Georgia 24 Florida 20
Q. I'm sure you're thinking about the result of this game, but could you take us through your perspective of what Coach Gonzales took over and how that kind of impacted you guys as you are going into this game, kind of the motivator he's been for you guys?
TYREAK SAPP: I feel like Coach just pushed us. He just told us it's a lot more football to play. We got a lot of things to look forward to, and no matter what situation we're in, nothing is going to stop for us just because we got our head coach fired or whatever the case may be.
Nothing stops. It's either we get up off the ground and keep going and keep fighting, keep scratching and clawing or back down and lay down. I don't think we got any lay-down in anybody on this team.
So that was just the main focus.
Q. Tyreak, talk about just after the bye week and everything that happened, what was the motivation for the defense to come out and really play a pretty good game? I mean, just what do you guys talk about through the change as you prepared for Georgia?
TYREAK SAPP: Don't get complacent. Don't get tired of doing the little things right. It can become easy when you start to get a little praise or you start to get a little notoriety, people start to notice you. You start to back off on certain things. So just kept being accountable to each other and showing up every day and letting each other know that no matter what goes on, no matter if this helicopter crashes, we still going to respond and be there for each other.
That was the main thing, just showing up every day and working, because we still got a lot of things to work for and to work towards. So it was -- it was -- obviously it's something that can affect you, but we just obviously being leaders on this defense, having leaders, we told ourselves don't get complacent. Keep pushing and keep fighting and keep scratching and clawing for those extra inches, because it counts.
Q. So many close calls in the last four years. This one. How does this one rate as far as the pain of losing?
TYREAK SAPP: It stings. It stings. It hurts bad. It hurts bad knowing this is my last time I'll ever get to play in this game in this stadium with my brothers. It hurts bad. It hurts a lot.
You know, I try to do my best, to lay it all on the line, make as many plays as possible, do the best I can for my brothers. That's what I tell them. I'm going to give them all I got and I am going the best I can to put us in positions to be victorious.
We came up short tonight. You know, we going to chalk it up and talk about it and then we going to put it behind us.
But it hurts a lot. It does.
Q. This defense has s obviously played tremendously hard all season long. Fourth quarter stops and stuff, is that the next step for you guys? Because 2017 and they go 82 yards?
TYREAK SAPP: Yeah. Yeah. It was -- that was a long last drive, but obviously we know we got those things to correct. We are going to go in and look at the film and try to get them corrected. Obviously not try to those things corrected, get those things corrected and then just go on to the next, kind of try to put this to bed and behind us.
Yeah, it hurts. Going to hurts for the night for sure.
Q. You mentioned hurt. Can you bring us through what you guys talked about after the game, the emotions in the locker room? How is Gonzales as a messenger, too?
TYREAK SAPP: The main thing, especially for us as a team, Coach just told us stay together. Don't splinter from each other. No matter what, we the only ones that can get each other through these moments. Not the coaches or anybody else. We as a team, the players.
So he just told us to do that. We just going to keep working, keep chopping wood, keep waking up every day. Obviously the sun is going to come up tomorrow. We are going to wake up and get out of bed, hit that facility and watch that film and get back to work.
That's our job and duty. No matter what goes on in this world, it's not going to stop for us. Nothing is going to stop. So we can't sit around looking for sympathy from anybody. We just got to go about it, put our head down working and get back to it.
Q. How have you built mentally this year? Your personal journey, you're obviously have aspirations of playing after this year.
TYREAK SAPP: Yeah.
Q. What has this year meant to you?
TYREAK SAPP: It's meant a lot. Obviously not everything that I wanted, but a lot of times in life you don't get exactly what you want. I don't have that choice to chose that. I have a choice to wake up every day to get after it and give my brothers everything I got because I owe it to them. I do.
Q. What did you think about the way you guys defended Gunner tonight. Sacked him twice. He made some plays, too.
TYREAK SAPP: Yeah, he's obviously a great quarterback. Dude, he can read coverages, he got a good head on his shoulders. He can sling it through. Has a good arm. Has a good arm. Trying to contain his legs because he is a dual threat. He can hurt you with his legs.
Did that the best as we can and just try to limit him, in the pass game get pressure on him and get him off the spot. Just play the game, play the game, feel it out, feel him out. Get our cleats in the ground and get set and just play ball.
So that was the plan. Nothing spectacular. Just what you would do with any quarterback. You got to get after them and get pressure on them and get them off the spot and force them to throw bad balls.
Q. What to say about this group of guys that you pushed Georgia the brink? That hasn't happened in a while with the Gators.
TYREAK SAPP: I think it says that we -- a lot of teams and a lot of times you can go into a game like this and a situation like this and not play to win. So we weren't playing to compete with these guys. I don't see them, this team as being inferior to them. I don't see them being better than us. We go out to win. We don't just go out to play, to compete. It's not like that.
Like we going to go out there and show you, too. There is going to be a wake-up call when you play us. It's not going to be one of those games where you just roll your helmet on the field because your team logo's on the side of the helmet you're going to win. We don't even think that of ourselves. We reality check ourselves all the time.
Just because your helmet got that Gator logo on there and it's a rich history, you still have to go out there and play and get it done. That's the simple fact of the matter.
Q. I see obviously you're wearing the Play For the Patch shirt. What does that message mean for you?
TYREAK SAPP: Play for the Patch, play for the logo on the and then honor the name on the back. That's all it is. We just owe it to each other to play for that Gator logo and that Gator brand, and it's obviously people that came before us that have laid a foundation and a tradition, a legacy and laid a standard for us, and so we just do our best.
We do our best. Give everything we got to honor that. Whatever it takes, we'll do that to honor that. It's the last thing on our mind to let people down who have played here and wore this uniform, to let them down and put out something that's not adequate and that's not -- that shows that -- that doesn't show that we care.
So we do care about that and we do care. It's more so the patch than the name on the back. We just play for the guys next to us.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports