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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: ALABAMA VS GEORGIA

November 26, 2018

Jonathan Ledbetter

Atlanta, Georgia

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Jonathan Ledbetter.

JONATHAN LEDBETTER: First and foremost, appreciate you having me on today. I'm just glad that my team was able to be back in the SEC Championship. It's a great opportunity. And we're grateful to be here. We worked hard. We're ready to try to defend our title this coming Saturday.

Q. Alabama, a little more run oriented last year, but with Tua they've been explosive in the passing game. Does that change y'all's approach to your defensive game plan going into this game? I guess it does, certainly, trying to stop him. Does it help to get as much pressure as you can on Tua in this game?
JONATHAN LEDBETTER: I think first and foremost, it definitely does change. We do a little bit -- last year they were a little more run oriented and they ran the ball a lot and we were able to kind of stop the run in that game. I think Tua is a dynamic player. He's very elusive. And he's a deep ball threat even for us, and we've got to make sure our DBs are on top of that.

We've definitely got to make sure we affect the quarterback, whether that's getting sacks or getting batted balls or just great pocket push and just making them throw uncomfortably. I think the name of the game is just making him uncomfortable for as long as you can.

Q. Facing a team like Georgia Tech last week, y'all did a great job of tackling, but it's of course a triple-option offense. But do you think the good way you tackled and did a good job in that game tackling can maybe carry it over to this Alabama game?
JONATHAN LEDBETTER: 100 percent. Those guys that run that triple option at Georgia Tech are just as elusive as Tua. They're really good with the ball in their hands. They fake a lot of guys out and they have a lot of secondary moves and counters when guys tackle them. As long as you can get people on the ground, that's going to help you win football games at those pivotal moments.

Q. Going back to defending Tua, how do you make him uncomfortable this weekend?
JONATHAN LEDBETTER: You just gotta have your rush, your coverages working together. You've got to have all four guys on the front line, making sure those A areas of escape are closed and he can't escape in the B areas or the C areas. We've just got to have everybody doing their job, knowing where the guy next to him is, and knowing where those gaps are so that somebody is there to fill in.

And, like I said in the first question, your secondary has to be on point. You can never relax. If he was ever to get out of the pocket, you have to make sure you continue to cover your guys so they don't just have easy downfield throws to wide-open receivers. Everyone has to be on their toes.

Q. When you look at Alabama's offensive line, is there anything you can point to where you say, all right, us defensively, we have an advantage against them?
JONATHAN LEDBETTER: I mean, we come to play with anybody. I think our offensive line is if not -- the best in the country. We go against them every day. And they have an offensive line similar to us, so I believe that we have seen this so many times, we see this every year, we see it every day at practice. So it's nothing new to us.

Every offensive line basically in the SEC is physical. It's big. You got guys that are 6'7", 330 pounds, 340 pounds, upwards of there, that are mobile. They can do more than one thing. It's not a surprise to us that we see an offensive line that's like this.

Q. What's the key to stopping them and getting around them?
JONATHAN LEDBETTER: I mean, I just don't think you can go one for one in a game like this. You've got to be in your gap and also be able to get off a block and make a play in another gap. I think it's just being a ball player in this game and doing your job to the best of your ability and making sure you lock down what you're supposed to do and also be able to be an asset somewhere else at the same time.

Q. How much was there a surprise factor for the defense when Tua came in last year? And having seen, I guess, a year's full of tape on him right now, what difference can that make?
JONATHAN LEDBETTER: Well, like last year, there wasn't much tape at all to really watch. It was just kind of a throw-it-in-your-face type thing, just throw somebody out there, because our number one guy isn't getting it done right now.

And we kind of game planned for Jalen Hurts the whole time. We saw what kind of player he was, what kind of plays he made. And we really didn't have anything to go off watching Tua. It was in-the-game adjustments we had to make. We didn't know he was that elusive or had an arm like that. I think watching tape on anybody kind of gives you a sense of comfortability, knowing kind of what they're doing, knowing their tendencies. And the tape doesn't lie. Once you look at that, you see what people do, you can kind of gauge what kind of player they are and what they like to do.

Q. Have you talked to anybody from other teams or have coaches told you, look, you really won't know until you get out on the field because the way this guy is so elusive, the arm and everything else?
JONATHAN LEDBETTER: I haven't really talked to any other guys. Nobody's really told us that. We kind of just do our own thing in-house and we kind of self scout our own way. If something does, if the word does trickle down we would definitely take it into consideration. But we like to prepare a certain way and we try to keep that for every game.

Q. As a defense, how much better and just how much different do you feel like you guys are on defense compared to maybe where you were in September, early October?
JONATHAN LEDBETTER: We just had guys all across the board stepping up. We've had younger guys coming up and older guys playing better than they were last year, previous years, myself included. People are making tackles. No one's missing tackles like they were. It's just team defense, man. It's everyone coming together and playing as one unit and just doing their jobs and then doing the extra, giving them the extra effort.

And that kind of takes some experience. You've got to go through some things to get there. So I'm just really proud of these guys working hard and sticking through the fight.

Q. You've been around there for a while, at this point what's the biggest challenge you can remember the defense facing quarterback-wise? And where does this week's challenge with Tua rank up there in terms of guys you've gone against since you've been at Georgia?
JONATHAN LEDBETTER: I feel like we've played some really good guys. We've played some guys that are kind of up for the same accolades and guys that have similar stature to him and kind of handle the football the same ways.

You just have to attack it. No one's out there alone. You've got guys who are helping you. And I feel like you can beat anybody four on one. You've got four guys working together or whether it's three guys working together or even two, two is better than one.

You've got guys helping each other on pass rushing, just working and even on coverage, I think it's the teamwork that really helps. Normally you don't want to be out there doing your thing on your own. You want to be in your box, owning your box, winning your one-on-one and allowing your teammates to help you have the best game.

Q. Off topic real quick, when you see these games being played in the 50s, Ohio State and Michigan combined scored 100 points on Saturday, what goes through your mind as a defender?
JONATHAN LEDBETTER: The game's moving a lot faster, man. People are scoring at will and the game is kind of changing and offenses are getting a lot better. They're able to do more things and people are figuring out ways to create weapons on offense, just score quickly.

And you've got teams that used to run the ball a lot that are just air-raiding it, saving a lot of time, just getting the ball in the air and getting the ball to receivers, deep balls and stuff like that.

But once you, as a defense, you game plan for stuff like that and you watch the tape and you just study it. And you get ready to play stuff like that. And you definitely have to play a little faster and change some of the things that you do.

But at the end of the day it is still football. And you can't stop the team from scoring. I feel like that's our job on defense. It's not possible to be done. But you're seeing more and more games like that. You are. I think that has to do with as much -- not necessarily just solely on the defense, but offenses getting better and having more time with the ball.

Q. You had that -- you obviously beat Oklahoma last year, but just taking that as an example, is it easier in general for good offenses to beat good defenses, because it used to be the other way around?
JONATHAN LEDBETTER: I don't really think so. Like if you take the example that you gave, the Oklahoma game, the first half, our defense wasn't really doing what they needed to do. And our offense was; they were going toe for toe, scoring. But we were just allowing them to score more points than us. And I think we had to tighten up as a defense in the second half and really set in our minds that we were going to go stop everything we were doing.

Once we did that, you know, I think those pivotal moments where you have to get off the field as a defense, give your offense the ball back because they're being so productive, is where you take your pride. It's not necessarily as in, okay, we're not going to let them score any points.

Your job is to help your offense. The offense is going to help you. You get them the ball and they're going to pay you back. And they're going to go do what they do with it. As long as you're doing your job, getting them the ball back, everything works itself out.

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