Aggie tight end Jace Sternberger reflects on his time in the Maroon & White

Key notes from Jace Sternberger interview

• My wildest dream at Texas A&M was I was going to score a touchdown against Clemson and it was going to be a good year for me.
   
• There were a few things. The scheme was perfect. I always knew I had the ability. The biggest thing was the team chemistry, just how well I clicked with the guys, especially my roommates Kellen and Jhamon.  When you're playing for other people, it makes it a lot more fun. Your personal goals just kind of come along with it.
   
• Keeping your head down and be quiet was how I went about fitting in with a new group of guys. There are always a lot of talkers. Just keep your head down and be humble and work hard. I came into workouts and really wasn't that talkative. I was killing it in workouts and eventually more people started talking to me.
   
• Honestly I was expecting to get the ball. Whenever A&M offered me, I first thought of Nick O'Leary and how often he got the ball in college at Florida State with Jimbo. Man he caught the ball a lot. Then the opportunity to go to the Texas A&M and the play in Kyle Field was awesome. That's where Coach Beaty came from and he told me some of those stories when I was at Kansas. I knew it would be a fit, I didn’t even need to take a visit.
   
• At first, I never really took the NFL possibility seriously. At the best, I was a fourth or fifth round guy. Things changed after South Carolina, and toward the end of the season, I was seeing I could learn how to block. I kept getting better and better. We were playing really good competition. Mississippi State was a rough game for me and I thought my chances of leaving were gone. Then it came down to me running routes a lot of other tight ends can't. Once I learned that if I test good at the combine, I could go late first or early second, that helped me decide.
   
• It goes back to one of those things that Coach Fisher would tell us. He would tell us how good we are. He told us we're a hell of a football team after Clemson. We lost to Alabama two weeks later but that's pretty understandable with what they're doing right now. We thought that there was no reason we couldn't go 10-2. After the Mississippi State game, we thought practice was about to suck. It was more player disappointment. Coaches were frustrated, but the players were pissed off. You could say a lot of ‘what ifs’, but we still talk about what would happen if we had that bye week after Auburn.
   
• Against Kentucky, I had my carer high receiving. Then South Carolina was my game, then I'm off for a week. I go home and get told how great I am and and then lay an egg. I hate to be the guy making excuses, but that bye week can really throw teams out of grooves. We set the foundation for A&M this year. Seeing how the receivers are working right now, I'm scared for the SEC defenses that have to guard Kendrick and Quartney next year.
   
• Glenn Beal had a typical freshman year, He came in kind of like a puppy and he was a very good learner. Sometimes we had to get on him to run full speed in routes even when he's not getting the football. I had to tell him how important that was. Glenn was young. Coach Finley already helped me so much in my blocking. There are some techniques that have really helped me. I'm excited for Glen. He's a very hard worker and he's strong. Glenn could always block Bobby Brown the best, and we know how big Bobby is.
   
• All of us playing in the bowl game, that goes back to the team chemistry. It shows how much of the brotherhood that we built. That goes back to Coach Fisher. No one even talked about skipping the bowl game. I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror. You can get hurt walking up the stairs. If I'm going to get hurt, that's God's plan.