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VIZIO BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: AUBURN v FLORIDA STATE


January 3, 2014


Bryan Stork


PASADENA, CALIFORNIA

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  I would say they both had two different programs.  Both are great but just different.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Jimbo is good.

Q.  Your relationship with him.
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah, a great relationship.  I mean, it's just like any other coach relationship.  They work well together.

Q.  What impresses you most about your team's receiving corps?
BRYAN STORK:  Our team's receiving corps?  Well, they catch footballs and don't drop any.

Q.  It's that simple?
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah.

Q.  Have you seen them get a lot better over the course of the year?
BRYAN STORK:  I've seen them get better the last three or four years, guys that have been there.  And I've seen the older guys take on the younger guys and hold them accountable, just like they're a senior.

Q.  How do you think this team will react after they get in a game that's actually close?  They haven't had much experience with that.
BRYAN STORK:  I don't have a crystal ball here, so I can't tell you.  But it is what it is.  I'm not going to predict the game.

Q.  You're not concerned at all about the fact that you guys haven't really been tested?
BRYAN STORK:  I mean, we test ourselves every game.  It doesn't matter who we play or what opponent we face.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  They're a great defense, I think.  Their strength is definitely their defensive front.  I think they all play together, they all hustle, and there's a reason why they're in the National Championship.

Q.  Is there a defense you've played that you would compare Auburn's defense to?
BRYAN STORK:  This is the best defense we've played.

Q.  In terms of style, the way they run it, have you seen a team that's run it similar?
BRYAN STORK:  In the five years I've been here, I've seen all kinds of defenses.

Q.  What would be one that's similar?
BRYAN STORK:  Scheme‑wise?

Q.  Yeah.
BRYAN STORK:  I wouldn't like put it exactly to one team, but I would say Virginia Tech from a couple years ago.  Virginia Tech was good too.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  I don't know.  All I know is I watched the film, and I think they're good ballplayers.  They're out there playing together.  They got here, so I'm going to respect them like any other opponent.

Q.  What do you think about the whole story line of Auburn [ No microphone ].  What do you think of that?
BRYAN STORK:  Every team has their own motto they go by, and that's their thing.  Our thing is different.

Q.  What's your motto?
BRYAN STORK:  Just play your best ability, and I still don't think we've seen our best football yet.

Q.  What would you say since you've been at Florida State, what's been your top game, like the whole team?
BRYAN STORK:  One we've already played?

Q.  Yeah.
BRYAN STORK:  This year or the past four or five years?

Q.  Past four or five years.
BRYAN STORK:  This year, Boston College, I'm not going to lie.  They were very difficult.  Florida was a good one last year.  They beat us.  It seems like some of the games we were supposed to get blown out, we ended up doing good in and blowing them out.  I really can't remember much.  It all kind of blends together over the past four or five years.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  I wouldn't say we were thinking that.  It's like we need to get our stuff together and get better.  I'm not saying Boston College is a bad team.  They're not.  I think they're a very good team.
We had to get a lot better if we wanted to end up here.

Q.  [ No microphone ].  Did that impress you?
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah, it did, but at the same time, we were kind of mad at ourselves.  It didn't have to be that way.

Q.  Auburn's had a lot of success.  Do you think you can get yards on them?  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  I mean, about like us, if we make sure we get it in, it's all attitude.  I'm sure they're the same way on defense, that attitude of we will not be denied.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Well, kind of a bummer, I had to trim it for the Orlando awards down there in Disney World.  We had a contest to see who could grow the nastiest beard.  So he's winning right now.  Mine's a little tamed up right now, but I'll probably have to keep it.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  No.  I wanted to be presentable looking.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  That's a good friend of mine.  I know what's in his heart.  I know he's tough.  You can't (indiscernible).  Knock on wood.

Q.  Do you have any idea [ No microphone ]?
BRYAN STORK:  Well, it's crazy.  I used to ride bikes with him.  Right before the crash, oh, crap.  He said it was a bad feeling.  He's a tough kid.  We're tough Irish guys.

Q.  You got a big win in the Chick‑Fil‑A Bowl.  You're obviously not playing center this time.  Can you discuss a little bit about how far the program has come from that game, which was a big win, got you to ten wins, to now.
BRYAN STORK:  When you look back at it, it's the Chick‑Fil‑A Bowl, but for back in that time, it was a big deal.  I think South Carolina was one of the best defenses in the SEC.  They just happened to lose the championship or something.
You know, it was a big deal for us, and we came a long way since then.  The seniors from that year taught us younger guys how to handle ourselves, and we just built on that year and the next year and the next year.

Q.  Have you seen any changes in Coach Trickett during your career here?
BRYAN STORK:  Oh, definitely.  When I first got here in 2009, he was five years younger, and he still had some stuff.  He still does, but he had a lot of guys he didn't really recruit.  He was the old Trickett from West Virginia.  But over time he's turned into Coach Trickett from Florida State.
He's still tough, but he's more of a teacher now than he ever was.

Q.  More instruction, less yelling?
BRYAN STORK:  He's still young, but he still holds you accountable as much as he did from the day I got here.  But he's more ‑‑ he explains why things are the way they are.  It used to be it's this, this, and that.  Get it?  Got it.  Good.

Q.  What was the old Trickett from West Virginia like?
BRYAN STORK:  Coach Trickett was more like a drill instructor style.  You didn't want to miss one assignment.  You were up early in the morning doing all kinds of stuff.  Now we just don't miss stuff.
And the new recruits come in, and we just tell them, you don't know how good you got it.  You ain't got a clue.

Q.  What's the biggest difference in some of those guys when you first got there to the guys that are coming in now that you're talking about?
BRYAN STORK:  Obviously, he didn't recruit those guys.  He was looking for a certain type of guy.  Now we've got more good guys.  Don't get me wrong, there were some great guys in that group back then.  But we called them turds, D‑turds, and we don't have as many turds now.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  It was after‑‑ I would say probably last year.  After the rough year we had in 2011, that was a miserable year.  And as time went on‑‑ yeah, last year when we went to the Orange Bowl, that's when it all started to being more of a teacher than anything.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  I think so.  We're getting older.  He's starting to mellow out a little bit.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah.  We needed that rough year.  We really did.  I think it's in the back of our head that we never wanted another year like that.

Q.  What are some of the things that you see in Auburn's front line that you've looked at on film?  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah, like I said, they're great athletes.  They get to the ball on every single play.  They don't take plays off.  They have great hands.  They don't give much away from their stances.  They're very sound.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Used to be it had to be Jimbo doing all the yelling, but now it's morelike coaches came in now yelling.  He still yells, don't get me wrong, but he can kind of take a step back almost and let his coaches coach.  But he also does coaching too.  Jim will never give that up.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Oh, yeah, of course.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah, I pulled them up a couple days ago.  They're very good.  They're good on double‑teams.  They take care of level one.  They get their hips together, and they're squared, and they've got great movement.  They do a great job.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah, I appreciate good work like that, you know.  I heard they got a good group of guys and good character guys, and they're a good offensive line.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah, we always go out.  We'll pick a place every Thursday.  We're pretty tight.  We are.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  We can take that a lot, but we try not to just to stay light and be able to move quick.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah, mean, green blocking machine, you know.

Q.  Do you all have a favorite spot you like to go?
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah.  Tallahassee, we like Miller's, and lately Opahokee's (phonetic) has been a place to go.  I've been there two or three Thursdays in a row.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah, there is.  I mean, because there's a lot of tough times you go through with playing for him, and it's all a method to his madness.  The guys that don't realize that don't make it.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Well, I mean, I've only seen really maybe one or two guys try to really stay.  But the guys that haven't, they've already checked out mentally.  You can't say we've got them then.  You've got to let them go, bring somebody in new.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Oh, yeah.  It makes you yourself, hold yourself accountable and affect the guys next to you, hold them accountable.  Like I said, there's a method to his madness.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  It's a whole scheme.  It's just a long scheme since I got here, you know.

Q.  How much have you played in the last month?  Have you been on the field much [ No microphone ]?
BRYAN STORK:  There's about five or six games that we were in the fourth quarter for sure that I can remember.  We were pulled out pretty quick.  I think‑‑ what was it?  There were some games we were beating them, but we just stayed in anyways.  So yeah.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  I like to watch those guys play.  We pride ourselves on getting those guys in because they're as tight as the front line is.  We want to help them out and get them playing time for their future.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  I wouldn't say it's a competition.  We just quit shaving, and all of a sudden, we both had red beards.  Plus Ryan Hoefeld is a the little freshman; he's got a beard too.  He's just trying to be cool, I guess.  But it just kind of happened, and now he's got the most disgusting beard, I think.

Q.  Is it easier to pull off than in August, September?
BRYAN STORK:  We still had them then.  It gets pretty hot during camp.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Is it?  Probably needs to.  I'm going to keep mine.

Q.  Are you?
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah, I think so.  Who knows?  We'll see.

Q.  Your care regimen?
BRYAN STORK:  Shampoo, conditioner, blow dry, heck, yeah.

Q.  How often?
BRYAN STORK:  I'll do it once a week just to keep it in maintenance, but it takes a good 30 minutes.

Q.  What about the hair above your ears?  Once you started growing a beard, did you do away with it?
BRYAN STORK:  No, I just like a buzz.  Me and long hair just don't fly together.

Q.  Is there anything that Auburn's defense does that you guys really haven't seen that maybe stands out to you?
BRYAN STORK:  They just play good sound football, I think.  They're very underrated for how good they are.  There's a reason they're in the National Championship.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  You can't really look at that stuff.  You can't.  You just got to just worry about‑‑ you can't just worry about them, though.  You've got to worry about yourself, make sure you know the tendency, know what you've got to do on this play, this look, and just got to execute.

Q.  You've given up a lot of big plays.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Just good‑‑ the guys that play, they play some good offensive lines.  So I'm sure they're used to playing good offensive lines.  So we've got to be on top of our game.

Q.  What do you think of their D‑line?  They rotate guys five at a time to keep them fresh in the fourth quarter.  I think they're only allowing four points in the fourth quarter total.  What do you notice about that younger line?
BRYAN STORK:  They've got a good group of young guys up there that are really strong.  That No.1, he's a big guy, and I think he'll be a great player.

Q.  What do you think he's going to do there in the middle, and what kind of matchup do you think that's going to pose?
BRYAN STORK:  It's a good matchup.  It will definitely test our skills, but we can't worry about that.  We've got to worry about us.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  After Pittsburgh.  After Pittsburgh.

Q.  So there was not a question‑‑
BRYAN STORK:  There was never a question.  I saw him in practice.  I knew we had two good quarterbacks because him and Coker were neck and neck the whole time.  Coker doesn't get enough credit for how good he is either.  I was totally impressed with Jameis.  I totally forgot it was his first start.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  I don't know if you remember Garrett Faircloth.  That was my best friend.  It's good to have them guys out there because they definitely deserve to be out there.  They gave their heart and soul, and just injuries happen, just happened to be them.  But I'm glad they're here.

Q.  Freeman is sort of the overall (indiscernible).  How valuable is he to what you guys do?
BRYAN STORK:  He's very valuable.  I'm sure he'll tell you.  He can't do it without us, and we can't do it without him.  We've got other good running backs too.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  He's another weapon.  We're loaded with weapons.  He comes out there, duct tapes his ankle, no tape on his wrist, no gloves.  He's a football player.  He's a throwback, old school football player.  It's good to have him in the mix.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Of course.  And his blockings came a long way.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah, I'm not going to tell him that.

Q.  We won't tell.
BRYAN STORK:  Yeah.

Q.  How much better do you think his blocking is now?
BRYAN STORK:  Since Coach Brewster came in, he's definitely‑‑ Coach Brewster is a great position coach, and he picks the weaknesses and he really‑‑ he works on them.  He's done a great job bringing up the O‑blocking.

Q.  Bryan [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  I think it kept us healthy.  I'm not saying we're like 100 percent, but it definitely helped us get through the year, and we're very fortunate it worked out like this.

Q.  Is there any downside to it, maybe just not having played some of those fourth quarters?
BRYAN STORK:  No, I don't think so.  I really don't.  I think we just do what we do, and whatever our situation is, we'll overcome it.

Q.  What are you guys doing on the sidelines in some of those blowouts?
BRYAN STORK:  Just watching the younger guys play.  It's really enjoyable to see the future of Florida State.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  No.  We were‑‑ I was walking into new Jersey Mike's in Tallahassee, and I happened to see a couple of guys in there, and I just walk in.  As soon as I walked in, the play was happening.  Everybody went crazy.  Everybody went crazy.  It was cool.

Q.  Can you imagine being on the other side like Alabama [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  I can't imagine that.  I wouldn't say it was an act of God, but at the same time, it was a human being running that ball back.  So I can't say it was really God.  But that was a heck of a thing for Auburn.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Things happen.  I don't know what to tell you.  I don't believe in destiny.  I believe you choose your destiny.  Right now I guess they are choosing their destiny.  They're the one who got the ball and kept running with it.  I wouldn't say it's luck.  I would say they definitely‑‑ they did it themselves.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  You can't let up in any game, no matter who you're playing.  I don't care if you're playing Idaho, it doesn't matter.  You can't let up.  Anything can happen.

Q.  One thing you guys have done really well this year, when you get a lead, you build on it, and it's almost like an avalanche.
BRYAN STORK:  Right.

Q.  Where does that come from?  Where does that mindset come from to just keep the pedal down?
BRYAN STORK:  Practice.  Practice.  We execute, execute, and one play goes bad, we don't let it happen again.  We keep executing and executing.  Step on their throat and keep pressing until they pass out.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  Those are thoughts for after the game.

Q.  How is your preparation for this game?
BRYAN STORK:  Nothing different.  I still watch the same amount of film, still study, still work just as hard.  Why do anything different?  I don't care what game it is.  It's a game.

Q.  [ No microphone ].
BRYAN STORK:  You definitely have to work on your cardio and stay in shape and not eat too much over the holidays.  You've just got to know you're here for a reason, not to eat and go on vacation.

Q.  What did you‑‑ where did you have to show the most discipline when faced with food?
BRYAN STORK:  As far as come on down to this bar.  No, man, I can't.  Let's go eat here.  Let's go eat there.  I couldn't.  I'm in it for bigger things.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports


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