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PLAYSTATION FIESTA BOWL: OHIO STATE VS CLEMSON

December 28, 2016

Raekwon McMillan

Glendale, Arizona

Does it restrict you to play a lot of zone then because if you're in man and --

RAEKWON MCMILLAN: No, our coaches have done a great job of sticking to what we do and we don't have to change anything up.

Q. Is he the best quarterback you've ever faced this year?
RAEKWON MCMILLAN: I won't know until after the game. I mean, you can base it off film against other teams, but I'm not really that kind of a guy to do that.

So I won't know until after the game. So you can ask me after.

Q. Question in terms of the running game.
RAEKWON MCMILLAN: Quarterback RPOs. Whenever you have an RPO, has a chance to get the ball or pass it to one of the best receivers on the team. So anytime you think it's a run but then he pulls the ball and then throws it to the receiver.

So if you're making too much of him throwing it to the receiver, then he gives it to Wayne Gallman who is a running back, once he gets to the next level, it's hard to take him down.

Q. Have you seen many running backs like Gallman in this season?
RAEKWON MCMILLAN: We've played against some great running backs, Wisconsin running back Corey Clement. Northwestern's running back, he's pretty decent. Played against good guys all year. Oklahoma's running backs, I ain't even said Oklahoma's running backs. Both of them were special.

Q. Had you been to Arizona before last year's game?
RAEKWON MCMILLAN: Had I been to Arizona? Yeah, I've been here before. I visited Phoenix and Scottsdale when I was younger. Don't really remember it, but I've been here before.

Q. How did you like playing inside the University of Phoenix stadium?
RAEKWON MCMILLAN: I think it's kind of weird how the stadium has grass but it's indoors. The stadium rose up -- the grass rolls out or something like that. I think it's very unique. And just being able to play on grass inside, I think, is an awesome feel. And it's one of the better stadiums in the nation.

Q. Do you feel like you're a year ahead? Looking at the beginning of the season people prognosticated two or three losses, here or there. Seniors --
RAEKWON MCMILLAN: Two, three losses?

Q. Michigan. Michigan State.
RAEKWON MCMILLAN: Wow, you thought we were going to lose to the team up north?

Q. Do you feel like you guys are where you were two years ago?
RAEKWON MCMILLAN: I'm never going to roll through a season thinking I'm going to lose two, three games. That's crazy.

I mean, I don't feel like we're a year ahead. We go out and we work hard. And I'm just baffled that you say we're going to lose two, three games. I don't know what to say.

I don't ever think we're going to lose two, three, games. I feel lie we go in there and put in work during the offseason just like any other team. And Coach Meyer never showed he was going to drop games like that.

Q. (Indiscernible).
RAEKWON MCMILLAN: I mean, that's true as well. But we recruit -- like I said, we recruit some of the best in the nation. We've got some of the best coaches. So I think we'll be all right.

Q. Is your mentality then the beginning of each season that you're going to be undefeated?
RAEKWON MCMILLAN: I mean, yeah, I don't go into any stadium thinking I'm going to lose the game. Nobody ever rolls into the stadium thinking they're going to lose. Maybe if you're not in a top 10 program. But, I mean, I don't really know how that feels, rolling into a stadium knowing that you're going to lose a game.

Q. You guys have not been shy about approaching this as not just another game; it's a big game. What's that mindset like, especially for the younger guys to jump in and know that this is the semifinal?
RAEKWON MCMILLAN: Yeah, we've been playing in some big games over the last couple of weeks that have got us in the situation we're in. And the older guys have done a great job of showing the younger guys that -- I mean, this is it. This game is to play in the National Championship game.

And it's nothing less than that. And we're not going to sell it short because the young guys need to know and they need to have the experience of playing in the big game so they can get back, just like I was in my first year here at Ohio State. To be able to get back my junior year is a blessing.

Q. There's been a lot of talk about J.T.'s quality of quarterback play. Is there anything that Deshaun Watson does that J.T. can't do?
RAEKWON MCMILLAN: I mean, he might -- I don't know. I can't really say. I don't see them as very much different. They can both run. They're both dual threat quarterbacks. They both have a winning record.

I think J.T.'s only lost three games here at Ohio State. And Clemson has probably lost the same amount. I don't really know the records from two years ago.

But he's a winner. And that's what I see in both of them, they're both winners, and they both don't sell their program short of anything.

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