Barnes says Miami 'a big challenge' as Tigers prep for matchup with Hurricanes
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Junior offensive lineman, Marucs Tate, and freshman safety, Khalil Barnes, caught up with the media on Monday ahead of Clemson’s road game against Miami. Watch the full videos or take in a few notes of what was discussed in Tiger Town here!
Marcus Tate
On the offensive line throughout the season: “We play hard. I think we are a hard playing offensive line. We play through the whistle, a lot of us are playing a lot of snaps, but a big thing I think we’re doing pretty well is protecting the quarterback. I think we’ve protected the quarterback really well this year. We obviously have areas to improve in– especially in the running game with technique and stuff, but I think we’re doing that. I think we are more hungry as we get into this part of the season– just continuing to improve on how hungry we are… I think we’ll be good.”
On the new offense: “I think we got the offense down… we do our routine things. That is something that we try to focus on, we’re not trying to do too many other things that we don’t do every day. In the game, we’re playing the plays we practice. I think sometimes we are not executing at the level we’re supposed to and we just have to sharpen that up.”
On routine plays: “It goes back to what Coach Riley was saying, you know, doing the routine things right. We worked that play all the time and when you focus on something to the level that we focus it on, I think you should execute it at the level that we’re executing it. I think we’re on 7.5 yards a carry on that, you know we’re doing really well so I think the practice and the focus that we have on that play has really paid off for us.”
Khalil Barnes
On the end of the season: “It’s cool, because you know, now we’re kind of in the flow of things. Like in the early season, where you are still trying to figure the team out, we know who we are, we know what we have to do, and we know how to win. Coming off of a bye week, we needed that, it's kind of like a mental break. We’re definitely excited to be at this point of the season.”
On the team confidence and preparation: “That confidence comes from film study and practice. It just goes back to square one, today is a mental Monday, we’ll watch some more tape, we’ll watch some more today. We’ll go through the looks at practice, so all that stuff. Once you become so confident in your preparation, you get out there and you fall back on your preparation.”
On facing Miami: “It’s a big challenge– the game we get to play this week. But, like you were saying, we’re at this point in the season, every game already matters, but we’re in the deep part. We got to stick to it, we can’t come out slow because we didn’t play last week. It’s gonna be a challenge– night game there, probably be rowdy, but we’re up for it. We’re gonna prepare, we’re gonna do the same thing we’ve been doing.”
