A One-on-One Chat With Adrian Battles

Battles went to training camp this past summer with the Minnesota Vikings

As mentioned earlier, MavBlog set up a phone interview with Green Bay Packer practice squad player Adrian Battles who is gearing up for next week’s Super Bowl.  Battles took a few minutes to chat with us Tuesday and this is how the conversation went.

Mavblog:  Has it sunk in yet, going to the Super Bowl?

Adrian Battles:  It really hasn’t sunk in yet.  I have gotten a lot of phone calls from my family.  It is starting to sink in more once we travel to Dallas on Monday.

MB:  So you went to training camp with the Vikings and got cut during the final cut down day.  After that you don’t get picked up until December.  Walk us through that process

AB: When I got released, it was a hard time for me.  A lot people would give up at that time, but I used it as a positive and trained harder each and every week.  I felt like it would come some day that I would get picked up by another team.  I just tried to stay positive during the whole situation, train hard each and every day and always have positive. When the call finally came from the Packers, it was like a dream come true, because they had always been my favorite team growing up.  I live 100 miles from this place and it was unbelievable.  When I got this call, it was a dream come true and I came here just ready to work.

MB:  When you joined this team, did you see a deep playoff run?

AB:  I knew that they had a rough season with some tough losses and players on injured reserve.  When I got here it was clear that it was playoff mode already with the last two games of the season being must win games to get into the playoffs.  I felt like, even when I was a fan of this team that they had the firepower to get into the playoffs, especially with the quarterback, Aaron Rodgers.  Just watching the guys practice and watching how much they wanted it, I knew it was a possibility.  They went out and performed the last two weeks of the season and got a late playoff push and we got a lot of momentum.

MB:  When you got into that locker room for the first time, was it hard to separate yourself as a fan and as a player or did it come naturally?

AB:  It was kind of natural.  Starting with meetings on that first day that I got here, they made it feel like a family.  Everyone was on my side, cracking jokes and stuff like that and it made me feel at home when I got here, so it helped a lot.

MB:  Postseason games, did you get make any travel? 

AB:  No.

MB: But you do get to go to Dallas… What is your mindset going into that?

AB:  I am going to soak it all in.  Every football player, college and even the  NFL veterans, you watch the game from the couch every year with a dream of going there.  If you asked me when I got released from the Vikings, that I would be going to the Super Bowl and be a part of and be on a team that was in it, I wouldn’t even know what to say.  I am going to soak it in, we got a couple of work days but I am going to enjoy every minute of it.

MB:  Is there anything in particular you are looking forward to down there?

AB:  The entire thing.  I am looking forward to being on the sidelines for that game and watching it up close.  All the fans and cameras flashing, it’ll be crazy.

MB:  When you left here did you envision this happening this fast or was it what you thought it would be?

AB:  Leaving MSU, I knew it was going to be an uphill battle coming from a small school. I always felt if I worked hard enough, I felt I would be able to show someone or some team that I was capable of giving it a shot.  When I got the shot with Minnesota, it made even more hungry when I got cut.  I felt like I could find a home in this league.  I feel like I have found a home here.

MB:  Talk about your time at MSU, who had the biggest impact on you

AB:  Mike Cunningham, the offensive line coach.  He has had a great impact on me.  He always treated me like a son, checked on my grades, brought me over for dinner and stuff like that.  He had the biggest impact.  He always had a positive outlook on things.   When I got there, things didn’t go my way right away and he always told me that better days were going to come.

MB:  Talk about Mike and how he helped you prepare to get to this level.

AB:  He is a great offensive line coach.  He is really detailed on what he teaches us.  He learns a lot by going to camps himself in the offseason and he relays the information himself onto us.  A lot of the stuff I learned from him I was able to use that when I got here.  Combing that with my athletic ability, I think that is part of the reason I have been able to excel so fast.  He taught me a lot of technique things that have helped me out a lot.

MB:  Have the Packers given you any indication on the future?

AB:  I am going to be here in the future. 

Super Bowl Bound

By virtue of the Green Bay Packers 21-14 victory over the Chicago Bears this afternoon, former Minnesota State offensive lineman Adrian Battles and his employer - the Green Bay Packers - are Super Bowl Bound.

Battles, who is a member of the practice squad, will help the Packers prep for the Super Bowl, which will be held Feb. 6, 2011, in Arlington, Tex.

Look for more on MavBlog in the near future, including hopefully, an exclusive interview with Battles.  Until then, you can follow him on twitter.com/absworld77.

So whether you are a fan of the Packers or not, it will be tough to cheer against a former Maverick and his team in this year's Super Bowl.

As always, it is great to be a Maverick.

Closing the Book on Expansion & More

Another busy weekend of Maverick Athletics.  Men's hockey is on the road at Wisconsin for a big WCHA series.  The Mankato Freep's Shane Frederick previews the series HERE. 

The women's hockey team travels to Bemidji to take on the Beavers while the Beavers hoops squads travel to Mankato this evening for a date with the Mavericks.  Always great to play Bemidji State, but even better now that former Athletic Communications GA Dax Larson is working for BSU and making the trip down. 

Speaking of Dax, he will be the guest on Maverick Magazine today at 10 am (CST) on KMSU.  You can listen live HERE

The MSU swimming and diving team travel to the UW Stevens Point Invite this weekend while the Maverick Bowlers are in action in the Big Red Invitational hosted by the University of Nebraska.

Track and Field will spill their competition up over three venues this weekend.  MSU will send participants to the Iowa State Open, the UW Stout Invite and the University of Minnesota in what expects to be another great weekend of Maverick track and field.

Last night, the MSU wrestlers, ranked seventh in the nation, survived a dual against MSU Moorhead, earning a 19-18 win.  You can read about the victory, HERE

Thought I would wrap-up the expansion talk with a bunch of links from around the league regarding the addition of the University of Sioux Falls and Minot State.

Mankato Free Press: HERE (There is an additional story in the print and on-line subscriber version as well).

Sioux Fall Argus Leader: Here (Story)  (Blog): Here (Blog): Here

Minot Daily News: Here


St. Cloud Times: Here


Winona Daily News: HERE


Since we are closing the book on some info, HERE is an updated link on the Metrodome and how it could take up to six months to repair. 


Thanks for reading and remember, it is Great to be a Maverick

Oh my, yes....Minot State and the University of Sioux Falls Are Both in

The results have been tabulated and both Minot State and the University of Sioux Falls have both been accepted as the newest members of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The addition of the Beavers and the Cougars in 2012-13 gives the NSIC 16 teams.

Plenty of stuff to read on this development including these right here, here, here and here.

The link to Minot State's website is located here and the USF website is located here.

It's great to be a Maverick.

Sixteen Candles?

Currently there are 14 members of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Come Thursday afternoon it could be 16. Or maybe still 14.

The University of Sioux Falls has announced that it will hold a press conference Thursday to share information regarding the decision by the the NSIC Board of Directors. USF's press release regarding the press conference is located here.

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader's Matt Zimmer offered up a fairly lengthy piece detailing the subject of USF's and Minot State's candidacy for the NSIC about a week ago and that appears here.

It's great to be a Maverick.

Brownlee's New Video is Out

Former Minnesota State defenseman Chad Brownlee's new video, which debuted Dec. 26 (Boxing Day for you Canadians out there), is entitled "Day After You" and is now available on youtube.

Brownlee, who played for the Mavericks from 2003-07 after matriculating for a couple of years of junior hockey in the British Columbia Hockey League, is a rising star in the Canadian country music ranks.

Here's the link to Chad's video....enjoy.

It's great to be a Maverick.

The Sky Is Falling

Well, okay, maybe not literally, but as everyone knows by now, the sky did fall on the HHH Metrodome in Minneapolis on Dec. 12 (video can be found HERE for those who somehow missed it).

Not only did the Dome collapse screw up two of the remaining four Minnesota Viking games, it is now effecting some 300 college baseball games this up coming winter and spring.  Mavblog spoke with Minnesota State head coach Matt Magers today and he had this to say about the Dome, "The biggest thing is you can't control the weather.  Even if it is not in the Dome, baseball in Minnesota, in the spring,  weather is something you have to deal with.  We are trying to decide if we go back to Colorado in February or down to Missouri or add a couple of games on our spring trip.  There are other teams in our situation so now it is the matter of getting together with them, finding a location and seeing if we can play."

Several newspapers around the NSIC have localized this story, including the Argus Leader, The St. Cloud Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune (part two of the Stibs Coverage) and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

The Mavericks were slated to play four series (eight games) in the MetroDome, including their season opener on Feb. 15, against Lincoln.  MSU was also to play Concordia in a nonconference twinbill (Feb. 18), as well as nonconference double-dips against the University of Mary (March 14) and Bemidji State (March 22).

Here is a breakdown of how the NSIC will be affected by the Dome's temporary closing (unofficially)

School Dome Games
Bemidji State 16
St. Cloud State 16
Concordia 10
Minnesota State 8
Winona State 8
Wayne State 8
Minnesota Duluth 6
Minnesota, Crookston 6
Southwest Minnesota State 6
Northern State 4
Augustana 4
U-Mary 3
Upper Iowa 0
Total 95

Providing the estimates of 300 games will be played in the Dome this winter are accurate, 31.6 percent of them were to include teams from the NSIC.

Finally a non-baseball related read.  Tuesday night, the University of Iowa defeated Missouri, 27-24, in the Insight.com Bowl.  One of Iowa's Co-MVPs for the season is senior defensive lineman Karl Klug, twin brother of former Maverick (and 2009 First-Team All-NSIC South Division Linebacker) Kevin Klug.  The Winona Daily News ran THIS story on the brothers, well worth the read.

In closing, we in the Athletic Communications Office wish everyone a Happy and Safe 2011!

Go Mavericks

Merry Christmas from the Mavericks!

Former MSU DB Dan Rotchadl mans the Red Kettle 

So I'm heading to Walmart for some last minute stuff and on my way into the store, as I'm dropping a buck into the Salvation Army kettle, the guy ringing the bell and wearing the Santa hat says to me...."Merry Christmas, PA!"  It was noneother than former Maverick safety Dan Rotchadl!

Rotch, who played for MSU from 1975-79, is a former head football coach at Loyola High School here in Mankato where he skippered the Crusaders for six seasons. Dan has served as a clock operator at Maverick football home games for the past several seasons and took Loyola to the state tournament in 2007.

A very Merry Christmas back at yah, Rotch and to everyone out there in Maverick Country, a very Merry Christmas to you as well!

All the best to you all from everyone at Minnesota State Athletics.

It's great to be a Maverick.

Field of Dreams......

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Every little girl dreams of being in a movie someday.  For former Minnesota State softball player Erin Goettlicher that childhood dream came true.

Goettlicher - a Mankato native - and MSU softball standout from 1998-2001 appears in a cameo role in the new Reese Witherspoon comedy, "How Do You Know?"

The Mankato Freep's Amanda Dylson penned an article about Goettlicher in today's print edition of the paper.  Unfortunately the story never made it to the online edition of the paper's website but a check back to the www.mankatofreepress.com often to see if it gets posted.

For those who don't remember, Goettlicher went onto play professional softball on the East Coast following her career at Minnesota State.  HERE is a link to Jim Rueda's column from 2007 discussing Goettlicher's exploits.

You can follow Goettlicher on Twitter by clicking HERE

Below you will find the trailer for "How Do You Know?"

Snowpes

Yeah, we live in Minnesota, so typically  a few inches of snowfall and a drop in the temperature in the second week of December isn't really that big of a deal.  But this past weekend was, as Ron Burgundy would say, "kind of a big deal."

After freezing rain late Friday, the worst part of this winter storm came rolling through Saturday with about nine inches of snow accompanied by strong winds causing drifting and white-out conditions that would have made Yetis in Nepal cringe.

We were able to get our women's hockey game vs. Bemidji State in, but with on-ice officials unable to make it to Mankato for the MSU vs. North Dakota men's hockey game later in the evening, that game was postponed until yesterday (Sunday, Dec. 12).

In case you were wondering if a postponed WCHA game is unusual, the folks from North Dakota don't think they've ever had a game cancelled or postponed and that program dates back to the 1929 season.  The University of Minnesota, by the way, also postponed its men's and women's hockey games from Saturday to Sunday.  And our men's and women's basketball teams and our wrestling team, which were in St. Cloud for Saturday competition, ended up spending the night in St. Cloud.

It's great to be a Maverick.