UC Tight End Gavin Grover Texas Tech Week Interview

Russ Elman from Bearcats Talk here chatting with UC tight end Gavin Grover. So, Gavin, obviously a great day for the offense on Saturday. How do you guys kind of respond coming off that game, knowing how well you guys played offensively? And then, obviously, the defense, I'm sure, feeling like they let down the offense. Just in the locker room after that game, after a loss like that, how do things kind of gel back together? I think after a tough loss like that, I think that we just got to go back to our culture, go back to our roots. You know, like when the offense doesn't play great, defense picks up. Defense doesn't play great, offense picks us up. I think we're always playing for the team. We win and lose as a team. And so I think we, as you saw, we didn't put our best foot forward as a team on Saturday. But we'll get back to the drawing board. Offense will keep doing well. And I'm sure defense is working their butts off this week to get back after it. So your season so far, how would you assess at the midway point of your first real chance It's getting massive starting snaps, consistent starting snaps. How would you assess your game, maybe on a 1-10 scale through six weeks? I mean, it's hard to put an exact number on it. I would say somewhere like the 7-8 range. I feel like I've played well. I've done some good things. Still want to continue to improve at managing the workload of being out there a bunch of plays and making those big blocks from the short yardage plays. But I think I've done a solid job thus far. I think I want to keep being a solid option for JC when he needs me and still holding up well in pass pro and blocking my butt off with the O-line in the run game. I mean, when we get some of these running backs and J.C. opportunities to run, they're making some big plays. So just continuing to open those holes for them, I think that's what I want to keep working on. You see tight end Gavin Grover joining us here on Bearcats Talk. So individually, what are you kind of keying in on this week, moving forward down the back stretch of the season? What has Coach Stepp kind of lobbed up to you as the lowest hanging fruit for you to go after? Yeah, I think right now we're just trying to focus on one week at a time. You know, we've got some big teams coming up. We're playing multiple top 25 teams. And so I think looking far ahead, you've got to kind of get over one. Like, oh, we've got some big games left. But no, the only team that matters right now is Texas Tech. So I think it's good to just focus on one game, focus on this game plan, which I think our coaches have put a great game plan together. But I think if we execute what we need to do, I think we've got a great chance in this game. 100th homecoming. You're a guy who's – you're a rare story in college football, a guy who's been with one program, stayed here throughout multiple homecomings, and I'm sure planning on graduating a Bearcat as well and ending your career here, what does this weekend mean to you as you've kind of grown in your aging, your seasoning here at UC? Yeah, I mean, just celebrating the guys who have put in the work, put in the time. I mean, football's not easy, man, so it's good to celebrate all these guys who have put in the work, who have put in years of work to get to their final stages of their career. So it's always exciting to celebrate these guys. I love seeing the alumni come back. I mean, the alumni are so supportive of our football program, so I love seeing them all come back. And when the Nippert fills at home, like, that's always a special feeling. like i i'm road games are fun don't get me wrong like bearcats against the world but it's fun when we got our crowd with us and when we're playing well the crowd's into it and that's an unreal atmosphere that you can't really recreate elsewhere Who's the funniest guy in the tight end room? Funniest guy in the tight end room, I mean Lovie and Kamari, those two are a good pair with those two together they can, they can, uh, they can be some really funny guys, and Lovie's good like he's always like joking with you and get you a little when you're not, if you're not thinking straight, you'll, something will go right over your head, you'll really get after you a little bit but We've got a great culture in the tight end room. I love how we operate together and work together. It's a pleasure. What's an interest for Gavin Grover that people may not have known before this interview or may not think you would be interested in that? I'm an avid golfer. Definitely not a good golfer. Just an avid one. Are you part of the crew that's picked up golf over the last year or two? There's a good 8 to 12 of us who all play. Kicker Steve, he's nasty. Those kickers, man, they've got an advantage, I mean they're just, they got that, that tempo down, that, that mindset to hit the shot you want, you know, right so it's fun to play with those guys like we, we'd get out in groups of like four to eight in the off season it was awesome, I would play like two v two switch it'd be a good time for some scramble or stuff like, oh yeah no definitely scramble I need, I need to scramble, what's your favorite courses you've played around, uh we like Legendary Run, we've played a good amount, uh Elk's Run, yeah Elk's Run's a good one, uh we played Stone Look as well and then we've also played a Glenview as a CRC course that's probably the nicest CRC course I love playing at Glenview, yeah Glenview is beautiful, three nines over there, it's 27 holes, like like so I can play different ones, playing 18 I play two different ones and then next time I want to play now I'll play the third one I didn't play last time so honestly great, don't get to play much anymore right now, but right it's very busy right now but come come spring you'll be back out there oh for sure, so top goal for Gavin Grover for you individually down the back half of the season yeah just keep playing hard, like keep keeping taking taking steps every game you know this is my first season playing this in this bigger role so I think just keep taking steps forward every week proving to the offense play callers that they can count on me and like big moments like kind of like Miami game but I hope to find myself in more opportunities like that I just keep getting like a physical blocker, like I'm a big dude, I gotta be able to block people and move people off the ball which I have done a solid job this year but definitely keep taking steps forward to improve that Gavin Grover everybody you see tight end Thank you.