Press Conference (Philip Daniels) August 2 Massive

I feel like when you get here, it's a whole nother level.

He's gonna keep coaching you up.

He's gonna be hard on you.

He's gonna tell you what you're doing good.

He's gonna tell you what you're doing wrong.

And he's gonna push you to be your best.

What kind

of

role do they have you playing? Do they have you moving all over? Yes, moving all over.

Yes, sir.

What was it like for you just getting to be here and see this team win a national championship in your first two weeks on campus?

It was crazy.

I feel like I knew that they were going to do it from the beginning of the season.

I feel like they always had the potential.

And then they came out here, they did it.

And the freshmen, we had an opportunity to sit there and watch it.

So I feel like now we just got to do it again.

What did you learn from back there?

Just it's all hard work and it's just a bunch of guys and it's really a brotherhood and it's really just our family versus their family.

And we just got to persevere and we got to win the games and get back to

the net.

The Tartline was saying that Carnell and Brandon have really been leaders in the room so far this year.

How have they both been leaders for you?

They've been leaders just in multiple ways, whether I call them, we're in the film room together, we're on the jugs.

I'm asking them about this route, how I can run it better.

I'm asking them how I run this route on this play, just many different things.

I feel like those guys, they're like big brothers, and all they've done is help me.

How valuable is that to have guys that play a lot of football but also have been in college for a while? You could ask them various things about college life, how valuable are they?

It's real valuable for sure because they're first-round pick guys.

So I feel like just being in a room with those guys, and if you're able to thrive with those guys, you know something's going good for you.

What have your impressions been of the quarterbacks, and I guess specifically Tavian? What have you kind of known about him and learned

about him? I always had a good relationship with Tavian.

He recruited me hard to come here, so I feel like we always talked, and he came here, and he's been doing his thing.

They've all been doing their thing, and Julian's saying he's another Cali kid, so I had a little relationship with him, too, so good to see Julian, Lincoln, and Tavion all doing real good.

What is that next step for you in terms of evolution of your game? What do you want to get better at? This is a great question.

Really just everything.

I feel like you can never be too perfect, and I feel like you just got to keep doing your job.

So I say maybe just showing up more and just doing my job to the T.

Going against these corners and these DBs, how has that kind of made you better in the last couple of weeks? They're pretty talented.

In high school, I had a five-star corner, Dijon Lee.

He was at Alabama.

So I always had good work with corners.

So I feel like it's just a lot.

I'm going against a lot of good guys now instead of just being one-on-one at practice with Dijon.

So it's real good for sure.

Does it take more courage to play in the slot than outside? Say it again, please.

Does it take more courage to play in the slot than outside?

What do you mean by that?

Because there's more stuff, but I think there's bigger hitters inside.

You've got to be aware of it, but it does take more courage to

do that.

I guess you could say that.

I feel like I've just always played slot, and I feel like that's what I've been better at.

So I feel like it's just what I have to do, to be honest.

No matter who's in front of me, how big he is, how strong he is, I feel like if I've got an assignment, I've got to do it.

arguably faces more pressure than a position on the line.

In your opinion, what is the proper mindset to succeed

at that

position? I think that the mindset for me always has been that when I win a one-on-one, the ball goes down the field.

You know what I mean? And I think that's what I'm most excited about, just being a left tackle, is that especially with the protections that are a little bit Longer plays where the left tackle tends to be a one-on-one or the plays I tend to love the most because kind of like halfway through the play, you're locking him up and you just know that he can't go anywhere.