Senior Jack Gangwish

On his summer

“Summer was great. We got to do a lot of work with our new strength and conditioning staff and those guys have been great. They have a whole theory on what football strength and conditioning is. It’s been kind of a learning experience. I think a lot of our guys really bye into the system and really enjoy what we’re doing. Off of that I think we’re seeing some really good improvements in our strength, size and speed.”

On the different philosophy regarding football fitness and strength

“Coach (Mark) Phillip, the major difference I would say is the type of movements we do. We do a style of lifting called Olympic Weight Lifting. The primary movements there are snatch and a clean and jerk. Where as in the old program we might have focused more on squatting a lot of weight the new program focuses to try and clean a lot of weight and do it really well and really fast. It’s got more of an emphasis on flexibility, mobility, range of motion. More balance involved, that sort of thing. The idea is that the types of movements we focus on now are more athletic than the types we previously focused on.”

On what the rise has been like from last year to becoming a captain

“It’s a lot different. I’m not used to this many cameras pointed at me. For a long time when I talked to people, the biggest difference is, they asked me if I was still on the football team. I would be like yeah, I’m still there, I’m still practicing, still doing my thing and most of the time people don’t ask me that anymore.

On the chemistry in the spring with the other guys on the field

“As far as chemistry goes, those three guys especially, Maliek (Collins), Vince (Valentine) and Greg (McMullen) have been playing together for a really long time. They’ve been in the D-line room, those guys have been getting snaps for a lot of years now. I’ve joined the room more recently, I was formerly a linebacker. But I’d like to think I’m involved with that chemistry. We went through kind of a hard transition there back in December, but if anything I think that has brought the guys closer. We worked together well during the Spring, we meshed well. Learning this new defense is something that we helped each other through and we grew even closer with. I would say that the chemistry in our room is better, maybe stronger than it’s ever been right now.”

On the philosophy compared to the previous

“Well as far as the new philosophy, I’m not 100 percent sure. That’s a little above my pay grade, but I can compare it to our former philosophy and the major thing that I’ve noticed is that it’s so much more aggressive. The No. 1 focus now is always to be playing fast, to be playing hard. Your steps may not be perfect, your hand placement may not be perfect but even if it is not perfect we want you in there hard. The main difference is that this is a kind of pin your ears back and go kill somebody type of defense, maybe not kill somebody but go and tackle somebody.”

On if he prefers this new philosophy

“For me it caters better to my style of playing. In our former defense I had to spend a lot of time on focusing on slowing down and holding myself back and kind of pulling back. Partially, some of my technique was as close to perfect as possible and partially so that I didn’t make a mistake in the decision making process that was involved. Whereas now, that really isn’t a factor, you have one job and you just have to go do it really hard.”

On who has really emerged after the summer between himself and Greg McMullen

“Well one guy that I would say has shown major improvement is Freedom (Akinmoladun). Freedom went from being a tight end to being a pretty good defensive end in just a few weeks. He’s shown to be really good. I’d have to say in my eyes who I would say over the summer and over the spring has shown to be a consistent football player and a guy you can trust out there is Ross Dzuris, he’s a walk on from Plattsmouth. Ross is a guy, he’s not a Randy Gregory type of athlete or anything like that, but he is really consistent and does his job every single play. You can count on Ross to know the defense and to know his job and to do it well.”