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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: DUKE v FLORIDA STATEDecember 2, 2013Ross CockrellCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA ROSS COCKRELL: Well, obviously it's been a storybook ride for us, especially for me. This is my fifth year, and to have a final year like this at Duke that's unprecedented is very amazing, very special, a credit to everybody on this team who's worked extremely hard. And then on Florida State, they're a very talented team. There's no doubt about that. But I think we have a very talented team, as well, and we're going to go up there and we're going to do what we've been doing all year, which is play hard, being a disciplined football team, and going for all four quarters. Q. You guys were playing really well when you went to Tallahassee last year and Florida State really won the game handily. What do you take from looking at that film that can help you this year? ROSS COCKRELL: Well, one of the biggest things defensively, and one of the things that we struggled with down the stretch, is that we gave up a lot of big plays. We gave up a lot of big plays to Florida State, Clemson, Miami, last year those games that we lost down the stretch, and that's our biggest takeaway is that we can't give up big plays like that and expect to win the game. Q. What do you see when you look at tape of Kelvin Benjamin, and without giving up secrets, how do you begin to defend a guy with that kind of size and speed combination? ROSS COCKRELL: Yeah, I mean, Benjamin is probably one of the rarest athletes in college football, with his size and his speed. He has great hands, great leaping ability. I think the best way to defend against somebody like that is to challenge them up front. What we've done all year is we've been physical with receivers, and we're going to try and be physical with them, as well. Q. Is that something that you watch on tape and it just kind of stands out to you? Do you sometimes feel like, wow, we've got to bracket a guy that's 6'5" that can run past everybody? ROSS COCKRELL: Yeah, it definitely is something that we haven't seen all year. That's true. He is 6'5", he's very fast, very quick. But at the same time I don't know if we have to bracket him. We're going to play football like we've been playing all year. We play our coverages, whether it's zone or man, and we go up and try to challenge receivers, and we'll do the same thing this weekend. Q. How do you balance savoring every moment of this season knowing how much history has been made versus staying focused on what you have coming up and making sure everything is still all business? ROSS COCKRELL: Well, I think one of the things that's special about this team is that we enjoy putting in the hard work that's necessary. So that's part of enjoying what we've done. We come to work each and every day, we have a great time, we have a good time, we're laughing, we're smiling. But when we step on the field, we know it's time to go to work. When we're in the football building watching film, we know it's time to go to work then. So we definitely have enjoyed this ride. We're going to continue to enjoy it this week. But we understand the lines and the boundaries of fun and work. Q. What has been the best moment of this season for you? ROSS COCKRELL: I guess so far the best moment is beating North Carolina and clinching the Coastal Division and having the trophy presented to us in the locker room there. Q. What was the scene like in there? ROSS COCKRELL: It was just a lot of energy, excitement, people jumping around. I thought the trophy was going to get broken. Everybody was just reaching for it. I'm glad we were able to keep it safe. Q. Could you just talk about what happened to this defense after the Pitt game? Was there any regrouping of sorts that you guys had to do after giving up so many points in that game, because you have played so great the rest of the year? ROSS COCKRELL: Yeah, we've done a great job, I think, defensively. But one of the things that we took away from last year was that you can't give up a lot of big plays, especially in the passing game, the deep passes that we gave up. We can't give up those kinds of plays and expect to win ballgames. We know we have a very good team. We have a very good offense who can put up points on anybody. We've just got to make sure that we limit people, and the best way to limit people is by making them drive the length of the field on you and not giving up the 50‑ and 60‑yard passes. That got us in trouble in the Pitt game, that got us in trouble last year down the stretch, and ever since the Pitt game we've been doing a good job of limiting those big, explosive plays. Q. Was there any concern, here we go again, with that kind of problem after Pitt? ROSS COCKRELL: No, no. One of the things about this team is that we're a family. We're a unit. We stick together no matter what. Even when things aren't going our way, we know that somebody is going to make a play, somebody is going to step up, and we're going to be back in the game. Q. Talking to David Harding earlier in this teleconference, he was talking about how the team used as motivation some of the negative perceptions going into the season. I'm just wondering if you agree with that. And secondly, obviously there are a lot of people out there that don't think you guys have a chance Saturday; do you use that as motivation, too? ROSS COCKRELL: It's motivation, but it's not the driving‑‑ one of our priorities, something that we focus on. One of the things that we've always believed in ever since I got here is that we're going to go to work. We're going to play this game with the guys we have in this locker room, with the guys we have in this building that get up early in the morning, sweat, work every single day, and that's all we need. In the back of our minds we do know that there's people not giving us a chance. We know that we were picked last in the ACC at the beginning of the season. We understand all those things, but at the end of the day it's the guys in the locker room that have a belief in each other that's propelled us forward. Q. Anthony was just talking about earlier the decision to go to Duke and not quite knowing what's going to happen, you've just got to play football, and obviously you guys have been a part of this turnaround. I'm wondering if you can recall your recruiting pitch from Coach Cutcliffe and just kind of those early stages when you're committing to something that you're not sure can get to the point that it has gotten to while you've been there. ROSS COCKRELL: Yeah. You know, one of the things when Coach Cut first recruited me is he told me this vision of Duke building a football program, a contender in the ACC, someone that will compete for ACC Championships. And that's what I believed was going to happen. That's why I came to Duke, because I wanted to be part of that vision. I wanted to be part of Coach Cut's program and building something from the ground up. That was the reason why I came here. Fortunately for me and a lot of guys on this team, it's worked out. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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