	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

PLAYSTATION FIESTA BOWL: OHIO STATE VS CLEMSON

December 29, 2016

Pat Elflein

Glendale, Arizona

PAT ELFLEIN: We practice it, but it's whatever they call, they call.

Q. Both teams have been to Arizona. It's like it's not new.
PAT ELFLEIN: I like Arizona, though. I like it.

Q. This is a strange question, but I asked Raekwon this. As a sportswriter covering college football, so much seems to be about Alabama, it's about Alabama, Alabama. I'm sure you guys probably notice that. And you're Ohio State. You've won national titles in your career. You've won Fiesta Bowls. What's the attitude about Alabama? Do you talk about like a program like Alabama, or do you ever, like, joke about how everybody says Alabama is unbeatable, something like that?
PAT ELFLEIN: Yeah, you talk about it just because right now they're playing the best football in the country. So you talk about those teams. But it's different being on the outside of it and being a part of a team who, when you have guys you grind with and bleed and sweat and tears with.

And it's just a different perspective about the whole college football realm. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah, you hear about it. But when you're in that brotherhood it's different, that's you. And Alabama has their team. You have your team. And it's just a different feel.

Q. For fans or for media, Alabama is treated differently than it would be (indiscernible). They're just another opponent, if you have to play them?
PAT ELFLEIN: Right.

Q. In 2014, what was kind of the attitude going into that game? Because it's very rare for Ohio State -- but people say you were an underdog then. Does that play into your mind as a competitor if someone says that other team is better?
PAT ELFLEIN: Yeah, I mean, there's always an underdog going into every game. So you try not to let that get to your mind. But it's there and you can't avoid it. We were just pumped to be in the playoffs that year. And given whatever opportunity we had, we were going at it full force and giving it our all.

Q. Give me the best piece of advice you've got as a college football player at Ohio State?
PAT ELFLEIN: Best piece of advice? Whatever you do, do it as hard as you can, because if you're going to do it, it's worth doing.

Give it your best and doing your best. And just don't ask questions and do what you're told. Do it as hard as you can and it will all work out for you. That's how it happened for me.

Q. Do you remember who told you that?
PAT ELFLEIN: Probably Coach Meyer. Yeah, Coach Mick, our strength coach.

Q. What do you think was the biggest surprise for you, you're a young buck coming into Ohio State, you're looking around, a little wide-eyed. Or maybe you were coming in cocky and feeling like you were ready to play. What was the biggest surprise for you over the course of your career about what you imagined Ohio State would be like in high school and what it actually turned out to be?
PAT ELFLEIN: Yeah, I came in this place, Ohio State, wide-eyed, didn't really know what was going on, just excited to be here.

And the biggest surprise probably was my redshirt freshman year, I didn't play all year, I was a backup, getting thrown into the team up north game, after someone got ejected.

And the following week starting the Big Ten Championship and playing at a high level in both games was probably the most surprising thing.

And then the following year, getting All-Big Ten honors my first year starting, never expected really to start, didn't really know coming in if I was ever going to start or not. And doing that my first couple of years was pretty --

Q. Turned out pretty good for you?
PAT ELFLEIN: Yeah.

Q. I was talking to Tony Alford just in terms of bringing young guys along. Tony said in the spring, you and J.T. kind of took Mike Weber (indiscernible)?
PAT ELFLEIN: That was Coach Mick's decision, the head strength coach. He oversees that stuff just like anybody does. He just needed -- we knew that that guy needed to grow up. So they put him with some veterans to help him do that.

Q. How did you help him grow up?
PAT ELFLEIN: Just teaching him how to act and operate in the weight room, in the classroom, around the facility.

It's a culture there. And we operate a certain way. So teach him how to do that, how to train and practice. Just using our experience to help him get acclimated to that.

Q. Is it verbal? Nonverbal? Is it sort of both, setting an example, telling him? What's the balance there?
PAT ELFLEIN: It's all the above. Everything you can. Verbal. Nonverbal. Body language. The way you talk, everything.

Q. Probably asked this many times, as a veteran, why now is this program so good at getting guys ready?
PAT ELFLEIN: The culture that was established by Coach Meyer and Coach Mick. It's so strong now that the leaders on the team enforce it just as well as the coaches do.

You just bring young guys in. They get acclimated through the training process and then they turn into good players.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
PAT ELFLEIN: It was tough for me. I've never been in something like that. You're getting ready to go play, have to wait another hour, go through the rain delay. All that stuff. Just gotta come together as a team, listen to the coaches. They did a great job telling us to relax and when to lock in and when to get ready. So just doing that and getting excited to play, I'm sure, helped in all that.

Q. How important is Curtis Samuel to the success of the offense?
PAT ELFLEIN: Very important. He's a playmaker. That guy can score a touchdown whenever he touches the ball. I feel like having someone like that on your team is very important.

Q. Where would you all be without somebody -- where would you be without Curtis (indiscernible)?
PAT ELFLEIN: He plays a huge role on our team. I don't think we would be here without him, without J.T., without Raekwon, without some of those big-time players on our team, we wouldn't be here without them.

Q. (Indiscernible) has the four years flown by? What's it been like?
PAT ELFLEIN: Yeah, it's gone by so quickly. Faster than high school did. And I thought high school went fast. It's just a lot going on during the process that you don't really get to sit back and relax and enjoy it sometimes.

But getting to reflect on it, that's awesome. It's gone on by quick. It's been so much fun.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297