TRANSPERFECT MUSIC CITY BOWL: AUBURN VS MARYLAND

December 29, 2023

Hugh Freeze

Mike Locksley

Ron Roberts

Philip Montgomery

Josh Gattis

Brian Williams

Nissan Stadium

Coaches Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: This afternoon we'll hear from both coaches. First we'll hear from Auburn University Head Coach Hugh Freeze. He'll make a couple of comments. And then we'll hear from University of Maryland Head Coach Mike Locksley. He'll make a few comments. Then we'll open up for questions from the media.

First, Coach Freeze, if you'll get us started.

HUGH FREEZE: Thank you all for being here, first. To the TransPerfect Music City Bowl, what a week it's been. You've just been so classy in how you've handled our teams and our staffs and our wives. Just everything has been first class.

Scott, just thank you again. It's our second time here for me, and I think you've improved even from a really, really good one the time before. So thank you.

I know Brian's here, I think, one of the board members too. We appreciate the whole board for what they've done.

It's been a good experience in Nashville, and we're excited to represent Auburn and our conference, the SEC, in this game tomorrow against a really, really quality opponent in Maryland from a great conference also that has a coach that I have great respect for that always treated me with class and respect and also does a heck of a job coaching his team.

Our kids are excited. It's a different world now for me with the opt-outs and the transfer portal and things. We'll have a different team tomorrow than we had at the end of the season, but in some ways, that's exciting to kind of see how they perform. So we're excited about tomorrow's opportunity.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach Freeze.

Coach Locksley?

MIKE LOCKSLEY: I want to thank Scott Ramsey and obviously Brian Waller and everyone affiliated with the TransPerfect Music City Bowl for the hospitality we've enjoyed here in Music City in Nashville. It's a first-class bowl in terms of how they treat us, our players, our support staff, our families. Our entire team is really enjoying everything about Nashville other than the hot chicken (laughter).

We brought a bunch of DBs up to eat hot chicken, and we struggled. But great food, great music, and overall great football city. We've had some great practices over there at Ensworth High School, and we appreciate their hospitality for hosting us as well.

Now we're ready for a competitive football game against a really well-coached team in Auburn. I don't know if you know this, Hugh, but my daughter is an Auburn grad. She didn't get a lot of Christmas gifts, but I hope she's not rooting for you if she wants the car payment paid for.

No. It will be a great challenge for us. We always considered a bowl game almost like a movie trailer for what next year looks like. When we finished up against Rutgers, that team we had last year was done, and now we're showcasing and kind of that movie trailer when you go see the movie there, and it shows you what the story line will be.

We look at this game as one of those type of games for us because we've got some great energy from our young players that will have opportunities that maybe they didn't have as much as they did this season.

We have some older players that are leaving that want to leave the right way. Again, we're excited to see what these young players have to offer as well as the quarterback situation we have.

To me, the biggest thing is to come out and build momentum into the '24 season. This will be our third straight bowl game, and we're really looking forward to a great game tomorrow.

Q. For Mike, Hugh had mentioned a while ago you two had a good relationship, particularly when he was out of coaching. What do you remember about that, and what sparked the relationship between you guys over the years?

MIKE LOCKSLEY: It started with Coach Saban obviously. Coach Saban has a lot of respect for Hugh as well as myself. The job he did at Ole Miss, I got to Alabama in 2016 and had a chance to go against Hugh's team a few times there. I know Coach Saban had a lot of respect for him.

Obviously when I took over as the play caller, I just remember a nice, long meeting we had and shared some offensive philosophical things.

Again, Hugh's been great throughout the process. He's one of those guys that has earned it the right way, man. He started in the high school ranks and worked his way up and has had great success. It's all about relationships. I've gotten to know Hugh really well and one of the guys I respect in this business.

Q. Mike, Hugh's talked about opt-outs and all those things. For all of us defensive guys that are a big part of that, for you as the quarterback, how have you seen your quarterbacks kind of respond to the challenge of knowing it's their time up?

MIKE LOCKSLEY: Our philosophy is next man up. Once you go through COVID, which we both did, and you wake up and don't know who's going to be available to play, it really taught us some valuable lessons back then.

One of the things I've learned over the course of it is these bowl games are great for college football. We took the approach of finishing it the right way with the seniors, but it's a precursor to what the future looks like for Maryland.

The opt-outs are part of the game. You've got to keep adjusting, kind of like coaching on offense and defense. Just got to keep making adjustments. Obviously losing a quarterback of Lia's ability and what he's done for Maryland, again, you can't put a price tag on it, but I'm really excited about Billy Edwards and Cam Edge, and those two have been pretty much 2A and 2B throughout the season. They've gotten a ton of reps. They've gotten a lot of bank reps of our systems, and it will be interesting to see how they both perform.

Q. Hugh, I wanted to ask about the health of the team, especially with the sicknesses. You talked about it earlier in the week, some of your guys had to stay back. Are you better on that front?

HUGH FREEZE: Yeah. Our doctor's report was all but one, the fever has broken. I don't know how strong they'll be and things. They'll have to hydrate really well today, but it's kind of like everything else we're dealing with, the opt-outs. You can't control some things.

But I do think I had a good report this morning that most everybody was feeling better. I'm sure, if at all possible, they'll give it a go. When Coach Locksley was talking about just the ebbs and flows of these opt-outs, it gives me a greater appreciation too, and I'm sure he would say the same, of those kids that are finishing. I applaud them.

I told them in our team meeting this morning, guys, I'm not trying to beat up anybody. People have to make their own choices, and our choices make us. But there's many in probably both of our locker rooms that, man, I want to finish. I just respect that.

I'm also excited, like him, to see the younger guys. I'm afraid of how they'll tackle all his receivers and stuff because they haven't tackled since fall camp. We don't tackle in practice anymore. Now we're fixing to play a bunch of DBs that haven't probably tackled anybody to the ground since then. So that will be interesting to see how we do with that.

Somebody asked me this morning about his quarterback situation, and I said, well, I turned on the TV yesterday, and there were two guys that hadn't taken any snaps and they threw for like 400 yards. It's just about opportunities. I think we both are kind of excited to see how kind of the start of the '24 team will look tomorrow.

Q. Coach Locksley, we asked earlier in the week to Auburn with the helmet communications. You guys have been using that this week. Why have you guys decided to use that now and what is the adjustment process to having that in your helmets?

MIKE LOCKSLEY: In our conference, the Big Ten, we talked about it before the season started. We had our head coaches meetings up in Chicago, and we talked about the Big Ten experimenting in Big Ten games during the season. Because it was so late, we couldn't do it.

Then when I heard we had the opportunity to utilize the coach-to-player communication as well as the iPad stuff on the sideline, I called Hugh and said I think at least something we should think about doing because it gives us the chance, if it goes into play next season to see how it works and work out the kinks.

It's been great to have for the last couple of weeks in practice. It's a little different. For us, it gave us an opportunity to kind of see how it worked. So it will be interesting to see what advantages it gives us, especially playing young players. I think it will be great for us on Saturday to be able to coach them through games during the course of a game.

HUGH FREEZE: I'll be anxious to hear his report.

Q. Hugh, you had an interesting transfer signee in Sam Jackson. Can you talk about the process of not only getting him as a transfer, but the fact he is going to be converting to wide receiver, kind of the decision process about that?

HUGH FREEZE: Our focus was entirely on the high school recruiting leading up to signing day, and I didn't want to do anything that compromised that. I don't know that I'm right in that approach, but it's just I think I'm better at long-term relationship recruiting than I am -- I'm not doing real well in the speed dating portal. I just haven't done real well in that.

So we put our whole focus on that, and then obviously from there, you do have to -- managing a roster these days is impossible. You can say you're going to build it through high school, but then you have ten guys of yours going through the portal, and you didn't recruit enough high school guys to get to your 85. Now we do have to start filling in the holes with portal recruiting.

I got to witness Sam obviously live this year as we played, and he initially went in and was a two-time transfer. So I didn't think that was something that we could do. Then obviously the new legislation that came down a few days ago, I guess.

It's a risk probably, but I think he's one heck of an athlete. I watched all of his high school receiving stuff, and he obviously caught balls from Payton Thorne, which I think there's some chemistry there. I think he has the possibility -- I don't know, as you watch even the NFL now, I think they're starting to do more things, like Locksley and I do, with these receivers coming into the backfield and doing different things. He, to me, gives me a lot of flexibility in that regard to be able to do that.

So for us, it was worth, even though I hadn't seen a lot of college reps at receiver, I've seen a lot of practice and his high school stuff, and I just think an athlete like that gives us some flexibility.

Q. He's not playing tomorrow, right?

HUGH FREEZE: No. I wish he was.

Q. Coach Locksley, Frank Wycheck, a big hero in the city of Nashville and obviously a prominent figure for Maryland football, can you elaborate on how you feel about getting a chance to honor him in this game?

MIKE LOCKSLEY: How ironic for us to come to Music City for the first time in our bowl game, and obviously we lost a great Maryland legend in Frank Wycheck, all time leading tight end in the history of Maryland football, the things he was able to accomplish in the NFL, two-time all pro guy that played an integral role in the Music City miracle obviously.

We're all saddened by the loss of Frank. He was a guy that was loved by all the different generations of Terps that have come through there because of how he represented us, not just at Maryland, but in the NFL. Definitely I saw some of our alum that live here in the area came by practice and were sharing some fond memories of Frank. We're looking forward to it.

We'll wear some decals on our helmets for him in honor of him and what he meant to Maryland. Really excited to kind of represent him the right way here.

Q. Hugh, having a full staff continuity, a ten-man assistant staff, is rare in college football right now. For you to presently be at that point for the 2024 season, how excited are you, and how much better do you think you guys can be on both sides of the ball because of having those same coaches in place?

HUGH FREEZE: Well, continuity is invaluable. Driving the same culture, the same voice from the staff rooms to the position rooms, and hopefully from the position rooms to the locker rooms is when you get to be a special team. It starts with the staff believing the same things and saying the same things and not wavering from those.

So continuity is always invaluable. The time -- we live in times where I doubt very seriously that all of the coaching changes are over. It's probably just now getting ready to pick up. Who knows exactly what everybody's staff will look like in a month from now.

No matter what ours, if it looks exactly the same or if it looks differently, the message will be the same. We've got to find that continuity. I don't know how Coach Locks feels, but I don't know that I ever feel like I took over a program and I got every single hire in the whole building right the first time because you're just so crazy with recruiting. So I think there's always the evaluation from our chair of can we improve ourselves some way.

Q. Coach Freeze, how do you view this bowl game? Coach Locksley says he views it as a precursor for a movie trailer for next year. For you with some of the continuity you have on your roster, is this a capper to this season, your first one at Auburn, or is it something to help you to continue building into next year?

HUGH FREEZE: I think it's both for me. When I say it's the capsulating, last game for the Kam Stutts and the Gunner Brittons who have given so much to this program. Many of them are not going to be have an NFL future, but they have a degree. They're getting to go out the way they want to go out and finish for Auburn and for their teammates.

So I celebrate that. Then we've got all freshmen DBs starting tomorrow. So it is absolutely in my mind for them kind of the start of the '24 year. It's kind of both for me truthfully.

Q. What have these last couple weeks been like for Billy Edwards? All of the rapid change from finding out Lia is opting out and taking first team reps and preparing to start? What are you expecting to see from him tomorrow?

MIKE LOCKSLEY: It's not much different for Billy. Billy is one of those guys. We've talked a lot about Lia, and as we should because of what he's done, but let's not misrepresent the fact that Billy Edwards has been a driving force in our program as the No. 2 guy. I would think, if you talk to Lia, he played an important role in Lia, in his development as well because of the friendship they had.

Billy's practiced really well. There's no dropoff in terms of the type of leadership that he'll provide. He's been throwing the ball really, really well. He's got all of his weapons for the most part, have decided to finish, like you talked about.

We spend too much time talking about the guys that are going to opt out, and I think we need to spend more time on the young men that have decided to finish. That's not a knock, we talked about, on guys not deciding to finish because the last game of college football is what it is.

But I do think that guys like the Deshawn Joneses of the world, and those guys who have made the decision to finish, D.J. Glaze has a Senior Bowl invite, will be drafted, Ja'Quan Sheppard, these types of players, those guys are the ones that -- we saw what happened a year ago with Jakorian Bennett coming back to play and being the MVP of the game, I want to make sure we celebrate those guys and what they've been able to accomplish.

Q. Coach Freeze, you're not using the helmet communication devices for this game. How long did that take to make that decision? Is it one of those things -- it sounds like there's not a lot of SEC teams that are in bowl games that are doing that.

Do you want to wait until the off-season and investigate it in spring, or is this maybe something that the league wants to talk about later in a few months?

HUGH FREEZE: Locks called me, and I immediately said absolutely, man. Let's do that. I have zero problem with them doing that.

Then sometimes discussions happen above you that you don't -- that you're not really in, and I'm full steam ahead recruiting at that point and really didn't have time to enter into all those discussions.

I just think we as a league want to be unified in kind of how we move forward. Truthfully, I'm not really sure where it stands, but we are using the tablets, but just chose not to at this point use the helmet communication.

THE MODERATOR: In a moment, we'll be hearing from the Auburn offensive and defensive coordinators.

Now we're going to hear from Auburn University defensive coordinator, Philip Montgomery, and defensive coordinator, Ron Roberts. They'll make a couple of comments, and then we'll open it up for questions.

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Good morning. Excited to be here. I think our team has had a fantastic time. This has been an unbelievable bowl. We appreciate all the hospitality of the bowl committee, of the City of Nashville, and the Gaylord, man, they've taken care of us. We want to say thank you and feel very blessed to be here.

Practices have been good. We know we've got a great opponent in Maryland. We've got our hands full. We've got to come out and play well, but our guys have had a good week of work, good workouts leading up to this one, and we're excited about the opportunity to play tomorrow.

RON ROBERTS: Thanks. Appreciate you all being here. Again, great atmosphere, great bowl, had a great experience. Our guys, we have some pretty good bowl practices. We've got probably changeover on the defensive side of the ball, several of our defensive backs. We've got a couple of them going to Senior Bowl, and they opted out. We've got some change over there, but it's been a good opportunity for a lot of our younger guys to step in and get some reps.

In that way it's been an energized bowl practice. It's an opportunity for some guys to step into new roles and stuff. I thought they really handled it well. We're excited about the product we're going to put on the field on Saturday and look forward to playing Maryland.

Q. Ron, you said maybe all freshmen in the secondary. How different is the defensive group than the one at the end of the year, and what have you seen about the guys out of bowl practice?

RON ROBERTS: Up front we're going to be pretty solid. You are going to see a lot of veterans with game experience, linebackers, D-line, all those positions. On the back end, we're going to see some new faces. I think they're very talented faces.

When you talk about Kay Lee stepping back in, he's got some opportunities. He started earlier in the season. He's got some reps. Colton Hood got some reps, Tyler Scott, Love, and JC Hart, and other guys, very limited reps on the back end, but they're all very talented football players, and Sylvester Smith.

These are guys that are the future of Auburn football, and I think have very bright futures. It's been a fun experience to watch them go in there and get better the last ten days of practice.

Q. Philip, I know something that's been discussed a lot, and we haven't heard your perspective is when Hugh Freeze stepped into the offensive role after the Ole Miss game. He put his foot down, so to speak.

From your perspective, what happened from that conversation from that point forward after the Ole Miss game into the rest of the season?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: I think honestly he's always been a part of it. We went into this with that mindset. He's always had influence on it from fall camp to now and will continue to do that. We went into this with our eyes wide open with the honest approach of trying to put the best thing on the field for our players and giving them the best opportunity to go win. I don't think that's really changed.

Q. Philip, Freeze kind of gave Payton his vote of confidence for the offense next season. He said he is not really interested in bringing in a transfer quarterback. What have you seen out of Payton in terms of his improvement this year and where he can maybe take another step as a starter next season?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: With Payton, he's very professional with what he does. He's always looking at tape and looking for ways to get better. As the season went on, you got to see his athleticism, see how he handled some things. I thought he operated at a high level throughout a good portion of that later part of the season.

He's a guy, I think, as we continue to build around him and put the pieces around him, he's going to continue to lead this offense in a really good way. We felt very good about where he was, where the quarterback room was, and I think Payton is excited about what the future holds.

Q. Philip, what's it like for you guys at wide receiver? With the transfers out and obviously bringing in a lot of talent for next season, but they're not going to be playing tomorrow. What is it for those guys that are still left that will still be here next year in the receiver room?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: We've got some faces that aren't there. So we're pretty limited in the numbers of what those guys are right now, but the guys that are there have really practiced well. They've done a really good job of continuing to grow.

I think with the faces that we're adding, I think that room is fixing to be really, really special, but these guys here right now, we've got to keep them healthy through this game. I think we've still got some weapons and some things that we can do on the outside that we need to try to take advantage of.

But those guys are excited about stepping on the field and playing and showing what they can do tomorrow.

Q. Ron, you mentioned up front, guys like Robby, James and Travis and Darron Reed and some of those guys, how big of an opportunity is this for them to build into the next season?

RON ROBERTS: It's great for them to get opportunities to get more reps at practice. Travis especially, we really tried to get his red shirt this year, so it limited his play. But we think he's going to be an impact guy. When you try to limit his play, you also limit his reps because you've got to get the other guys ready.

It's been bowl season. He's ready to go. I think he's ready to step in and be an impact player for us on defensive line. Reed is going to be a great player. He just needs time and snaps and opportunity.

Q. Just kind of curious from your perspective, I know Maryland's quarterback situation is a little bit more fluid, I guess, with too many experienced guys. Just kind of curious, with the limited film, what does stick out? How hard is it to game plan or prep to kind of know what to expect with them?

RON ROBERTS: It is probably difficult what you'd expect because he hasn't played a lot this year. He came in third and short, around the snake, quarterback ISO, quarterback power, some run game stuff. You go back to the Northwestern game last year, but different coordinator, and he let him loose and let him run the offense.

We kind of tried to do as much research as we could on him. I think he's a guy that's a tough kid. He can run hard. He may not be considered to be a dual threat guy, but he can move the sticks with his feet and create plays. He seems to be a tough kid.

When you go back to watch the tape and go back to his high school tape, he can make all the throws. He's got a big arm. What he probably doesn't have is experience. I don't know. Even if he has experience, can he come in and make the throws and the decisions he needs to make and deliver the football?

But I think probably the most talented group for them is the wide receivers. I think that's the skill positions there that made the plays all year long. What are they going to do, and how are they going to change some things a little bit to feature what they have? Luckily, we had more practices to be able to sprinkle in everything.

To me, the biggest opportunity will be somewhere early, hopefully early. By the first quarter, we'll have to make adjustments to what are we seeing and get it communicated down to the field and settle in on a game plan. Here's what he can do, and here's what he can't do, and let's go.

Q. For both of you, you all had some guys that just signed, freshmen that get to go through bowl practice, mostly on defense, but I saw a couple guys on offense.

How important do you think that is for them to get that head start and pretty unique, getting to do stuff before they even get to spring ball?

RON ROBERTS: I'll go because we have the majority of them. I think if anything, it was probably eliminating some anxiety on their part. Kind of came in, and they got -- I don't know, what did they get? Six practices? About six practices in.

Just getting introduced to stretch individual, process of how you go through things. I think it will be really valuable down the road. When they go to spring practice, they're going to be a little more at ease, not as much big eyed. You can see the nervousness, all the stuff that happened. Hopefully it's going to put them in a much better situation when spring practice occurs, and they get to go compete.

Q. Ron, you guys obviously have to replace both Simp and Puckett at safety next year. What have you seen out of those guys? When you mention a guy like a T. Love, what have you seen out of them this season in practice and a bigger opportunity now, and obviously you have the JUCO signee as well? What's your outlook on that position next year?

RON ROBERTS: I think T. Love is a talented football player. He'll strike and run and all those things. He'll come and get you. I think he's a very talented football player, and he's a smart football player. Kind of got caught there early behind some older guys, and he didn't get his opportunity, as much reps as he probably should have got.

Sylvester kind of played -- he's probably the next one when you're looking at the free safety spot. Really for necessity for us this year, he came in and played the star position, the nickel, and did that as a role. That was his best pick coming in with the young guys, how was he going to get in that 3 spot and get a chance to go learn and compete.

It was good. We moved him back the first time we went to some bowl practices, and he's really showed tremendous range and all that. I think these practices are going to help him tremendously get ready to go. But he will strike you, and he will run. He's going to be a really good football player.

Q. Philip, Hugh talked earlier this season about how maybe you two coming together was a little more difficult than he initially thought. Did it go kind of as you planned or thought it would this season?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Any time you're trying to mesh things together, you're always going to come with some hurdles in there. There's been some good give and take on that part of it and trying to make sure that we get the best opportunity for our guys to be successful.

I think background-wise, we're very, very similar, but then just the way you approach things and the way you look at it obviously can be different.

I think we've done a good job of just trying to make those things work. Again, making sure that we're putting the team in front of everything else.

Q. Philip, a little bit of a forward looking question. You offered Walker White at Tulsa. What about him -- what did you see in him where you got here and thought, man, this is a guy I want to call and try to get to Auburn? What do you see in him and how do you expect him to develop?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: I think Walker has a really, really bright future. He's a guy that can do both. He can run with it. He can throw with it. But he's got an electric type arm. You see the ball just kind of really take off out of his hands. He can flick it and make every throw you want him to make. Whether he's on platform or off platform, he's got the athleticism to do that.

Obviously physically he's a gifted young man. He doesn't look like a freshman coming into college. So we're excited about that part of it, the natural God given talents that he has, but a huge part of it was really just kind of his approach. He handled things very maturely. He's a guy that is going to be able to help build and grow our locker room. His core values really match up with ours. So I think it was a home run from that standpoint for him and for us.

Q. Philip, I'm going to stay with the quarterback theme. With Holden kind of stepping up and earning a lot more reps as the 2 guy late in the season and not having Payton on campus for a lot of those bowl practices, how much have you seen Holden grow this year, and what do you think his potential is moving forward?

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: I think he's really grown quite a bit since we got here in the spring. Again, he has an electric arm. He's a guy that can make every throw. I think he has started to kind of fill into his body. You can see his athleticism starting to take over a little bit more.

I think, for him, he's had a lot of growth mentally this year. Just learning how to play the position, how to study, what it takes to get prepared for a game.

We've still got a long ways to go in that stance, but he's made really good leaps and bounds in those areas, and we're excited about what his future holds here at Auburn.

THE MODERATOR: Coach Montgomery, Coach Roberts, thank you so much for your time.

We're now going to hear from University of Maryland Offensive Coordinator, Josh Gattis and Defensive Coordinator, Brian Williams. They'll make a few opening remarks, and we'll open it up for questions.

JOSH GATTIS: Hello to everyone. Obviously we're really excited to be here at the Music City Bowl. I want to thank Scott Ramsey, the director of the Music City Bowl, and his staff and the hospitality we received throughout the week. Our players are really excited to be here in Nashville and really to represent the Big Ten in this matchup.

We've prepared the right way. Our players are excited. We look forward to kicking it off tomorrow afternoon.

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Coach Gattis couldn't have said it better.

Q. Josh, quarterback transfer, MJ Morris, has he been with the team the last couple of weeks?

JOSH GATTIS: Yes, MJ joined us last week in bowl preparations as one of the newcomers. We've been fortunate enough to have a few of our transfer portal additions be a part of practice as well as some of our incoming freshmen.

Obviously in the short period of time, it's been a limited amount that we can do with those guys after getting them medically cleared. But I like his approach. He's quiet. He's learning. He's just acclimating himself into the team.

We're excited to have him join our football program, and we look forward to our quarterback competition that we'll have throughout the off-season. But we're excited for Billy tomorrow and Cam and get those guys opportunities in the game.

Q. Brian, for you, question about Jaishawn Barham, he was really effective as a pass rusher this past season, but you used him mostly off the ball in coverage. What went into the thought process going into that usage with him, and how surprised were you to see him transfer?

BRIAN WILLIAMS: A guy like Jaishawn obviously did a lot of great things for us at Maryland the last couple of years. We're very fortunate to have had him here. Wish him all the best moving forward.

The thing about us this year, we've been able to generate pressure with multiple guys from multiple positions. So we'll continue that by committee, if you will. Any time you lose a player like that, it gives someone else an opportunity to showcase their ability, and we're looking forward to that opportunity tomorrow.

Q. Brian, when scouting to face Auburn's offense, it's a team obviously that did not throw the ball for any particularly large numbers this season. It's now very thin at wide receiver heading into this game.

How have you been preparing to face what could be the run heavy? What were you expecting from Auburn's offense coming into this game?

BRIAN WILLIAMS: A lot of what you've seen them do successfully with their quarterback, who has a lot of experience, the tight end does a really good job in the passing game. A lot of it is predicated on how well they run the ball in terms of them throwing it. A lot of their successful passes come off the action of their runs.

We've just got to be really sound fundamentally with our eyes, our footwork, and making sure we're where we're supposed to be from a discipline standpoint and playing collectively and keeping everything in front of us on the back end and tackling the football.

I think that's one of the biggest things Coach Locksley has talked with us in our bowl preparation is just not losing the fundamentals and techniques of playing sound and tackling the ball carrier.

Q. Coach Gattis, obviously with the quarterbacks coming in now, obviously I know you addressed MJ, but just with the two guys that are able to -- at least the two guys that are able to play tomorrow, from Billy Edwards, Cam Edge, what have you seen from them throughout the season?

I know they get a chance to take a lot of reps during practice that the fans can't see, and how do you think they've kind of acclimated, one, just competing for the bowl reps and then battling each other for QB1?

JOSH GATTIS: I think Cam and Billy have done a great job all year long preparing themselves for the what-if moment. Today in college football, you've got to prepare all three quarterbacks because it's easy for a guy to go down and the next man has got to be ready.

I think for both of those young men, they've never let the situation affect them mentally, emotionally, or physically. They've continued to prepare as if they're the starter. And I'm confident in their preparation they'll be able to go out and lead our team to success on Saturday. Looking forward to seeing those guys get their opportunity.

Q. For Josh, I was wondering about the preparation when Taulia opts out, and then you see on the other side that Auburn has a couple of starting DBs opt out.

How do you balance that game plan of realizing there might be a relative weakness for Auburn on the defensive side of the ball while at the same time you guys don't have your usual quarterback?

JOSH GATTIS: All season long for us as a team, it's been about us handling adversity. Obviously not one person changes the outcome of a game. Taulia has meant so much to this program, but we've gone every week this year missing someone. So the next-man-up approach has really been the mentality that Coach Locks has been preaching to our team and not being affected by the outcome of who's available.

I think specifically on offense, there's been times where we didn't know what lineman we were going to start, what's going to be the starting five going into a Saturday.

We'd have to make those decisions leading into a game. We really have that don't-flinch mentality, and specifically in the quarterback position, we're just going to continue to be who we are.

We've obviously established ourselves from an identity standpoint and things that we want to focus on offensively, we're going to stick to those things. For us, bowl games are about doing what your players can execute well, and we feel really good about the game plan that we've put together that both our quarterbacks can go out there and execute.