 "Photo: Will Oncken / The Daily Gamecock")
TDG: Is it true you were an All-American at Harvard?
MT: I made an All-American team or two, I don't know if I was on the official All-American team, but I was ranked ninth in the inside linebacker position for 1-AA across the country my senior year. I was on a couple preseason lists and post season lists during my time there.
TDG: After your time in college, did you get a shot at the NFL?
MT: I took some time and trained at a bunch of different places. I trained at Velocity Performance; there are a couple different sites around the country. They're known for speed and strength. I also trained with Mike Boyle up in Winchester, Mass. He's a well-known guy with Perform Better Equipment, and he's well known for his innovative techniques and stuff he's done for speed and strength, specifically geared towards NFL combines. I trained there, did a couple of pro days, went to a thing for the Redskins, went to a couple indoor arena football tryouts and stuff like that. You know, things kind of fell through and didn't pan out. Football was something I always wanted to do, it was something I was good at and always loved working towards. And you know, with a Harvard degree, it was like, what do I do? Do I do football or stick with the degree? I started applying to law school, taking the LSATs, you know, wasn't too sure which direction I was going to go while I was still doing that. I was helping out at Harvard as an assistant coach with coach Fitz[patrick]. Fitz got the opportunity, came out here one weekend, meet the coach, went through the process, offered him the job. He called me in on a Saturday afternoon and asked me to come down here with him on Jan. the 14th, which was four days later. I made my decision in 24 hours, jumped on a plane, and came down here to work.
TDG: So you didn't just play football, you went to school too.
MT: (Laughs) They kind of force you to do it. You learn some interesting things. People always ask me what it's like to go to school there. I'd say the most interesting part is you actually get to meet and get taught by some of the premier people who write the books and give all the lectures in the country, Nobel Prize winners and stuff.
TDG: So what does it feel like to be in Columbia?
MT: It's a little warm for me at 7 in the morning. But uh, I'm used to being around D.C. and Baltimore and then Boston, your bigger northeastern cities. It's not to say this isn't a big city, but it's on a little smaller scale. A lot of people don't consider Maryland the south, but up in Boston it's considered the south, so ... The weather doesn't bother me, I enjoy it down here, and the people are really nice. I've adapted pretty well.
TDG: What are you looking forward to most this season?
MT: It's going to be a weird answer, because as a strength coach, your in-season is the team's offseason. We're the coaches that deal with them the most. You know, the position coaches aren't allowed to be around them, so we're the ones who see them every single day. So, I'm really excited for this last month, month and a half, to really kick into gear. We'd like to get some good strength numbers and get some good speed numbers out of these guys and see them grow and come into their own. I guess what I look forward to is seeing that mindset, seeing those gains they made in the offseason translate down on the football field.
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