Jameis Winston: 'We don't fear nobody,' including Richard Sherman
LOS ANGELES -- FSU star Jameis Winston met with the media in LA Sunday morning, and for about a half-hour was asked about everything from whether he felt a sense of relief from being cleared in his recent student conduct hearing ("I never was distracted by that") to how he feels about being on a team that's won 29 games in a row and is almost a double-digit underdog to how he feels about the perception of him.
Here are some of Winston's more compelling answers.
On whether Oregon being without injured All-American cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu changes his approach in looking to target his more inexperienced replacements:
"I don't mean to come off as arrogant, but we don't discriminate. Even if he was on the field, we were going to be looking forward to playing him.
"It's going to be a football game. Things happen in football games. Things happen at football practice. Like I said, it's a team thing. It's not just attacking one player or picking on somebody. I believe we've got the best receiver in the country in Rashad Greene and the best tight end in Nick O'Leary, and I believe our other guys are pretty good, too.
"We don't fear nobody. Richard Sherman get out there and line up against us, we wouldn't throw away from him neither."
(Seated a few feet away, FSU OC Randy Sanders chimed in: "Personally, I'm glad we're not playing Richard Sherman.")
On his reputation:
On the type of leader he is:
"I believe I have more confidence in my teammates than they have in themselves."
On whether he's ever had his confidence shaken:
"Never, because those guys (his teammates) can't see my confidence wavering. I believe that even if I'm having a bad game, when the time gets rough, I know that I'm better than anybody … in the country."
"It can be, but my biggest thing from all the people talking about me is I still have that team. My team loves me. That locker room is just amazing to me, because that is my real family. What people think about me is none of my business. It's not like I just look up what people say about me all the time, so I really don't know what the word around the street is but I love my team and I love winning. As long as I have football in my life and a great family, what people say is never gonna bother me."
On why he's thrown a lot more interceptions (17) this year:
"I forced a lot of passes this year. It's a learning thing. It's about you playing when everything's going good. It's how you react when things are going bad and not going your way. The fact is I have tremendous teammates to help me overcome turnovers that [it] just makes me smile.
On his bond with Rashad Greene and knowing how precisely the FSU standout WR runs his routes:
"If I knew where everyone (else besides Greene) was when I was supposed to throw the ball, I probably wouldn't have 17 interceptions (laughs). Rashad is tremendous. I'm truly blessed to have him. He is so underrated and so great. It tears me up (that Greene doesn't get more publicity).”
On what impresses him the most about Marcus Mariota:
On how he avoids criticism online and on social media:
"I usually just go on Instagram now to look at pictures and stuff. I rarely just hop on Twitter. If something is being said about me and someone screenshots it to show me, I'll be like, 'Why you sending that to me?'
"Obviously I know that I'm under a microscope. In Tallahassee, people will tweet about you if you walk down the street backwards. You just gotta chill. It has been hard for me. I just stay in my house, and that's not me. I love being around my teammates. The only time I get to be around them is in the locker room. I can't celebrate with them. I can't do nothing with them. It comes with the territory."
Bruce Feldman is a senior college football reporter and columnist for FOXSports.com and FOX Sports 1. He is also a New York Times Bestselling author. His new book, The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks, came out in October, 2014. Follow him on Twitter @BruceFeldmanCFB.