Tennessee

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Q&A with [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]
When a school is an hour away from you ... I mean you want to beat everybody, but especially when it's from your home state and you left that state, you really want to make sure you win that game. I won't rub it in. We just need to win the game to start the season off 2-0.
Q: What is different about A&M's defense this season?
Q: You played in all 13 games and started seven last season as a freshman. How would you rate your performance?
Q: You listed Alabama, Tennessee, Notre Dame and Michigan as other schools that offered you scholarships. What made you choose A&M?
Q: What was it like playing a bowl game in your hometown?
Q: How did training camp go with so many guys out for short periods at different times.
I wanted to go out of state. I went to school with the same people for 13 years, so I just wanted to do something different.
Q: Did you follow Nguyen or any other great Aggie linebackers when you were growing up?
A: It was disappointing season for me. I didn't do enough to help this team succeed overall. I put that season in my past, but I also want to use it as motivation for this season and upcoming seasons, to be able to play to the capability I know I can play to.
Q: Have you done anything specifically to improve?
A: Everybody is a year older. Last year, we played 18 freshmen, and sometimes as a freshman when you are on the field, you want to make the play but you also don't want to mess up, so you try to make sure you are able to fit everything up right. I really see this now. Being out there on the field as a freshman you think too much sometimes and overanalyze situations. You just have to play the game, and sometimes you make mistakes, but as coaches always say, you've just got to make them full speed. They can live with that.
A: I know a couple of players from Shreveport that are on that team. Jared Baron, I've heard of him. And Jay Dudley. I remember in my sophomore year Captain Shreve High School had a linebacker named Dusty Rust. That's our rival high school.
[link widoczny dla zalogowanych] talks about the two games, his freshman season and fall camp.

A: I'm not 100 percent sure, but I know I want to be involved with the business part of sports. If I'm not able to make it to the NFL, I'd like to be an NFL pro scout or work behind the scenes. What goes on behind the scenes intrigues me because that's what makes it all happen. I want to be a part of the game in some way.
Sept. 11--Sophomore linebacker [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] is one of six players from Louisiana on the Texas A&M football team. In last season's bowl game, the Aggies played in [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]'s hometown, Shreveport, La., and this week the Aggies will play Louisiana Tech, which is 70 miles east of Shreveport in Ruston, La.
I remember the Colorado game last year. I dropped an interception and [CU] ended up scoring on that drive, and that was a crucial drive in the game. Yeah, I was a freshman, but I still want to hold myself to higher standards.
By Richard Croome, The Eagle, Bryan, Texas
A: I felt more of a demand on myself to perform in front of my home city,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], because I figured that would be the last time I'd ever play there. I didn't feel any pressure from the outside or anything like that, people supported me and came and watched it. I just put it on myself.
A: My body didn't feel good, but I felt real good about how I performed in fall camp. It felt good, but there is always room for me to improve. [There are] certain aspects of my game that I'm nowhere near as close as I need to be if I really want to succeed and carry on the tradition of A&M linebackers like Johnny Holland and Quentin Coryatt, Dat Nguyen and Von Miller.
A: I learned about them once I signed. Before A&M started recruiting me, I wasn't an A&M fan at all. I did know about the Wrecking Crew and about Kyle Field. A&M wasn't my school, but I'm very happy that I came here.
A: I came here for the spring game at the end of my junior year and seeing all the fans and the fireworks show after the game and going out on the field was a terrific scene. A&M is around another big city in Houston, so you're not in the middle of nowhere. It was the Aggie network, and I just felt more home at A&M.
A: Now I'm just trying to be a different person this year. Like I don't wear any of the stuff I wore my freshman year. My jersey is different this year. I have "J. [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]" on the back instead of just "[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]." It's just little things, like wearing my socks different. I just try to do everything different to not be that same person that I was last year.
Q: Your major is sports management. What would you like to do after college?
Most of my friends were excited to watch me play because from high school I was one of the first people to sign a big-time Division I scholarship since Arnaz Battle back in 1998 with Notre Dame.
Q: Does this Saturday's game against Louisiana Tech mean anything more to you?