RJ Maryland taking next step in SMU's offense after strong offseason, set on being SMU's next NFL TE

obviously a good freshman season for you how's it feeling start a ball year two feeling great I can't wait for the season I just want to get there I just want to get there yep what's been your focus in the off season uh just a lot of weight lifting a lot of eating because last year I was about I think I was listed like 217 and uh the most I've been is about 2 40. so I lost a little bit of that so I'm probably like 235 now yeah good weight is that kind of a double-edged sword of like you said good weight you can't just sit and binge whatever you want but as I've been kind of fun to kind of have that yeah I was trying to so I was trying to eat a lot of food but eat a lot of healthy food so I just get a lot of salad and just overeat salad and like broccoli which I don't really like broccoli but I'll just have to eat it because I Gotta Give a gain weight somehow obviously played really well last season um at that weight you know which is kind of pretty undersized for a tight end what was maybe the biggest difficulty last year of being that weight and where do you think you can you know a lot of blocking blocking and a path protection because our offense uh tight ends we got a pass protect and sometimes those big guys they they can move you especially those guys from Maryland and I know those guys from OU they'll be able to move it too so getting away that helps with that so yeah let's get stronger yeah I mean how much is that going to help you be more of a like an every down guy and not just looked at as that pass catching tight end yeah yeah it will help because especially those guys uh those coaches in the NFL they want that they want a bigger tight end because you got to be able to run routes and you got to be able to block guys so in those DNS and NFL is the biggest guys in the world so yeah just got three freshman tight ends uh here now what's I like kind of working with those guys you kind of letting teaching them the ropes a little bit about what it was like for you last year yeah they remind me a lot of myself because we're about the same age a little younger than me so yeah just trying to learn everything uh like me I came in in the summer so guys like tripped and guys like Adam they they're just getting here and they're just learning everything Adam's only been here a few weeks so yeah he's got to learn everything so yeah we're at Wisconsin talking about how important to be this is for Nolan Matthews Harris what have you seen from Nolan just kind of through the off season up to this point um you know trying to put together a healthy season yeah he's been great he's been crazy he's like a coach to me because last year when sometimes he could have played so yeah I get off the field come to him ask for help even though I was like cam Allen ask him for help they're all good coaches so yeah and then whenever they get on the field they can they can just go like me with all that depth that you guys now kind of have a tight end or competition I should say um what's kind of the goal for this tight end room to take the next step just overall as a unit this year oh just to increase productivity just do that um especially with blocking increase productivity blocking increase productivity uh throwing the ball catching it so yeah we just gotta be more productive how much fun is it being in an offense that really doesn't just use a tight end but really utilizes it I love this offense because we throw the ball in I just love catching the ball so that's my favorite person High School offense we just throw the ball throw the ball throw the ball so yeah it's fun everybody talks about the wide receiver run s Muse on with producing them for the league but they're on a nice little run of tight ends going to the NFL too with Kyle and Grant guys like that and how do you feel about trying to keep that going yeah I want to be the next one that's that's my goal I just want to be the next next great estimates um I had another question and I forgot what have you seen from Preston so far this Camp Preston's a great quarterback it's starting starting last year when I got here we I've been throwing with them forever so in practice which you don't really see it on the game field because he hasn't played yet but in practice we just been working working so yeah he's been a great QB this defensive line looks very improved you know if you're a lot bigger too a lot of new guys came in what have you what's it like blocking against that defensive line what have you seen from them so far uh so uh Eliza Roberts he he's rough he's hard to block he's a big guy and uh yeah we got a lot of good uh defensive tackles new DNS and so yeah it's gonna it's gonna be fun it's gonna be fun to watch them how do you guys take the next step to getting to that conference Championship and how do you try to take it day by day versus thinking about those expectations that are there uh yes I guess take it day by day you can't look ahead like the Louisiana Tech he's got to start with them first then prepare for OU and then uh Prairie View and then uh TCU just take it day by day don't look ahead and just win every game talk about eating what's on the menu today let's see I don't know yesterday was pasta and chicken which that was good and I got a little salad too but I don't know I haven't seen it right now it's just a lot of water yeah cool awesome thanks