"He talked to me about it a lot. He said, just go out here and get ready because you're going to catapault things for college and just run hard and don't get intimidated by other guys, because you are just as good as them.'"

Hynoski's primary role was pass blocking, although he also played on most kickoff, kick return and punt return teams and twice on defense at linebacker.

"I thought that was one of the best parts of my game tonight, pass blocking, because that's something I'm not really used to," Hynoski said.

"Knowing that we had to pass 40 percent of the time (because of the rules specific to the game), I worked really hard all week on pass blocking," he added. "I feel that was my main asset tonight."

He added, "Overall I thought I did a pretty good job. And I thought I made a lot of people at Southern happy."