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00:00 [INAUDIBLE]
00:01 How you doing?
00:02 Good.
00:02 How about you, TJ?
00:03 Good morning.
00:04 You obviously were recruited by FSU out of high school,
00:07 had pre-existing relationships, especially with Coach Norvell
00:09 at the end there.
00:11 Did that play a role in your transfer decision?
00:13 Did it make it easier in your transfer decision?
00:15 And when you came here the second time,
00:17 what stood out to you?
00:19 I'd definitely say that played a major role in my decision.
00:24 Coach Norvell and his staff actually
00:26 got to FSU towards my senior year of high school,
00:30 so it was a little later in my high school recruiting.
00:32 And within the-- I'll say it wasn't even a year,
00:36 the few months that he was there before I decided to commit
00:40 and go off to college, I made a great relationship
00:43 with him and the staff.
00:44 So I feel like it just wasn't-- it might not
00:46 have been the right time then, but that played a big role
00:48 in why I'm here now.
00:49 And I feel like it's the right time now.
00:52 Next would be Essend, second row on your left.
00:54 In your recruiting process, what was your relationship
00:56 with-- like you mentioned Norvell, but also Alex Atkins.
00:59 What have you learned from him so far?
01:01 And what's been your time in here so far?
01:05 Me and Coach Atkins have had a great relationship
01:08 since I was in high school.
01:10 So we built that up then, and now it's just getting stronger
01:14 and stronger by the day.
01:15 I'll say he's a real personable guy,
01:17 so anything away from football that I need or just need
01:20 to talk, I can hit him up.
01:22 Then when it comes to football, he's a real straightforward guy.
01:25 He's not going to make you any promises.
01:28 He's not going to tell you that you're going to do this
01:30 and you're not.
01:31 It's like everything's got to be earned there.
01:34 So I respect that about him.
01:37 Stay on the left side, go to the third row for Jordan.
01:39 Hey, TJ, last year Florida State ran a rotation
01:42 with their offensive line.
01:43 Has Coach Atkins talked to you at all about that?
01:45 And what do you expect your role to be in the upcoming season?
01:48 I haven't talked to him about it.
01:50 I just-- me and the rest of the offensive line,
01:52 we're just out there every day doing everything we can.
01:56 We just want to be one unit.
01:58 Whoever's on the field at the time,
02:00 I know how we've been talking.
02:03 Whoever's on the field at the time,
02:04 we're going to all do the best we can,
02:06 give everything we got to try to be the best offensive
02:08 line in the country.
02:09 So--
02:11 OK, we'll go back to Chris on the front row.
02:13 What position do you expect to line up at,
02:15 and what are your strengths and skills at that position?
02:20 I feel like I can play anything interior,
02:22 so either guard or center.
02:26 And yeah, I feel like my strengths
02:28 are my athleticism, playing through the whistle,
02:32 whatever the case.
02:33 So whatever the team needs from me,
02:36 I'll be here to give it to them.
02:38 We'll come over here to the second row on your right
02:40 for Ira.
02:41 Did you know any of these guys in this offensive line room
02:44 before you got here?
02:45 And what's it like been just getting to know them now?
02:48 Before I got here, the only person that I knew
02:50 was Ke'Andre Jones.
02:53 He's another guy from Georgia.
02:54 I met him in high school at a couple camps.
02:58 Since I've been here, I've met a lot of the guys.
03:00 And it's just like we've all clicked.
03:03 Like, everybody got the same goal.
03:05 So when you got the same goal as somebody,
03:06 it's easy to relate to them, easy to click with them.
03:09 So I say that.
03:12 We'll go back to Essendon, second row on your left.
03:14 Kind of a two-pointer since they're related,
03:16 but you committed on the same day
03:18 that Mike Norvell was kind of in the topic of Alabama job.
03:23 What was his message to you?
03:25 And then were you kind of shocked
03:27 by Nick Saban's retirement?
03:28 And what do you learn from him in your time there?
03:31 For your first question, Coach Norvell's message to me
03:35 was just, I'm here.
03:40 Just, you know, with Saban.
03:44 Yeah, it was kind of surprising, but it's respected.
03:48 I'll say he gets the utmost respect from me
03:51 and any other guy that's played for him.
03:54 Just being in there with him day to day,
03:56 seeing how he shows up, how he attacks the process at the age
04:00 he's at, it's just respected.
04:02 You can't do anything but respect it.
04:03 So, yeah.
04:06 We'll go back to Ira on your right.
04:08 How nice has it been to have some of your former teammates
04:11 here, too?
04:12 And then if you could talk about Roy Dell a little bit,
04:14 like what he's like as a player, but also as a teammate.
04:20 It's nice having other guys from Alabama here.
04:24 When I came down on my visit, Earl Little
04:26 was down here as well on his visit.
04:28 So we kind of talked about going ahead and doing it.
04:31 So we was really the first two down here.
04:33 And then we started trying to get everybody else,
04:37 like just add pieces to the puzzle.
04:39 And the guys that are here from Alabama,
04:41 they're all great-- Malik, Sean, Earl, Roy Dell.
04:45 Yeah, everybody's great on and off the field.
04:47 That's a big thing about Florida State
04:49 is how you are off the field.
04:52 And with that being said, Roy Dell's a great person
04:54 off the field.
04:56 He's a guy, no matter what he's going through,
04:59 how he's feeling, how your day is, how his day is going,
05:01 he's going to put a smile on your face.
05:03 When he walks in that building, he's
05:05 going to have a smile on his face,
05:06 whether it's his best day or his worst day.
05:08 And it's contagious.
05:10 We'll go to Aslam in the back right corner.
05:13 TJ, what were some of the things when you were 18 years old
05:15 coming out of high school you were looking at when it came
05:17 to committing to a college?
05:18 And how much of that has changed this time around,
05:21 and what you were looking for this time?
05:24 I'll say it's pretty much still the same thing.
05:26 Looking for something real, you don't want--
05:30 or I'm going to say me personally,
05:32 I'm not looking for anything that's in recruiting.
05:34 You're getting the big head.
05:36 You're getting told this, that, just hyped up.
05:39 And then obviously when you get to college,
05:40 it's going to be something different, just something real.
05:43 Somewhere you know you're going to have to go and work
05:45 to earn your spot, nothing given.
05:47 Because when you earn it, it's a lot better
05:49 than when it's given.
05:50 So I say it's the same thing, and I get the same vibe here.
05:53 I'm sure you would--
05:59 as much as you played at Alabama,
06:00 you probably wanted to play more.
06:02 But what were the practices like?
06:04 I mean, you hear about--
06:05 I mean, obviously Alabama's got so much talent on defense.
06:07 What did-- even though you would have liked to have been more
06:10 on Saturdays, what did you get out of those practices?
06:12 I got a lot out of those practices.
06:14 I feel like 9 times out of 10, the practices at Alabama
06:18 are going to be harder than a game when you are at Alabama.
06:22 So it was fun, man.
06:24 Just you build up these relationships in the locker
06:27 room, and everybody likes to look at theirself
06:30 as an alpha male.
06:31 So you go out on the field, and you just
06:33 have 11 on offense and 11 on defense.
06:35 Everybody think they're alpha male.
06:37 It's like, who's going to win today?
06:38 And no matter who you see on TV, nobody on that team
06:43 won every rep that they took at practice.
06:45 So it goes back and forth.
06:46 It's great battles.
06:47 And it just-- iron sharpens iron.
06:51 We'll go back to Chris from earlier left.
06:52 You referenced earlier coming out of high school,
06:54 this wasn't quite the place for you yet,
06:56 and is now--
06:58 watching the transformation of this place from afar,
07:00 what stood out to you about what changed from the high school
07:02 recruitment to now when you're here?
07:05 Everything that Coach Norvell and Coach Atkins
07:08 and the whole staff told me when I was coming out of high school
07:11 when they first got here, they've
07:14 done everything that they told me.
07:16 And the program has changed, just like they told me it would,
07:19 just by buying into the standard that they've built here.
07:23 The culture, the standard, everything
07:25 that they've built here was what they told me coming out
07:28 of high school.
07:28 So I can take their word for that.
07:30 And I saw it firsthand, just an improvement over the years.
07:35 We'll go back to Ira.
07:36 When you were looking at other schools,
07:41 how much did the chances to get back to a playoff,
07:44 to maybe win a national championship, how much of a
07:46 factor was that in your--
07:48 That was a big thing, too.
07:50 That's another reason I chose Florida State.
07:53 I believe I want to get to the playoffs.
07:55 I want to win a national championship.
07:57 And I believe this is a place that I can do it,
07:59 and we can do it, just knowing the guys in the locker room.
08:01 [INAUDIBLE]
08:04 We'll go back to Adlon.
08:06 We've been out there, and we've seen a little bit of tour
08:09 of duty.
08:09 I know you've been through a little bit of tour of duty.
08:12 Can you let us know what this offseason conditioning
08:14 workout's been like for you, and maybe compare it
08:16 to how it was in Tuscaloosa?
08:20 I feel like it's about the same.
08:24 Just offseason workout is going to be a grind.
08:26 Anywhere you go, especially a program like here or Alabama,
08:30 two programs with a rich history and great programs
08:34 at the moment, the offseason is where it's made,
08:37 where it's built up.
08:37 So tour of duty, I feel like it's a grind.
08:40 It's tough, but it's needed.
08:42 When you get into the fourth quarter of a conference game,
08:45 you dig back to your roots, which
08:47 is going to be tour of duty.
08:49 You think, I was working harder than them this offseason.
08:52 They didn't do what I did.
08:54 You know what I mean?
08:57 We'll go to Jordan, third row on your left.
08:59 TJ, can you talk a little bit about the offensive scheme
09:01 that Coach Novell runs here and how they utilize counter?
09:06 I feel like one of my strong suits, like I said,
09:09 is my athleticism.
09:10 We run a lot of counter.
09:12 Counter gets you moving, pulling, sometimes even
09:15 in space.
09:16 And that's what I love to do.
09:18 And the way that they run counter here is amazing.
09:21 I've probably never seen counter hit so many times in my life,
09:23 just watching film.
09:25 So I'm excited for that.
09:29 We'll come back to Ira on your right.
09:33 Coach Atkins, you talked a little bit about him.
09:36 His personality, I know he likes to have fun,
09:39 but he also is hard on guys.
09:41 But he'll kind of give guys a hard time
09:44 and be blunt with them.
09:45 Did it take any time to kind of get used to that,
09:48 or how quickly did you?
09:50 No, like I told you, he's never switched up how he was.
09:54 He's going to be him regardless.
09:56 So the same Coach Atkins right now
09:58 is the same one that started recruiting me when I was a senior
10:01 in high school.
10:02 So I'm used to it.
10:04 I knew how he was.
10:05 And that's respected because it's him.
10:08 It's not him putting on while you're getting recruited,
10:11 and once you sign the papers, he completely switches up.
10:14 Whatever he gives you while you're getting recruited,
10:17 that's exactly what you're going to get when you get here.
10:19 So you can respect that as a man.
10:23 Anything else?
10:25 All right, thanks, TJ.
10:27 No problem.