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COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF SEMIFINAL AT THE CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: CLEMSON VS OKLAHOMADecember 29, 2015Ty DarlingtonMiami Gardens, Florida Q. Why was it important to do that picture over again after the TCU game? TY DARLINGTON: I felt like it was too poetic of a line. It was the first time I ever snapped the ball on our own field, and that was so long ago, and I was not planning on being a center at that point. I think I still had dreams in my head of playing on something other than the offensive line. It's crazy, though. I mean, that's the foreshadowing. I would call it God's plan, just that all those years ago, I couldn't have been more than six or seven at the moment, snapping the ball out there to my grandpa, it's like a dream come true. I try to take it in and appreciate the fact that not everyone gets to see a dream become reality like we have, but we've been able to, so it's been fun. Q. Your parents both said that they didn't realize how many awards you had won, that the school website listed all these awards and they didn't even realize you'd won all these awards because you hadn't brought it up. Was there a reason for that? TY DARLINGTON: Oh, man, I've never been overly comfortable telling -- if they find out, cool, but I don't want to be the guy to advertise it or anything. Awards are great and everything. I'm here for my teammates, especially here. I'm here to win this thing with my team. Individual awards are great, and it's a great honor because of the people that recognized me and that type of deal, but I don't know, it's never been my highest priority. Q. You mentioned you never set out to be a center. What other positions did you play as a kid and how did you get into playing the offensive line? TY DARLINGTON: I didn't play football until I was in like fourth grade, so by that time I was way bigger than everyone else. I actually towered over everyone and stopped growing. I'm undersized now. I wasn't undersized back then. I was huge. But I wanted to be a fullback. Growing up I dreamed of being a fullback. I wore the No. 4 and the No. 44. I was a ball boy for my dad's teams. I was No. 44, and I think it was fourth grade my dad broke it to me, hey, you need to change to an offensive lineman number. I wore 79 all the way until I got here. They sort of broke it to me. I guess not too harshly, hey, you're a little too big to be playing a position other than offensive line. Q. You would go out for passes with your brother? TY DARLINGTON: I grew up playing football in the front yard just about every single day and everything. I always had like a good arm and everything. I used to always be like the all-time quarterback like at recess and stuff. I used to be a lot more -- have a lot more finesse, skills, back in the day. I got a little bigger and stronger and now I can't throw the ball and catch it like I used to. Q. How about hands? TY DARLINGTON: I had great hands. I really don't have great hands anymore. I don't know what happened. Yeah, I used to love to do all that stuff. Q. Another thing your mom said to me was she was really impressed with this team, your teammates and how you guys really kind of resemble -- she mentioned kind of the Apopka teams back in the day, almost like a high school team where you guys have so much camaraderie and so much family. Do you feel that way with this team? TY DARLINGTON: Oh, absolutely, and it's something that has been more publicized recently. It's been talked about over the last couple weeks leading into the game, but it's something that's been so crucial to us all year, the chemistry. The fact that we have a great time around each other. If you come and see like -- yesterday we did our good on good at the end of the practice and it was just so typical of the way that it goes every single time that we -- every time we do that, and in past years it's a grind. It's tough and it's physical, and there are a lot of expectations, a lot of difficulties. When we're at the end of practice, and I've got Tap -- everybody is talking trash, defense and offense are talking trash, Tap yelling in me in my ear about my daddy watching, he's going to embarrass me in front of my daddy. And then on the last play, it was tied 3-3 and we threw a touchdown, Baker threw a touchdown to Shep down on the goal line, and it was just like a little kid celebrating. Shep spikes the ball, everyone goes running around, making a fool of himself, things that you can't really do in a game or you'll get personal fouls, and we just have a great time in practice. Whether it's at practice or off the field, everyone enjoys being around each other. I think that's the key to our success, the fact that we're passionate and energetic and the fact that we make the most of our opportunities. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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