The Daily Iowan: I have a couple of non-football questions, would you be OK with answering them?

Aaron Graves: Sure, go ahead.

DI: Awesome. First thing, if you weren’t playing football or maybe playing sports in general, what would you be doing instead?

Graves: I would probably go to the cheapest college I could find that I could get a bachelor’s or master’s in physiology and then become a strength and conditioning coach. That’s what I want to do after football anyway. So, I’d probably just go straight to that.

DI: Talking about that major, physiology, what are you learning in those classes that you didn’t know before? What’s something new you’ve learned in those classes this year?

Graves: I would just say kind of how the body works. Obviously, that’s what physiology is. How I can apply that to my sport and how I can apply it to recovering better. You know, just better preparing myself for the next weeks, that kind of thing.

DI: I know you’ve only been here a semester. Who’s your favorite professor so far?

Graves: Krista Osadchuk, I don’t think I’m butchering that last name. But yeah, she’s been a really good professor. That’s my biology professor.

DI: If you had to write a five-page essay tonight and turn it in tomorrow, what would you write it about?

Graves: It would definitely be something lifting-related. Lifting weights, something involved with that. Probably like what are the best exercises for football, that kind of thing. What are the best things you can use to recover for football, all that kind of stuff. I could whip up something pretty quick for that.

DI: What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words Phil Parker?

Graves: Genius. I mean, that’s pretty accurate, I would say.

DI: Who is your favorite athlete on this campus that’s not on the football team?

Graves: Probably Spencer Lee. I respect him a lot, obviously. He’s pretty good.

DI: Well, obviously different weight classes. How do you think a match between you two would go?

Graves: He’d probably beat me, honestly.  I don’t really know a whole lot about wrestling. I pretty much did it for half the season my junior and senior year, so he would probably beat me.

DI: That’s funny. What’s your favorite item you own?

Graves: I’m not even sure. Probably, we have a 72-inch TV in our dorm room, so that’s probably it.

DI: What dorm, Petersen?

Graves: Yep.

 DI: How do you fit a 72-inch, where do you even put it?

Graves: My roommate got it.

DI: You probably got one of them big rooms. Like a corner.

Graves: Yeah.

DI: Lastly, people have a song they go to when they’re trying to get pumped up and like really happy. Do you have a song you can go to when you’re really sad?

Graves: Probably anything by XXXTentacion — that’s depressing music, right? R.I.P.