Hey all, I spoke with two newcomers yesterday, tight end Hunter Thedford and offensive lineman Noah Reneau-Myers (formerly Osur-Myers). Here's a summary of what they had to say.
Thedford
Thedford
- Loves Utah, it has kind of a small town feel, and he comes from a small town. He loves the offense, feels like he fits in well. Everyone has been really good with him and has welcomed him with open arms.
- SMU was a little more spread, faster paced offense, and he didn't fit in as well with that.
- His role isn't firmly defined yet, he's still showing the coaches what he can do, he didn't have a lot of film, and the coaches kind of took a chance on him, so he's just trying to show them what he does well.
- Everything with his game is a work in progress, there's nothing that he can't improve on, and that's the mentality that he's got to take every day, especially in fall camp. That's what it's about, it's about working on everything, not just one particular thing.
- Biggest thing is showing that he can open up and run a little bit, and showing that he's physical at the top of his routes. He's a bigger guy, and he wants to use it to his advantage, he's got a big catch radius, so he wants to bump his defenders off and let them throw it to him.
- He couldn't be happier with the teammates that he has. They're all good, all pushing each other, and he's really good friends with his tight end teammates already.
- At the end of the year, he wants to say that he was able to get on the field and make an impact, and to have found what he's really good at, and show what he can do, since he's never really had a big opportunity to do that yet.
- Competition has been great, it's been a smooth adjustment, much different from WSU with regards to techniques and whatnot, but his teammates and Coach Harding have made themselves available for all his questions and the film he's wanted to watch.
- He progressed a lot in his pass blocking skills at Washington State, but they also practiced running a lot, so it hasn't been that hard of a transition, though they definitely do a lot more running here.
- Throughout summer, the group has looked up to the senior guys like Kyle Lanterman and Darrin Paulo. They led them through the summer, and the group looks to them for guidance and leadership.
- He has two years of eligibility remaining.
- He decided to transfer after they got a new OL coach at WSU after he hurt his shoulder, and he felt like things had moved on without him while he was out for the year. It was a mutual decision, no hard feelings towards WSU, he just felt that a better opportunity was here for him.
- Anyone between the ones and twos could end up filling the vacant starting jobs. No specific names that might be leading the battles right now.
- Harding has a great reputation. His impression is that he holds his players to a standard and doesn't let them fall below that standard and loves each and every one of them and will get them to perform how he wants without belittling them and will bring them all up. So far it's been a great experience.
- Fans should expect a pretty powerful offense to match the powerful defense, and thinks it's going to be a really exciting year for the fans.
- At the end of the season, he wants to say that they've outperformed all the expectations from without and within, and have no regrets and to have emptied the tank on the field.
