A&M freshman DL Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy eyeing his return to action

Texas A&M freshman defensive lineman Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy is healed from a knee injury and is hoping to get his first taste of college football very soon. The Florida product joined Billy Liucci for an exclusive interview courtesy of Walsh & Mangan.

Key notes from Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy interview

• I'm really close to coming back. We're waiting on me more than anything. I'm not holding myself back on purpose, but coming back from a knee injury, there is a mental thing going on that I don't even notice. I just have to emphasize using my knee more. It's fully healed. I just have to trust it.
   
• I'm super fired up. I'm ready to get out there. We just have to get by this roadblock first, and once I do, it's going to be full-steam ahead.
   
• My brother still lives in Florida. I've been keeping up with him. A lot of Florida people are stubborn. They don't like to leave during a hurricane. My brother is staying around the area, and it shouldn't be as bad as they're expecting. For the most part, they should be pretty safe.
   
• We're only going up from here. You can see how things have gone that we're a young team. Young gets are getting out there when people are getting hurt. When people have to step up, we're a young team. It's us building slowly. We're building towards the future and for just this year. We're not focused on building toward the future. You're seeing kids grow. You can't see a high school kid that has been throwing people around as a top recruit and expect him to be 100 percent amazing. These kids are just now experiencing all of the fans. In high school, people are barely in the stands.
   
• It started in the spring. The people that came in early like Anthony Lucas, I could see him growing every single day. Every day, he made progress. He is able to compete against these people like Reuben Fatheree and Layden Robinson every day. You're going to have to step up your game if you want to compete with those dudes because they're elite guys.
   
• McKinnley Jackson is one of the biggest pieces in our defensive line. I look up to him. He mentors me, and getting through this rehab stuff, it can be tough and mentally tiring. He has helped me and tells me it's my time. Even with this mental block I'm going through with my knee, he's right beside me telling me that it's my time and I'm the only one stopping myself. His message is that once I break out, it's going to be a real break out. McKinnley is not just a dominant player on the field. He's also a great leader off the field and on the field. He's a great leader that keeps us together.
   
• We grow every single bit, and we grow in the games too. Arkansas shouldn't have scored. The mistakes that the defensive line or a missed assignment is where those scores came from. They didn't score just because they're a good team. They scored off of our mistakes. That's what football is: You capitalize off mistakes. We know who we are. We know we are strong. We know we can stop anybody we want to. We're getting there, but something has to click that lets us know we're dominant. We need to worry about going hard on every single play. That's where we're going to have to get to in our heads.
   
• I have confidence. I never thought we wouldn't stop them on the goal line. When I saw the play and the ball fly up and Tyreek Chappell get the ball, I was hyped for him. He always talks about how he was tired because it was a long drive. He got caught, but here's Demani Richardson asking for the ball. Demani took off. That's when it got really energetic, and the mood changed because everybody was running down the sideline as Demani was running down the sideline. That's when the energy hit us, and we knew we could do this. Nothing was going to stop us at that point.
   
• I was one of the only people that didn't celebrate when the field goal attempt hit the goal post because when it hit, I thought there was a chance that it could go back in. When it hit the ground in front, that's when we all started actually celebrating. That was a crazy moment.
   
• It feels amazing to celebrate after a big win. Congratulating each other and being able to share that moment with your teammates is a great experience. I feel like we're building a great team here, and in that Appalachian State game, we weren't clicking as much, obviously. We had so many opportunities, but we just didn't pull that one out. We definitely turned it around that next week and knew what we needed to do. We were more focused on practice. You can tell how we're going to play way before the game because of how we practice.
   
• We're always excited to beat a Florida team because that's where we come from. We also had some people on the Miami team that we knew, so we got to hug them after the game. It means a little more to us Florida boys to beat a Florida team.
   
• Max Johnson is someone I know on a more in-depth level because he's my roommate. We don't talk about football as much, but I see the work he's doing. He has always been a calm and collected person ever since he got here. Even though he was battling for a job, he was going to do his best so that everything could fall into place. When he gets out there, he is calm and collected. He's doing a great job, and I'm so proud of him, not only as a teammate but as a friend.
   
• I did pick to wear #99. Growing up, J.J. Watt was my favorite player. I watched him all the time. I styled my game after him, and now that I've gotten bigger, Watt and Aaron Donald are the guys I watch the most. That #99 means that you're ready to go get something.