John Mateer Florida postgame

John, what was this week like for you in the transition from Coach Armbruster to Coach Wish? How did that all kind of play out on the field tonight? Yeah, you know, difficult week. You can imagine I've been with Coach Armbruster for so long. I love him. He's meant so much to me and my career and my teachings and what I know about the game. So I want to say that. I love him. I feel for him. But, you know, moving forward, it was good. Like, nobody flinched, you know, coaches, players, you know, defense, you know, not knowing. I don't know what's going on, but it was good, I mean, really good. And we came out, and we believed, and we made it happen. John, can you tell us how you took us through attacking just this week? And you told us you guys had a moment Thursday night with Bill Monsap about his beginning plan for the game. How do you feel like being with him in that game? Yeah, as everybody knows, it's super important. Often it's a coordinated quarterback relationship. And we had never done it, obviously, on Thursday night. It was important being around him, just talking. It wasn't all about the game plan. Some of it was what I like, what he likes, why he's doing it. And I thought he called a good game. Got the drives going, and I made some plays. But he's good. He had a long week in there to be ready, but he did a great job. John, can you tell us how you found out, or when you found out that there was a game plan? Yeah, Monday mornings, I watched in his office, and then he just walked in and gave me a hug and said he had to go. He said he loved me and said he appreciated me. Obviously, wild moment. The way I am as a person, when things like that happen, the world changes, I'm kind of You know, I didn't really appreciate it, and that night, it was hard. Not a moment my teammates had my back, but yeah. How do you kind of go about the rest of your day after that moment? Yeah, like I said, it was pretty, just being professional, playing. And as a quarterback, you have to, if I flinch, everybody else will flinch. And it's kind of just the way it is, the position I'm in. I was fine, and then after practice it got me, and I'll be honest, I was pretty upset, not like mad at anybody, but yeah, and my teammates had my back. Johnny, you talk about not flinching, the game was kind of hanging in the balance there in the third quarter, you guys were up 13 to seven, and then you feel like that 20 play drive just kind of sucked the life out of this place? Yeah, yeah, I had a bad third quarter, one of the drives, and we had a penalty on a little, I'm pretty sure. Need to be better, but yeah, we had the ball at like the 10 and we're going. The other couple drives we had that were backed up as we classify it. We went down and we scored, a lot of yards to get. But it was 13 minutes left, or two minutes left in the third quarter, right? And then it's like fourth quarter, and I keep looking up. And I'm like, they're just taking forever. That was awesome, everybody's gassed, it's like, what do you really have in the moment? Defense gets a sub, D lineman and O lineman, they're out there the whole time. So I'm proud of them, it was super, it was awesome. And Isaiah on that route, it was a good throw, good catch. What did it mean to you, John, that after you guys reached the red zone in that drive, you really only needed a field goal perhaps to put the game away. But you didn't just, you didn't run the ball to Mel, you kept throwing and- Isaiah was not completely open, how much does it mean to you that the coaches still put you in the confidence for you to make a play? Yeah, I think we all want to score touchdowns, it's been a long year of field goals, and that's all of us as a team has had to do. But we're in there and it's like, let's go score and celebrate. I hit the hitter chump too early, we got a flag, I didn't know, obviously. Like we were in school, it was fun, field goals, everybody clapped for field goals. But it was good, so good. What's that try to do for confidence going forward now that once you've done it, you can do it again, like that kind of confidence? Yeah, I think it's a. I always think that, you know, I've always, I don't want to say, like, I've been successful before, you know, we've been successful before, so I think that's like a, I think that's more normal, you know, but to do it, you know, the first week with Coach Witten, you know, that means a lot to him, I bet, and to everybody. Yeah, it was awesome. I think he told us it meant a lot to him, and he got the first touchdown. A good play, he did a great job and I know he was super excited for that. He was hugging me, telling me thank you in the first quarter. I'm like, dude, we got a name for it. But he's super happy. I'm super happy for him we could do that for him. You had a season high in rushing yards. What was working for you on the ground today? Yeah, it was finally making people miss, I'll be honest. Obviously, let me say first, O-line, making holes. First play of the game, I missed a read. It would have been a huge gain. That's my fault. But they called the runs. But they were giving us good looks for some of the pull reads. And we had good blocks in the perimeter, and I was, I guess, making some people miss. That felt good. John, it's kind of crazy that it's been this way all year, but you guys still have yet to win consecutive games. Yeah. What does tonight do for you guys going back to your home field tomorrow to hopefully be able to build off this and do the exact same thing next Saturday? Yeah, I mean, you know, going back to work, we all know that fact, and we don't like it, and we want to play well at home. We want to do good for each other and win some games. Winning is fun. We have fun in there after. Thank you. You work so hard to win. Very good. Awesome. We really want it, and we're going to fight for it. You guys spread the wealth quite a bit amongst the receivers, guys like Jake Jordan, Manny Choi, being more involved than they had at this point in the year. Was that? More of a Coach Whitman thing, or was that just the ball finding those guys in the right moments? I think a little bit of both. You know, those guys are really, really prepared, really ready, real detailed. And when their number's called, like, you know, they're ready to go. And, you know, I love, you know, I know statistically throughout the year it's kind of been a couple guys. You know, but it's the first time in my life I think it's been that way. Maybe like, you know, middle school. We'll be back soon. But I like, you know, spreading it out. I think it's a better way to play ball, and I'm glad we could do it. Thanks.