SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: FLORIDA VS ALABAMA

December 19, 2020

Jordan Battle

Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Alabama Crimson Tide

Alabama 52, Florida 46

THE MODERATOR: We're here with Jordan Battle. We'll take questions.

Q. Jordan, if you have a Heisman vote, who would you vote for after tonight's game?

JORDAN BATTLE: You say a Heisman vote?

Q. Yes.

JORDAN BATTLE: I say the whole team. But players, I say players that stood out, offense of course Najee, DeVonta Smith, Metchie, Billingsley, the O-line, Mac Jones.

Defensively I feel like we all made a good step forward today. We didn't have a blowout game like we usually do. We had to drop our you-know-what, man up today. It was a tough game. I like how we finished today.

Q. Jordan, Will Anderson was everywhere in this game. Where have you seen him grow as a true edge center?

JORDAN BATTLE: Will Anderson is a great listener, great learner. He comes in every day, hard work. One of the first guys at the facility in practice, goes hard every play, kills the scout guys, like they're one of the other teams. He works hard every day. We love him. He's progressively getting better each game.

Q. On Florida's offense, every time you kind of pulled ahead, it seems like they came back. What does it say about that team, that coach, that quarterback?

JORDAN BATTLE: Hats off to Florida. Great offense. Great quarterback. Great receiver in Toney and great tight end in Pitts, and great receiver in Trevon Grimes. Those guys are tough. They have very good weapons.

Their offense had a great game today. We had to come to compete. Like I said earlier, finish. That's what we did.

Q. What does it mean to you to hear that Nick Saban says he loves this team, this is one of his favorite SEC title wins?

JORDAN BATTLE: That touches our hearts because we don't hear nice things like that from Coach Saban all the time. Usually it's criticism. When we hear things like that, man, it's like a, Wooh, he actually loves us. We love to hear that (smiling).

Q. The team sort of spontaneously came together around Landon when he got put on the cart. What is it about him that endears himself to that reaction?

JORDAN BATTLE: Great leader. He earned our respect a long time ago when he first got here. Speak to us every Thursday in our team meeting. He tells us to keep finishing, keep competing. We finished tonight. He's always on us about finishing. That's what we did.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the hit from Metchie. Did you give him a lot of kudos on the defensive side of the ball?

JORDAN BATTLE: Of course. He might have converted the defensive side of the ball after that hit. That was a great hit, great moment in the game. They caught an interception. Then we turned the momentum right around when Metchie hit him. That was a great turnover by the offense.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Jordan.

JORDAN BATTLE: No problem.