	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

PLAYSTATION FIESTA BOWL: PENN STATE VS WASHINGTON

December 26, 2017

DaeSean Hamilton

Glendale, Arizona

DAESEAN HAMILTON: ... the way he's after that first day is the same exact way all the way to my four years after playing for him. So, yeah, what people see out of Coach Franklin is really what you're going to get. He's been a great leader for us and he's been able to put Penn State in a successful position.

Q. When you came to Penn State obviously there were a lot of things going on. Now it's like a complete -- the world has done a 180 for Penn State. Did you feel like you were taking a chance on Penn State back then?
DAESEAN HAMILTON: Yeah, back then, really just coming to the school like Penn State, obviously when the sanctions had it and the situation that the school had been in, it was a gamble. But really when it comes down to it, guys, they came to this school and guys in my class and even the seniors, the true senior class, they came to this basically to be part of a family, not necessarily worry about what was going on with the outside factors, things like that, that have nothing to do with the football team, nothing to do with the players that are coming in.

All we want to do is come in and live our dream and play college football and basically let the rest take care of itself. And that's all the guys, that's the true guys and true character of the guys on this team. That's why basically we have guys like Jason Cabindas and Mike Gesickis, Marcus Allens, things like that because they're just true, genuine guys, they care about what they're doing and the people around them. They're not worried about anything else on the outside.

Q. When you come to these things, you kind of laughed when you saw Saquon over there and the 8,000 cameras around him. Is that a positive for you, because I know you don't love having 8,000 cameras necessarily?
DAESEAN HAMILTON: Saquon can have all that. And obviously it's rightly deserved. You see that, and I'm used to it. He's obviously going to get that for the rest of his life. That's fine for him, he can have all that. I have no problem with it.

Q. One game left in your career. Has it sunk in?
DAESEAN HAMILTON: Not yet. I think it's going to sink in when I step out on that field. Basically just go through my normal pregame routine and finally just getting used to everything and seeing basically that this is my last time dressing up in the blue and white and being out there with my brothers and my teammates.

I think that's really what's going to hit home for me. And really just making me take a look back on all my years here and basically all the things we're going through.

Q. You guys have hit the one-game-at-a-time mantra. Do you look at this as just another game knowing it's going to be your last game?
DAESEAN HAMILTON: Absolutely not. I see this as one of the biggest games of my college football career being my last I want to go out with a bang, want to go out with a win and I want to play as well as I possibly can for my team so we can be put in the position so we can get a win at the end of the week.

But, yeah, it's a monumental game, at least in my eyes. And I know a lot of the seniors feel the same way especially with the type of season we had, all the ups and downs, all the types of careers we've had, all the ups and down. So this final game will be the nail in the coffin. It's going to mean a lot to the guys.

Q. We've seen all the guys who played receiver this year, but can you give us a scouting report of some of the ones redshirting and some of the DBs, too, we haven't seen?
DAESEAN HAMILTON: I know guys like K.J. K.J. is going to be a real big weapon for Penn State in the future.

Q. How come?
DAESEAN HAMILTON: Because he's just so fast and really people are going to be intimidated by his speed. He's learning -- I'm basically taking him under my wing. He's learning the ropes and learning things fast. And once he's able to get adjusted to the speed of college football he's going to be a force to be reckoned with.

A lot of young receivers are going to be good -- Mac Hippenhammer, Cam Brown, he's a really smart kid. He reminds me of Chris when he was a freshman. He's learning the ropes of college football. Once he gets his stride he'll be good as well.

And Mac, Mac is going to be really good because he reminds me of DeAndre back when DeAndre was a freshman, just like a little bit ahead of his time and his game. And Mac he's really smart as well. He knows how to use all his tools and basically all the skill sets and puts them in a good position to make plays as well.

Once those guys basically hit their college football growth spurt, I guess, and basically learning the game a lot more, they're going to be really good.

Q. Tariq and Lamont played (indiscernible). Who are some of those guys on that side of the ball that were on the scout team causing you guys some trouble?
DAESEAN HAMILTON: Yeah, I'd say Donovan, Donovan he's actually a pretty fast. He guards DeAndre basically every day in practice. But Donovan, he is a funny kid, but he's going to be really good. He's really fast, really smart.

Jonathan Sutherland, I talked about him before, he's going to be really good. I see basically a lot of Marcus in him. He just loves to hit and basically loves playing safety, loves what he's doing. He's having fun with everything he's doing as well.

So I'm really excited to see, especially those two, basically mature. Lamont obviously has been getting his feet wet, playing in a few games. And Tariq is going to be really good, a long corner. Kind of reminds me of Christian. And that, basically that whole secondary, getting coached by Coach Smith, all those guys are going to be great in the future, just as long as they're taking their coaching and basically just learning the game, like I said, for the receivers. As long as they learn the game and basically come into their own they're going to be really good.

Q. What's your experience been so like in Arizona?
DAESEAN HAMILTON: We haven't done too much yet. It's been Christmas, a lot of things were closed. We've just been hanging around, practicing, doing meetings and things like that. It's been nice. The hotel is fantastic. A lot of the guys enjoy the hotel.

The weather, we obviously, like I said before, the weather is really nice. It gets really hot out here and really cold at night. But we enjoyed everything we've been doing, and then throughout the rest of the week we're going to get basically a lot more bowl events and the dinners and stuff like that. So I'm really looking forward to that, too.

Q. Can you talk about some of the (inaudible)?
DAESEAN HAMILTON: I mean, it was obviously I was really excited, going to be a New Year's Six game and against a really good Washington team. So I was looking forward to that game as well. And then, yeah, Washington is also one of those teams you just see you hear about all season long. And us being able to face up against them and play in a game like this is going to be really cool and really exciting.

But other than that, really just looking forward to the game. It's going to be really fun. Going to be too high power teams going at it and it's going to be really exciting to see.

Q. What have you had to watch out for as you prepare for this Washington defense?
DAESEAN HAMILTON: Really just the physicality of the defense. We faced defenses like them before, but they're really basically a sound defense. They played together for a long time and they've got a lot of chemistry with one another and things like that.

So really just we just got to be on our Ps and Qs. We have to bring our A game, just like they have to bring theirs. That's about it, go out there play our best game.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297