CFP SEMIFINAL AT THE ROSE BOWL GAME PRESENTED BY CAPITAL ONE: ALABAMA VS NOTRE DAME

December 28, 2020

Jordan Battle

Alabama Crimson Tide

Q. Want to ask about Will Anderson, how you see him progressing over the year and how much impact has he made for you guys these last couple of games?

JORDAN BATTLE: Will Anderson has been a great player for us this year. Every game he's been getting better. He's getting rushes on the quarterbacks, getting sacks and getting quarterback hurries and pressure, and that's helped us in the back end.

So, yeah, he's doing a great job for us this year, and we love him.

Q. So after a game in normal times, you're maybe hanging out with your family, hanging out with your friends, celebrating a little bit. In COVID times, with all the restrictions, what were those like, like afternoon game, we won, now what? Now what do you go do?

JORDAN BATTLE: It's not really much you can do. I mean, you have to stay social distanced. You've got to stay far from people we don't know.

My parents are good. I come home, I protect myself. I wear a mask. My brother wears his mask. And it's kind of hard, but we have to do what we have to do for safety protocols.

Q. There were certainly, at least heading into the year, a lot of questions about the secondary, and I was hoping you could speak to the growth of the secondary, and Malachi Moore in particular. Overall, how you think you guys have played this year?

JORDAN BATTLE: Overall, I think we've played great. We made a great progression from the early games, starting with Ole Miss, from there we went kind of -- we got progressively better each year -- I mean each game, each week. And we've been just focusing and practicing and being vocal out there, communicating. And that's working, and that's helping everybody.

Malachi Moore, we all know he's a great player. Should have been Freshman of the Year, but, hey, we like him, we love him. He's making great progression this year, and he's becoming a leader at an early age.

Q. Looking at Notre Dame do you see any similarities from any teams you've played this year to this point?

JORDAN BATTLE: No, I don't really see any comparisons. Notre Dame is different. They use three great tight ends in their offense, 24, 87 and 89. They all play a significant role in their offense.

Their quarterback, very mobile. Running back, very mobile. Two running backs. Their receivers are great on the outside.

And, you know, this team is probably going to be a hard matchup for us, one of the hardest matchups of the year, of course, because you know this is a semifinal. And this team is different from all the other teams we've played.

Q. A lot has been said today about the Notre Dame quarterback and his eyes. What have you seen on film that makes him dangerous?

JORDAN BATTLE: When he scrambles, his eyes are always downfield. He's not focused on just getting out of the pocket and scrambling for yards. He keeps his eyes downfield when he scrambles and gets out of the pocket. And receivers run routes to get open at that point. And that's what makes it hard for them to cover.

And certainly have a lot of yards off catches, off catches, off scrambles. So we just have to tune in on staying locked down on the receivers on the scramble game, and we should be fine.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.