The Daily Iowan: We’re going to do a quick one-on-one thing here to try to get to know you. I know you played in Wisconsin and spent some time there. Have you ever tried the cheese curds?

I have, yeah. They’re very tasty.

Okay. With ranch?

Yeah. I’m a ranch guy.

Have you tried marinara sauce with them?

Yeah. I’m a little bit more of a ranch guy, but it was still good.

You’ve got a Superman chain there, very nice. Explain. Are you a big fan of Superman?

Yeah. I kind of liked how it looked when I was looking around.

So you collect jewelry?

A little bit. I used to have another one, but I left it back home. For now, I just, I rock with this for a while, so I might as well keep it.

What’s the best thing you’ve seen about Iowa so far?

The guys. We’re really tight here. I think everybody is. Some lockers are kind of divided like [between] defense and offense, but I think everybody here is really tight. Being able to be close to a lot of guys is probably the coolest part for me.

Why number 10?

So when I was a kid, my parents and my family wanted me to wear [number] four because I was the fourth child, but for some reason, I was like, ‘No, I want to wear 10.’ Ever since I was a kid, I’ve worn it, so it’s kind of my number, my lucky number.

Do you have siblings?

Yeah, I have three older sisters.

Oh, man. What was it like growing up in that environment?

It was really cool growing up with them. My oldest sister is 31, and the second is 29, so they’re a lot older than me, they all found their husbands during their freshman and sophomore years of college, so I grew up kind of having three older sisters and two older brothers. It was really cool growing up with them, seeing life from their perspective, and getting their advice and stuff.

What has it been like working with Cade? What kind of person is he?
It’s been really great. He’s a great dude, a great leader. I think being able to pick his brain on certain things with his experience playing at the college level, that’s been the biggest thing for me is trying to learn that and grasp that experience. For me, I think it’s been great to have him here and come in at the same time and learn together, so that’s been the best part.

Do you have any stories of his competitiveness?

I think every practice there’s a new story. He chirps a lot to the defense. He likes to chirp. They chirp back, but he really gets after it when the offense has a big play or something, he’ll really get after it, so it’s funny.

What happened yesterday?

Yesterday, he had a deep ball, and he started chirping [Cooper DeJean], Nick [Jackson], or [Kyler Fisher]. Especially Joe [Evans], he’ll chirp Joe, which is funny.

He dishes it out. Can he take it?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. He’ll come back and strike right back, so he lives for that stuff.

What’s your favorite food?

Probably, I’m a big Mexican food guy. Back home, in Santa Barbara, Cajun Kitchen is my favorite spot. It’s local; it’s our family restaurant, so it’s probably there.

 What’s your favorite dish there?

Probably … huevos rancheros. Those are really good.

And what’s a food that everyone else likes, and you’re just like, ‘This isn’t that good. I don’t like it.’ Any food you’re just like, ‘I’m not going to eat that no matter what’?

I’m not a huge cheese guy.

But you like cheese curds, though?

Like a cheeseburger, stuff you just kind of put cheese on like sandwiches and stuff, I’m not a huge [fan].

So you just go straight hamburger?

Yeah.

That’s pretty rare for someone to say ‘I’m just going hamburger, no cheese.’ Cutting out the dairy, I don’t know. You do you. That should be it. Thank you so much.

Yeah, of course.