2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 30, 2021

Tanner Allen

Mississippi State Bulldogs

Postgame Press Conference

Mississippi State - 9, Vanderbilt - 0

Q. A lot of water under the bridge for you since you have shown up to Mississippi State. Can you describe how you are feeling right now and what it feels like to bring this first championship home?

TANNER ALLEN: I'm on top of the world. I couldn't be more happy for a team, a town, a fan base, the whole state of Mississippi, except Oxford, of course. Those guys are always on my back. So I had to take a shot at them.

But, man, this team overcame everything, man. From getting swept at home in front of 10,000 versus Arkansas to Missouri coming in and taking a series from us and then getting embarrassed at the SEC Tournament we just kept playing, and kept playing and playing. You blink an eye we're national champions. God is so good.

Q. We were talking to your coach about how loose you guys were going into this game. You've been a loose bunch most of the year. How did you and other players just stay relaxed in the moment and not think about this is all or nothing for the championship and treat it like a ball game?

TANNER ALLEN: We just take it one pitch at a time. We're locked in. We knew what was at stake. We knew going into this game we had opportunity to do something that had never been done. And we just came together and played with each other. And left it all on the field and let God take over, man. And like I said, we're national champs. Mission accomplished.

Q. You're a senior. You come out on top as a senior. What's it like to go out with this senior class and your coach, what has he meant to you throughout your whole Mississippi State career?

TANNER ALLEN: Coach Lem is unbelievable, man. He's a player's coach. I tell people all the time. That guy is somebody you want to play for. He knows when to be serious and he knows when to be loose. To be honest with you, when we're loose and he's loose, it just clicks. So he's a great coach. He's really organized. He does things the right way.

Jake said it a while back, I think in '19, that he was going to bring home a national championship. And by god, he did it. Couldn't be more happy for him.

Q. Couple of Alabama guys you and Rowdey -- what's he meant to you?

TANNER ALLEN: I didn't want to do it with anybody else, let's put it like that. In the fall me and Rowdey came back. I didn't just come back to make the playoffs or make a Super Regional, I wanted to come back to win a national championship.

And I believed it and we all believed it. You know? And we just came together and played together. And like I said, we left it all on the field.

Q. The pitching that you guys had, specifically Will and Landon, how important were these guys to getting to this point?

TANNER ALLEN: The bullpen did an outstanding job, especially yesterday, Preston eating it up for us, did an outstanding job, gave Landon another day's rest.

And Will B. coming out on three, four days' rest and doing what he did, unbelievable, man. Couldn't be more happy for him. I told (indiscernible) earlier, I had a really good feeling, we were up nine, I see 2-3 coming out of the pen, and Landon did his thing, like he always does, and just slammed the door.