Ryan Clanton Quotes

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ., -- The Fiesta Bowl committee released a transcript of media questions and answers from Oregon senior offensive lineman Ryan Clanton.

Q. What has the preparation been like for a D?line that big?

Ryan Clanton: It's kind of hard. At the same time, we have great scout team guys that give great effort. We have Stetzon Bair, who is 6'9", almost 280. If that's not big enough, I don't know what is at D tackle.

We have Morrison, one of the stronger guys on the team.

We have linebackers that can run all over the place. Good scout team guys. We go against our first team a lot. The preparation is long for these bowl games, and that kind of helps focus your anger to the game. We're starting to get restless and ready to play the game.

Q. I heard from Kenjon and Marcus about the loss you had. How long did that sit in your mind? Were you able to get rid of it quickly?

RYAN CLANTON: For me, personally, it sat on my mind for a while. For the other guys, they were able to brush it off.

But being your last year, it kind of sat in my mind. I didn't want to lose any games. As a competitor, I go back to the film room a lot or watch film in my house. I'm hard on myself.

I think that's what any good football player does. You can't just brush everything off. You have to look at it.

I think our team has made great strides since that game and gotten better in many ways.

Q. Are you having fun this week or is it all business?

RYAN CLANTON: It's mainly business. We tend to have fun with that. It's not a boring team to play for. When you think of Oregon, you think of they do some fun stuff as a team. It's pretty fun.

Q. Everybody on the O?line is healthy?

RYAN CLANTON: Yeah, everyone is healthy. We've had a long time to get healthy. Our guys have done a good job of getting healthy.

Q. Everybody seems to have gotten through this season for the most part. You haven't had any real devastating injuries. Surprising.

RYAN CLANTON: When Mana Greig went down in Colorado, he was one of our key players, that was devastating. With Carson getting hurt, stuff like that.

They're all here playing a role.

Q. I forgot about Carson. How did the line deal with that? He's right there with you almost as a coach.

RYAN CLANTON: He's a smart player. He's really coaching technique. He knows it from a player's perspective, so he's not a coach mentality all the time. I think he's very valuable to our team. Very important.

Q. You're the unsung heroes of this offense. Everybody else gets the glory. Talk a little bit about that, how you enjoy what the offense is doing overall.

RYAN CLANTON: You don't want to be part of news or anything. That's a bad thing. You kind of want to stay out of that.

We like being the unsung heroes. There's no glory in this. This itself is weird. It's fun to get a little attention sometimes. A pat on the back from Marcus or Kenjon or offline coach is rare because he holds us to a higher standard every week.

I've had a great time playing on this offense. I think you haven't seen the last of these big bowl games. Guys like Marcus and a lot of young guys are going to take this to a new level.

Q. He makes a point of coming out and congratulating other players when they come off the field. Interesting camaraderie going on there. Is it different having him as the quarterback?

RYAN CLANTON: Yeah, but I think almost every quarterback does that. That's what they're supposed to do now. I think Marcus is really consistent. That's the good thing about him. He doesn't have too many emotions. He's just usually always happy. If he's sad or mad, we don't know it because he doesn't show it. That's the best part of playing for him, is he's just really calm, collected. Calms us all down because our offensive line is emotional. We get hyped up.

Q. The calmness that he has behind there, you know where he is a little bit. He's not making you have to make some decisions, throw you off your game.

RYAN CLANTON: Yeah, if you have a quarterback that scrambles all over the place, you never know where he is. If you have a guy like Marcus, you kind of know where he's at. That's really important for an offensive lineman because you don't know what's happening.