Christian Wilkins – December 1, 2021
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Wednesday, December 1, 2021
DT Christian Wilkins
(How many conversations with QB Tua Tagovailoa have you had about your last college game?) – “There’s really not much conversation to be had. We all know what happened. What is there to even say? Here and there I might poke a little fun or say something here or there.”
Tua Tagovailoa: “Oh don’t ask Christian! (laughter)”
Christian Wilkins: “See. See he clearly is still hurt and upset by it but it is what it is. It was just business. Doing what I had to do.”
(I wanted to ask you an introspective question as a thoughtful guy. You’ve always been a good player but as Defensive Line Coach Austin Clark said this week when I talked to him about you, you’ve taken your game to another level this year and you’ve been really good. Was there a conversation you had with yourself or thought process after last season where you said to yourself, ‘I’m okay but I want to be a lot better. I need to make changes in any way to make me an even better player?’) – “Really, it’s just staying the course and that’s something I would say to a lot of young guys coming into this league whether you have success, whether you struggle or whether you’re good or great. Just staying the course and constantly finding ways to improve. You’re never a complete product no matter if you have the best season of all possible seasons, you still can be better. That’s something I just try to do. I’ve always had confidence within myself. I know I can be a good player in this league and continue to be a good teammate. I always just try to find ways to stay the course, stay humble and stay motivated.”
(You guys obviously are not afraid to have fun in the building, at games and everything, but how do you balance having fun with when it’s time to lock in and really get on to …?) – “It’s all business. It’s always all business. It’s always time to work but at the same time, I like to have fun when I work so I try to keep a good spirit, keep good energy around here and a lot of the guys have that same mindset too. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, just try to find some fun in it. We’re playing a kids game and we get to call it work. I’m always going to have fun playing this game. Meetings, whatever else – lock in, be a little bit more serious but when you’re out there, when it’s time to celebrate, when it’s time to hip check somebody, chest bump, you do those things and you have a good time with it.”
(Speaking of celebrating, how do you critique WR Jaylen Waddle’s waddle?) – “He did alright. He did pretty good. He gave me some credit. He gave me the founder, I guess, credit. He did pretty good. I’m glad. It’s a perfect celebration too. I wish I had a cool ass name like Waddle or something. (laughter) I’ve been trying to get him to do it all year and he’s finally found the courage to do it. We’ve been working on it all year but when he brought it out, it was pretty solid.”
(What did you do to convince WR Jaylen Waddle to finally do it?) – “I’ve always, after he makes a play or whenever I see him walking around, I’ll just kind of do it or just mess with him. I’ll be like, ‘Waddle, waddle, waddle,’ or like whatever it is. Just putting it in his head and he finally broke it out so it was cool. Now he put the league on notice. Now he’s got a celebration that everyone can get behind.”
(You caught some speed when you were going to the field from the sideline. When you see that they’re getting close to the end zone do you start to monitor? You start zooming down there.) – “Yeah, I’m on field goal anyways so I always got to get ready to be able to go onto the field for the next play. Honestly, I got a little competition with the other d-linemen because we track our top speed throughout the game so that’s my opportunity to get an edge.”
(DT Zach Sieler was mic’d up, you got the sack and he was mad because he felt like he should have been on the field for that play. Can you describe to us what happened?) – “Zach knew what he was doing, so he was mic’d up. He was doing it for the cameras. Nah, I’m just joking. That’s the kind of guy that Zach is and that’s the kind of rapport and energy we’ve been able to create for the guys on the d-line specifically. We don’t care who gets it, we’re just happy. We’re happy for each other and like I said, that’s the kind of guy Zach is. When guys are in or if guys are hot, we have not enough pride to be like, ‘keep going.’ If it’s for the betterment of the team, whatever it is, we’re genuinely happy to see each other succeed. That was just another prime example and there’s a lot of love in the d-line room. We got some characters in the d-line room, golly. It’s just all love in there for sure.”
(One of the metric sites has this category called run stops which is impactful stops against the run. Tou’re very high in that category. Are you pleased with how you’ve done against the run personally?) – “I don’t really pay attention to all that. I don’t get into all the metrics and the analytics and all that other stuff. I just try to play my game and be the best that I can be for the team. It doesn’t really matter. Sometimes hey, I could have the best run game of my life and not make a single tackle but just taking double teams or being in the right spot or making the ball fall back to a linebacker or whatever it is. Sometimes numbers can be misleading or whatever, so I don’t try to pay attention to it regardless. I just do my job and whatever happens, happens.”
(I asked you one question a few months ago on QB Tyler Van Dyke. Just had a final one now that the season is done. It’s been pretty remarkable what he’s done. Have you observed what he’s done, have you had any contact with him since that initial text?) – “I’ve been paying attention and stuff obviously. He’s been putting on for the proud Suffield Academy. Proud alum. He’s been doing his thing and I’ve been happy to see him grow and do some good things out there so that’s awesome. I’m sure I’ll reach out to him at some point in the offseason. Just hang out, grab a bite to eat or something. But like I said, I’m happy to see him have success.”
(Two part question; any friendly banter this week before the game with DL Dexter Lawrence? And do you keep tabs with the other members of the Clemson defensive line where you all went in the first round?) – “Friendly banter? I told him not to talk to me all week. I told him we ain’t friends this week, we ain’t boys, none of that – it’s business. (laughter) Nah, it’s always all love. We talk to each other pretty often, at least once a week if it’s nothing but a text message. We got a little group message or if it’s nothing but a silly message here or there or just like, ‘Love you guys.’ We always keep in contact with each other, keep each other motivated and just updated on each other’s lives. We keep in pretty good contact but yeah, I probably won’t talk to him as much this week until maybe after the game.”
(Swap jerseys after the game?) – “I already have one of his jerseys, so yeah. I’ll definitely chop it up, give him a big bear hug after the game but for those 60 minutes, it’s all business.”
(Obviously there’s going to be some questions for who’s going to be at quarterback on Sunday but regardless, what stands out to you about how the Giants play on offense?) – “They’re really talented. They got a lot of great skill guys. They got a good, strong, tough o-line. We’re definitely going to have to be prepared and have a great week of practice. I feel like we’re going in the right direction with that today but just a lot of work to do. We can’t take these guys lightly. We can’t focus on anything else but the task at hand because they’re a really good team and they got a lot of weapons. They’ve competed with some really good teams so we’re going to have to play our best game this season this week.”
(It wasn’t too long ago when you were a rookie. How would you assess how LB Jaelan Phillips and S Jevon Holland are handling this season with all the success they’ve had?) – “It’s definitely good to see those young guys step up and grow up in front of your eyes. They were just little babies when they came in here and they didn’t know what they were doing, whether they were coming or going, nothing. Jaelan didn’t even know how to get in a three-point stance. I had to teach him all that, teach him how to walk and – (laughter) nah, I’m joking. But it’s good to see those guys definitely be impactful for us but just continue to try to keep them humble. They have good spirits, they have some want to, they care about the game, they love the game and it’s good to have a lot of those young guys around because they’re just excited to be here. They have the right mindset and the right energy. It’s just good. I’m just happy to see them have some success.”
(We had LB Andrew Van Ginkel out here a few minutes ago. What does he bring into this defense especially the last several weeks?) – “’Gink’ is one of the smartest guys I’ve played with. He gets schemes and gets how to play well within our scheme. He sees things and whenever ‘Gink’ tells me to do something on the field, I’m like ‘yup, I’m all ears.’ A lot of the times it leads to a play or it leads to us making a stop on defense or whatever. He’s a great teammate, he can rush, he does a good job in coverage, he’s just a tough guy, does a good job on special teams and I got a lot of respect for a guy like ‘Gink.’”
