There are very few Manny Diaz recruits left on Greentree. One of those is C Ryan Rodriguez. The fourth-year sophomore is emerging after a breakout spring and has received first-team snaps at center and guard. Rodriguez spoke to reporters about his progress:
On his improvement: The biggest thing has just been listening to Coach [Mirabal] and those meetings that we have every day. Instead of just sitting there and watching the clock pass, you’ve got to lock in and write notes. You [have to] actually listen to what he's saying because not one second goes by where he's saying nothing. You just sit there and process that information and actually understand what he's trying to get to. And the whole concept of everything, everything starts clicking a little easier and then you can start playing freer.
On Cam Ward: Cam’s a great leader, not just for the cameras. When people are looking at him behind closed doors, when there's no cameras, he’s still a great leader. Takes care of us in the O-Line room, takes us to eat all the time, finds ways for us to get together and bond. And that's huge, especially for O-Line, because we're all a big brotherhood. Every position group's a big brotherhood, but O-Line, it's a little different. It's a little more special. And Cam's doing a great job of bringing us all together. When you have a quarterback that you really appreciate, you'll go to war for him and you'll protect him. Cam's that guy. We all want to protect him and go to war for him.
On the OL depth compared to when he arrived: I feel like we're growing every year. We got Samson, who now has a year under his belt. We got a little banged up last year, but he's back fully and he's working his butt off. He's improved a ton. Markel Bell came from JUCO and he’s worked hard since he got here. We got old dogs like Lu Cristobal who pushes us every day. He's the one pushing us when we're not on our thing or we're having a bad day. He's there. “Come on, guys. Let's go.” Nino [Francavailli] stepping up in a big way. Nino came from high school, but he's an older freshman. All these guys, they're stepping up. I feel very comfortable with our depth. I think we're very deep.
On the RB room: Martinez is a dog and he's legit. But it's not just Damien. Damien's legit, but our whole running back room is legit. We've got guys in there that can play, not just one, but Mark, Ajay, Jordan Lyle stepped up. Chris Wheatley-Humphrey, Chris Johnson, all those guys could play. I have no doubt. But Damien's a dog, Mark's a dog, Ajay’s a dog. Those guys are going to lead us and we're going to block our butt off for them. They’re going to do their thing.
On learning under Matt Lee and Zach Carpenter: Both of those guys had a lot of experience under their belt when they came to UM. Both of them were going into their sixth years. They had five years of playing, whether they started as a freshman or whatever. They all played a lot of snaps and a lot of football games. Just like Coach Mirabal, if you actually just listen and learn what they're saying and correct mistakes they might make, or correct mistakes that I might make, we can work off each other and get each other better. We're just continuing to get better.
Matt Lee helped me a ton last year. Matt Lee guided me. I felt like I had some stuff that I had to fix mentally and physically. I had to gain some weight. I had to be better with the playbook. When we had an old guy like Matt Lee in the room last year, I was a younger guy and I would just watch him like, “Man, this is how I got to be. This is how I got to act every day. This is a professional.” And then they bring Zach in, and Zach's another professional who knows how to handle his business. He keeps the main thing, the main thing, and he's good at that. We’re all coming together and we're doing well.
On his improvement: The biggest thing has just been listening to Coach [Mirabal] and those meetings that we have every day. Instead of just sitting there and watching the clock pass, you’ve got to lock in and write notes. You [have to] actually listen to what he's saying because not one second goes by where he's saying nothing. You just sit there and process that information and actually understand what he's trying to get to. And the whole concept of everything, everything starts clicking a little easier and then you can start playing freer.
On Cam Ward: Cam’s a great leader, not just for the cameras. When people are looking at him behind closed doors, when there's no cameras, he’s still a great leader. Takes care of us in the O-Line room, takes us to eat all the time, finds ways for us to get together and bond. And that's huge, especially for O-Line, because we're all a big brotherhood. Every position group's a big brotherhood, but O-Line, it's a little different. It's a little more special. And Cam's doing a great job of bringing us all together. When you have a quarterback that you really appreciate, you'll go to war for him and you'll protect him. Cam's that guy. We all want to protect him and go to war for him.
On the OL depth compared to when he arrived: I feel like we're growing every year. We got Samson, who now has a year under his belt. We got a little banged up last year, but he's back fully and he's working his butt off. He's improved a ton. Markel Bell came from JUCO and he’s worked hard since he got here. We got old dogs like Lu Cristobal who pushes us every day. He's the one pushing us when we're not on our thing or we're having a bad day. He's there. “Come on, guys. Let's go.” Nino [Francavailli] stepping up in a big way. Nino came from high school, but he's an older freshman. All these guys, they're stepping up. I feel very comfortable with our depth. I think we're very deep.
On the RB room: Martinez is a dog and he's legit. But it's not just Damien. Damien's legit, but our whole running back room is legit. We've got guys in there that can play, not just one, but Mark, Ajay, Jordan Lyle stepped up. Chris Wheatley-Humphrey, Chris Johnson, all those guys could play. I have no doubt. But Damien's a dog, Mark's a dog, Ajay’s a dog. Those guys are going to lead us and we're going to block our butt off for them. They’re going to do their thing.
On learning under Matt Lee and Zach Carpenter: Both of those guys had a lot of experience under their belt when they came to UM. Both of them were going into their sixth years. They had five years of playing, whether they started as a freshman or whatever. They all played a lot of snaps and a lot of football games. Just like Coach Mirabal, if you actually just listen and learn what they're saying and correct mistakes they might make, or correct mistakes that I might make, we can work off each other and get each other better. We're just continuing to get better.
Matt Lee helped me a ton last year. Matt Lee guided me. I felt like I had some stuff that I had to fix mentally and physically. I had to gain some weight. I had to be better with the playbook. When we had an old guy like Matt Lee in the room last year, I was a younger guy and I would just watch him like, “Man, this is how I got to be. This is how I got to act every day. This is a professional.” And then they bring Zach in, and Zach's another professional who knows how to handle his business. He keeps the main thing, the main thing, and he's good at that. We’re all coming together and we're doing well.
