CLEMSON – Clemson drew the 12-seed in the first round of the College Football Playoff and is heading to Austin, Texas to face the No. 5 seed Texas Longhorns.
Earlier this week, player interviews took place before the first round of the College Football Playoff. Clemson defensive end T.J. Parker met with the media to detail the season as a whole, the playoffs, and what has led to his personal success this season.
–Parker on his first appearance in the college football playoffs: “It has been fun this is my first time being in the playoffs coming off a good win in the ACC Championship. The first couple of days we had off just kind of rested and gave ourselves some time to recover from a long stretch we had. We are getting into our first full week of preparing for Texas. They are a very good football team, so I am just super excited about the preparation we have to do.”
Parker broke Clemson’s single season record for forced fumbles with six. He talked about the work that goes into achieving his record. “It is a blessing. It was something that you do not really think about at first. We rep forced fumbles in our turnover circuit before practice, so you don’t really think about it in the game, it just kind of happens naturally.”
–Parker on Texas tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., possibly being available for Saturday. “I look at all of them as the same. They are all great athletes. I am excited to play them like I said, Texas is a really good football team so I can’t wait to play on Saturday”.
–Parker talks about what makes Quinn Ewers an effective threat for Texas’ offense. “Even though he does not use his legs he is still a dangerous quarterback. He can absolutely sling the rock so we have to make sure we can cover good, and the defensive line has to rush the passer so it will be a good game.”
