Stieber committed to The U in June.
Ted Stieber, a 6-foot-6, 290-pound offensive lineman from Akron (OH) Archbishop Hoban, committed to Minnesota in June. Stieber has helped lead the Knights to a 4-0 start this season.
Gopher Hole caught up with Stieber Wednesday night to learn the latest on his commitment and senior season.
Gopher Hole: You committed to Minnesota a little while ago? What was the main reason that you decided that Minnesota was where you wanted to play college football?
Ted Stieber: I have always liked Minnesota. I have a few family members from there. Some cousins that graduated from there and some family that is from nearby, so that was a positive, but also the coaching staff, the city. Everything was a good fit for me.
Gopher Hole: Had you been up to Minnesota to visit your relatives before you came up to the school for recruiting?
Ted Stieber: Oh, yes. They go over to Minnesota. They live in Wisconsin, but they are close to the border (Rhinelander). I have been up there for quite a few years.
Gopher Hole: What was the reason that you decided to commit when you did instead of waiting until your senior season?
Ted Stieber: I wanted to get the whole recruiting process shut down before our season started, so I could just focus on that. Once Minnesota had offered, I talked to my coach a little bit and decided that there was no reason to wait, so I just pulled the trigger.
Gopher Hole: What has been the reaction of your friends and relatives been?
Ted Stieber: All positive. Everyone is excited. Everyone is like “you got to come up and see a game.” All positive feedback.
Gopher Hole: How many offers were you up to? Something like 15?
Ted Stieber: I think it was closer to 23.
Gopher Hole: That has to make you feel pretty proud.
Ted Stieber: Yes. It shows that your hard work pays off.
Gopher Hole: Does it feel like a weight is lifted off your shoulder and you can just focus on your senior season and not only football, but having a fun senior year as well?
Ted Stieber: Oh, yes. It is a huge weight off my shoulders. I don’t have to worry about any of the recruiting craziness. Like you said, just focus on having a memorable senior year.
Gopher Hole: Do you still hear from schools at all or not really?
Ted Stieber: Very infrequently. There is maybe like one message or piece of mail every week or so, but it has mostly all stopped,
Gopher Hole: Do you think that is more schools not knowing that you committed or schools hoping that maybe that they can get you to switch?
Ted Stieber: I don’t know. I really don’t know.
Gopher Hole: Have you thought about when you are going to come up to Minnesota for your official visit yet?
Ted Stieber: We are thinking, depending on our playoff picture is in Ohio, either end of November or early December.
Gopher Hole: You are obviously off to a great start 4-0 after finishing 5-5 last season. How pleased are you with how well things are going this year?
Ted Stieber: 4-0 like you said is a good, but we are consistently finding things to work on and get better at. I think as a team we are not satisfied. We want to be the best that we can be, so I guess, just staying hungry and staying driven to continue to be at the top of our game would be what I would say.
Gopher Hole: Is this one of the better starts you have had in recent history?
Ted Stieber: I think so, yes.
Gopher Hole: You have a big game against Akron St. Vincent St. Mary (LeBron James’ high school) Friday. Are they one of your biggest rivals?
Ted Stieber: St. Vincent St. Mary is probably our biggest rival followed closely Walsh Jesuit, who we play next week, so two big weeks for us.
Gopher Hole: St. Vincent St. Mary was 15-0 last season and state champions. They blew out everybody last year, including you guys. Is that a game you have been looking at for awhile to show how far you have progressed and maybe get some revenge?
Ted Stieber: We haven’t stopped focusing on that game since we started working out in December. That has been our main drives when we are doing that last spring or last rep, we think about that feeling of that game and it is really easy to finish out strong. That has been a huge driving factor for our team.
Gopher Hole: They beat you 41-6, but they killed everyone last year, including outscoring their opponents 168.-30 in the playoffs, right?
Ted Stieber: Yes.
Gopher Hole: What things have you been focusing on this senior year not only for this year but also be ready to play at the next level next year?
Ted Stieber: There hasn’t been one specific thing that I have looked at improving the most. It is to improve overall. Strength, speed. Everything. Just playing better. Playing smarter. You can always get better when playing offensive line. You can never be good enough.
Gopher Hole: Have they said much to you what your role will be next season? To be honest, a lot of linemen will redshirt as freshmen to get bigger and stronger. Have the coaches talked to you much about that yet?
Ted Stieber: Yes. We have talked about that. I expected to be redshirted pretty much no matter where I went. Like you said, offensive linemen are usually redshirted. That wasn’t really a huge factor. We talked a little bit about it with Coach Limegrover. He thinks that I fit in well at guard. I’ll play guard, tackle and center. I’ll play all three positions on the line in high school, so I am comfortable wherever.
Gopher Hole: You play left tackle. Is that a position you like because the left side usually has your top linemen because you are protecting the “blind side” of the quarterback. Is that a position you like playing as protector of the quarterback?
Ted Stieber: Yes. All of our offensive line takes the protection of our quarterback seriously. Whenever someone will hit him after a play or try to get a cheap shot on him, we take it as a personal challenge to us to stop that from even being a possibility of happening. I like the challenge of trying to protect someone who is open to getting hurt, I guess, by someone else.
Gopher Hole: Do you see yourself as a better run blocker or pass blocker or do you feel that you are pretty even in both aspects to your game?
Ted Stieber: I feel that I am pretty even because my sophomore year, we had a very heavy pass offense and this past year, we had a very heavy run offense, so I would say with both, I am pretty equal. Like I said before, I am just trying to get better at both throughout my senior year.
Gopher Hole: You made it public that you committed to Minnesota in June, but you had actually been committed for a while, Was there a reason why you kept that quiet?
Ted Stieber: I had told Coach Limegrover a day or two after he had offered that I was going to come up there. They wanted to get me back up on campus and talk with the coaches and everything in the summer before we went public with anything. We just checked all our bases before we did anything official.
Gopher Hole: Have you thought about what you are going to major in college yet?
Ted Stieber: Yes. I think that I am going to try to major in Kinesiology
Gopher Hole: What would you like to with that major down the road?
Ted Stieber: I would like to get into coaching and with Kinesiology, probably be a second Conditioning coach or something. That is pretty far away, but if I had to pick a career right now, I would probably pick that.
Gopher Hole: Is that something that you already have an interest in?
Ted Stieber: Yes. We are fortunate at the school to have a full-time strength and conditioning coach on staff, so I have always looked up to them and wanted to do what they do.
Gopher Hole: Do you come from an athletic family?
Ted Stieber: My dad played football in high school and one year in college and that is about it for athletics. On my dad’s side, my grandfather and I have cousins who wrestled at Ohio State. I guess that there is some other athletes in our family.
Gopher Hole: When you have visited Minnesota in the past with your relatives, what have you had a chance to see?
Ted Stieber: We haven’t really gone to the Twin Cities. We have gone the last few times that we have been there for the recruiting to see the Cities, but usually when we go up there , it is mostly to just see family. I think that after seeing the “quote” regular side of what life is like up there. It is not someone trying to paint a pretty picture for recruiting a kid. This is what life is really like.