Two of the key leaders for the Gophers this season are Briean Boddy-Calhoun and Rodrick Williams. GopherHole’s Luke Gildemeister caught up with each for these quick chat Q&As.
Rodrick Williams
Q: Rodrick take us through your preparation, obviously you have a tough opponent coming up, what have you been doing the past month or so yourself in terms of workouts, practices, how do you mentally and physically gear up for that?
A: “You know, mentally, I guess you can’t really think about it too much. For me, it’s like when you go out onto the football field everyone is the same it just depends on who is ready to come play that day. We got athletes, they got athletes, we’ve got talent, they’ve got talent so it basically comes down to who’s more prepared for it. I feel like we can compete with anybody. I feel like every team doesn’t have that one player who is better than anybody else. What I feel like it comes down to is who works the hardest, who’s going to make the least mistakes, and who’s mentally prepared for the game that day.”
Q: Assess how your running style will help you gearing up for TCU. How do you prepare for TCU? Do you feel like your running style matches up with TCU?
A: “I’m not a super fast guy. I probably run maybe a solid 4.6 I’m guessing. You know, 230 [lbs] and 4.6 can be a problem [for defenses] sometimes. You can definitely single out the ones you know you want to hit and the ones you don’t want to hit. I don’t run side-to-side, he [coach] taught me just make the cut and get back downhill and that’s what I do.”
Briean Boddy-Calhoun
Q: Briean, you’re going up against obviously a Heisman-potential quarterback, TCU has two great wide receivers in Josh Doctson and Kolby Listenbee, can you take us through how you’ve been preparing for that?
A: “A lot of film. Like I told someone a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been watching film since February on these guys because I knew they were the first team that we were going to face, and uh, it’s a great group, they got great chemistry, you can see as you watch more games and they have the potential to make a big play happen at any time.”
Q: Any comments on how [TCU wide receiver] Deante’ Gray’s absence (he’s listed as doubtful) right now how that helps you guys out?
A: “I didn’t know that, I’m just preparing for him to come out and be 100 percent. I didn’t know that he was doubtful but I’m going to still prepare like he is playing.”
Q: Any specific message you want to send to the fan base, to the student section, before the game?
A: “Make sure we are loud on third down and quiet when we are on third down on offense. That’s all I can say.”