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CACTUS BOWL: KANSAS STATE VS UCLA

December 23, 2017

Trent Tanking

Phoenix, Arizona

Q. (Indiscernible) leading the team in tackles, All-Big 12 honors, all the academic things.
TRENT TANKING: I don't want to sound pompous or anything, but just the fact that a lot of people were doubting whether I could play in the Big 12 Conference, play at an elite level, along with Jayd, there was a lot of question marks between me and him and I thought that we held our own.

The linebacker corps, I don't think, there wasn't any weakness in our defense, but a lot of people were pointing to the linebacker corps as going to be the soft spot, and I think we proved that that wasn't the case.

Q. Did that fuel you? How would you describe --
TRENT TANKING: Oh, yeah. You're going through the offseason, and I had a feeling that I wanted to be that guy so all the workouts, and me and Jayd attacked, and knew that it was going to be our time coming into the season. So we had to work on the foot speed and our communication skills and being able to read things fast. And I think we did a pretty well job over the 12 games.

Q. Watching the award ceremony and Blake referenced the story you were a basketball player first?
TRENT TANKING: Yeah, my dad was a basketball coach. My uncle was a basketball coach. I grew up playing basketball. That was my first love. And transferred schools and in middle school I started playing football and I guess I became kind of decent at it. So I decided to pursue it. And got a chance to play at a school I had always grown up watching. So that was really cool. So I kind of interesting how that transformed.

Q. How did your dad react to that change?
TRENT TANKING: He was a K-State football fan growing up. It wasn't hard for him. As far as when it came to basketball he was always coaching me. When it came to football he was always, he was more supportive because he knew what I was doing and he was there every step of the way. He meant the world to me, him and my mom both. Both are my heroes.

Q. When they try to convince you to walk on, what do you remember about those conversations?
TRENT TANKING: It was an interesting process, because they were flirting with either offering me a scholarship or giving me a preferred walk-on spot. Obviously I was hoping for the scholarship opportunity to get my schooling paid for. But when that didn't happen I had some D-II offers I was looking at.

I decided to walk on at K-State anyway and just decided I was going to prove myself and be able to get some schooling paid for, and I was fortunate after the second year to get on scholarship and get three years of my schooling paid for.

Q. To earn that, did it set you up for the success you've had?
TRENT TANKING: You could say that. I don't know, I've always kind of taken the approach of just working hard. And anything I do I feel like I will earn. And, I don't know, I just don't want to sound pompous or anything, but it means a lot to me personally that just finishing and being able to accomplish what I thought I could accomplish when I came to K-State.

Q. You don't let things slow you down, the broken hand this year. Describe the resiliency you had to have to keep going?
TRENT TANKING: When you come in and you're here for five years you grow relationships with guys. Especially these seniors, I've been here with five years. I've had two roommates I've been in the same throughout the whole season or the whole career here at K-State. Just knowing those guys are still playing and I'm not going to get a chance next year to play with them or anybody else.

So if it's nothing to prevent me, if it's not a leg injury, I've just figured I better play through it. I'm not going to get this chance again.

Q. Why did you choose K-State over the D-II schools?
TRENT TANKING: I grew up being a K-State fan, and the opportunity to be a D-I athlete coming from a school in Kansas, a 4A school, not a lot of attention when it comes to D-I schools.

So, like I said, it's kind of an opportunity to just to be able to prove to myself and to prove to everybody else that I can be an individual athlete. And hopefully I would exceed expectations and I thought I did that.

Q. What kind of impact did Coach Barta have on you?
TRENT TANKING: He was actually a huge impact. Choosing schools I would talk to him about the K-State culture, the K-State opportunity. He gave me advice talked to me about what it would be like and kind of the process that I have to go through. And so once I was comfortable enough with what he was saying, I knew I was confident in choosing K-State.

Q. Similarities between his program and here. I know it's high school and college. Were there similarities in the way he ran --
TRENT TANKING: There's definitely similarities he took from Coach Snyder, consistency. The practices were always the same. Just the fact of intensity level, work ethic, the weight room structure was big in his high school program starting from 7th grade up until senior in high school. There's definitely some similarities, obviously it's dialed back. But, yeah, there's definitely a lot of similar things carried over.

Q. Did that help your transition?
TRENT TANKING: Yeah, I mean it's still a shock going from high school to D-I, but it was a help just because if you're used to working hard for six years going from seventh to 12th grade and then you transition to a little more intense program, but if you're already used to working hard it's not too tough to just keep on doing that.

Q. Can you talk about being here in the Cactus Bowl and taking on UCLA, what it means for you guys?
TRENT TANKING: Obviously UCLA, great team, great program. I played against them in the Alamo Bowl, that would have been three years ago. And there was a lot of emotions in that game, a lot of stuff going on, but it was a great game.

We got down early and had to climb our way back just to even have a chance. Just to get back and be able to play a competitive team like that and have a chance to be back in Arizona. It's a gorgeous place. A lot warmer here than in Kansas right now. So it's going to be awesome. I can't wait to play in the Diamondback stadium and play against an awesome team.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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