SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: GEORGIA VS ALABAMA

December 4, 2021

Will Anderson

Alabama Crimson Tide

Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Postgame Press Conference

Alabama 41, Georgia 24

Q. Congrats on the win. Bryce Young showing out today with the Heisman. With a great promise by your quarterback today, would you say Bryce Young with the voting on Monday locked up the Heisman. What do you think about that so far?

WILL ANDERSON JR: He should win the Heisman. If you watch the game, if you've been watching the whole season, ain't nobody else coming close to him. He should win it. The voters can see that. Everybody can see that. Bryce should be Heisman this year.

Q. Defensive side, how proud are you guys responding, kind of staying in the game the whole time, and with Battle at the end with the pick six. Can you just talk about the defense. Obviously at the end Battle with the pick six kind of sealing the game for you guys?

WILL ANDERSON JR: The whole week, all we kept hearing was Georgia defense, Georgia defense. Nobody was giving Alabama credit for how we play on defense. Sometimes we have our mental errors, but there's never been a time that we don't go out there and we don't play fast or don't play physical. We fly around and hit people. Enough people are not talking about that.

I feel the defense has been coming together. We've been on the same page. We've been playing tough. We've been playing hard. We've done a great job on defense. Jordan Battle, he executed exceptionally well. The defense executed exceptionally well. We had our little ups and downs here and there. We all came together. We have been playing great ball on defense.

Q. How impressed were you with the offensive line coming off of a rough week last week just to contain as good as Georgia's defensive front is?

WILL ANDERSON JR: Yeah, like I said, all week long, we had a chip on our shoulder. Every day on good on good, we was going back and forth. All we was hearing is their O-line is nasty and mean. We kept hearing they have the best defensive front end in the country.

Good on good, iron sharpens iron. You are going to see the best every day in practice. We both had a chip on our shoulder. I'm so proud of those guys. I don't think they gave up a sack tonight. Did they? They didn't give up any sacks tonight. Those guys did exceptionally well. That was a great front they went against and they executed very well.

Q. Was there anything they said during those good on good in practice that sort of indicated that chip on their shoulder or any moments during practice throughout the week that sort of gave you that indication?

WILL ANDERSON JR: It was just I'm going to get you better, you're going to get me better. That's how we're going to approach it.

Q. Will, obviously an emotional game and a convincing win for you guys, beating the No. 1 team in the country. Are you guys clicking at the right time. Do you feel like you deserve that No. 1 next to your name?

WILL ANDERSON JR: Oh, we most definitely do. We're not a perfect team, don't get us wrong. We've had ups and downs this whole season. We're starting to rally together and starting to build that team chemistry. We're starting to come together and see that football is the most important thing.

We've been executing well. Meetings, the facility, everything, everybody's been locked in at meetings in practice. Everybody notices that state at this point. That's why everybody's mindset is starting to change and shift. I think that's we have been playing some of our best ball right now. It's not the complete football that we want to be at yet, but we have been doing a good best job.

Q. What was the locker room like after this one? What was Coach Saban's message to you guys? He was a little extra fired up this week, I feel like.

WILL ANDERSON JR: Yeah, he was. The locker room was wild. We came in, we was the underdogs. People say we was going to get whipped, blew out, stuff like that. We Alabama, man. We ain't no D-III team. We ain't no none of that. You know what I'm saying? We come to play, and we practice hard, just like they come to play and practice hard.

I'm not disrespecting Georgia. Georgia has a great football team. Sometimes we work hard too for what we want.

I just don't get sometimes people think we do stuff on purpose. It's never a day that offense or defense, we don't go out there and we don't try to execute or we don't play hard and give it all we've got. We give it all we've got every play we do, on both sides of the ball.

So there's never a time when one person is I don't feel like it. It's never that. We try to execute and things happen. We are just going to keep rolling off of that. Thank you. Roll Tide.