Robert Soleyjacks
Robert Soleyjacks is 6′ 2″ tall and weighs 260 pounds. He is also fast enough to play the left defensive end on the Miners line. He is a senior, and has 3 letters already. He visited with me today and talked about the first game of his senior season.
“It went pretty good. For a lot of us, well I should say for some of the new guys, it was a new experience with the lights, great fan support, it was a fun game. It started off a little slow on defense but we definitely picked it up, and we just had a good time out there, just had fun.”
It was a game designed to work out the kinks and get some of the players some experience. There are a bunch of players stepping up to fill the spots vacated by those who have finished their collegiate careers.
“We definitely threw them in, and rotated evenly, and got everybody a fair amount of reps. It was a good experience for all the new guys, but we’re just trying to move on to this game right here and get the job done in Houston.”
Some of the fans may have been surprised to see Robert in the offensive backfield. He is being used as a battering ram at the fullback position, and that may not be all he does from that spot.
“Oh yea, they’ve got me doing a little goal line fullback, reminiscing back on the high school days, you know, getting in the backfield, but they’re having me in there for some lead blocking, catching the ball some, so it’s fun. A little change up. They’re able to show my athletic ability out there. It helps that I can block really well out there.”
Looking back to his high school days, he played tight end and defensive end as a freshman and sophomore, and running back and defensive end as a junior and senior. He played well enough to be a 4 time All District Honoree. He racked up nearly 2300 yards on the ground in his last two seasons, and another 3 hundred receiving yards in his senior year. Heck, he completed all three of his passing attempts, including throwing for a touchdown. I said he ‘s fast, too, didn’t I. Well, he was fast enough to run on the district champion’s 4×200 meter relay team. When he mentions he has some athletic ability, it isn’t just talk, and it’s more than just with a football. He even competed in the high jump.
When I mentioned that he a threat in many ways, he grinned, and said,”They can’t sleep on me.”
Speaking of the freshmen that are seeing playing time he said, ” Yea, they’re definitely making a good transition right now. Germard Reed, Marcus Bagley, some of them guys are really getting in the mix and helping us out, a lot.”
I asked if Houston presented any special problems, and he was quick to say that the Cougars pass about 70 times a game, everybody knows that. ”But, we’ve kind of got them figured out. We feel confident in our game plan.”
We should find out just how true that is on Friday night, once the kickoff gets the game started.
The entire interview;
