On holding teammates accountable
“For me I feel like it started off difficult. You want your teammates to like you. You want to be their friends. We’re always around each other, we’re like brothers. I think I really had to realize, there’s a standard for everything and friendship doesn’t come before the standard. Once I came with that mindset, it made it a whole lot easier. Everybody is different. You have to approach guys differently. For the most part, everybody is tough, thick-skinned people. I love them and I want the best for them at all times. I want to bring the best out of them if they’re not performing at that. I feel like the relationship I have to have with my teammates so that I can be able to hold them accountable and then for myself, I always have to make sure that I’m practicing what I’m preaching.”
On learning how to lead from coaches
“I’ve grown in age and experience, so I have my own point of view of different things. Coach Rhule, Coach Butler, Coach Addison, and all the coaches really, they give us great insight on the things that it takes to be a great leader. They don’t tell us, ‘you have to do this, you have to do this’, they give us examples. Every leader is going to be different. I don’t expect Deshon (Singleton) to lead the same way as me. I don’t expect Dylan (Raiola) to lead the same way as me and vice versa. I feel like just figuring out your best way to take the approach of leadership and just attacking everyday.”
On the “nameless, faceless opponent” mantra against Michigan
“I feel like that’s kind of been our motto since the season started. This is just the first week that we’ve actually made it an actual, physical name of something we were doing. Since we started week one with Cincinnati, we weren’t really worried about the name or who they are. Always have a healthy respect for our opponent and making sure we know that anything and everything about them and how they play. But, at the end of the day, it’s football and they’re just another person across. It doesn’t really matter who they are.”