Everything LaNorris Sellers said after the loss to LSU

Q: Could you take us through what happened on the sack and what was the discussion at halftime about whether you were going back in?
Sellers: I think he just rolled up on my ankle, and then it’s kind of like my ankle – in the moment it was just like it was hurt. At halftime, they just took the tape off, looked at it, then they retaped it and figured out that nothing was really wrong. I was good to go.

Q: What was going through your head as you were trying to test out your ankle?
Sellers: At the beginning, once they rewrapped it and everything, it was a different kind of tape that they used. I was just getting frustrated getting used to that because I wasn’t really used to the specific tape that they used. But after I had it on for a little bit, they told me it’s gonna take a while for me to get adjusted to it. And they put it on. I used it, and after you saw me frustrated, I was fine. Like five, 10 minutes after that I was fine.

Q: What did you see on the 75-yard run?
Sellers: We practiced that all week. We knew they were coming down real fast so I just had to read the defensive end. And then once I saw green grass I saw I had two blockers in front of me. Then I saw the safety. I didn’t know if the linemen would get there before me or not, so all I had to do was just put a move on him, and then once I put a move on him, honestly I just looked at the jumbotron trying to see his behind me.

Q: How would you describe the impact the penalties had on the game?
Sellers: It just comes down to playing smart football, like you got to know certain things, but I know Mike had one. He’s just a young guy, so he’s not really used to it. Like an offensive lineman going downfield, it’s just what comes up doing RPOs and quick passes and stuff like that. You got two to three yards and make a decision. And if it’s two yards, bang-bang play, they are probably gonna call it just because it’s downfield regardless. I mean, we’ve got to keep practicing, be more patient, we still keep doing what we do.

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Q: Did you feel different after you went out for that drive in the second half?
Sellers: You feel it, obviously, but it’s nothing to stop me from playing. I think it’s just more of a precaution thing. 

Q: Did you try to talk your way back onto the field?
Sellers: Yeah, you want to play. So I was doing that. But obviously, Robby’s out there, he was running the offense, he was moving the ball and stuff like that. The penalties just killed the drives.

Q: How did you compartmentalize all of the attention and buildup this week?
Sellers: It was really just a big thing was just handling distractions the right way, like just with all the students, home game, GameDay coming in, it was just handle distraction. But we also had to focus on what we had to focus on, because no matter what, we still had to play football. 

Q: What was your mindset in the second half when the offense struggled at times and you felt good enough to play?
Sellers: It makes you feel bad, but you’ve got to be a team player, people look up to you. You’ve got to have a good mindset, good attitude about everything. Just keep keeping guys up, telling them what I’m seeing. Tell them like, Hey, y’all are good, y’all are fine, y’all are moving the ball. Just keep playing smart football. 

Q: What went into your decision to wear contacts instead of goggles?
Sellers: I was just playing with them the last couple of weeks or whatever. I just wanted to see how I felt about contacts compared to the goggles and everything. So I did, like, back and forth between the last couple of weeks and then Wednesday and Thursday I practiced with them and I was like alright, I’m going to try contacts this week and see how I feel with them. I honestly made the decision to play with contacts last night.

Q: Do you feel like you were seeing better out there? 
Sellers: It’s crazy. You can still see, but everything is so much brighter. You can see a lot more (with contacts). Honestly, it’s just different. It’s just different. It’s not like you see more or less, it’s just different.

Q: You connected well with Josh Simon and Jared Brown, what is that connection like and what do they bring to the offense?
Sellers: They just opened up the offense more. When you can throw to a guy like Josh, big tight end, it opens up like everything. He can stay and protect, go out and run routes, just another element to our offense. And then Jared Brown, like fast guy, like you want to get him down the field. You want to give him the ball in space so he can make people miss, run past people, whatever you need him to do. But we just been building that chemistry for since they got here during the spring or January, whenever they got here, every day, pretty much.

Q: Can you share what the atmosphere in the locker room was like and how do you keep this loss from sticking?
Sellers: Obviously it’s down. You lost the game. It’s an SEC game, we had the game. Stuff happened, things happened. That’s football. As a leader, you just gotta move past it. The game’s over. There’s nothing we can change about that. All those penalties and stuff that we had, we can’t do anything but learn from it now and move on to next week. You don’t want to dwell on the past.

Q: What can you learn from today that you can take forward?
Sellers: Just to keep going. Honestly, things happen, they’re gonna happen, whatever, but you’ve just gotta keep going.

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