UC Star Guard Evan Tengesdahl WVU Week Interview

Russ Heltman from Cincinnati Bearcats talk here chatting with UC star offensive guard Evan Tangestahl. Evan, walk me through the past 10 days for this program. Coming off the first loss of the season, you guys I think got back on Sunday at like nine or eight in the morning, something like that. What was the recovery process like for you? And what was just the process like after a tough loss at Arizona? Yeah, it was a tough loss. Just a lot of things didn't go our way, and sometimes it's just not your day on the field, and that's just kind of what happened. So we just took that loss on the chin, had a lot of great things to learn from, seeing all of our weaknesses and was able to try to correct those things last week and this week going into this game. But, yeah, these past few days have been phenomenal. We've had a lot of great practices. Coming back at 9 a.m. on Sunday, like you said, it was rough, but all of us stayed in the facility. We all got treatment, sauna, tubs and everything, and then we had the rest of the day kind of off the rest. So got back at 9, everyone that had injuries, aches, or pains just kind of went into treatment and stuff like that. Everyone else did other things like pools and stuff like that just to try to get our bodies right and then went home and rest. And they came out Monday to walk through and then had practice the rest of the week. But, yeah, we've had a lot of phenomenal practices. Being able to see some of the young guys step up and make a lot of great plays over the weekend, guys that can help us and make big-time plays. But we've worked a lot of corrections and stuff, fixing some of the mistakes we had in the past week. So it's been a very beneficial week for me personally and the team. So, yeah, we learned a lot these past 10 days. I mean, you guys pulled out all the stops to try to do everything you could to prepare for that 11 p.m. Eastern time kickoff. What was the feeling for you in your own body going into kickoff, playing a game that late? I'm sure that's the latest game you've ever played. You guys have had some 10, 15 kicks. It's not a huge difference between 10, 15, and 11, but just overall, your readiness individually, did it feel any different? It's just so wild that the results have been the way they have been over the last few years when the times have been at that kickoff time. Yeah, I don't think the time played too much of a factor. They brought us out an extra day early, which was very, very beneficial. We stayed up later on that Thursday that we got there just trying to move our sleep schedule back and try to acclimate our bodies um to that time sleeping in we're like we're sleeping until like 9 a.m um for that friday and then we had a lot of um like tubs saunas and cold tubs they brought all that stuff with us to the hotel so we had a lot of different uh amenities to use and keep our routines because just keeping our routines and the sleep schedule the same is kind of the biggest thing we want to acclimate our bodies to so we were still energized for 11 p.m at night like we would be at a game here at 12 so we had a lot of stuff that we brought down to keep us our keep our routines up and stuff like that so i feel like we the whole team felt really good going into the game we can't we're not gonna really blame 11 p.m on the outcome um it was just kind of mental errors and mistakes on our part but i feel like going into the game personally i felt amazing i felt it's just as good as i do at any other game wasn't tired fatigued in any way okay maybe a little dry in the arizona heat but no it was really good out there we felt phenomenal going into the game so rivalry looking forward this week past weeks behind you just what is this kind of rivalry against west virginia has it been talked about as being big being like an actual rivalry game a huge a huge part of the program history what has been the approach this week kind of with the West Virginia matchup versus maybe the battle last battle for the victory bell a few weeks ago yeah definitely the victory bell is probably our biggest game right it's definitely a way bigger rivalry um this is definitely a rivalry game of some sort not not the the biggest ever but it still is one um but yeah we have a lot of history going against West Virginia they're up on us in the series so we have a lot playing we're playing for and it's really a get back game for a lot of guys on this team because uh they they beat us uh two years ago and wasn't a very good good feeling walking off the field at home losing so we have a lot we're playing for a lot of pride that's going to be on that field but Yeah, we feel really good going into this game. As an offensive line, what was the biggest thing you guys worked on coming off of only seven points as an offense in Arizona? You said as an offensive line? Yeah, like over the last 10 days, what's kind of the biggest thing you guys are keying in on after that performance? Yeah, it was just a lot of execution things. We don't feel like there was a lack of effort or want to or anything with guys and fatigue or anything. It was kind of just the execution part of it. So we just kind of worked on the little things and the details with everything that we do on just kind of practice standard going into each and every practice so just kind of holding that standard higher than we have before and just try to elevate each and every day try to get one percent better um but yeah we thought it was really an execution thing with everything that was happening um really nothing else to besides that it was just the players we just got to execute at a higher level and i feel like we stepped up our level of execution this past week um and it's definitely seen a big difference in our execution just each and every day or two after the first loss of the season do you feel like you have to take on any extra vocal leadership role to stop the slide at one game how do you approach it individually as a huge leader on this team following the first loss yeah i don't think we really change our approach as leaders um i think we we do a great job of leading and speaking up a lot and having a lot of different meetings and stuff like that we have meetings after every win and loss i was going over the whole game as a team so we just had that one meeting on the monday after our loss and we just went over everything that we did wrong um everything that didn't go our way that could have went our way and stuff that we didn't do execution wise and why we lost the game and we we recognize those things so that we're able to attack them going into the week so yeah i just think we did a great job um doing that and i don't really think there was no change we have a lot of phenomenal leaders on this team and a lot of big time names so i feel like we did a great job um just keeping everybody still in it no one's really pulling away like teams have in the past so i feel like we've done a great job keeping that connection and just staying tight as as one and i think that's our best attribute is being connected as one team last question here for Evan Tang as all-star UC guard individually we're about basically hit the midway point of the season right about you guys are about to play your sixth game here coming up i've had six seven weeks already in the season what have you been most proud of most what's been most successful for you this season that you've liked in your game and then what are you working on trying to improve uh down the stretch of the final six games but six weeks yeah in my game personally i think my pass game has really improved from last year just recognition on games and yeah we even had a lot of stuff thrown at us just because of the o-line that we have but i think the line's done a great job of picking up a lot of a lot of different fronts and stuff like that we've had thrown at us but personally i feel like i've done a lot better job in the pass game um knowing what i want to do and having a plan for each and every set um but just improving i think my run game has been good but it could be better it's not perfect My game's not perfect at all. So I've been working on run game a lot. Is that like technique, firing out of the block, into your block? Yeah, it's just little technique things, just hand placement and stuff like that. It just hasn't been perfect. But, yeah, I feel like I have a lot to still work on and improve on. But I just feel like I've been mainly working on the run game this past week with my technique and stuff like that. But overall, I feel like I've been doing a pretty solid job. You see guard Evan Tangestahl, everybody.