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CHICK-FIL-A PEACH BOWL: OLE MISS v TEXAS CHRISTIANDecember 28, 2014Chris HackettJames McFarlandKevin WhiteATLANTA, GEORGIA MODERATOR: Now we've got safety Chris Hackett, defensive end James McFarland, and cornerback Kevin White. Chris, give us an opening statement and tell us how the Bowl Week experience has been for you so far. CHRIS HACKETT: This Bowl Week has been terrific. All the activities we've been doing from, you know, the College Football Hall of Fame, that was pretty nice, seeing all the legends and, you know, Hall of Famers. And last night was pretty cool, the‑‑ I don't know what it's called, but the race car. That was pretty nice. For us to win, it's pretty good, the activities and everything that we've been doing, the Bowl sites, and the Chick‑Fil‑A has been pretty good. MODERATOR: You didn't wreck your car, did you? CHRIS HACKETT: I didn't wreck mine. I almost had one of the fastest times. I think I was in the top three of the fastest times. And we won the basketball competition. MODERATOR: Battle for Bowl Week. James, talk about what's been your favorite event so for far the Battle for Bowl Week? JAMES MCFARLAND: I would have to say Andretti was most definitely my favorite, although I didn't go that fast. It's all about safety with me. It was definitely a great experience for our teammates to get out and do something different and get out and just be out together, just bond. MODERATOR: Kevin, what are you looking forward to the most for this week? KEVIN WHITE: Probably the game. I'm ready. MODERATOR: Besides the game. KEVIN WHITE: I'm looking forward to the MLK visit. This is my first time in Atlanta. It's a lot of history behind that. So just getting the opportunity to see that and see a part of history, part of making history. I'm looking forward to that. MODERATOR: Is this the first trip to Atlanta for all three of you guys? CHRIS HACKETT: Yes. MODERATOR: We'll open up to questions. Q. Guys, if we could start with Chris and each of you address this. Ole Miss scored on a lot of big plays, had a lot of big plays against Mississippi State in their last game. If you could address that, if that increases awareness of keeping the ball in front, how you prepare for that? CHRIS HACKETT: For any opponent, we want to slow the game down, have them play to our level. Ole Miss is a good offense and, you know, we're going to go out and just play our game and try to slow them down the best we can. JAMES MCFARLAND: That's definitely something that we've taken into account as far as practicing. We know we have to limit the big plays. We know we can't give them any big plays, and we know we have to just be ready for whatever they bring to the table. KEVIN WHITE: Basically, what they said. That's always part of the game plan is limit big plays. So we're used to them taking shots and trying to make big plays. It will be nothing different for us. That's what we're used to seeing. Q. Coach Bumpas was sitting here talking about Ole Miss wide receivers. What are your thoughts on Engram? And he talked about how big and tall Ole Miss's receivers are. What are your thoughts? Do they remind you of anybody, like Baylor or any other team in the Big 12? CHRIS HACKETT: In the Big 12, we have big receivers, fast, size‑wise, anything like that. But like Kevin White going from West Virginia, he's a pretty good receiver, and he's pretty big. And something like Baylor with speed‑wise, Ole Miss has those type of guys also. They have a pretty good group that we've seen every week in the Big 12. Q. I want to ask Kevin, is it easier to play a team that plays in a more conventional, more normal pace than some of the no huddle, rapid fire pace you see in the Big 12? KEVIN WHITE: Most definitely. When they slow down the game, it gives us a chance to get our calls in, get our reads in. As opposed to quick huddle, everything's moving fast, and they're trying to quick strike you. For us to slow the game down, get it toward the pace we want it to definitely helps out a lot. JAMES MCFARLAND: Just going off what Kevin said, all our preparation has been a little slower as far as the difference when we prepare for a Big 12 team. Change of pace will be more‑‑ it will be better for us to get calls in, to get the right personnel in, and be overall ready for whatever they bring to the table. MODERATOR: Chris, is it easier for you? CHRIS HACKETT: In my choice, I think it's easier for us to go in the same way, just like they said. The coaches prepare us for these type of things.  We have great coaches, like what I always like to say. They prepare us for things like this day in and day out. In the Big 12, most offenses try to go fast. So if they try to use things like that, I think we'll be ready for it. Q. Kevin, you talked about MLK was something you were looking forward to. What are you expecting? What are your thoughts going into it before you arrive of what it will look like or what it might feel like? KEVIN WHITE: I'm not really too sure, actually. That's why I'm ready to go see it, get educated, learn more and just get the whole experience. I just want to go and see whatever they have to tell us and soak everything in and try to get a great experience out of it. Q. Kevin, was there a turning point in the season for you guys that turned it from a good season to a great one? KEVIN WHITE: I wouldn't say it was too much of a turning point that turned it into a great season. We knew we had a team that could do something special. After the Oklahoma game, some guys felt like we could do it. We could go out there, compete with any team at any point in time. So I would say the Oklahoma game definitely gave us a lot of momentum. And then even the Baylor game, taking the loss, you know, we learned a lot from that loss, and it carried us and brought us to the end of the season, just bringing momentum as far as not wanting to have that feeling again, trying to win out every game. Q. What did you learn from the Baylor game? KEVIN WHITE: Finish. It's something we didn't do in that game. We had a lead, and we didn't finish the game. From that point on, we had to finish out every game, no matter what, whether we were up by 20 or down by 20. We had to finish. Q. What were the emotions like when you saw yourself climb into the four and then fall out, if you would give me you personal story there. CHRIS HACKETT: The emotion of it, I mean, it was great to, you know, be one of the top four teams, to be considered as one of the top four teams in college football. Dropping out of it, I think it pretty much hurt all of us. At the same time, it just gave us some more of a push. We want to go and show the world that we can be one of those type teams. It just gives us another push to go into this game. JAMES MCFARLAND: We didn't try to think about it too much. We knew going in, at any time or any week, we could move out. We just wanted to go into every week playing hard no matter where we were and just hope for the best. KEVIN WHITE: Like they say, we didn't try to focus on it too much. It changes every week. It was definitely a great feeling to see us mentioned in the top four teams, especially coming off the 4‑8 season. It definitely felt good. Q. I understand not wanting to focus on it too much, but that must have been difficult after the last game and you guys fell out. If you could address, when the season was over, then you weren't there, was the feeling different then? CHRIS HACKETT: The feeling was really pretty much the same because we have great coaches and a great staff. We didn't focus on it too much. We had to keep going on about our business. Once we found out what Bowl we were going to, that's where our main focus went to. JAMES MCFARLAND: Of course we were looking to be in the four‑game playoff. It would have been a great opportunity, but it didn't happen. We knew we had still had one more game left that we have to get ready for. KEVIN WHITE: It's initial disappointment, but at the end of the day, you have to play the hand you're dealt. We were looking forward to a great game in Atlanta in the Peach Bowl. So we're looking forward to a great game and a great win, hopefully. Q. All three guys can answer this. Having time to look at Ole Miss on tape, what's been the biggest thing that's stood out to you guys so far, looking at the Rebels? CHRIS HACKETT: Looking at the tape, they have a lot of weapons. Looking at Bo Wallace, he's a great quarterback. Playing in the S.E.C., they have a lot of competition week in and week out. They don't just have the one superstar player on their team. They're a good team as a whole. JAMES MCFARLAND: Just like Chris said, they're a good team as a whole. The one thing that stood out to me when I watched them was the athleticism at every position. Their speed overall, it's just a pretty good team overall. KEVIN WHITE: A lot of speed, well coached, very physical. So it should definitely be a good matchup because we have similar traits, focusing on being physical and having speed out there. So I would say just being a well‑coached team and a lot of physicality. MODERATOR: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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