WVU RB CJ Donaldson After Win Over Albany 9/7/24

okay we have CJ Donaldson questions for CJ great so CJ just start with the Run game overall you guys look like you sort of had that thing in gear other than a couple mistakes it looked pretty good so what was the Run game like uh it was definitely great today you know front five you know they always do their job you know they probably the you know best guys on that field you know them front F do their job then the receivers and tight ends you know just blocking down field you know everybody just doing the extra you know to help us you know bleed yard so I'm definitely thankful for the front five and the receivers and tight end for you know blocking even GG you know blocking down field yeah so just thankful for that guy did seeing Jem white break off a big run uh kind of get a fire in you to want to break off one of your own uh yeah you know our game work back and forth speed power you know uh he kind of like got us going early you know with that touchdown so he definitely like kind of like you know light each other candle up that's something we kind of see in the uh offenser room you know uh light him up like basically like bring somebody on with you so I kind of say Jim kind of likeed me up today so he's still young when he makes a mistake like on the fumble how how do you guys handle that with him uh flush it it's gone we can't get it back Goldfish Memory so it's like we we can't get it back so the only thing we can do is just you know next play mentality so it's going to happen it's part of football we you know we practice uh things to you know help us prevent that type of thing but it's going to happen just like a quarterback he you know possibly can throw interception so it's like it's going to happen you just got to have that next BL mentality and that's something we kind of like focus on like being mentally tough like you got to overcome some adversity you know this a hard game physical game you know things are going to happen so you got to have you know be able to be mental uh tough when those things come your way so having a running quarterback back there with you like open things up more for you in the running game cuz I got to watch him too yeah especially you know I'm not I'm not a a 99 speed type guy so you know I kind of need that little extra pump you know guys are nervous that GG might have the ball in his hand so it's definitely helped my game out you know just helped me get downhill faster you know be able to get to the second level faster you know with with his ability to be able to run defense when got the got the stop on the goal line in the third quarter looked like the offense came out with just the mindset hey we're going to pound it we can take control of this game here any kind of that sense you know you came out with several runs and obviously got off the goal line and you know put the ball out in the field where you could really attack uh definitely us as a collective all 11 of us you know we just put that in our mindset hey we going to drive it down 99 yards and punch it in for a touchdown so we all just kind of had that one mindset like we basically went two minute drill I say during that time like all right you put the ball in the one yard line thank you now we going to go go 99 yards last week like for you guys I know you're disappointed with the way you played last Saturday so what was it like just trying to wait for this one uh I wouldn't even say really weight it's more of like we we lost so you got to find a way to respond you know feedback what do we do wrong and you know from you know the running back position know offens line everybody else as a you know position room so we just trying to figure out what everything that we did wrong and come this week and have a clean game uh do what you're supposed to do do what you're supposed to be coach be disciplined just have a clean game you know just they'll get that momentum rolling you know for the next few games we have going on CJ is it hard to not let your emotions maybe they have already wonder to next week that was kind of your coming out party in the brawl a couple years ago even though it wasn't a win uh it's kind of gone like to be honest like nobody cares about what I just did is all about what's next so I'm kind of like standing in the present like not really too much thinking about pit game as a whole right now I'm kind of more thinking about all right how can I get better tomorrow to be able to play at my best ability on Saturday I'm not really too much focused on Saturday right now I'm focused on how can I get better tomorrow TJ you mentioned kind of doing the twoin off on that long the drive just before halftime not a lot of teams would start a two-minute drill with four straight runs is that just so how important it is to the offense for you guys to run the ball uh I would even say it's important we just explosive uh we can run and throw the ball I know you saw Jaden Bray have that what 85 I don't know I'll be over exaggerating but he had that big uh uh catch that set up that touchdown run for me so we just explosive as a whole uh from the receivers tight ends quarterback running back Whoever touched the ball in the hands has the opportunity you know to score you know be legendary with the ball in the hands so we just explosive as a whole maybe you don't think of your game at pit a couple years ago but you still know what this game means to to West Virginia what what's it going to mean next week it definitely means a lot to the state you know that been our rival for you know I can't you know one of the longest Rivals going on from anybody can help me on the date this is going to be 107 games yeah yeah 107 games so it it means a lot you know to the state we definitely you know play for the state you know this state you know is kind of like an underrated State a lot of people don't really know how how hard you know the things that we go through as being here and I've been here for three years now so it feel like I lived here so I I kind of like B the culture on to me like yeah I've been here my whole life like but I be kind of forgetting like I'm from Miami so uh just how just how like important this game is to the fans we definitely understand that and just the you know the whole like state of West Virginia we definitely understand how important it is you mentioned before you said everybody's explosive is that just everybody's mindset when they hit that field is be explosive yeah we we talk about it every day uh coach Scott he reminds us every single day Whoever has opportunity anybody on this offense who has opportunity to touch the ball is explosive have opportunity to make plays be explosive with the ball in your hands that's why that's why they recruited these guys everybody from the tight ends the running backs the quarterbacks receivers everybody even even you know out line you know they might pick up the ball every now and then you know we don't have know sloppy o linan we have like athletes at o line all five of them and you know the guys that's behind them too all them guys are athletes Jak anything else for seej all right thank you very much thank you