LSU's Grant Delpit Talks National Championship vs. Clemson During Media Teleconference

LSU safety Grant Delpit joined the CFP National Championship Media Teleconference on Thursday to talk about the upcoming matchup vs. Clemson. Here's what he had to say:

Q. Grant, you've had a perfect record as a team, you've won the Thorpe Award, but it does seem like it's been a little bit of a tricky season for you as far as switching positions, switching roles and getting hurt. Can you describe what this season has been like for you, so much success as a team but some difficulties to deal with individually?

GRANT DELPIT: Oh, yeah, you know, that's how I am. I'm all about the results of the team. I'm a team player. So whatever position they put me, I'm going to play it. I was playing a lot of free safety this year in the middle of the field, and just trying to get other guys in position to make plays like Jacoby being down around the ball a lot. Just whatever we've got to do to win games, that's what we try to do here, and I think we've done a pretty good job of that so far.

Q. How are you feeling, and how is your health now compared to let's say toward the end of the season?

GRANT DELPIT: Yeah, the ankle was hurting pretty bad the second half of the season a little bit, but now towards the end of it it's feeling pretty good. I consider myself close to 100 percent, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Q. Grant, I was just curious, the past three games would you circle or put your finger on kind of the main reasons the defense has seemingly elevated their game to a whole different level?

GRANT DELPIT: It's hard to say. I don't know. I think after the Ole Miss game, it was kind of a turnaround for us. It wasn't our best performance, and I think we sat down as a defense and just saw what we did wrong, understood that some teams might try to make those plays and run it against us again. And I think we just kind of lit a fire and started playing LSU football after that. So hopefully this last game we can keep it going.

Q. Grant, how different is it trying to stop this offense at practice versus your offense the first couple years you were at LSU?

GRANT DELPIT: Way harder, for one. But especially in camp we knew that they were going to be good. We knew that either they were going to be really good or we were going to be bad because they were putting up a lot of yards, a lot of points on us in all the scrimmages.

Q. When did you guys figure out that it's going to be them being good and not you being bad?

GRANT DELPIT: I don't know, probably first game of the season. We almost had a shutout -- did we have a shutout the first game of the season? Yeah, probably when the season started, just seeing those guys slinging the ball around, getting the ball into playmakers' hands. It was great to see. We knew we had a great team then, we just had to keep going.

Q. Grant, I was just curious if you could talk about Trevor Lawrence, your thoughts on him, and then also, what makes what you see on film of Clemson's offense so difficult to slow down and stop?

GRANT DELPIT: First of all, I was watching the game, the Ohio State game some, run the ball for a seven-yard touchdown, it looked pretty fast, so he's definitely a great all-around player. People don't give him credit for his running ability. So we're definitely going to take that into consideration. And also just the amount of weapons they have, guys like Etienne, big, tall receivers like Tee Higgins, they'll go up and get the ball. It's going to be definitely a fun match-up, going to be a fun game. They have great coaches, a great offense, so it's going to be cool.

Q. Are they the most balanced offense you guys have seen this year?

GRANT DELPIT: The most balanced offense? I don't know, we've faced a lot of great offenses. I would say theirs is definitely one of the best. We'll just continue watching film on them, and we're just going to get prepared for the game.

Q. Grant, we obviously got the news a couple days ago that Michael Divinity will be able to play in the championship game. Just your thoughts on having him back on the field, and what do you think he'll mean for the defense?

GRANT DELPIT: That's a big part of our defense. He's a great player, and like you say, he's been around in practice and all working out the whole time he hasn't been playing. So that's a big thing for us just that he stuck it out and stuck around. To have him back, that's huge. That's a huge key. He's a vocal leader. He's a vocal guy on and off the field. I think that having him back is going to be a big key for us, and we're excited for it.