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ALLSTATE BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: LSU v ALABAMAJanuary 6, 2012Will BlackwellNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA Q. Will, 30 some days since you guys have played, and 40 something for them. What's most important when you're off that long to get it back and get ready for a football game? WILL BLACKWELL: I think the most important thing is just to maintain focus. There's a lot of distractions. Christmas, New Year's, coming down to New Orleans and having a good time. It's hard to focus and pay attention to practice and film when the game's so far away. But this team's done a great job. And hopefully that will pay for us on Monday. Q. You guys have been just so good the second half, just plowing people with the running game. Can you do it to these guys on Monday night? WILL BLACKWELL:  I hope so. And that's a credit to our backs, our stable running backs. We've got four, five guys back there who can mix it up, big guys, fast guys, and we look to get them all involved in the game plan on Monday. Q. Your teammates have all been outspoken about, yeah, you're chasing a championship, absolutely, that's number one goal. But my sense is you guys feel like you're chasing history. WILL BLACKWELL: Yeah, no doubt. And we understand how important this game is from every aspect, the history aspect, the present aspect, everything. But there's no team that we'd rather beat than Alabama. They're our rival. We have to beat each other to be the best, and that's just how it is. Q. You said you felt like it wasn't probably fair that you had to go through them a second time. But the other part is if you beat them for a second time, there shouldn't be any question about your guys' place in history. WILL BLACKWELL: Right. They're a great team. Probably one of the best they've ever had. If we're able to pull off this win, I would imagine it would be a pretty big deal around here for a long time. Q. A lot of talk out of their camp that they didn't play their best football game and they lost it the first time. You don't feel you played your best football game either? WILL BLACKWELL: No, they did lose, but I don't know if that was a matter of us beating them or them missing a field goal, which is always a part of the game. So we're just going to come out, try to execute. We feel like we missed a few things the last game, and hopefully we can get them corrected Monday. Q. It's not Tiger Stadium, but do you feel this is your second home? WILL BLACKWELL: No doubt, 60 miles away. There will be plenty of people, plenty people enjoying it. Like I said, there's other places we'd play than Tiger Stadium, but to have the game in the Superdome is a tremendous deal for us. Q. Can you talk about Josh Chapman a little bit, what he does up front, taking up multiple blockers, how he opens up the Alabama defense? WILL BLACKWELL: He's a big guy. They kind of play him for a two‑gap scheme, playing nose guard in their Okie defense. And he does a good job with anything down the line. He's hard to move. He's short, so he has a lot of leverage.  He'll be a tough assignment for me and P.J. and Josh Williford on Monday. Q. Let's talk about the north Louisiana family a little bit. There's a couple guys sitting over there on the big spotlight level. Have you talked to them a little bit about being a part of the team and how it all has to click to be where you are today? WILL BLACKWELL: That's one thing we do well around here is everybody has to go through that experience. There was a time when nobody knew who Tyrann Mathieu was, nobody knew who Will Blackwell was, nobody knew who Jordan Jefferson was. And that's something about the guys that come here. They want to be that person. They want to have that responsibility on their back. And they've done a tremendous job of that this season. Q. I know when you left West Monroe High School, your dream was to be where you are today. And you've become a spokesperson for this team. We've talked about it all season long. How special has that been for you? WILL BLACKWELL: It's a tremendous honor for me. There's no other place that I would rather play in and spend my career. I'm truly honored to be recognized as a leader of this team, and that's all I really ever wanted to do. So go out there Monday and win this game, and we'll have a little bit more to celebrate. Q. Talk to me about what it's going to take to write that final chapter. WILL BLACKWELL: We're going to have to go out and execute, simple as that. We've got a good game plan. It's coming together. And we've had some great practices. So we felt like last time we missed a few things here and there that we could have done a little better. And hopefully Monday we'll be able to execute those dreams. Q. Can you tell in your gut‑‑ I know you only had a week to prepare for them first time around versus a month this time, but give me a feel for how you guys feel about the game plan in your gut in comparison. WILL BLACKWELL: We feel good about the game plan. We spent a lot of time practicing it, about a month. We've had plenty of time to go over things and adjust things. And it just comes down to who wants it more and who is going to execute things better. So we'll go out there and limit our mistakes and hope for the best. Q. How fitting is it for you guys to decide it here? WILL BLACKWELL: There's one place we'd rather play, and that's Tiger Stadium. And if we can't play this game in there, then what better place than the Superdome. So we're honored to be here in New Orleans. Basically our backyard. And there's no place we'd rather be than here. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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