Ryan Swope on life after football, current state of A&M program

Key quotes from Ryan Swope interview

“I am excited and thrilled to get back to College Station. It has been a long time, too long since I’ve been back there. I'm anxious to see the transformed Kyle Field at it’s best, and really just get back to Aggieland. I’ve been missing it for way to long.”

“I’m doing commercial real estate in Dallas now and really loving it. I get to meet a lot of successful people, a lot of Aggies along the way too.”

“God’s got a plan, you know one door closes and another one opens. I’ve thought about giving football another try for along time, it’ll always been in the back of my mind but for right now, I’m going to focus on commercial real estate. I don’t see myself perusing football anytime soon, but who knows it may creep up on me.”

“The support I had there in Aggieland after my concussions, it was incredible. Everyone really got behind me and it goes to show you the true colors of Texas A&M and being an Aggie. It’s incredible to come back there and see all the smiling faces and still have those fans that always have your back. It’s a pretty special place and it's the best university in the country. If I could go back and do it again, I would do it in a heartbeat because it’s a special place, and it went by way to fast. It’s great to have that support and having those fans behind me 100%. It was a game changer and a life decision that I had to make, but in the long run it’s your brain and you have to take care of yourself, and it’s great to see people support my decision.”

“I'm a little jealous of the new facilities, but me and Spencer Nealy like to think we had a little something to do with building new Kyle Field.”

“Right now I see a lot of talent on the field, I see Coach Sumlin doing his best. Kenny Hill is turning heads and showing a lot of maturity, which is what you want to have. You see the program at it’s best, seeing 12 different receivers catching the football and how it all works.”

“Coach Sumlin has done a hell of a job recruiting and he has great players to coach and he’s got the program headed in the right direction. You’re either on board or you’re off and it looks like he’s got the whole team on.”

“Coach Beaty was one of the greatest coaches I’ve every played for. I've had a bunch of good coaches,but he mentally and physically got you right for those football games. He was a teacher of the game and he is the best recruiter in the country, he could get any guy he wants. He's a great family man and a great guy.”

“I’m going to say the most memorable moment while I was at A&M was going into Tuscaloosa and beating the hell out of Alabama, it doesn’t get any better than that. People thought that we would be lucky to get out and win six games, and we went out and proved everybody wrong. We set the tone for coming into the SEC, that was one of the coolest things.”

“My junior year I was considering leaving early and going off to the pros, but I got a call from Coach Kingsbury and a call from Coach Sumlin and they said, ‘Hey we need you in this program, we want you to come back and be a part of our special offense and our special team.’ They had me hooked, I came back and we won 11 games.”

“I miss being around the guys and seeing the kids coming up wanting an autograph, that will always be in the back of my mind.”