Is there any exchange between you and Tyjae (Spears), whether it was on your return or after his touchdown?
No. We barely talked during the game. I do my thing, and he did his thing, you know. But we all feed off each other. I fed off Kearis (Jackson), he had a 65-yard kick return and then I come back just have me juiced. I'm just fired to see one of the players on our team just have a big run.
How did it feel to get outside and be in front of a crowd like you were tonight?
Oh, it was amazing. My first time really being in a stadium when a lot of people like this. We played USC and Oklahoma, but it wasn't hitting on what we had today. But I was excited. I don't worry about the noise outside. I just stick to my game and just play the game.
You talked a lot about how this is a dream come true. Did that dream kind of become a reality tonight?
Oh, yeah, for sure. It's crazy because me and Tyjae (Spears) rode to the game (together). We never rode to a game together other than being in college. We always sit next to each other. And just today, I didn't think we were going to ride together. He was like 'ride with me bro.' It was amazing. But just being here with this coaching staff and having an organization with Miss Amy (Adams-Strunk), Ran (Carthon), and Chad (Brinker), and coach Callahan, and the coaches and the players, it's a blessing. The culture is different around here. Everybody is excited, just loving to come and practice each and every day. But it was a blessing just to play against a defense we haven't played against all training camp. We've been going against our defense. So, it was just a new look to see what we really are, what the 2024 Titans are.
You have to go on to the next play after play the punt return, but have you realized yet that it's your punt return that sets up Tyjae's (Spears) touchdown?
Nah. I just—one play at a time. I don't look at that. I just try to put our team in the best position no matter who's back there. We always got to come up with the ball.
That's pretty cool though. You guys can talk about that on the ride home, right?
Oh yeah. We might not talk about it. We might talk about the bad things that we did. That's the bigger thing. We don't really hold on to the good things that we do because we never try to get settled to what we did great. We always try to look at what we did bad so we can help ourselves to be any better.
In terms of the return though, that's something you do really well in your game. Was that just great individual play? Was it the scheme? What was it that helped you break that play?
It was everybody. It wasn't just me. It was the punt return team, it was the coaches, Coach (Anthony) Levine and Coach (Colt) Anderson just scheming it up for this week and telling us what we should do, go out there, play loose and have fun out there. When you get the ball, everybody hold your blocks up, and then we just hit it up the field. But it's a game of football, you can't just go out there and think about the soldiers making the play because without Tyjae's touchdown, without Kearis' (Jackson) big run, other guys blocking, it wouldn't be possible. If they didn't have them guys blocking for them, he wouldn't have got 65 yards, Tyjae would've never got a touchdown. So, we got to look back at that and look at the man to the left and the right of you and just thank them, because that's your brother. We're a team. You can't win without a team.
