are you lining up, and how is your health?
Camp has been going great so far.
I've been playing some tackle, you know,
some three, some two off.
And I've also started getting some reps at end as well,
you know, five pick, six pick.
So, you know, just moving around,
just trying to play whatever,
whatever the team needs me to play right now.
And my health, I'm feeling great.
You know I had the knee injury.
I'm feeling a hundred percent back from that,
so I'm feeling great.
Have you gotten hit on the knee yet?
You know, a lot of times we'll see guys come back
and they're waiting for that first contact
to really kind of turn loose?
Oh, yeah, it's already been tested so, you know,
I'm confident now that I've had that kind of first --
I know this is the times, you know, you don't know maybe,
and it's like I've already pushed through all of that,
so I feel great about it.
Okay. We'll go to Nate.
Ryder, what it's like kind of being
the old head on that line now,
and I guess what you've seen from the new guys,
be it Clowney or Robinson, those guys?
You know, it's just trying to be whatever they need to be,
you know, trying to be a leader.
You know, just trying to bring some of the young guys along,
because we're going to need some young guys to play this year,
so just, you know, trying to help them come along.
And I've seen, you know,
they've answered all the calls, you know.
They've been doing everything that we asked of them.
B Mack Brandon Mack, he's been doing great.
Clowney's been showing some really good things.
Tavius has come in, you know, fresh, and he picked up --
you know, he caught up on the play the second day
he was here, you know, real smart guy,
so seeing some good things.
All right, Joe, go ahead.
Yeah, Ryder, I wanted to switch gears for a second.
I know you've been one of the leaders on the team
when it comes to activism,
you know, leading rallies down there,
and I want to get your thoughts on the Jacob Blake
incident that recently happened.
A lot of prominent athletes have come out
and talked about that the last couple of days,
and I just wanted to get your take on that,
if you guys, as a team, have already talked about that.
And if you guys plan on doing anything,
you know, as a united front
when you see situations like that?
I mean, we haven't talked about it altogether as a team yet.
But, you know, obviously,
we've talked amongst ourselves a little bit.
And, you know, what happened was completely inexcusable,
and that's why you see, you know,
everything that's going on in the black community right now.
That's why everyone is so frustrated,
because that's been happening and is continuing to happen.
So, you know, that's just something we're going to have
to continue to fight against.
All right, Nick, we'll go to you.
Hey, Ryder three teams in three years for this defense now,
what's the difference about this one
and why do you think it's going to work a little better
than the last few years when the defense maybe struggling?
Because I just think that the players are starting
to buy into it more this year.
You know, I feel really comfortable
about the group of guys that we have right now.
I'm really confident.
And I just feel like, you know, there's nothing wrong with,
you know, the schemes that we ran in the past, you know.
It's just, you know, at the end of the day,
it comes down the players executing,
and as a team we didn't execute.
We haven't executed up to our full potential.
But this year, I feel like we're buying in,
and I feel like we're ready to execute.
Do you have an example of what that buy-in looks like?
You know, it's just putting in the time and effort
to really understand your job
and make sure that everyone does their job.
And then, you know, on top of that,
it's the little things that -- you know, outside looking in,
you see the bust, you see the missed tackles and stuff.
You know, that's part of the game.
But there are things that you can control always,
and that's, you know, your effort,
running to the ball, your urgency to get lined up,
and then, you know, we're focusing on
those little things to make us a better defense.
All right, we'll go to Nate.
Kind of just going off that, a couple guys on the offense
have mentioned that kind of the staff
puts more of an emphasis on teaching you
why you're doing things not just what you need to do.
Is that kind of the same way on the defense
when it comes to learning new schemes?
Yeah.
You know, I wouldn't necessarily say that,
because our coaches in the past,
they did a great job, you know, and you know that's why I say,
I do put that on us as players, you know, in not executing.
You know what I'm saying?
But, you know, on the other hand,
I am really comfortable and confident
with the coaching staff
and with the players this year, like,
it just feels like everyone is more on the same page
and we're receiving the coaching a lot better this year.
All right, Parrish, go ahead.
Hey, Ryder, Jerrion was talking about to us
about how he'd like to get better.
What do you think, just watching him from the other side,
what makes him so elusive?
So, you know, his change of speed to me, you know,
he could be reading his hole, reading this gap one second,
and then, you know, one cut, and he's out the gate,
or it's just his speed and he's gone.
So, to me, it's just his elusiveness and his ability
to change speed so quickly.
We saw you guys last year make really big strides
against the run, defend the run a lot better.
The last two games, you seemed to be problematic,
I guess, LSU and Mississippi State.
And I know you were an observer at this point.
Do you feel like you guys just kind of got tired at the end,
or why do you think you all fell off the mark
a little bit late in those games?
You know, I really can't say, you know,
just because, you know, I wasn't out there,
so I don't like to, you know, speak on what was going on.
You know, it could have been a number of things,
you know what I'm saying,
that was going for the players who were actually playing.
But with me not playing,
you know, it's kind of hard for me to say.
All right, we'll go back to Nick.
You mentioned that playing that two eye,
that three a little bit.
Have you ever played inside before,
or is this kind of a transition
where you're learning how to play tackle for the first time?
I mean, I've played inside with Coach Matt's defense.
You know, I was playing kind of that four-eye.
A couple passing guys will come out
to three and stuff like that, so it's not completely new.
It's kind of the same.
It's the same stances and stuff like that,
same baseline, so it's not just completely foreign to me.
But, you know, my weight's up.
My strength is higher than it has ever been,
so I'm pretty comfortable in there.
Who else is working inside with you?
Inside I got KD, LD playing some tackle, Howe,
Quentin just started getting some tackle reps from in, so.
All right, James, go ahead.
Hey, Ryder, I know someone asked kind of
about the Jacob Blake situation, and everyone kind of knows
that you're pretty outspoken when it comes to activism,
especially in the Black Lives Matter movement
and the march on the square this past summer about the monument.
Can you talk a little bit about the fence
that they've put up to obstruct
the view of the statue from the football
and the practice field, and just talk about you
and the guys on the team are feeling about that.
Well, you know, whenever we came out to the field
and, you know, we saw it,
you know, it's kind of in plain sight for us,
and so that was a really big issue.
You know, it was upsetting.
But what I will say is we went to Keith
and, you know,
he was on top of it, you know what I'm saying?
He started working on it immediately.
He said, "I understand completely."
They actually had already seen it themselves
and were actually already working on it.
So, you know, we were really happy with their quick response
to help us out,
and well, I mean, I wasn't here, you know,
get that barrier put up so we can't see it.
Anything else for Ryder?
Yeah, if I could follow up really quickly.
So, I know the screen is only temporary.
Do you have an idea of what you would like
to happen in regards to that, or has there been any discussion
as to a more permanent solution to that problem?
Well, being, you know, due to some of the laws and stuff,
I'm not going to get into all that.
But, you know, of course,
I would love for it to just be moved off campus.
That's not going to happen because of those laws.
But I think that talked about, you know, a tree,
just putting, like, a really big tree
that's going to block it off completely,
or maybe a couple trees,
and that's kind of the point of the screen right now,
is because, you know, obviously getting the trees in there
is going to take some time, so then we got the screen.