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PLAYSTATION FIESTA BOWL: OHIO STATE VS CLEMSON

December 29, 2016

Ben Boulware

Glendale, Arizona

Q. Are you going to keep your beard growing?
BEN BOULWARE: Absolutely.

Q. Do you ever think you'll cut that beard?
BEN BOULWARE: Last year I was kind of -- I was soft. I was a little baby and I kind of, I couldn't fight the urge to shave it. So this year I think I'm a new man. I think I made a lot of changes in my life and it's grown on me, literally and figuratively.

So I'm thinking I'm going to keep it. I think it's downhill for me. I think in high school I was a decent-looking guy, but I look like I'm a 40-year-old man now with all the tattoos and the beard. It's really downhill from there.

I'll probably go bald in a couple of years, go the bald look, grow the beard out, get sleeved up. I think I'm starting that trend. I'm getting there. It will probably stay there for sure.

Q. Does Brent Venables, your D coordinator, does he like it? He gets on you every day?
BEN BOULWARE: He doesn't get me because of the beard. He gets on me because we butt heads a lot because we're wired and focused on practice. He has a killer beard. I wish he would grow his out. He has a nice, like, foundation to a beard, but he's that clean-shaven look the whole time.

I don't think he cares. He pulls a lot, just trying to piss me off. We butt heads because of football not because of the beards. We'll probably butt heads just like it is.

Q. How has that grown over the years? Did you have any time to think we may never figure this out and we're just butting heads every day and not be as close as we are now?
BEN BOULWARE: Absolutely, my freshman year it was very tough. I think he probably chewed me out more than any player he's ever coached just because he knew I could take it.

At the end of the day sooner or later I'd be able to take it, maybe not my freshman year because he wore me down a lot. It was very tough on me. I think after that when I'm trying to get past that stumbling block, we've grown ever since. He's honest, like a father to me.

He's helped me out in so many areas besides football. I love him like a dad. I think he's obviously made me the player I am today. He's made a huge role and impact in my life as a man. I don't think he knows that. But I think equally as much impact as he's had on football, it's definitely on my life, too.

We honestly butt heads a lot, two alpha males wanting the best out of each other, definitely causes some problems sometimes. But I love him. I appreciate him more than anything. But I'm very glad that the freshman year happened. I think it made me who I am today.

I honestly wouldn't want to go back and do it again because it sucked. It was very difficult. But I'm very appreciative of all the stuff we went through.

Q. Coach Dabo Swinney's big on Daboism things, like the guts and stuff like that. Do you have any favorite Daboisms?
BEN BOULWARE: There's too many.

Q. That's what everybody says there's too many. Highlight some?
BEN BOULWARE: I would ask Jay Guillermo because he does the best Coach Swinney impressions and knows all of them like the back of his hand. He literally does so many that I'm in the corner, like-- I try to listen, but a lot of them are corny. I'm not going to lie.

So I would get Jay to tell you one. He'll tell you some good ones. They honestly all blend in now because he's probably told thousands over my four years here. He's kind of a corny guy. He means well. I love Coach Swinney but he's kind of corny. I'd ask Jay for sure.

Q. Outside of the Xs and Os, we like to do a little doppelgÃ¤nger segment. Guys your teammates look like. Any of your teammates resemble famous people that come to mind?
BEN BOULWARE: Ah, that's a good one. That's a good question. I like questions like that. Let me think. Dadgum it.

We have a group text we like send some, make fun of all the guys on our team. I have to see pictures. I feel like I kind of look like the dude from like "Vikings," like the dude with the beard, the HBO show. He's a good-looking guy. I'm probably the uglier version of him. That's the only one I can think of off the top of my head, probably the dude from "Vikings." If I could walk around, see some guys, I could probably could. Or if I can get Jay Guillermo or Nick Schuessler with me, we'd find some really good doppelgÃ¤ngers.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
BEN BOULWARE: Luke Kuechly, he's the GOAT. Watching his film, college film, NFL film, just seeing the things he does, even before the snap, it's incredible.

And I like to think that I do a good job of recognizing and anticipating formations and plays. But he's in a whole nuther world. If I could just sit back and talk to him for an hour, just Xs and Os, how he works, how he prepares, I would love nothing more.

Q. Did you watch him when he played Clemson back in the day?
BEN BOULWARE: He averaged like 25 tackles a game. I get like 10 a game, I'm just like, all of a sudden, I'm like, hey, yeah, that's awesome, I played a good game. He gets 25 a game. I don't know how he does it. Watching him in the NFL, like in one half, he's got like 12 tackles. It's like truly can't comprehend like how he does the things he does. It blows my mind.

Q. Why does a speech matter (indiscernible)?
BEN BOULWARE: I think it depends on the situation. I think Friday night speeches just kind of getting guys locked in, focused on the task at hand.

We go to a movie, after a movie, guys are a little kind of laid back, lackadaisical. Just really kind of chewing them out and get them back focused on what we've gotta do. A lot of these trips are supposed to be fun and you're supposed to enjoy them, but at the end of the day we've got a job to do.

I think a lot of guys might realize that more than others. And I'm probably one of those guys that I don't want to regret anything that I've done here. And the Saturday speeches before the game, that's just to get guys pumped up. I might cuss guys out a little bit or punch guys, push them around, really to get them locked in, get them wired up for the game.

But they only do so much. There's only so much you can say. The energy and the pump-up only lasts for a little bit. If you're not prepared and ready to play, that's not going to carry over.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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