CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: TEXAS A&M VS NORTH CAROLINA

December 29, 2020

Jayden Peevy

Texas A&M Aggies

Hard Rock Stadium

Press Conference

Q. Jayden, since we just visited with Coach Elko, I wanted to ask the difference he's meant, what kind of coordinator he is to play for, and just maybe a story or two on Coach Elko.

JAYDEN PEEVY: Coach Elko is a great guy. He's an NFL-type defensive coordinator. He's a great person. He's shown me a lot when he first got here, he told me, hey, don't worry about playing right now. You're going to be playing soon, so I believed in him and I believed in the system.

Q. Is no-nonsense a good way to describe him, and if so, how so?

JAYDEN PEEVY: Yes. He's a gritty guy. He loves to work, come to practice, come work. That's one thing I got from him, just coming to work every day.

Q. Jayden, from what you've seen from North Carolina's offense, what challenges will they present you guys and what will you guys have to be able to do well to try to slow them down?

JAYDEN PEEVY: Just stop the run, stop the run game. They have great receivers, as well, in the pass game, but stopping the run is one of the big focuses.

Q. Jayden, what would you say over the last three years since Elko has been here, you guys have been really good at stopping the run. What do you think has been the No. 1 ingredient to that? What's the No. 1 key to this defense's consistency against the run?

JAYDEN PEEVY: Being physical in practice is the No. 1 consistency that we try to focus on in practice. It turns to the game, just being physical in practice.

Q. How much of it starts up front with you, Bobby, McKinnley, so on and so forth?

JAYDEN PEEVY: It starts up front with the O-line in practice, as well.

Q. Last year at this time Justin Madubuike opted out. You kind of went in the spotlight, had a big bowl game. Where do you feel your game is at in the last 10, 11 games? How do you feel you've progressed? What have you done well and what do you need to work on?

JAYDEN PEEVY: I need to work on getting to the passer. I feel like I'm more experienced from where I was before starting, and also watch film a lot more.

Q. Do you think you'll come back another year?

JAYDEN PEEVY: That's something I'm going to think about after the bowl game.

Q. I'm curious, thinking back to kind of the beginning of the season and fall camp, was there sort of a point where you realized maybe what the potential of this defense could be?

JAYDEN PEEVY: I thought about that before the season even started. I seen guys working their butts off during quarantine. I saw guys running as fast as they ever ran before, lifting every weight. I just seen the grit in this team before the season even started.

Q. I know that obviously you guys lost a couple guys who were projected to be starters to opt-outs and such. What kind of stability did Buddy Johnson especially provide during that time?

JAYDEN PEEVY: Great leadership from Buddy. He always thought, next guy up. He always pushed the young linebackers and said, it might be your time this year, so we need you every day.

Q. Coach Elko kind of alluded to it, we were giving him so much praise about his defense but he wanted to talk about the offense and how they dominate time of possession. I wondered if you could talk about this team's dynamic. What was the dynamic of this year's team and why do you think that was a part of your success?

JAYDEN PEEVY: We came together as a team this year big time. It's no more pointing fingers at each other, it's all about get this win, no matter if it's the offensive line or defensive line or offense or defense. It's whatever it takes to get this win, that's the main goal.

Q. Jimbo loves the word controlling the momentum of the game, right? Is that something y'all finally learned to do this year?

JAYDEN PEEVY: Yes, sir. He always talked about controlling the momentum of the game, controlling the clock offensively and try to get stops on defense. So that's the main goal of this program.