Aggie Flashback with former A&M DL Tank Marshall
Key quotes from Tank Marshall interview:
* He didn't have much contact with Polo Manukainiu, but anytime a member of the A&M family is lost, it’s a sad occasion. He just finished up his 14th summer of working the A&M football camps and has made many memories with the guys, like Manukainiu, that have come through.
* Even though his high school coach may think he played a major role in recruiting him to A&M, he knows that his destiny was laid out years in advance. When he was about 10 or 12 years old, he would spend his weekends in Navasota and would look over while driving down Texas Avenue and see the old academic building. At that age, he told his parents he was going to go to school there someday, and even with the high racial tension of the 1960s, he fulfilled that dream.
* In his senior year, he played defensive end until his defensive tackle teammate started to not handle his business on the field too well. At that time, his high school coached switched him to defensive tackle and the rest was history. He took advantage of an opportunity and preaches about being ready whenever your chance may come.
* Upon arrival at A&M, the school was very much the way he figured it would be with the exception of his classmates leaving their spit cups in the classroom which was something he definitely wasn't used to.
* In his first workout at A&M, he went up to the seven-man sled and fired off on it twice before breaking it by himself.
* Growing up as a kid, he was always intrigued with measuring his height on the doorframe. In the sixth grade, he was 5’ 9” and 159 pounds and broke a fellow teammate’s helmet with his forearm during practice. At that time, the coach said, “Man, you hit that like a tank” and the nickname was born.
* Another take on his nickname is that his brother used to call him ‘Tankhead’ when he was younger because of his, at-the-time, unusually large head. Little did his brother know that his body would catch up with the big head, and once that happened, there weren’t many sibling rivalries between the two of them.
* Having the experience of working with the A&M coaching staff the past couple summers, it’s clear that A&M has a good group of guys. Mark Snyder and the defensive staff work the guys hard and he sees the high expectations that the coaches set for their players.
* While he works the camps, he is also around the scholarship players while they work with Larry Jackson and it’s clear how hard the athletes are willing to work. With the nutrition center coming in soon, the players will be just fine and will be able to get into even better shape.
* On the defensive side there may be a little concern, but Snyder and his staff will coach them up and will have them doing an awesome job. It won’t be a cakewalk, but they will be able to do what they need to in order to get the job done.
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