Texas A&M Football
R.C. Slocum reflects on Rodney Thomas, talks new Kyle Field
Key quotes from R.C. Slocum interview
"All Rodney wanted was an opportunity. He was so tough. He was as tough as anybody on the team. Size, speed and toughness."
"If you take somebody like Rodney with his example and the kind of person he was, he made people better, he brought the best out in people. He had such a powerful influence with his character and was able to bring people together."
"He truly represented what you would like to see in a player, in that the team came first. All he wanted was whatever would help the team."
“He was just such a dedicated athlete and he had no training issues or anything. I mean here’s a guy who is going to bed at 9 o’clock every night. “
“I’m pleased that we had a culture of doing the right thing. It was something that we spent time with and we had those kids, I give their families a lot of credit too, we had kids who came from homes where a parent or parents had, had an influence and they fit.”
“We bring these guys in as recruits ... We’re just bringing them in to look but we’re looking at them, too. I want the players to look at them and if they don’t fit our culture and what we are all about ... on more than one occasion they would tell me he’s not one of us. So I would tell the coach we aren’t going to recruit that guy.”
“Part of the Aggie Heart Award that makes it the highest award that we give, we want it to be someone who is a great player to start with and then along with being a great player demonstrates the heart of being an Aggie and what we would really like and appreciate in one of our players.”
“To me, there’s never been a player here in his career that I’m aware of that better demonstrated the unselfishness and selfless service and all the attributes that we admire as Aggies and then to be a great player along with it. I would support that it becomes the Rodney Thomas Aggie Heart award.”
“I am so pleased that our people have really stepped up in a big way and have changed our potential. If you want an example, look at the University of Oregon and what Phil Knight and their alumni base has done to change the perception of that program. And the perceptions all of a sudden become a reality. They’re good.”
“Now I’ve said this before and it’s very simple, if you’re a recruit and you come to a place and they don’t have good facilities you can assume one of two things. One, they don’t care. Or number two they probably care but they can’t afford it.”
“Someone recently talked to me about a stadium that a particular school is building, and I said you know what I would do if I was recruiting against that school, I’d just tell the kid, 'Go over there and look at that stadium, and then come look at ours. That says it all, tell me what kind of guy you are. Are you that kind of guy or our kind of guy? We’re big time.'”
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