AFLAC KICKOFF: SYRACUSE VS TENNESSEE

August 30, 2025

Yasin Willis

Syracuse Orange

Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Postgame Press Conference

Tennessee 45, Syracuse 26

Q. How did you guys come out in the second half with more cohesion and balance?

YASIN WILLIS: Just really going back to the basics of everything that we was taught. Just playing your game for real. Got to be detailed, one; you've got to hold yourself accountable, two. And for us playing against a great team like Tennessee, you've got to be relentless and tough.

I feel like coming back out in the second half, of course we fell a little short, but we showed that.

Q. Fran just got out of here saying he needs to give you the rock more. Hearing a coach say that and taking off a game like this, what do you think about that?

YASIN WILLIS: I mean, of course whatever opportunity that they give me, I'm going to make the most of it. But I feel like I play my role, so my other teammates did. The receivers, tight ends, they did a great job with what they did today. Still a couple mistakes to clean up. Made little mental errors that Tennessee capitalized off of, but I feel like we all did great today.

Q. Now as one of the primary options of this team, to have that first game under your belt where there are certain situations where Will can be put in too, how does that help in terms of you having enough energy down the stretch and still wanting more, and what has that been like in the running back room working together with Will?

YASIN WILLIS: It's great. Like I said before, I did an interview a couple days ago, Will is great for getting in and making those extra yards when I'm a little gassed. But me and Will, we complement each other very well. I go in there, beat the defense up, he goes in there, do whatever you got to do and get around them. He has speed, I'm power, so it's great. A bit like lightning and thunder.

Q. Last year behind LeQuint Allen Jr. and now in this game, 91, almost 100 yards in the game and three touchdowns, what you can say about being the lead back, having this opportunity, and what you took away from being behind LeQuint last year?

YASIN WILLIS: LeQuint showed me how to lead the team, put them on his back. For example, UNLV game he had four touchdowns and he had the last one in overtime.

Me watching him all last season, he set a great example of how to lead the team and how to get your boys down the field and do what you got to do in critical situations.

Q. You had obviously three touchdowns. You were getting a lot of touches in the red zone. Take me through your mentality when you get the ball down in the red zone and trying to get in the end zone.

YASIN WILLIS: They can't tackle me. That's it. That's my mentality. Get through.

Q. You and LeQuint both share a very physical running style where you guys can both wear down defenses throughout the game. Is that something that you take pride in, your ability to make a defense gassed?

YASIN WILLIS: For sure because first half you beat them up a little bit, they don't really want to hit as much coming into the second half, therefore just run right around them.

Q. You obviously ran the ball really hard today. Where does your game need to grow? Where is your point of emphasis in terms of improving?

YASIN WILLIS: I'd say maybe getting my shoulder pads down a little bit more. I felt like I ran a little high today. Maybe getting reads on the defense a little bit better. I feel like I haven't done too bad, but you can always improve on something.

We get back to the drawing board tomorrow, and we're going to watch the film, see what we've got to fix, see what we did well on, and we're going to take it from there going into UConn.

Q. The score from those last three quarters was 26-26. The shutout in the first quarter is really what did it. What from your standpoint went wrong for the team in the first 15 minutes?

YASIN WILLIS: To be honest, man, it went so fast, it's just little mistakes that we were making, mental errors. Like I said, they capitalized off of all our mental errors. We've got to fix that. We've got to take the mental errors down just a little bit more, and maybe we'll be more successful in the game.

Q. Did it come down to blocking assignments or what was it specifically?

YASIN WILLIS: Blocking assignments, really communicating with each other. I feel like it was pretty loud in there, so we didn't communicate with each other as much as we were supposed to because you can't play this football game without the communication part. That played a big role in it.