Growing up here, who was your favorite local player at Illinois?
Mikel Leshoure. He was just a dog. He was a beast. He ran the ball hard and was from the same high school. He did a lot of good things out here. He led us to a big-time bowl game win.
At what age did you start thinking about playing at Illinois?
Probably freshman year of high school. Finally starting out to play football and then seeing the hometown team here and how many people come to the games and how the fans are, I just thought I could be a part of that.