Photo By Hillary Ehlen
#75 Dillon Radunz
VITALS
Offensive Tackle
6-foot-6
299 pounds
Sophomore
Hometown: Becker, Minn.
Major: Industrial Engineering
QUESTION AND ANSWER
Heading into this offseason, you’ll have a new position coach in A.J. Blazek. In the limited conversations you’ve had with him, what has you excited?
Nobody is going to be able to replace Coach Riley. He is the reason I came here: he was someone special that I confided in. Him and Blazek know each other very well, and I’ve talked to Coach Riley and Coach Blazek, and both have said they have good things in mind and they’ve talked with one another. I’m excited for Coach Blazek to come in. He obviously knows this program is something special since he went from a Big Ten to here. Knowing that he is energetic and hopefully he’ll bring as much fire as Riley.
The offensive line loses a few key pieces, how do you step into a leadership role this winter and spring?
That’s a big thing I’m thinking through the spring. Coach Riley said I should take a bigger leadership role, but it’s all around as an offensive line. We all have to take up a leadership role and compete and not assume the next person up is the one that’s going to start. We need the freshman to come up and give their best shot to fight for a starting position so we can create a competitive atmosphere so we can make each other better.
Coming off a national title, how do you continue to succeed?
We celebrated and had fun and had a week and a half off, but now we need to come back and grind out. We went 15-0, how much better can we get? Our motto this last year was raise the bar, so we have to figure out how to raise the bar even higher.
Your favorite Frisco moment from this time around? I know this was your first time playing in Texas since you were injured last season.
The first few steps on the field for warm-ups is something special. I trained since last spring to get to that point. Eastern Washington was a good team; we had fun playing them. I got a few pancake blocks, which is always fun to do. I somehow managed to go head over heels on that guy at the goal line. It was a pretty special moment to be able to block for a senior quarterback to go into the end zone like that, it was pretty special.
