Hey, Matt, you know, this whole season,
you had a thought that this team is just a little bit different.
At what point did you know
that this team just had something special about it?
And have you been able to put a finger on what exactly it is?
Do you ask, have I put a finger on it?
Like, could I? Yeah, yeah.
Well, I started noticing it around end of last season,
and it wasn't just me.
It was, you know, coaches preaching it,
and it was really just us believing it,
and, you know, they wanted it to come from me
from the beginning to be the believer as a leader.
And, you know, that's what I did,
and, you know, at times, it wasn't easy,
but, you know, I had my teammates to have my back.
Like Braylon and Chance, you know, OT, Mark Robinson,
you know, all these guys who -- everybody in each position room.
There's always, you know, one or a couple leaders in each room,
and I think that was the biggest difference.
And, you know, I said this before,
I couldn't be more proud of any of those guys
just because they demanded more out of themselves
and not only themselves but their teammates, as well,
and that's just this big camaraderie
that we have of, you know, love and trust.
Next ask, go ahead.
When all of you veterans decided to come back last year,
was this kind of what you were thinking?
Was this what you saw coming?
It's not what we saw coming, but it was something that we,
for sure, worked for as a purpose,
you know, going into the 5:00 a.m.s,
you know, in 20-degree weather in January
just having a throwing session with just me
and the quarterbacks just doing it on our own
and just being able to, you know,
work through that as, you know, time goes on.
And it's not easy because there's some days
where you don't want to do it, you know,
and just pushing through that and your team
noticing that you're pushing through it because,
you know, 12-week season,
you know, we're in our twelfth week.
You know, it's hard.
It's hard to do the little things,
stay on the little things so the big things get taken care of
and just being able to, you know,
handle the little things and keeping the main thing
the main thing and just preaching that
and making sure everybody is on the same page.
I think that's what we did a good job of.
Michael Katz, go ahead.
I'm not sure if you've thought this far, again,
but have you thought about
whether you are going to play in the bowl game?
It's probably going to be leaders fixed game.
Yeah, I'm healthy. I'm playing.
Blake Toppmeyer, go ahead.
A guy from California and somebody
who has played in this rivalry several times now,
when did it sink in for you what this rivalry means?
And can you sort of put into perspective
what winning this game means for Ole Miss?
You know, this game is --
You know, it has a lot of history behind
and just understanding that history,
you know, people that -- people on this staff
that have grown up, you know, through the Ole Miss --
like, grown up as a little kid in Oxford
that, you know, experienced this rivalry
and, you know, how much it means to them
and them explaining what it means to us.
So, I mean, just being in that room
and, you know, feeling those coaches' energies, like,
you could tell, like, okay, this rivalry is real, for sure.
And, you know, just like the Tennessee game,
going into a hostile environment,
just not getting into the emotions,
you know, just keeping the main thing that main thing,
not worried about what's going on outside,
you know, doing your job one play at a time.
And what was that second question?
What it means to --
Oh, for this win? Yeah.
Not only is this a big win for,
you know, our rivalry and Ole Miss,
but, you know, us winning this game,
we go down in history because Ole Miss has never had
a 10-win regular season or 10 regular-season wins.
So, I mean, that's definitely a good feeling.
You know, it's a good feeling when a program hasn't done
something in a very long time, and you do it,
but to do something that hasn't been done
before ever in the history of this school,
I think that's something special,
and it speaks a lot for people in this locker room.
Nick Suss, go ahead.
When did Ken Winston end up on your radar?
When were you guys kind of using that as motivation?
After last weekend, you know, I never --
I didn't know that, and Kiffin always preaches
one game at a time,
and, you know, he laid it all on us
because, you know, this was our last game,
and what we had at stake, we had a New York six ball,
and we had this 10-win season that was at stake,
and I think that really gave us extra motivation, for sure.