Tyrique Stevenson blog: No I did not give myself up on the INT, and yes we are hyped and will be ready for Texas A&M

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CB Tyrique Stevenson will have a weekly blog all season at CaneSport.com. In this edition, Stevenson talks about the his and the defense’s play in Game 2 and looks ahead to Texas A&M:

THE INTERCEPTION … AND NO, I DID NOT GIVE MYSELF UP

That interception, actually as soon as I caught it I heard a whistle and that’s what made me stop and look at the ref. That’s why I was jumping and looking at the ref like `What do you mean? What do you mean? What do you mean? What do you mean?’ And I went back and talked to him a little bit after that and he was like `Oh, I felt like you were giving yourself up.’ So I think he thought I was going to take a knee, I don’t know what it was. I asked him to classify what he saw and what he meant. But I just looked at him, just shook my head in disbelief. But I was blessed with a pick.

And there definitely was a whistle. Even on the video you can see James Williams pointing at the line. It was just a crazy sequence because after I caught it, realized I had it I was like `Go!’ As soon as I was going to go I heard the whistle, and that’s what made me look at him and jump around and stuff. That’s why I started celebrating, because it was he blew it dead. Kam Kinchens and K4 were like `Come on, come on, come on.’ So it was `Just run it down here and make sure.’ I guess 95 percent of the other people didn’t hear a whistle, so just go ahead and finish this out the right way.

My thing was go, let’s go, run, just run. And he blew the whistle and that stopped everything in my track. It was weird. It just was weird. For me, I know I didn’t step out and he blew the whistle. It was just crazy. I definitely wasn’t giving myself up, no. We are going to score, put points on the board. The No. 1 defense in the nation always puts points on the board. That was my mindset at the moment.

Around end of third quarter, early fourth quarter is when I talked to the ref. I was like `You know you took that away from me, you know?’ And he was just like `Oh, I felt you were going to give yourself up, I saw you were about to take a knee.’ He just kept giving me excuses and I understand his viewpoint of it, I’m in the back of the end zone and everybody is out there. Nobody is going to catch me, but you have to respect him. He has the whistle, he’s doing his job.

As for that interception itself? Fade route, outside leverage, squeezing, don’t give him any ground to do what he does. He can jump, very athletic, and coming into this game we knew the guy I was covering, No. 1 (Jason Brownlee) was their main go-to target, and especially in the red zone. They don’t care if he’s covered, don’t care if he’s in a bad position. They do what they do, throw it. In my mind it was `You know it’s coming, get ready.’ Great technique and he wasn’t all that physical so I was able to get a little more physical with him and just put myself in a position to make the play. And when the ball came, it came straight to me. It never should be that easy. So when I caught it, it was a quick thinking but it was coming at me and I’m like `Is this coming at me?’ So I caught it, then `go, go, go, go, go’ So a real quick transition.

It always feels great to make a play like that. It ignites my teammate, the whole stadium, just gives juice to everybody. It always feels great.

WE STARTED SLUGGISH, AND NO HALFTIME SPEECH WAS NEEDED TO GET US TO PICK IT UP

I felt like we didn’t come out as much like we needed, came out kind of sluggish and stuff like that which allowed them the confidence to feel they can play with us. They came out and were on top of their game. They showed up, weren’t a pushover team. And we just have to wake up, have to come out a little harder and a little more focused. I felt our focus and attention to detail, I won’t say wasn’t there but very lackadaisical at first until we woke up and realized `We shouldn’t be in a dogfight with these people. We are who we are, we put the work in for this.

And the gameplan was stop Frank Gore, Jr. Pretty much that’s what their offense had been showing. Their quarterback goes down, Frank Gore is pretty much the person that comes in to be their Wildcat quarterback, their 11 personnel quarterback. He’s the running back and the quarterback. Our focus was on making sure Frank Gore wasn’t going to have a huge game like he’s been having lately. We did that, just made a big emphasis. As a defense we came together, just realized we had to step up.

As for their passing game, that didn’t really surprise us. We really pretty much went over everything. But I would say passing was right behind stopping the run for us. They’re a running team, Wildcat team, so just stop the run. But passing was definitely a big emphasis. They have No. 1, they have great receivers, too.

So they’re passing, going deep, and we’re thinking `Shut it down, stop it.’ If they are throwing it deep and we’re coming down with it or breaking it up, eventually they’re going to go away from it. So as a secondary just go out there and show why we’re the best secondary, make them stop the run, not even look there. But their quarterback did a great job. I just found he was a freshman, and he was out there throwing it pretty nice.

After they started throwing it, for us it’s nothing personal, it’s just business. Just work. You don’t want to let emotions get involved, because emotions can be a big drain in certain situations. So never personal, we just have to handle our job and make him pay for even thinking about it.

At halftime there really was no adjustment, no big adjustment. I just felt we came in as a team, sat down there and realized `We need to pick this up. We put in too much work to be out here being lackadaisical and giving a team this opportunity to stick with us. We sacrificed so much this offseason and we need to pick it up.’ And that’s pretty much what it was. No words said, no hype speech, no coach Cristobal. Just as a player we all sat in there, took a break and looked at each other, understood what we needed to do.

We know what we’re capable of, and I feel as a whole team we knew we were performing under that. Just coming out second half and sticking straight to the basics, going back to what we know and do well was the key. For us in the second half I just felt we came out with our fire lit like we should have in the first half. Our fire was lit, and just we came out and were dominant in every aspect of the game. It was same coverages, no different schemes, different adjustments. As far as us, nothing. But just come out and play with a fire, be a dog, be a man amongst boys really.

Coming out of the game definitely felt good about it because we came out there and I feel we showed ourselves that once we lock in, once we light our own fire, create our own energy we’re good, we’re rocking. We’re Miami, we’re good. We should always be like that.

WHILE OTHER TEAMS LIKE TEXAS A&M WERE BEING UPSET, WE FOUGHT HARD AND WON

That’s what we’re different at. We realize what we were missing, realize what is needed to be done and we as a team focus in and put 100 percent into that one area, the small details. We focus on that and make it a big detail so everything is just as important as the small things.

The teams that were upset? I feel like every team plays with a chip on my shoulder. Maybe a couple mistakes here and there that caused them. Other supposed lesser programs are coming in with their heads down, they’ve been working all week and they actually want this. Just felt like a lot of these teams that were upset came out missing their chips on their shoulder and these other teams who wanted a little bit more than them actually prevailed this weekend.

College football is a lot of good players. Once you don’t lock into that you get exposed like a lot of teams did this weekend. Got exposed for being lackadaisical, not having the details, not going out there and playing like it’s their last game.

For us, that made me feel better that we can flip that switch, be able to turn it up a notch when we need to, even when things are looking bad and things are looking slow, aren’t doing the way we usually do. We have a switch we need to flip, and a lot of teams don’t have that, get out of that. The fact we did that, that showed each other we have a lot more in the tank. It’s a great feeling, shows something to us as an individual and the team as a whole.

TEXAS A&M LOSS DOESN’T CHANGE HOW WE VIEW THEM

Every team gets the same dedication, every team gets the same work ethic we put in – like we’re playing the No. 1 team in the nation. We do not discriminate, and them losing to App State has nothing to do with us. That was last week. We’re focused on getting better tomorrow in practice and being able to put one percent in the tank, go out and compete at a high level.

For us this is a business trip, nothing more and nothing less. Let’s not hype it up like the media does, let’s not make it bigger than what it is, let’s not give ourselves nerves, let’s not do the extra stuff. It’s a business trip. We’re going out there to handle business, we’re going to enjoy it and we’re going to come back home.

Looking at their team, we watch certain concepts and plays, the mess-ups to see what that play could have been. And they’re a great team under coach Fisher. He’s over there working. I know half the guys that work in the building, the GA’s, recruiting manager. Some of them are from Georgia when I was there, some from my recruitment, some my old coaches. James Coley recruited me, was my lead recruiter, I know him real well. He started recruiting me in 10^th grade, 11^th grade. I’m pretty sure he’s making it known I’m all about business, he knows who I am, what I’m about. I speak to him, on Instagram he sends my story back or I respond to his story. Coach Coley is a great coach and even a much better human being and a man. We’ll always have a connection no matter the circumstances. But we haven’t spoken recently, we’ve both been working. I’ll probably call him Thursday or Friday when we get out there and just have a couple of conversations with him. Just see how he’s doing, maybe talk a little trash here and there.

Once we’re on the field I’ll see him for about 30 seconds and then it’s down to business. And him putting some young receivers out there, it tells me you actually earned the trust from coach Coley, he loves what you do out on the field. It means I definitely have to be on my P’s and Q’s and stay locked in the entire time. All the guys out there, if Coley trusts you to put you out there, you’re that guy for him. And I also know a couple of GA’s from Georgia are there. A lot of pieces I know. I know their mindset. So I know it’s a great place over there and they’re definitely working hard.

WE’RE A LITTLE MORE HYPED FOR THIS GAME

I feel like we’re excited like every game we’re blessed to go out there and play and have this opportunity to play this game of football. Everybody doesn’t get that chance. And I feel we’re a little more hyped for this game, as we should be. This is a big game, big stage and time for us to prove ourselves and go out there and have fun, go out there and be dominant. We’re hyped. I wouldn’t say we’re treating it any different or anything like that, but we’re definitely hyped for it.

We understand we have to go out, answer a lot of questions for ourselves, prove to ourselves that we can be one of the best teams in the country.

And knowing Miami fans will travel there, it shows they are dedicated to this team and they want to see us succeed  just like our coaches do. It feels great having the fans there and looking up in the stands and having them cheer for us and wanting to see us win.

Definitely a big game which will require a lot more focus, attention to detail. A big game, we’re not trying to let it give us nerves, blow up in our face. It’s just another game against another good opponent and then it’s time to go out there and all that work we put in during the summer, put that to work.