Give us your overall impressions of what’s happened today. You must be pretty excited.



“It’s an exciting end to the process. To finally verbally commit to the University of Maine, it’s definitely a weight lifted off my shoulders. I don’t have to concentrate on making this visit, that visit, switch around visits and everything else that happened. It’s definitely an exciting part, and it’s good to get more in depth, what we’re doing, breaking down film with the coaches, getting used to the players.”

The whole process was a long process, and it seemed like it was going to be a quick one, but something told you to slow down a bit. What happened there?

At the end of my junior season we got letters from everyone. Duke, Illinois, Ivy League Schools. Everything slowed down a bit before my senior season, and I didn’t understand why, but now I know the rules behind the NCAA regulations.

At the beginning of my senior season, my goal was to know by Christmas-time, and I didn’t know that double-A schools weren’t allowed to talk to me until the end of December to the beginning of January, so all of those visits that I didn’t know about, couldn’t happen until then. Having that goal was unrealistic, but it was an ignorant thing for me to think that anyway. But hey, the process got going, and I ended up at a Division-I school.

Division I is exciting, but to be in your home state must be even better.

I’m a Maine guy, really. I grew up in Maine, been around Lewiston my whole life, and I couldn’t even imagine being away from Maine that long to go off to college for four years for football. You can’t really come home that often if you’re playing football. It’ll be cool. I’ll be able to jump in my car drive an hour down the turnpike and be home and then get in the car and go back the next day. That’s really the deciding factor right there.

You’re certainly a multi-sport athlete at Lewiston, having played basketball and now indoor and outdoor track. Are they going to let you continue with that at Maine?

What I’m actually kind of looking forward to is not having to worry about track and trying to better my track times. I’ll be training every day with the football team. That’s really what I’ve been looking forward to doing. I’ve been running track and played basketball just to stay in shape for football. You’re not able to have the Division-I type of training where you get up in the morning, you go run, then you go to class. It’s going to be hard, but I’m looking forward to it, to be all about football.

Some people will look at this and say you had the opportunity, perhaps, to go to a school with a better academic reputation. Do you look at it like that?

I think the University of Maine, academically, is underrated, personally. I could have gone to Bucknell University, but more importantly than academics, you have to be at the right place socially. You have to feel right where you’re at or you’re not going to enjoy being there. Academics is a huge part of it, but more important is the general feel. That’s why I chose Maine.

You’ve started to take a look at game film, which certainly suggests you’re comfortable. Is that normal?

I don’t know. I remember I had my positional meeting with Coach Z, and we looked at game film, and this is what I need to do in this situation. A very basic, basic beginning to the whole program.

You’re one of the biggest players in Class A Maine football, but you go up there and meet some of your teammates, does that intimidate you at all?

I went up and shook one player’s hand up at Maine when I was there and he walked away and I was like, “Oh my God, he is a monster.”

That’s the position I’m going to be playing. I went back at home and looked at the media guide and it said his name, had his picture and said, ‘H-back.’ I said ‘Oh my God, that’s going to be me in a couple of years, I’m going to be that big.’

It’s not intimidating, really, but it’s not going to be fun my first year, trying to adjust to the game at the college level, but it’s a growing process for me. You can’t really be intimidated, you just have to use it as motivation.

Having played for Bill County for four years now, I’m sure he helped you through the process. Talk a bit about the way he helped out.

He’s an amazing guy. Off the field even now, I baby-sit for him on Sunday nights so he and his wife can go out. We really established a good relationship on the field and off. Even his password for his computer for the last three years was ’46leaddown,’ because that was the play he always called for me. It just goes to show how close we were.

Going forward, what’s your goal now?

My goal for my freshman year is to just make the traveling squad. I think that’s setting the bar pretty high as a true freshman. We’ll see when I get out there if that’s an attainable goal.

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