Anto Saka adds speed and power to A&M's defensive front

Key notes from Anto Saka interview

• It gets a little rough at Chicago O’Hare. I’ve had some good times and some bad times at that airport. It’s an experience.
   
• I had a great time on Lake Michigan this weekend. The weather was beautiful. The water was beautiful. The fireworks were going off. It was a great time.
   
• If I had a couple of days off, I’d go back to Chicago, or I’d want to see what people are talking about when it comes to Phoenix. I hear it’s a good spot, and they’ve got some good training opportunities there as well.
   
• Our time in the weight room has been the standard. For the defensive linemen, in our heads and our hearts, we try to be the heartbeat of the team and know everything goes through us. It starts up front with us. We have to be in that mindset, and we have to train our bodies and minds to be the leaders of the defense to ultimately lead the team where we’re trying to go.
   
• I’ve been here for about six months already, maybe a little longer.
   
• We’re definitely hungry, and we come in with that mindset every day. You try not to pay attention to the reports of what people are saying about what our team might be missing. All we know is, within this room, we have a bunch of dawgs and a bunch of people who can go. We’re ready to prove we can do this in the SEC and on the national scale against everybody. We’re young. We’re new. You might not have seen us all together, but we’re coming.
   
• Spring was a great time for me. It was a lot of development. I’m getting comfortable in the new scheme. Credit to my teammates and coaches for helping guide me through the way and helping me with my steps, alignment and keys as they’ve made the overall transition from scheme to scheme and play-style to play-style easier. I’ve experienced a lot of growth.
   
• Run defense has been one of my biggest focuses. I want to be stronger at the point of attack and keep showing up in the run game. In my mind, every time I step on that field and line up against an offensive lineman, in my head I’m going, “I want to make you quit today. I want to own you today.” That’s my mindset, and I love to play with that power. People see me as a finesse guy, and I can do that. I can use my speed off the edge, but in my mind, I want to win by going through you. I want to show that I’m the dominant athlete there. You can see that on tape and how I play. I hustle like no other. My heart and physicality are what make me the player I am.
   
• I love to go see the venues and unique traditions each SEC school has, but at the end of the day and since I’ve been watching college football, this has been known as the strongest conference. At heart, I’m a competitor. I want to see if this is the best of the best. Let’s get it. That’s what I’m most excited about.
   
• Marco Jones is going to be dangerous. His size is evident. You can see he’s an SEC football player. He’s as strong as an ox and deceptively fast. Just look at the way he gets off the ball. He wins with a lot of speed, but he will throw you off. The fact that he’s new to the position and has made the strides he has already as a young guy who’s still growing into his body, he’s going to be a dangerous dude.
   
• It’s quite a shame there wasn’t more hype about Ryan Henderson because the first thing that comes to my mind is “Technician.” The way he uses his hands and the way he pulls off his secondary rushes, he’s always active, and that’s what I admire the most about his game. His hands and feet are always active, and his wins are clean. They’re beautiful. He affects the passer. During spring, he would line up against guards in little speed packages, and the way he can win quickly inside, you should be excited to see Henderson. He’s going to do a lot for us.
   
• Going into my 2022 year, I stepped onto campus at 228 pounds. This morning, I weighed in at 257. That’s a little bit of a jump.
   
• Working with Tommy Moffitt has been amazing. What I’ve been able to add to my bench and my squat, along with the explosiveness from the lifts we’ve done. The attention to detail and the science given to making sure our bodies recover the right way, those guys do it right. It has done wonders for my game and strength development. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.
   
• You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink it. The mindset of this entire team is that they’ve tasted success, tasted the playoff and been close to an SEC Championship berth. It stings, and you can feel it. They’ve carried it into the offseason, and with the mindset everyone is rolling with, it’s going to be a scary season coming up.
   
• I’ve always been big on sports. I played football and basketball, and I ran track. As far as my favorite athletes, the Ravens have always had a special spot in my heart. I wanted my first number to be #52 for Ray Lewis, the greatest Raven ever. As I got older, I looked at guys like Terrell Suggs, and that’s who I modeled my game after when I moved to the edge from linebacker. Even now, I’ll watch guys outside of the football realm like Michael Phelps because of that championship and dominant mindset that he carries. There are a lot of great athletes to come from Baltimore, and I take bits and pieces from all of them.
   
• Supporting Black Diamond Powerwashing means the world to me because, as you said, I’ve been all over the country at this point, from Chicago to College Station, but I’m a Baltimore kid. Whatever I can do to give back to that community, I’ll do it because there are a lot of great people and businesses in that area. We might not be on the national scale, but that’s besides the point because there’s a lot of great stuff going on in Baltimore. Whatever I can do to shed more light on that and shed more light on the people who make that beautiful city run, I’ll do whatever I can.