UCF Defensive Back Antione Previews No. 2 BYU & Knights' Defensive Game Plan

How was the bye week for you personally? Coach Frost said he gave the team an extended time off. Was that good for you, and how did the guys come back and get back to work this year? Thanks to Coach Frost, man. Bobby was great. Our bodies were able to get rest. We were able to get rest and just get away from a game of football for a couple days, go home with family, so it was great overall. And just what's the mindset now? You know, first half of the season, got the bye week. Now you can focus on the second half. You've been right in there with some games. I know you would have liked to pull a couple of those out, but just what's the mindset, What's the motivation to finish this second half of the season strong? Actually, the motivation is we had a lot of tough games, the first six games. We had a lot of tough games, a lot of top 25 teams. Like Preston was saying, we were right there with all of them. And I feel like the Bobbies got the perfect time to give us time to just step back and as a team get better and focus on small things, focus on ourselves for a week, get the rest we need, and go into the second half of the season just more hungry and more desperate for a win. Thank you all for your guidance. Scott mentioned the fact that this is your chance, you guys' chance to write the narrative of the second half of the season. How do you go about doing that? What do you think that you guys need to do better to maybe flip the script, so to speak, inside? The first thing, just put the past games in the past. Obviously, you can learn from them, but just leaving where they're at in the past and just focus on getting better each week and focusing on how we can pull off the wins and finish strong, play court-court strong, and get the small things right within the team. Much like I asked Coach Cross What is the feeling amongst you, are you embracing the opportunity to take on the highest ranked teams in the playoffs? That's actually a blessing. As a little kid you dream of moments like this. The human nature, it's a different feeling. You're very excited to play games like this. But at the end of the day, you attack it like it's just another game. You prepare the same as we prepare for every game, but obviously it's a little more exciting to come into this game. Is it fun knowing that your family is going to watch you on national television, primetime game in terms of the big slot, the three-third box, and it's cool to know that they can tune in whenever for big games like this? Yeah, 100%, 100%. That's a great feeling knowing your family can watch the game whenever, however, you turn the TV on and like their son or their grandson is playing right there on TV. How do you evaluate your game for the first half of the season? Obviously, there's a lot of room for improvement. I'm just happy that the defense and the DBs I have around me, all of us playing up to like a certain standard, creating more turnovers. Honestly, I'm not really focused on myself, I'm just focusing on how I can help the team win, just keep creating big plays for the team. You got punt returning, yeah, I got a couple of them and it's one uh particular team over here I was playing him last year, he's a great quarterback, like you said, he can run the ball, he can throw the ball when things like that, you as DBs just have to be where you need to be when you're supposed to be uh we got to disguise, like he's a great quarterback so We've got to make sure we're prepared for him, and we'll be ready for him. Communication-wise, I mean, I just feel like if you handle home state's passing back, how does it maybe reflect differently with BYU and what they want to do? Overall, I think communication's been great. Obviously, there's always room for improvement, but communication's been great. Like what Clint said, there's a lot of vet guys in the room, so no moment too big for us. When we're in a fire, in the actual moment, we're making sure we communicate through it and stay level-headed. And then with BYU, how did their concepts, their route combination, how they defer from Oklahoma State? Honestly, Oklahoma State was a tempo team. They're pretty fast-paced. They're tempo in the whole game. As soon as they catch the ball, they're running back to the line, lining up. One thing, the only difference I can see with BYU, they're a more slower-paced offense. They want to run exactly what they want to run, and I'm excited for it. If the last time you guys had to play top 25 opponents, you've been on the road. this one is coming here to the Bounce House brand today or the highest one yet. What does that home field advantage do? I mean, honestly, you always want to talk about protecting your home field. And we got the crowd on our side, so when those guys on offense, we need the bounce house to be rocking, we need them to be loud, making those guys not be able to hear each other. Cuz like I said, on the field, that does help. When the crowd loud on defense and the offense is like, we can see that they're struggling to get communications across from each other and tell each other things, we can see that they're struggling. That'll help a lot with the home field advantage, whatever offense. And then a little bit, you mentioned earlier in the second half, what do you guys think you have to do to avoid those moments? We kind of see it in the game. Yeah, I'm happy to say that. Like you say, as a defense, we just need to step up when we need to step up. Like in the big moments when we need to get a stop on fourth and one, we need to get a stop on fourth and two, or we need to get a three and out, or a takeaway to help the offense out. That's where we have to get better as a defense and step up to the plate. And like when it's the biggest moment, we have to make those big moments into big moments. The Cougars are third in the nation in third down conversion percentage, when you're going up against a high-powered offense like that, what's the biggest thing? Small thing. Just seeing, like, the smallest thing is the biggest thing. Like I say, the big moments, that's what we have to strive at the defense is just keep scratching and clawing and just finding a way to make those stops in those big moments. Coach talked about with the off week, you guys could have practiced three or four times. You've studied this, limited the time to about one. How did that really help you guys? And then what specifically did you do to take your mind off of the defense? Obviously, we got a lot of key players injured, So with that, with us not being able to practice or not practicing throughout the fall, week with Coach Frost giving us rest That helped out a lot, allowing a lot of vet guys to get rest and just allowing us to get our recess and our body to go to the second floor What did you do specifically? What was something you did on the island that kind of maybe helped you step away from football? I went out to the beach. I went to Miami Beach, and I was just relaxing with the family Nice to meet you. Antoine, have you paid attention to some of these changes around college football. Now they're going to expand the playoff. It's only been a couple of years, the 12th Next year, we'll go to 24 As a player, have you thought much about that Do you like the enhanced opportunity that maybe there's obviously a better chance to be top 24, the top 12 What's your take on that Honestly, that's something that I look at offseason. In season, I'm just focused on UCF and focusing on winning games and doing whatever I can to help the team win. And you have another year, right? You have a fifth year. So next season, are you excited about that role change that everyone gets five years now that you have another opportunity to play college football? That's great because a lot of guys, it's probably last year, that's probably like stressing and things. But that's great for a lot of the guys. And obviously that's great for me knowing that I have another year. But like I said, right now I'm just focused on where I'm at in the moment and just focused on winning games. And another quick one, you probably saw the atmosphere that BYU had for Notre Dame. what kind of atmosphere do you want the Bounce House to be like when number two BYU comes in and down? I want an atmosphere similar to that, if not better. Obviously looking from it as a fan perspective, that was a great atmosphere. It was fun to watch. It was a great game and their fans came to show up and I have a lot of faith in Knight Nation that we'll show up as well. What gives you confidence this team can finish the second half of the season strong? That's a great question. I know the team that we have and I know the guys in the locker room and seeing us down no matter what the score was and seeing guys can see the ball in the field and not pouting around and happy to go on the field the offense get a three and out when we needed a touchdown defense we're going on field with a mindset like we will get a touchdown and the defense if one of us get a touchdown and we need to get a stop and the offense now they're going on field with a mindset like don't worry about it we got you I just know the team we got each other so we're gonna find a way to start finishing these games