Although Francis Mauigoa and Jalen Rivers receive a lot of the well-deserved attention, the best offensive lineman on the team might be RG Anez Cooper. The Birmingham native met with reporters after practice to discuss the latest:
On camp: Everything is really going well. We're building more and more culture and building a better relationship with each other every day. Everything is really just coming together. We've been working hard with each other. We learn each other more. We talk more. We don't just learn our position. We try to learn what everybody's doing. We've been doing it all camp. That'll help us when the season comes.
On the competition with the defense: Both sides have got very good talent. We compete at every position. I feel like, with all the talent that we've got on both sides, we really shouldn't see another team that’s got the same amount of talent as we got. We're going against the best guys every day.
On the running back room: We’ve got a great running back room. We’ve got Damien Martinez and Ajay Allen, Chris Johnson. We’ve got a very good freshman class, too, with Jordan Lyle. The running back room is very deep.
We should be able to play all those guys because they have different abilities. We’ve got a super fast running back, Chris Johnson. We got a balanced running back, Ajay Allen. And we’ve got two big guys, Damien Martinez and Mark Fletcher. With that four-point combo, nobody should stop us in the run game this year. If they just keep learning each other and keep doing what they're doing, we should have a very successful run game this year.
On Damien Martinez: He’s a great back. He's an older guy. A lot of the young guys in the running back room really look up to him. He's very agile. He learned fast. He came in and already knew how the offense was and knew how the offensive line was. He’s going to be a great running back.
He’s got a lot of balance. He's fast. He's big. He just needs to keep doing what he's doing. We believe in him. As long as he trusts us to have the holes for him, I feel like he's going to have a very good season this year.
On the defensive line: We’ve got a very deep defensive tackle class. I'll go to the huddle and come back, and there'll be a whole new set of D-linemen. We’ve got a very good rotation of D-linemen. We’ve got C.J. Clark. We’ve got Simeon Barrow. We’ve got Tyler Baron. All those guys made our group way better, because we already had Bain and Moten and Josh Horton and Marley Cook.
They are getting us better because we've seen a whole bunch of guys. They’ve got different abilities and all play different from each other. There shouldn't be a D-line that we run into that we haven't seen, because we feel like we're going against all the top guys that practice every day.
On camp: Everything is really going well. We're building more and more culture and building a better relationship with each other every day. Everything is really just coming together. We've been working hard with each other. We learn each other more. We talk more. We don't just learn our position. We try to learn what everybody's doing. We've been doing it all camp. That'll help us when the season comes.
On the competition with the defense: Both sides have got very good talent. We compete at every position. I feel like, with all the talent that we've got on both sides, we really shouldn't see another team that’s got the same amount of talent as we got. We're going against the best guys every day.
On the running back room: We’ve got a great running back room. We’ve got Damien Martinez and Ajay Allen, Chris Johnson. We’ve got a very good freshman class, too, with Jordan Lyle. The running back room is very deep.
We should be able to play all those guys because they have different abilities. We’ve got a super fast running back, Chris Johnson. We got a balanced running back, Ajay Allen. And we’ve got two big guys, Damien Martinez and Mark Fletcher. With that four-point combo, nobody should stop us in the run game this year. If they just keep learning each other and keep doing what they're doing, we should have a very successful run game this year.
On Damien Martinez: He’s a great back. He's an older guy. A lot of the young guys in the running back room really look up to him. He's very agile. He learned fast. He came in and already knew how the offense was and knew how the offensive line was. He’s going to be a great running back.
He’s got a lot of balance. He's fast. He's big. He just needs to keep doing what he's doing. We believe in him. As long as he trusts us to have the holes for him, I feel like he's going to have a very good season this year.
On the defensive line: We’ve got a very deep defensive tackle class. I'll go to the huddle and come back, and there'll be a whole new set of D-linemen. We’ve got a very good rotation of D-linemen. We’ve got C.J. Clark. We’ve got Simeon Barrow. We’ve got Tyler Baron. All those guys made our group way better, because we already had Bain and Moten and Josh Horton and Marley Cook.
They are getting us better because we've seen a whole bunch of guys. They’ve got different abilities and all play different from each other. There shouldn't be a D-line that we run into that we haven't seen, because we feel like we're going against all the top guys that practice every day.
