An update from Consol's David Raffield on Riley Garner's offseason

Key quotes from David Raffield interview

“Riley is having an amazing spring. He’s the first athlete I’ve had in 28 years that wants to go through off-season with next year’s team. He’s in there every day working like a dog."

“I’ve never had somebody do it. I think there are some smaller school kids who have done it. At the 5A and 6A the numbers are usually too large to keep them in our athletic period. He’s been in there since day one doing everything, just like he’s a member of our team next year.”

“He is probably about 225 pounds right now and is running the 110 hurdles for us, just amazingly explosive. He is filling out and I think he walks on campus chasing 230 pounds.”

“What’s amazing is that Riley is just working. He is a role model because of how he is doing it. He is a true example of what an athlete should be doing. A lot of kids do not want to work out the spring of their senior year, but I tell them 'Do you think college football is easier than high school football? Then why aren’t you working harder?' Riley has taken that to heart.”

“He immediately stepped into a coaching role for us since he was out with injury this year. He was the senior and we had two sophomores trying to replace him and he was like their personal coach. Game days were difficult for him, but he was doing every thing every day to make this football team better. I know it ate him up at times, but he was here every day trying to help make these kids better."

“He coached kids and understood the position from a different point of view. He dealt with the same frustrations that coaches do, sometimes getting your ideas across or getting them to understand the concepts, so he learned it from a mental standpoint. That will make him a better player going forward.”

“As he makes the transition to college ball. he will just need getting used to the speed of college football, it goes up a notch. As with all freshman, he is still entering into his growing spurt. I could see him being 240-250 pounds a year from now. Is he going to evolve as an inside backer or an outside backer? I know they are open to whatever he is physically and mentally capable of doing.”