Not only is Su'a Cravens a beast on the field for USC, he also is one of the most personable players on the team. He is unafraid to speak his mind and express himself fully, whether it is on the field, his social media accounts or standing in front of a camera with media members peppering him with questions.
Cravens is a rare talent on the field, able to cover receivers, play a deep centerfield safety position or come up and support the run in a hybrid linebacker position like he played against Fresno State. In Saturday evening's 52-13 victory, Cravens finished with three tackles and two pass breakups.
What makes the loquacious sophomore even more of an endangered species is that he doesn't speak in the same old tired cliches that everyone in sports speaks and everyone in the media and at home hate hearing over and over and over and over.
Su'a Cravens brings fresh, entertaining thoughts. He isn't afraid to make a joke and not take himself too seriously. Basically, he's the best college football quote ever.
Cravens has previously said that the media twists his words, so you've got the entire video above to see and hear Cravens and the context of everything he said. We could just give you Su'a Cravens saying, "As far as I see it, Fresno State got a break today," but instead you can watch the video and understand that he was talking about the USC offense's Pac-12 record 105 plays.
Here's the top quotes from our time with Cravens after last night's victory.
Su'a Cravens on playing through distractions:
"We're not worried about off-field distractions, the media or what's going on on ESPN...at the end of the day, we're all we got and we're going to play our game."
Su'a Cravens on "Dollar" position:
"I basically played linebacker the whole game, but I had fun. I was by the ball the whole game."
Su'a Cravens on Fresno State's third quarter scoring drive:
"Nobody should ever drive down the field on us after halftime, especially with the big lead like that."
SSu'a Cravens on defense's conditioning:
"At times we were fatigued. The first touchdown drive we were kind of fatigued. We were missing tackles here and there, but overall the whole game we were in good condition.
Su'a Cravens on the outside distractions:
"When everybody is talking bad about SC. 'Oh it’s a Clown College.' 'They're so distracted' and 'it’s a joke at this school,' we just laugh.
We're going to play our game no matter what happens. People may think they know what's going on at SC; they don’t know it’s a band of brothers getting ready to play that game.
We just take it as, 'think what you want.' We’re SC. We’re the SC that y’all have known; we’re the SC that’s here to fight against everybody we play every week. I think we showed that today."
Su'a Cravens on this week:
"It sucks what happened with Josh and it's unfortunate what AB said in the press, but we've got bigger things to handle and that was the game today and next week we've got Stanford."