Dantin Ready to Lead

Austin Dantin was forced into action as a true freshman last year when senior QB Aaron Opelt went down with an injury. Dantin, who struggled through an ankle injury himself, responded by completing 66.4% of his passes for the season in seven games, starting three of those games. Read on for a brief Q&A with the sophomore quarterback.

Austin Dantin was forced into action as a true freshman last year when senior QB Aaron Opelt went down with an injury. Dantin, who struggled through an ankle injury himself, responded by completing 66.4% of his passes for the season in seven games, starting three of those games. Dantin was 2-1 as a starter. He threw for 326 yards in the season finale at Bowling Green.

This fall Dantin is in a battle with redshirt freshman Terrance Owens, sophomore David Pasquale, and senior Alex Pettee to see who will be the starting quarterback for the Rockets. Right now Dantin looks to be the front runner, and the position is his to win or lose.

Rocket Digest reporter Karl Rofkar caught up with Austin and Toledo's media day a couple of weeks ago, to see if he was ready to take the lead of the Rocket offense.


RD: You got last season under your belt with a little experience behind you…how are you feeling so far?

AD: I feel great. I think all of us are real excited to be out here with the coaches. It’s a little more organized than how we run in the summer. We got a lot done in the summer, accomplished a lot, now we work on set plays and get ready for game one.


RD: What have you personally done in the off-season?

AD: I’ve worked a lot on my strength, to get bigger, stronger, faster. I worked a lot on rehabbing my ankles and getting them stronger so I won’t get injured. I worked a lot on where I release the ball and on ball handling.


RD: How does the throwing feel?

AD: Feels great right now. I’m loose everyday, there’s not any soreness. I expect as camp wears on it’ll get a little sore, but I’ll just keep putting ice on and hopefully it’ll keep feeling good.


RD: Did you have some shoulder soreness last year?

AD: A little but I didn’t get as many reps last year, so shoulder soreness didn’t set in until later in the season.


RD: It’s awful early, but how do things seem to be meshing with the quarterbacks and wide receivers so far?

AD: I think it’s been great. We worked together all summer for this point. We have a big competition coming up first game of year against Arizona, so we expect to get out there and play really well. We prepared all summer for two-a-days and for camp, now we’re doing really well.


RD: Eric Page was a pleasant surprise last year. You’ve lost a big target in Stephen Williams. How is it being filled?

AD: We’ve got a bunch of guys stepping in. Kenny Stafford is doing a good job. You’ve got my high school teammate James Green stepping in. I think we’ve got a plethora of receivers we can use: Julian Bellinger, Ed Williams, we’ve got a lot of skilled players. We can’t replace Steve, but we can do our best.


Dantin appears very poised and ready to lead the offense. Hopefully his off-season work pays off with a healthy, productive year for the Rockets. Oh, and his teammates gave him just a little grief over his use of the word “plethora”....