Safety Xavier McKinney
August 7, 2021
Q: It’s not Tuscaloosa hot yet, right?
A: Nah, not yet. It’ll get there though.
Q: So did you mean to hit (Running Back) Corey (Clement) that hard?
A: We’re just competing in practice. It’s going to be competitive every day, every time we come out here and step out here onto the field. We go out there and we have fun and we compete, so it is what it is, but at the end of the day we’re all a team, we’re all brothers, so that’s how we saw it.
Q: Are you surprised at how quickly that escalated?
A: Like I said, we’re a team, we compete. So obviously practice, every practice isn’t going to be, you know, we might not get into it, you might get into it. We go out there and we compete. We compete as a team and then we come back in here and we’re all brothers at the end of the day.
Q: Xavier, how would you describe the DB room?
A: We got a great DB room, man. I think we go out there, we go in the film and we always make sure that we’re always on the same page. We try to communicate with each other at all times just to make sure everybody’s on the same page. I think a lot of the times we’re a big part of just communication in the defense, as a safety in general. We just make sure that we’re up to par on that and we go out there and just try to get better each and every day.
Q: Some of the guys said you compete amongst yourselves to see who’s the smartest?
A: Yeah, I’d say that’s true, man. I think we try to figure out who knows the most. But like I said, it makes each and every one of us better at the end of the day whether that’s just preparation, whether that’s coming out here and executing. We kind of do it all around. We actually kind of tally up some things when we’re out here on the field just as far as making play,s seeing who can make the most plays and just seeing who can be the most vocal out on the field.
Q: In years past the DBs have done things like little trophies or whatever and you guys have been out there making plays. Is there any kind of internal competition about who gets the most picks in practice or anything like that?
A: Yeah, we keep tally of it. We try to keep that within the DB room, but we definitely keep tally of just who’s out there making the most plays and we make sure to just keep it going because the more plays we make, the better it is for our team as a whole. That’s just what we do.
Q: Has (Cornerback) Rodarius (Williams) surged up those rankings yesterday? What did you think about him?
A: He’s been playing well, man. He’s just going out there every day and making sure that he’s getting better no matter what, no matter who he’s going in with, and then in the film room and also the rookie duties, you know how that gets sometimes. He’s been up to par in everything and been making sure he’s been doing his job all around.
Q: How would you describe your role in this defense? Obviously, you’ve got some talented safeties there and it’s kind of a mixture of you guys. How would you describe your role?
A: Just wherever Coach wants me to play, I can play. I’ve relayed that message to him, and we’ve talked about it. So I just go out there and whatever way I can help my team, that’s what I go out there and make sure I do every single day.
Q: Rodarius said you guys were working on a nickname for him.
A: Yeah, right now we just call him Lee-Lee. But I actually just learned today that that’s his middle name, so he gets called that a lot or we just call him Ro.
Q: His brother is (Browns Cornerback) Greedy Williams, so you’ve got to come up with something good for him.
A: Oh, that’s his brother? I did not know that. That’s crazy. That’s wild. I’ve got to talk to him about that one. I did not know that.
Q: You guys probably had a couple battles on the field?
A: Yeah, we definitely had a couple battles, but I definitely did not know that.
