(On his protein shake and how he came up with that concoction) “That came about when I was trying to put on weight to play offensive line, so it was kind of just like a fully functional thing. Wasn’t doing it for attention or anything. Didn’t realize it would kind a blow up to the point that it has now, but at the time it was just a tool that I used kind of in my regimen for putting on mass.”
(On how much weight he had put on) “I came in as a freshman at 220 pounds and I left my senior year at 306 (pounds), so roughly 86 pounds.”
(On how big of a deal the Senior Bowl was to him) “It was a huge week for me. Definitely a proving week, but you know I walked in like I was just as good, if not better than some of the other guys and I think that is a good attitude to have. But I had a lot of fun and learned a lot.”
(On if he had met anyone else that had been able to drink his protein shake) “Yeah, a couple of my roommates have tried it before. I don’t know if they actually completed it, you know they just are not as nasty as me, I guess. But yeah.”
(On how he came up with the actual ingredients and not pizza, fries and cake) “Well, for the reasons that I didn’t want to get fat. You know I wanted to have really good proteins that nourish me throughout the day and be smart about it. I eat very clean throughout the rest of the day after that, that was kind of my big calorie shake.”
(On his workout regimen that went with the shake and his dedication in the weight room) “Yeah, the first step for me was trusting my strength coach and buying into his program 100%. We had a saying at St. John’s, ‘Just drink the Kool-Aid,’ and just drink it, trust the coach and it’s going to work out. So for me buying in and not skipping corners on any types of thing or any part of the workout, that was a really big deal for me. And working out and really committing yourself in the weight room is a big part of my success.”
(On being excited to try playing both tackle and guard) “Absolutely.”
(On what facilitated the change from tight end to offensive line) “It was a discussion I had with my offensive coordinator and coaching staff, my head coach. And we lost some seniors, some good players and we needed to fill some positions, so we had two really good tight ends ahead of me and basically they wanted me on the field and they felt the best way to do that and help the team win was playing O-line.”
