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I was wondering if you had had any interactions with Trevor Lawrence, if you knew him personally at all, or what you think about the way that – since you obviously had to go through a situation last year and into this year of QB controversy and who's going to start and all of that stuff, I was wondering how you thought it was handled at Clemson by Trevor Lawrence and some of the challenges that go along with that.

TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, well, I haven't really gotten the opportunity to speak with him or get to know him on a personal level, but I think he's done a tremendous job with handling the quarterback situation they've had, you know, early in the season.

I think he's done a tremendous job throughout the season keeping composure throughout the season, and going out there and helping his team become successful. You know, at the age that he is, coming in as a freshman, to be able to handle everything he is the way he is, I think he's doing a tremendous job, and he's got really good guys surrounding him, as well, on that offense, and I just think overall he's done a tremendous job throughout this point in the season.

Do you find or did you find over the course of your career that being able to kind of play on a big stage as you have at a young point in your career, is that a skill you had to develop, or is it just sort of the natural part of your personality, to be calm, cool and collected during those situations?

TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think it's something you kind of develop, but then again, I think it also comes down to coaching. When you go out there, you've got to feel comfortable first, and when you're comfortable, then you're able to play fast. I definitely think that comes from practice, you know, the amount of reps that you take over practice and just the coaching that you get, because once you start to feel comfortable, then I mean, the sky's the limit.

I think for Trevor, he can attest to the same thing.

Obviously you went into last year's game with a different role, but from an experience standpoint what's the biggest difference for you in terms of being back on this stage at the College Football Playoff?

TUA TAGOVAILOA: I mean, this is just another great opportunity for not only me but for me and my teammates. This is something that we've wanted since the ending of last year's game, you know, so we're just one step closer to achieving what we want to as a team. Just got to go in with the mindset that this is a big game, but you've got to go in being confident, I mean, and just go out there knowing it's football.

What would you attribute to – obviously against Oklahoma, 28-0 start in the first quarter or got off to a 28-0 lead going into the second quarter, sorry, but it was kind of the fast start you guys usually get off to. Why weren't there those nerves, those jitters that go with those big games, that happen in big games sometimes?

TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, I think we had a lot of off time, and being that we're practicing against our own guys for a good amount of time, it's like you just get antsy. Throughout practices, our practices have been pretty hard, you know, going against one another. I think we all just wanted to go out there and just play. That's a testament to the guys that I'm surrounded with, the O-line, the skills. The defense gave us the ball back early in the game, as well, and we didn't execute as well as we wanted to, although the score showed a little different with it being 28-0.

I think there still could have been opportunities for us to have done a lot better, but I think overall, our guys have done better with just, I guess, finishing, starting fast and finishing strong.

Xavier, a lot was made going into the season about the secondary's lack of experience and the kind of quality players you were replacing, and then you had some injuries along the way, too, so how much has this group kind of grown with each game and each week?

XAVIER McKINNEY: Well, first of all, I appreciate the question. I feel like this group has definitely done a great job this year. I know we had a lot of questions coming into the year about, I guess, how good we would be and how well we would play and who we lost and who we didn't have, but we felt like we had the guys to get the job done from the start. So I feel like we've worked hard all year, tried to prove everybody wrong that kind of doubted us, that still doubt us. But we just keep going, and we're going to keep working hard and keep improving from here. Our goal is to try to be the best secondary in the country, and I feel like we've done a great job in doing that and getting that done, and we've still got a lot of work to do, of course, but of course we're going to keep working and try to get that accomplished.

And for Tua, Josh Jacobs is one of the few guys, key players on the team that wasn't like a really highly rated recruit. Can you see his work ethic, his drive? How much do you see that drive to be good in kind of every aspect of his position?

TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, you know, when you look at a player like Josh Jacobs, you just see someone who's very small, but I'm grateful that Josh has got his opportunity. You know, I think he's a person who comes in day in and day out, working really hard, and he does everything the right way. I mean, it's nothing that surprises me, nothing that surprises my teammates, but Josh could be the first to tell you that his success could never have been done without the people that surround him. I think he's done a tremendous job for us up to this point, and I think he will continue to keep doing that.

Xavier, where do you feel like you've improved the most through 14 games, and where do you feel like you need to get better?

XAVIER McKINNEY: Well, I feel like there's a lot of things that of course I still need to do to get better. I try to work on that every practice, every game. But a couple things that I feel like I have gotten a lot better with is just my open-field tackling, my man-to-man coverages, but of course there's still a lot of things like just blitzing the quarterback, getting pressure, working on my pass rush moves as far as either going off the edge or going up through the gaps or wherever I have to blitz, just getting better with my disguises. But like I said, there's still a lot of things that I need to improve on, and I'm never really satisfied with how I play and kind of what I do in the games and do in practices. I try to make sure to keep that an emphasis and just keep pressure on myself as far as me getting better because I know good is not good enough, and I just keep working every day and every practice and every game.

Tua, same question for you. Where do you feel like you've improved the most through these 14 games, and where can you get better?

TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, I'd say for me, I think the biggest thing with improvement has been, I guess, being a leader on the offense, and I guess my decision making. I feel the second half of the season, I kind of fell off from the things that have helped me become successful throughout the first six games, seven games in the season. But I definitely think decision making, and I think improvement. There's always room for improvement, you know, and I'm going to continue to improve on my decision making, continue to improve to be a leader for the offense and for the team, but you know, it makes everything a lot easier when you have coaches like the coaches that we have and players that want to be great. So yeah.

Tua, the plays when you and Jalen are on the field together at the same time, how fun are those for you, and working those into the game, do you enjoy kind of getting that opportunity to have both of y'all on the field at the same time?

TUA TAGOVAILOA: Oh, I enjoy it. It's really fun. I think it's fun for the fans, as well, you know, no one knows who's going to get the ball, and I mean, if I get the ball, I mean, it would be unique because I don't run as much, and when Jalen gets the ball, he can run and he can throw it, as well. I mean, it helps us out as a team. I mean, it's just a unique way of being able to use both of us.

Xavier, when they unleash some of those plays at practice, Jalen was saying the other day there's a lot more they haven't used. What's it like trying to defend them, whether Tua is out wide at receiver or whatever the package looks like?

XAVIER McKINNEY: Well, we don't – the ones and the ones, we don't really get to see that package very much.

Then from the sidelines, what's it like seeing that when they've used it this year?

XAVIER McKINNEY: Oh, it definitely – I kind of get excited because I know something good is about to happen. Just to have both of these two guys out there on the field at the same time, that's pretty amazing, and it's a lot of – between the both of them, there's a lot of different things that they can do in that one play or whatever play they're running. So just to see that lets me know that we're going to have some type of big play or something good is going to happen.

Tua, I'm sure you're getting tired of answering this, but how is your ankle doing, and do you expect a similar sort of training treatment routine this week as you did going into last week's game?

TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, you know, after the game, it was definitely sore. I couldn't tell if it was any better or if it was the same. But I guess I can say it's better. I have treatment going on right now, as we speak, and I think we're still going to stick with that 24-hour treatment protocol. Up until the game, I think I'm still going to be getting treatment, and I'm still going to be going through rehab and therapy, as well. But I definitely think it's improving, you know.

Tua, going back to last year where Jake Fromm gets to play in a National Championship game as a true freshman, you get to play in that game and now with Trevor Lawrence, what does it say about that position that you're seeing all of you guys get to shine on this big stage? What's the contributing factor because it's not just working hard, because guys have been working hard for the last 20 years, but why do you think that's been able to happen so much recently?

TUA TAGOVAILOA: I won't be able to speak for Jake or Trevor, but I think for me, I think that's the determining factor is how you start. You know, I definitely don't think it starts from high school or your early years in college. I think it starts earlier than that, and I think it – it goes from home I would say. Your parents are your first teachers, and I think your work ethic comes from the teachings of your parents. I think they're a testament of that. Their hard work with their families and what they've put in throughout the years up to this point is just paying off, so they're reaping what they've been sowing all these years. It's not just something that popped up for them or they're kind of new to. I'd say this is just something that they've been growing and growing with, and it's something that you grow into.