ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL KICKOFF

July 24, 2024

Jalen Rivers

Miami Hurricanes

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Jalen.

Q. You have a new center this year. What have you seen from Zach?

JALEN RIVERS: Matt Lee had a great year. I'm excited for his future in the NFL. Now that we have Zach, he's a great addition to the team. He's filling that leadership role really well. Took some time for him to get comfortable, but now he's filled the shoes really well at the center spot. Built the camaraderie with everybody, not just our offensive line, Cam Ward, everybody on the offense.

He's doing a really good job and is excited for the season.

Q. O-linemen don't get a lot of publicity. How do you know at the end of the game that you had a good game?

JALEN RIVERS: For me, I never feel like I have that great game. I critique myself. I'm my biggest critic. In the film room with Coach, you're like, Damn, maybe I didn't have a great game (smiling).

As a lot of people in our room, you never feel like you had a great game because we always want to be better each day. That's how you get better. You never want to be complacent. You think you have had a great game, you shouldn't because you always look for room for improvement.

Q. As an offensive lineman and in a league with so many great defense linemen going up against you, what is your role to set the tone in the game?

JALEN RIVERS: We get that pretty early because we get that a lot during practice. We have a lot of defensive linemen in our program right now that get us ready for the games. When we go in the games, we are really prepared. We got Rueben Bain, we got Akheem Mesidor, we got Tyler Baron, Elijah Alston. The list goes on. When we go against these guys that have a great defensive line, there's no problem and we're ready for that challenge.

Q. Historically when Miami has been good, they've had great offensive lines. What kind of advice have you gotten from past great players of what you can do to have success?

JALEN RIVERS: I mean, speaking of recently, we had our legends camp. A lot of the alumni came back. We got a lot of great feedback. Instead of coaching the little kids, we got a little time with the alumni, hearing technique that they used in their past experience as an offensive line in the league and in college.

They're spewing that all to us and teaching us. It was a great learning moment. I'm excited to use that in my game.

Q. Coach Cristobal gave us some insight into the unbreakable culture at Miami. How do you assume that responsibility?

JALEN RIVERS: It's very important as a guy, this is my fifth-year, so it's important for me to really learn all the things that I learned in my past times here. Just pushing that onto the younger guys. I've experienced a lot through my team here, so have other leaders. Learn from other leaders, learn from my experience as a player in this offensive line, in this room, in this program. It's important for me to see what I learned and see what other people have learned as leaders, put that to the younger guys, put that more into my teammates so we can be a cohesive and successful unit.

Q. You had 19 offers coming out of high school. You're a Florida gay, stayed in the Sunshine State.

JALEN RIVERS: Yeah, I always wanted to be in the vicinity of my hometown, Jacksonville, Florida. It was important for me to just stay in Florida. Luckily and fortunately I ended up a Miami Hurricane. I'm excited to be a Miami Hurricane. I will always be a Hurricane.