THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Whit Weeks of LSU.
Q. Tell me, what's the attitude this year? Is everybody fired up and ready to go?
WHIT WEEKS: Oh, yeah, everybody's fired up. I can feel it throughout the city. I feel like every fan is so bought in this year and invested. It's fun to be in Baton Rouge right now.
Q. LSU fans, they've really gravitated to you. What's it been like to interact with them and meet them on the street and whatnot?
WHIT WEEKS: It's awesome. The best fans in the world are in Baton Rouge. And LSU's fan base is second to none. Getting to play in front of them on Saturday nights in Death Valley, that's a special moment. Getting to play in front of my classmates in Death Valley, it's the best feeling in the world to be able to play in front of 102,000 fans who are screaming the whole time.
Q. How has your recovery process been? How are you feeling?
WHIT WEEKS: It was a long road to get back, but I'm feeling better than I ever have. And I credit that to the training staff and strength coaches. They spent a lot of time with me this offseason getting my body right and getting my ankle healthy.
Q. Having been on the team for a while now, do you feel like you're kind of in the more veteran role now where you can coach these younger guys up and show them how things are done at LSU?
WHIT WEEKS: Definitely. Being here, this will now be my third year, going on junior year, I do feel that I'm a veteran voice in that locker room. It's cool to take the younger linebackers under your wing and kind of show them the ropes a little bit. I take a lot of pride in that.
And whenever you see them, when they first get here to where they are now, that's a cool feeling for me, my brother and Harold, who are really the veteran voices in the linebacker room. I think it's a great thing to see those guys kind of grow up before your eyes.
Q. What can you say about Garrett and his leadership and just sort of the way the team has gravitated to him in him time at LSU?
WHIT WEEKS: First of all, that dude's a baller, so when you have a quarterback like him, it's hard not to gravitate towards him. I mean, he has a big personality. He's fun to be around. Everybody in the locker room loves him. When your quarterback is that guy on your team, it's very exciting to see because when your quarterback's your leader, usually you're going to have a good team.
Q. What are you most excited about being back on the field with your boy, Harold Perkins?
WHIT WEEKS: Oh, I can't wait. I cannot wait to be out there playing with Harold. He's the best football player, the best defensive college football player in the world. Being able to play with him, he makes it easy to be a good football player, because you know he's going to be out there making plays and you want to make plays for him, too.
Q. Talking about Harold, he's dealt with a lot of injuries over his career, a five-star kid. How have you seen him adjust to that, and where is the limit for him right now?
WHIT WEEKS: The sky's the limit for Harold. He's the best athlete I've probably ever seen in my whole life. If you let Harold be Harold, he'll be a superstar. It's not going to be hard for him to be a superstar.
Q. Any players on the team that people maybe don't really know that much about right now but you expect them to break through over the course of the season?
WHIT WEEKS: There's not even one name that I could give you right now because there's so many. The work that we've put in this offseason and seeing how far people have grown, freshmen who are now going to be sophomores, how much they've grown in this offseason, and the transfers that we've brought in. There's so many dudes who I could say. I could list off 20 guys right now who are going to have breakout years this year.
Q. How is it so far to have your little brother Zach on campus, what's that been like?
WHIT WEEKS: It was weird at first because he skipped his senior year. So he's only 17 years old coming to college. But just being around him, it's a blessing. It's a blessing to be around both my brothers all the time. But it definitely took some adjusting to get used to having both of them there. Zach, he's crazy, but he's a lot of fun to be around.
Q. You said a lot of the transfers are just going to have impact years. One of them -- I don't know how familiar you are with him, Donovan Green, have you gone up against him in practice? What's he like?
WHIT WEEKS: That dude's a workhorse. He's one of the hardest-working guys we have in the building. And I haven't been up against him yet because I wasn't able to play spring ball. But getting to watch him, that dude can play. He's an athlete that you can split out, and he's going to be able to win those one-on-one routes.
Q. You guys are one of several teams in the SEC opening with a really big game, with a game against another major conference opponent. What can you say about knowing that you don't really have a runway -- you're starting the season against a team like Clemson opening weekend?
WHIT WEEKS: It's exciting. I want to play the best teams every week because those are the fun games to play in -- prime-time TV, 7:30, ABC -- those are the games you live for. That's why I play football to play in environments like that, play against teams like that. My motto is in order to be the best you've got to beat the best.
We're going to go out there week one against Clemson. And that's what you want. You want to go play a good team you don't want to lollygag into the season; you want to get into a fistfight the first week.
Q. Season openers have been a little bit of a challenge for you guys, lost the last five, three under Brian Kelly. Is that something that's discussed in the locker room this offseason, how to start the season off better, especially with such a big game like that?
WHIT WEEKS: We know what our past records have been in home games. Every day we go into work to change that narrative. Everybody in the whole building knows what the goals are for this season. And Clemson's just the first team that we have to beat in order to achieve those goals.
Q. What's the key to handling the expectations that teams like LSU have in the preseason? How do you do it personally?
WHIT WEEKS: I think you have to have a strong support group within the locker room, being able to rely on your brothers every day when you're in that locker room. We have a lot of fun together. This team, this year, every workout that I show up to, that we show up to, there's never going to be a dull moment. It's really fun to be around the guys this year.
I feel like that's how you can handle expectations is just being able to rely on your brothers.
Q. What is the best part about your quarterback that you like to tell people?
WHIT WEEKS: How competitive he is. No matter what we're doing, he's going a 110 percent, obviously on the football field, but ping-pong, pool, golf. Anything we do, he's going to try to absolutely destroy his competition. And that's promising to see.
Q. You said you did not participate in spring. Are you fully ready to go for fall camp?
WHIT WEEKS: Yes, definitely. I feel like within these past four weeks, five weeks, whatever, since the start of June, I've really been able to get back to being my old self. So I did sit out this spring, but now I'm ready to roll. And I feel really good.
Q. What keeps you so happy, energetic, enthusiastic? Do you just really appreciate the opportunity to play college football?
WHIT WEEKS: Every day, every day. This was a dream of mine as a kid. I'm from Georgia, the great state of Georgia, so growing up I always knew how great LSU was. But I never really knew what LSU was about until I got down there.
I thank God every single day for allowing me to be an LSU Tiger. It's the honor of my lifetime to put on that purple and gold and represent the great state of Louisiana and the great fans. It's an honor that I don't take it lightly.
I know how passionate our fan base is, and I'd be doing them a disservice if I didn't go out there every single day and give them 110 percent for them because I know how much they love us.
It's not hard to do. It's not hard to go out there and play passionate when you're playing in front of the best fans in the world.
Q. Harold was in your position last year here at SEC media days. Did he give you any advice as you got ready for today?
WHIT WEEKS: He said just go be yourself. I got to spend a lot of time with Harold this offseason throughout our rehab. Me and him have became really close. He was a shoulder I could lean on no matter what. Days that looked long for me, Harold was right there.
Hey, bro, keep your head up. Keep pushing; we'll get through this together. Obviously he's coming off an injury. I'm coming off an injury. He said to be myself and go have fun.
Q. You're going into your third year as a starter. LSU has a couple of players who maybe are going to get their first taste of significant playing time. What are the most important things for a player who's going to see an increase in snaps going into a season?
WHIT WEEKS: I'd say the same thing that Harold said to me. Be yourself. There's a reason that you're playing football at LSU right now. If you weren't one of the best college football players in the world, you wouldn't be at LSU. Go be yourself, have confidence. Know that at times, adversity is going to hit, something bad is going to happen, but know every single person out there has your back. The brotherhood at LSU this year is stronger than I've ever seen.
There's going to be no pointing fingers, no nothing, just know something bad happens, I have your back, everybody else has your back, Coach Kelly has your back, Coach Baker, Coach Sloan, everybody in the building has your back. Just go play, don't be scared to go be who you are.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports