Safety Julian Love
Q: First off, obviously, when you heard the news about (Quarterback) Daniel (Jones), what was your reaction to that? And if you don't mind, can you talk about this young guy (Cornerback) Jarren Williams? He played like 60 something snaps yesterday. How do you feel he looked and how he responded yesterday?
A: Obviously, Daniel is a good friend of mine. When you hear something like that, I'm just checking on him, making sure he's all good, and everything like that. Obviously, you hate to see it, but he's a tough guy. Obviously, we're going to be hearing from him. I'll let him speak on that. With Jarren, I think we were all excited just to let him go and play, not worry about making mistakes, not worry about any of that extra stuff, and just be who he is. He's a tough guy, he's a strong guy, and just kind of plays to his strengths. I thought he did a good job from my opinion, just going in on short notice and stepping up for us in a spot where we needed him to.
Q: What was it like playing with (Linebacker) Jaylon Smith and basically being introduced to him probably the day before?
A: That was an interesting surprise. Jaylon has always been kind of a big brother really, a mentor. I never had a chance to play with him, but obviously I knew of him. He went out the year before I was coming in at Notre Dame. For my first season, he was always around. He would always give me advice about the game and about off the field. So yeah, it's kind of funny to be where we're at now, and it was good to see him out there and making some plays for us.
Q: How excited was he to be out there?
A: He was excited. He's a guy who plays with a lot of passion, and I mean, what better game than to go up against your old team. So yeah, he was fired up.
Q: You're a young player, but you're sort of a veteran on this team in a lot of ways. You've been around a little bit with this team. You've been in this position a couple of times – end of a season, you're not going to make the playoffs, and you've got to play out the string and everything. You've got to play for yourself. You've got to play for your team and your teammates and everything. How do you look at these last three games? How do you kind of counsel some of these younger players who haven't been through this because there's some tough sledding here between now and the end of the season, isn't there?
A: Like you said, unfortunately have been in this position the past two years. I think what I take away from everything is that, man, now more than ever you've got to put your head down, kind of block out any distractions you've got going on, and really give it your all. It's for a couple reasons. Just for pride itself, I think that's one thing – but not to the pride of you, the pride of the community, the pride of the city. Then, I think it's just propelling forward to whatever happens after the regular season is the other half of the battle. You play these last few games to really put yourself and put your team in a position going forward. That's what kind of my mindset that has helped me with and we'll see who really puts the step forward with the team. I know we're all going to take that step forward together though.
Q: Does it help at all that this week that you go to Philly? You guys know what the deal is going to Lincoln Financial Field, and it kind of has to snap your attention a little bit because the Eagles present something rivalry-wise that's a little different than most games.
A: That is a good point. It does. It does definitely help. We have three games left, two division games. For me, it's two division games and then a hometown game, so I think just that keeps you going, keeps you fired up, keeps you energized because now it's your division. You've got to make a statement. These are chippy, hard-fought games. So, we're planning to make it that way.
