Jevon Holland – June 7, 2022
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Tuesday, June 7, 2022
S Jevon Holland
(Every coach has a certain style, a certain unique thing they do. Can you talk about Head Coach Mike McDaniel’s unique style of coaching? It seems like you guys have embraced that. Every time you talk to a guy, they’re like ‘He’s a player’s coach.’ You guys will run through a wall for him. Can you talk about that intensity he brings but in his own way?) – “He’s just a good person. It’s not hard to be all in for a coach when they’re a good person. I think that’s the baseline, as low as it goes. He’s just a super cool dude, a great family man and you can tell he’s honest. People just buy into what he says and he’s 100 percent on the same page as him mentally. Everybody is one mind.”
(Just talk about Head Coach Mike McDaniel’s age aspect. It seems like he is very in-tune with you guys. A young cat who knows about social media and he’s kind of hip to the game.) – “I feel like that’s a real old-head thing to ask, not because you’re an old head. (laughter) I feel like a lot of people think that you can be out of touch if you get older but really it’s a matter of if you like things going on on social media or not. It happens to be that he’s younger, it doesn’t really matter if he’s younger. He just is who he is so everybody vibes with him. If he was younger and he wasn’t cool, then he wouldn’t be cool. That’s basically how I see it.”
(What was the priority for personal improvement with you and Safeties Coach Steve Gregory? What area that you decided with Gregory and Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer that you wanted to work on? Obviously you did a ton well last year but was there one specific area you wanted to work on?) – “I think it was just my overall development as a professional. Things will come in practice and as things start to speed up – tackling, angles to the ball and things like that. But for me, conducting myself as more of a professional was probably most of it. That was really me, honestly. They have supported me and pushed me in that direction regardless of what it is. It’s mostly just me focusing that push into a specific area.”
(Do you think you’ll buy into the notion that year one to year two is the biggest jump for players on the field? Do you feel that happening for you this year?) – “I haven’t really gotten to year two yet, so I can’t really tell you that. But I feel like it’s important, yeah. I feel like every year you have to improve. I don’t know what year it is that I’ll stop getting better every year and I’ll be the best I can be, but right now I’m always on the uphill battle.”
(Will you have to think less this year?) – “For sure, yeah. I’m already a year into the league so things start to slow down, just as it did as I started playing more. Yeah, just reacting more is definitely a lot easier. But that’s how college was, from freshman year to sophomore year. You get in there, you’re comfortable, you have your own swag, your own atmosphere. Things start to slow down as you get into it.”
(You mentioned a minute ago conducting yourself as a professional, which kind of surprised me because last year as a rookie you seemed so mature for your age. Is there something that you didn’t do last year that you are trying to do this year?) – “Not really. I just feel like I’m getting older. I’m 22 now, getting up there in age. (laughter) Nah, I just feel like I’m getting older so I should just conduct myself in a little bit more of a mature manner even though it’s already seeming that way.”
(What does it mean to have the group? You didn’t really change much on defense. You said when you started playing, you were on it pretty quick. How much better can this defense be with one more year together?) – “I feel like it can be a lot better. That’s a great question. I feel like as a collective, as a whole defense, it’s amazing that we are all back in one area. That’s really important and it’s rare, honestly, to have everybody in the group back. I’m excited. It’s comfortable in the room. Everybody knows each other. Now that we are going through all these activities and practice and adversity, you get more and more wound together as a group.”
(You mentioned as you started playing more, you were comfortable from the beginning but you really turned it on. How much more comfortable leadership-wise were you once you started playing more? Now, you said you’re old at 22 but you can lead as a 22-year-old in the secondary.) – “I feel real comfortable. I feel like I tried to earn a lot of my teammates respect through my play first. They know that if something happens and I do say something, it comes from a place of love because I want them to get better and I would want them to push me the same way. It’s not necessarily me just yelling at them. That’s how I see leading. Anybody can be a leader. Anybody can say something. Now that I’m like a year in, it’s the same group and they know what I can do, I feel comfortable being able to correct it if it’s a situation that I know that I can help.”
(In your first offseason entering the league, you’re so focused on performing at the Combine and the draft. What has this offseason been like when you’re already on the team and you can focus on football?) – “In the offseason, for the second year, honestly I was kicking it, I’m not going to lie. I was making sure I had fun and enjoyed myself. It’s a long time but you got to plan it accordingly because I still like to work hard and it’s kind of built into athletes to just not stop working because you’re going to lose it if you take a break. I took some time off, enjoyed myself and enjoyed my family. I made sure that I was still getting that work in.”
(Can you talk about the second half of the year for you guys? Obviously, it looked like a different defense at least in our eyes. How much do you guys talk about being that second half of the year unit versus early in the year?) – “I think the second half of the year team is who we are, really. The first half of the year, we were trying to come together. Once we got it together, as you saw, we started winning games, coming together as a defense and making plays. We just talk about it as who we are now and that we can build on that because that’s not the extent of who we are. We can get better. That’s everybody’s mindset, too.”
