Sebastian Castro talks about expectations for the 2024 Iowa football season

comping at the bit to finally face an opponent oh yeah it's about time um we've been waiting for this I've been waiting for this nothing much to say I'm just ready to go feel different knowing that this is the last year for you uh I mean yeah you got that what do you call it senior senioritis type type of feel like just try to enjoy every moment and that's what it really feels like like even though I just yeah even though it just yeah that's what I really use just realizing that thing's coming so try to soak up everything you've also got a lot of hype this year you didn't have that last year I mean ises that what does that feel like I mean there's a lot of people expecting big things from you uh I mean it last year I kind of it was I was kind of new all that uh hype was new so I mean now I just like relying what I usually rely on just like just focus on the day he not like there's no such like I really don't care about the hype is just playing the game because I lose the rap I could give up a touchdown I give up three touchdowns the next day you know and everyone's probably be bashing me like oh well this the hype's not real then and people are going to say what they want to say so like I'm just playing the game for my me my teammates family so just and at the day for myself cuz I love playing the game so I mean I'm just having fun out there really how are you better this year than you were last year I think matur a lot more experience the game is really slowing down so uh and really that's what you really want want from a player just to get get comfortable really I hear that a lot about the game slowing down what's that like in actuality what's it like on the field when you see that what does it allow you to do it's just you just seen you just seen it so much seeing different types of plays from different types of offenses and uh just seeing people's mannerisms and like how people approach the game too just you know just feel the whole game in general and just knowing the game and uh in that sense it just kind of helps you you know seeing a lot more what do you think about Seth wall being a head coach this week what do he what does he uh how how would you describe his mentality uh I mean nothing I feel like nothing's going to change like that's South Wall is our middle linebacker head coach so he's going to have uh a certain attitude and uh I know like he stepped in like no one like hesitated at all cuz like he's the the man for the job everyone respects him in the building so I mean yeah everyone's got a lot of respects so well be a little different not having HT on the sidelines and is there a little motivation like hey let's we know KK can't be there he want he wants to let's go win this one big for him uh I I would say though I would say that a little bit um like yeah K wants to be out there you know he's going to have a feeling of missing out and know we yeah I would say you like want to do it from him but uh at the end of the day like we're also doing for each other like teammates and he probably the team of course we have and U so yeah I would say there's a little bit of that yeah I I always wonder playing cash and having a responsibility of in some cases kind of like a Leo and certain formations and things like that and you're sometimes going ah head up with somebody who outweighs You by 100 lb or more what do you do to avoid I mean getting right in front of them because you've got some advantages but then there's some disadvantages right uh like you just said it like there's sometimes I just got to know how to play my cards like sometimes I if depends where I find myself at if like I just have to have the better leverage sometimes I got to avoid the the big guy cuz I know if I get in find myself in a tricky situation you could just wash me down and uh sometimes I just got to out match him like just just like what I mean by that just like become more of the the aggressor you know and I'm in the box for a reason not because got my size but it's because I'm more more of aggressive player more physical player so uh I mean and I trust my abilities I know when I like when I should do something when I shouldn't do something should I really you know this guy's got too much weight on me should I really just diving in the hole and just get watch down little things like that just uh just knowing how to play my cards when you guys were in traditional 43 are you still sliding back to strong oh yeah yeah I'm still playing strong and the C Vis so you go again you go against this offense a lot um have you noticed a lot of changes a lot of motion a lot of misdirection deception maybe a little different than last year from what they're throwing at you it's talk about Iowa's offense when you go against some in practice have you noticed some some changes some noticeable changes that people will kind of see on on Saturday and throughout the year I mean yeah if you compare it to last year's offense I would say I mean it's a new a totally new offense uh you got some emotions here and there try to throw you off and uh I mean yeah that that offense got me just playing with them through a through a spring ball and Ball Camp they got me better got my eyes better so uh just uh I mean yeah they got me a lot better in the Run game and the pass game so uh I mean yeah you mentioned getting better can can this defense you feel like you guys can be better than last year uh you guys were pretty good last year yeah we were good last year too so I mean yeah I mean I feel we should be good uh I mean there's new new offenses just it's just like just adjusting you know there's uh like I know Tennessee thre something at us and uh we probably didn't have the the game plan we wanted you know but uh that's all it really was it's just adjusting and uh I feel that's what the game is really just just putting yourself in the right position to succeed what's the key for this defense to force more turnovers sorry say it again um what's the key for this defense to force more turnovers just focusing on turnovers um focusing our job and uh really just emphasizing that we want to get the ball I feel like last year we didn't really uh emphasize it talk about it too much so uh I mean we are uh we kind of did make a kind of a point just to have more picks have more Force fos and all yeah it just I feel like just noticing and just really talking about it that we want to enforce that what have you seen your Corners there's no Cooper there but you jamar's played a lot and uh desan played a lot last year TJ and John really competed what what did you seen uh I would say they growing with you're young so they're growing they're growing with you fast because they understand that they have some and uh I mean TJ's been here going to his third year and uh I mean yeah he's gr a lot especially I him since he came in so uh got a lot of trust in all the guys really um even though some guys are younger than others guys haven't really played in k for real but uh at the end of the day like I don't doesn't matter who's in we we have like a mentality like we the next man then has to do the job so we just got to trust each other