Q. Jahdae, I just wanted to talk to you about Bam. So I was able to go out to a session earlier this week, just chop it up with him and he mentioned how back in 2020 y'all used to have to travel all around Austin to find just a field to play on. So just curious, what did that say about that group in 2020 that y'all had that much dedication to go to these different schools and work together within you, Ma could be /A and Taaffe, and also what did it mean to you to have Bam at your Jim Thorpe award ceremony?
JAHDAE BARRON: It meant everything to share even the stage with Drew and Taaffe for that moment, and it meant everything for Bam back then to just push us, not even knowing that we were going to be at this point of life. But push us to want to see great things out of us.
He played at a high level, and honestly just to build a brotherhood, you know. He's a role model to me. He's a big brother to me, but he pushed me and Taaffe and Drew to a point that we thought we could never be pushed before, just having us train every single day.
So I think it allowed us to have a better bond obviously me, Drew and Taaffe with us being on the same team now to back then, too.
Q. Jahdae, PK talked about how y'all switched a little bit more to closed field coverages before this season. With you at corner that means you get a lot of one-on-one opportunities. So when you see that it's just you and the man across from you sometimes without any help, what are you thinking and how do you help the defense by executing your assignment?
JAHDAE BARRON: I mean, I wouldn't say you don't have any help. I always say there is help, with out of bounds, things like that. And then just knowing where everybody is at on the field. If I have a linebacker kind of flexed out at the apex position, you know, if the post is leaning towards me, just little things; just always playing with my leverage.
But at the end of the day it's mano e mano, so just playing my technique and kind of understanding what routes I can get, what's the route tree, what way did he steer me, and just playing with good leverage.
I think that's the honest standpoint. That's what I try to do.
Q. Jahdae, I was just on a zoom call with ASU players, and specifically with Xavion Alford, who was a former Longhorn. He specifically name dropped you as someone who he's kept in contact with over these last couple of years as he's moved in the portal to you USC and has now has developed into a start at ASU. Can you discuss the relationship that you guys have together and how you guys have stayed in contact all these years, and now getting the opportunity to play him and all likelihood in the College Football Playoff?
JAHDAE BARRON: Yeah, that's my brother. We actually -- I mean, throughout the whole season we chat literally every week, except this week. But, nah, we're always chatting. I'm always reaching out to him; he's always reaching out to me and things like that. Just motivation to keep us going.
He's been through so much. I've been through so much. We started here together as a brother, and that's always going to be my brother. I'm just proud of him and how far he's came. He's dealt with a lot of issues, just injuries and having to sit out.
So I'm just proud that he has an opportunity to showcase the gift that God gave him. So it's always good to see that out of him.
Q. Jahdae, I think you're the official president of the PK Fan Club. I was curious, you've always called him a genius. What do you think about his style, his attack, his approach to the defense makes him a genius?
JAHDAE BARRON: You know, actually me and PK, we were chatting about something at practice, one of the plays he had called in the game. I'm not going to give away the details of how he executes things, but I would say he's aggressive, you know.
He's so patient. Sometimes you see us moving around a little bit late, but he's just trying to make the right call to put us in the right position.
So hats off to him just being so patient with the call and being confident in what he makes. I've been in situations sometimes where you kind -- you could try to rush to get the call and things like that and you get the call very fast, and then we're just kind of playing within the call and I wouldn't say having us play like robots.
But this year we're just most definitely just playing free. He allows us to play free with the call he makes, and he's always putting us in position to win. I tell y'all all the time, if we don't make the play, that's our fault. That's not PK's fault. He's putting us in the right position. We just have to go out there and execute it.
Q. Jahdae, you guys made a massive jump from 116 to 1 in pass defense and you and Michael Taaffe have been pretty instrumental on the back end. What were your conversations like in the off season after that Washington game leading into this, your final season?
JAHDAE BARRON: Things like that can't happen, especially me and Taaffe just growing up here, just seeing what it was like when we were little, seeing all the great DBs that came here and that created a history for us, you know.
And then it's our job to honor the ones that came before us and leave a legacy for the ones after us. So just throughout the summer we have to clean up details in our game, tools in our game.
But also just on a group standpoint, just being better communicating just trusting one another. But that started off our coaches on Wednesdays just trusting one another off the field so we can trust each other on the field. So I think that will play a big factor just coaching on Wednesdays just allowing us to I know my brother is going to be there and he knows I'm going to be in position. So I think that's what helped us.
Q. A lot's been made about this season in terms of how long the season will be, how many games it'll be for the teams that are playing all the way through to the end. You guys are about to play game 15. Does this season feel any longer than other seasons you've played, whether it be physically, emotionally, whatever it may be?
JAHDAE BARRON: I mean, honestly, my body is about the same to any other season. You know, just not dealing with any injuries, so that's good. But other than that, like just the soreness, and I mean, it's about the same. You just have to stay in the treatment room, the normal things.
But I wouldn't say it's more taxing. They gave us a good amount of bye weeks during the season, so I think that's what helped a lot. And especially that last bye week, that helped a lot just getting our bodies back and things like that.
Q. After the Clemson game, Taaffe was talking about he was glad Klubnik and Clemson had some success against y'all because it forced you to learn some lessons. What lessons did you learn from that game against especially a mobile quarterback?
JAHDAE BARRON: Just you always have to be on your game. You can't be relaxed. I feel sometimes we could get relaxed as a team or just we've been playing so high. Never be so high, never be too low. Just always stay ready to go and never let the moment get too big, you know. And you always have to just execute no matter the stage, no matter the game, no matter the play and just give the player respect to each play that you're coming across.
Q. Jahdae, you and Mukuba and Taaffe have had such amazing communication this year. Who are the younger guys that you see maybe stepping in next year who might be able to try and -- you know, try and recreate what y'all have got going?
JAHDAE BARRON: I mean you can't recreate create three awesome legends. But I mean, no, they're going to be good. Jelani, he's for sure a guy that I see just taking the role of leading the back group. He's so smart and he's learning behind Taaffe and Drew. So that's amazing for him and just his athletic ability to move around, to be everywhere on the field. He still plays nickel and safety and things like that. So his flexibility, I know that's going to be amazing.
And I know Jiggy, No. 23; he's going to be a heck of a player for us, too. He can play the nickel. He can play the safety and things like that. And then Colby at the corner. You know, more of the boundary with the lint and stuff like that. He's learning from Coach Joseph.
They're going to be a good group of guys, but I for sure see Lani just taking control and taking that leader role.
Q. I wanted to go back to something you said earlier about PK's patience with the play calls. Can you just explain as best you can how that works logistically with the mic getting turned off at 15 seconds on the play clock? Do you all have contingencies for changing it after that? How does that kind of work?
JAHDAE BARRON: It's all based off of him. We have certain things where we could tweak it as players and we can kind of do our own thing out there. But just him being patient and allowing -- we're waiting for him to see what he sees, and then this he's going to give his best intake on what he sees and it's going to allow us to just kind of play fast.
But we kind of mix it up and we can fix things out there, structure of the defense with Taaffe fixing things to Drew or me or the linebackers. It all plays hand in hand.
Q. Aside from the obvious with Skattebo, what kind of stands out about the Arizona State team or their offense?
JAHDAE BARRON: They're amazing they have an amazing coach and you can tell they play for one another. You can tell when they turn on tape. He runs the ball you don't see teams blocking down -- receivers blocking down the field 40 yards all the time. That's not normal.
So they play for one another and you can tell they love him and they love each other as a team. And they're playing physical. But as him as a back, he's so patient. He's patient in the back field and he trusts his line.
When he sees something, when he sees a hole, he hits it and he hits it downhill. He's not looking to juke. He has an amazing jump cut to him and he's doing the jump cut to get down the field. So it's going to be an amazing opportunity against him and his team.
Q. I just wanted to go back to those 2020 sessions. What do you remember the most about that time with Bam and the guys and also how does that help correlate to the communication that y'all have today?
JAHDAE BARRON: I think honestly back then it helped us to start being leaders back then. We used to lead one another. We used to get on each other's ass and things like that to push each other to get to the point where we are today. When we messed up and make a mistake, Taaffe or Drew, they'll be getting on me. If I drop the ball, they would make me do push ups.
So things like that it allowed us to get to this point now. And for me and Mukuba and Taaffe to be leaders on the back end and for me and Taaffe to be leaders on this team, I think it all started honestly back then when we went through those sessions when it was just five of us just pushing each other to be great and pushing excellence out of one another. So I think that's what it helped with.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports