Elic Ayomanor on dominating Travis Hunter and Colorado: Exclusive Interview

all right now joining the show is Stanford star receiver ello a maner one of the best receivers in college football ell thanks for joining the show man thank you I appreciate you guys having me of course of course so the first question I love asking any college ball player I have on this show was like Len there was a moment in my life where I realized oh I'm terrible at football I can't make a career in the college football or the NFL what was the moment in your life though when you're like wait a minute I could be a college ball player maybe even NFL player down the line um maybe my sophomore year of high school um I'm originally from Canada and so my first year playing American Football was my sophomore year um and we had a whole bunch of division one receivers on my team I went to Petty School New Jersey my sophomore year and so when I first got there I was not the best player in fact I was probably one of the the worst players on the team but I think I realized that like the level that they were at was pretty attainable for me and so I think from then on I realized that uh my goals were in reach dude I know you went to the petty school I actually uh I don't know if you know St Joe's High School in matou in New Jersey that's where I went to high school so we played you guys a couple times man it was pretty cool but yeah you just mentioned man you left your home in Canada uh to come play high school football in the United States what was that whole experience life I know leaving your mom was a tough thing for you but what was that whole experience life leaving you know your home country to come to another country and try to fulfill your lifelong dream yeah I think when you have a I guess ambition and a goal in mind it can make things a lot easier because is um you know everything that you're doing is necessary or at least the opportunities in front of you are something that uh you think are going to progress you towards your goal faster um or yeah give you better opportunities and so I think having that in the back of my mind made it much much easier for me because uh I knew all the things that I was doing for for a reason um I think for the people that were around me it might have been a little bit harder because they weren't uh in it with me they weren't um there with me and so it can kind of be like a scary process to let somebody leave that early yeah absolutely so when did you know cuz obviously you know the opportunities in the US are obviously better than they are in Canada for football when did you know as a kid that you wanted to play football instead ofie some other sports um I guess I grew up playing hockey because kind of that's what everybody does in Canada and so I want to say I started playing football like just before Middle School um and then when you go into Middle School like grade six seven and eight is when you really have to decide like if you're going to take the hockey thing pretty seriously in Canada um but at that point I I really had started to fall in love with football and so I quit playing hockey I think when I was 12 um and pursued football long term how good of a hockey player were you any good I think I was pretty good yeah I think in general I'm just a good athlete so that translated well the hockey yeah that makes sense man so obviously coming out of high school you had offers from programs like Notre Dame tennessy Arizona what made you choose Stanford and be a cardinal yeah I think uh well one it was just my goal from the beginning um of academics and Athletics have all always been like a big thing in my life and my mom always stressed uh being like a competitor and being I guess in in my household if you do something it's kind of taboo to not try to be the best at that thing that you're doing and so I've always been super competitive in both Realms and I think just naturally like if you're that type of person Stanford's the the school that comes to mind immediately and so it's always been my goal um I know like in the process a lot of the other schools like I I started to learn more about them and I started to get a little bit more invested in them but at the end of the day I like reevaluated and said Stanford is the place that people like me go absolutely man so obviously Stanford one of the top academic schools in the country like I know you're probably going to have a long and fruitful career in the NFL once you're done playing at Stanford but what about post NFL you know what what are you planning on doing after you finish with your football career yeah I'm really not sure yet um I'm majoring in computer science um and actually this summer I did a an internship in private equity and so I I really don't know I'm just trying to experiment and see what it is that I like the most and then go from there but right now I'm really just focused on football and uh making the most of that uh making most of that Journey obviously you have the academics and the job on the side but like the main focus here is football how was that internship man would you uh what you do this summer good I mostly worked as an analyst and so like they would give me data for companies that we might be looking to acquire in the future um and so I break down the data uh make models for them and kind of like we're the first eyes on the companies that we're looking at and so we kind of say like whether or not we think this would be a good company company for us to pursue further um and then from there the more senior analysts and the associates uh if they like it as well they'll they'll keep pushing it down the line Dam that's that's really impressive man but obviously coming out of high school you weren't even a top 900 recruit in the country did you kind of feel underrated in that whole recruiting process I mean yeah I guess like objectively I probably was underrated but um I don't know it's just like coming from Canada you go to a a boarding school in the Northeast there's really not that much media around the market and so it's like you can't really expect yourself to be uh rated accurately if you don't have eyes on you all the time for me it was just like I wanted to get schools to see me and that that was all that matter I didn't really care about what I guess the recruiting Services rated me um cuz at the end of the day that doesn't really matter when you get to College everybody becomes all your stars go away and it's it's square one again and so I just wanted to to get to the university that I wanted to be at dude if you're getting power five offers it doesn't really matter where you're you know rated at right because everyone comes in the same way so I love that mentality man obviously it's been a tough road for you obviously though you battle some injuries in high school you had a torn ACL and MCO in your freshman year at Stanford how difficult was it being on the sideline for so long and going through the whole recovery process as you're trying to like really learn how to play the game right CU you came into the US in in high school later than other players have started so how difficult was that you know spending most of your development time on the on the sidelines yeah I think from just a competitive standpoint it just is tough like you I played through all of fall camp and got injured like the last week before the first game and I thought I was doing pretty well and then like you feel like you can compete out there and you feel like you're ready and then all of a sudden you can you just have to to watch I mean a lot of the games I ended up just being at my dorm watching them on TV when we were traveling away and so like you just feel so distant from where you want to be um which is definitely tough but I think a lot of the times like those like little bouts of adversity that you go through are pretty crucial in like your character development and so I think like there's definitely some positive things that came out of it as well absolutely man so obviously you had a massive breakout year not a lot of people knew your name heading into the season now everyone knows your name right now when did you kind of get the feeling like okay yeah I'm getting rolling now as a freshman like I'm I'm really starting to become a star in college football yeah uh I don't know I don't know if I really have a specific answer for that I really just try to stay like pretty grounded like you stay like in the present because I mean of course the past doesn't really matter that much and the future is really undetermined and so I try to stay pretty present in the moment and let things play out how they they do um I think if you are focused on what you're doing right now and giving 100% effort and putting your all your being into the Pres you'll be fine so I really yeah I don't have a specific answer to that question I I'll give you a specific answer right now man that Colorado game that was the game where everyone was like who the heck is this Al anim maner kid but in that game man you had zero catches in the first half did you kind of go into that locker room pissed off knowing hey I could take over if you guys let me and then obviously you did the second half I I think uh in general I'm pretty I get pretty angry in the game just in general that's kind of just how I like to play um so I do remember my coach saying something to me that was like it really like just hit me and I was I was definitely my emotions were running high but not too high just a good level of calm anger um and so yeah I definitely carried that in the second half of course but um some it's just the opportunity and the talent level just come together and like you just get lucky like that cuz you ultimately you can't really control the outcome uh of the games but yeah everything just came together that night dude you had 294 yards in the second half of that game and three touchdowns in the second half and overtime of that game what was that feeling like man did you kind of like black out and just be in the zone in that game like what was that whole second half like when you go from zero yards in the first half to a program record almost 300 yards in the second half what was all that like man yeah I think it was I wouldn't describe it as blacking out but more you're just very very focused um you can't really think about much more than what your job is at that specific moment um it it was definitely a very interesting feeling you remember a lot of it because like I said you're very focused on what's happening right now um so yeah I try to replicate that as much as I can in practice and game so so obviously dude one of the guys guarding you on most of those plays was Travis Hunter did did going up against a guy like Travis Hunter kind of get the juice is flowing and and you know you wanted to prove yourself hey I'm I'm the best in the country and I'm trying to prove myself against one of the other best players in the country too yeah I mean he's definitely a very great player on both sides of the ball actually um but I think just in general like the mindset of our team is like every time we are uh competing it's like a faceless opponent um because I think if you get too involved with like the oh I'm going against this person or it's like a personal battle sometimes you can get inconsistent with your emotions and so our coach has us all the time like hey when we go out there to compete like we're going to compete like the our life depends on it like it's the end of the world but at the end of the day we keep in mind that it's just a blank faceless opponent um so yeah so dude another question I love asking guys is what do you think has been the best play of your career so far the one I would say for you is prior that catch over Travis Hunter caught on his helmet uh what would you go with and and kind of go into that play if you can a little bit too of what kind of your mind was going through on that play my best play in college football I have two there's one against Oregon where we uh we were running I want to say inside Zone to the boundary and we had a crack block and the uh the safety fell down really fast and we're taught to like when he FS down fast we got to come faster and I just sprinted in there and I kind of declet him I'd say that was a pretty good play for me and then one against Washington um I had a touchdown on like a go route from the field I was singled up to the field I thought I had a pretty good release and I thought I say vertical after the release um and then separated at the last second so I thought like overall like in terms of the teachable technique that was a a good rep as well but in terms of like the catch at Colorado like a lot of that just you're just playing like even my release wasn't that great I was running Slants all game obviously so I tried to pair the release off the slant um but he stayed with me pretty well and then Ball's a little bit underthrown and I guess that's like the opportunity where you get to get pass interference or you're going to be on Sports Center and so our coach he's just if if ball gets underthrown attack it as as hard as you can and as aggressively as you can because like he said you either get Pi or you get on Sports Center the latter happened Alec I think you're the first receiver in history to answer that question with a block that that is incredible man I love the fact that you know not you making a highlight real cash not you making a uh you know 70- yard touchdown grab it's it's you cracking down for your team I love that man that's a great answer what do you think separates you man from other wide receivers around college football right now yeah I mean I think we're all fast um we're all quick we all have pretty good hands so I think all those things like are table Stakes for the most part um for great receivers but I think I'm a very detailed person um and I think I have a little bit of a mental Edge as well and so I think like in those mental aspects of the game like being consistent uh being detailed in your plays your routes being coachable um also just having that like Competitive Edge I think that's where I kind of gain on some people do you feel like right now that you are the best receiver in college football uh yeah I mean I think you just have to have confidence in yourself I wouldn't like be going out saying oh I'm the best receiver in college football and boasting it like that but I think like internally you got to think to yourself like hey like if I want to be the best like you got to believe that you're the best um and so yeah I believe that and I believe that that's because of like the past of work that I've put in like I'm just very confident in the work that I've done so far leading up at this point and I think like when push comes to sh I'm going to fall back on that work and be be well off fair enough man and you know after such a dominant Year many players in your shoes would have chased more in nil and enter the transfer portal what did you ever think about that and and if you did what made you want to stay at staner for another year no I never thought about transferring or entering the portal or trying to get more money I think one if you're actually a good player if you're as good as you think you are you're going to make money in the end at the end of the day like yeah if I'm a good player I'm going to go to the NFL and I'm going to make money regardless so I don't think that chasing money in college is necessarily the right decision um like I said earlier I came to Stanford for a very specific reason it's because I'm a competitive person overall uh I wanted to be excellent in every aspect of life and so I think leaving Sanford wouldn't really be staying true to that character um and so to me it was like when people ask me if I'm going to transfer they're trying to get me to transfer I'm like well there's really no reason for me to transfer like I'm in the exact place that I need to be at you don't have to answer specific schools but did anyone actually reach out to you and try to convince you to uh enter the portal or no I mean not to me in specific because that would not be legal but definitely to like my people on my team and people that are in close contact with me are like previous coaches for sure sure dude you just mentioned it like if you're good you're going to be able to make money in the NFL I mean you're very good man so have you kind of ever thought about fulfilling your dream of making the NFL really really soon probably yeah I mean I've always being in the NFL has always been in the back of my mind like I said I love to stay in the present so I don't get too far ahead of myself I just uh work like I know I need to get there but in my mind I'm not always like oh am I going to go to the NFL now or later or it's just hey like keep working and things will fall into place uh when they need to absolutely man so obviously a big part of making that uh jump to the NFL it would be the NFL combine you're a freak athlete man is there a combine event that you think eventually when you get to the combine that you'll just Dominate and really wow a lot of people in I think I'll have a good 40 and I think my broad jump will be pretty good as well I need uh do you have a time for 40 man what what do you think you'd be running right now I think I run sub 44 um I think broad jump I can get 11 feet damn man that' be that'd be really good dude and uh another question on the NFL I love asking players too is like man there's probably a lot of mock drafts right now that have your name at the top of it right do you ever see any of those mock TRS do your friends or family ever send you any of those Mock trops and what does that kind of mean to you to see your name mocked in in such high regard like that yeah I mean it means nothing at the end of the day where you get drafted is what actually matters or if you get drafted is what matters like I guess like mock drafts or like top whatever lists um watch list like to be honest that means absolutely nothing because what you actually do when what actually happens is what matters so yeah dude the only moops that matter are the ones I put out man so I'll I'll make sure to send you the ones that I put out and then that that'll be the one that matters but that's a great answer man honestly dude what is your why what makes you get out of bed every morning and try to be as great of a player and as great of a person that you can be yeah I think when I was younger it just was purely like I just wanted to be the best like I'm just super competitive um but as I get older I start to realize like whenever I would say that to the people that supported me like they never like blinked an eye like they just kept supporting me fullo and with all of their being so I think as I get older that wanting to be the best is still like behind me but then I'm realizing like the people that are supporting me are also there so I think it's a combination of those two things like me wanting to be great and also the people around me supporting that and also wanting me to to do that as well so yeah I think it's a combination of like internal and just like external Community I love that mant that's a great answer obviously we talked a little bit pre- interiew about the new college football video game you're an 88 overall in that video game do you feel like you that's another trip on your shoulder and you feel like you're underrated right now in that video game I guess I I might feel like I'm underrated but I wouldn't say it's causing a chip on my shoulder or anything like that um I think I have enough chips on my shoulder already okay I love that man I already told you I played against my friend who use Stanford and he used a slant route with El man every single freaking play and I think you had better stats in that game against me than you did in the Colorado game which is saying a lot man so he he abused you in that game it was actually insane um dude what's your if if I had to tell you right now you know hey Al we're going with the game on the line right here fourth down uh whatever route you want to run is fine but we're going to throw you the ball we regardless what would be the route that you would want to run on that game deciding play wait what was the down in distance again so fourth down let's say fourth and eight game on the line down by four um in I'm in the boundary you're in the boundary yeah one onone press or off I guess it doesn't matter be uh yeah if it's one-on one in the boundary fourth and eight I'll probably go with like H it's like a it's a out route to the to the F to the boundary but you kind of have some leeway on how go how it shakes out okay now the slant route that you burned all of Colorado on I think it was fourth and three or fourth and I guess fourth and five I'd probably go with the slant route um but if we're going fourth and eight I'm going with the out it was like a fourth and 15 would just be a straight go route would you just want to just go and throw a jump ball to you oh I'd actually probably go like a curl oh I like that okay they're thinking for the go for sure I like that I like that dude another question I wanted to ask you with uh it's kind of a timely question right now the Olympics are going on right now an nowc not this year but flag football will be a sport down the line in the Summer Olympic Games have you thought about representing Canada in that sport uh maybe down the line in the Olympics I have not um that's pretty far away um so when that comes I'll definitely think about it but that's definitely interesting the opportunity to be in Olympics has always been I mean for any athlete that' be like a dream come true right um but I'm very invested in the track for the Olympics I've been keeping close tabs on that I love that man uh is there any receivers maybe in the NFL maybe even College too that you kind of look at and try to model your game after a little bit yeah I mean just everybody that I see for the most part even like players on my team that you guys maybe not have not necessarily seen yet I take some stuff from them um a lot of NFL receivers even college receivers that are still in college or just got drafted really just anybody who I can watch I try to take something from them because everybody has like their Knack um their their Niche and so like if you can kind of adapt those things to yourself I think it just makes you more complete receiver is there any receiver that you like grew up loving to watch and and really try to model your game after the most that that comes to mind well when I was growing up I used to watch Julio Jones a whole bunch um now I guess I watch Devonte Adams quite a bit even like our last couple receivers like Mike Wilson um at Stanford I watch him quite a bit too I mean there's so many good receivers nowadays you really can't go wrong watching anybody that's a loaded position absolutely man and uh another question I want to ask you is that that you know obviously last year your your match up against Travis Cent I know you said the nameless The Faceless uh people out there but are there any Corners maybe down the line even in the NFL they like man I cannot wait to run routes against that corner or maybe even college right now is there any Corner that you're kind of you know circling on your calendar and saying I can't wait to go up against him it's just every time you get an opportunity to go against any defensive player like safety Corner nickel it's just it's just exciting like you get to go against new competition you get to see how you stacked up against them and so honestly like I got every single game circled on the the calendar this year so I love that man there's no one in the NFL though no NFL Corners that you're like man I would love to uh to go up against him a couple times I mean like every corner that you play in the NFL is GNA be a great Corner love that and so I guess I wouldn't like single out anybody maybe like if I get the opportunity to go against some of the guys that I was going against in Fall Camp my freshman year like Caillou or like Ethan just like get a chance to go against them again that'd be great like a little Jersey swap after the game too that' be pretty cool with the two of you too man a couple more questions I I really appreciate the time what are some of your team goals uh for this upcoming season yeah for sure um one it's just like you never go into the game expecting to lose um it would be stupid to do that and so I don't think we are going to have the mentality of going into any game expecting to lose um obviously like you can't control every single aspect but our expectation is to win and then in addition to that is just like leave everything out there every single play like we come back on Sundays after the Saturday game or I guess we might play on Friday as well but when we come back on Sundays and we watch the film we should be able to look at it and be like wow we put our whole being into every single snap um in every single second of all those snaps out there so I think that's another big goal for us as well now I know you're extremely selfless guy man but do you have any personal goals for this upcoming season yeah I think for me in in specific as well it's just that that second point right there like every single play if you can give a 100% of your being into it I think you can look up and be proud of what you put out there because I mean stats the stats can all always be pretty misleading like if the defense is Shifting over to you and they're trying to take you out of the game in terms of receiving there's going to be something that else is going to be open for the team um but you're going to need to contribute to that as well and so I think again putting like 100% effort and then also executing while having good effort is just something that I'm trying to do this season I love that man and listen I don't know if you know this but there are a lot of kids out there that look up to you right as a guy that they want to be and guy that they want to model their game after or just as a human being obviously as well what advice would you give those kids that that look up to you right now yeah I think something that I had always had always been great grained is in me as a kid is just want to be the best at everything that you do but also realize that in order to do that it takes commitment and dedication like you like even yeah you have to put everything into you have to commit your whole being into doing things um because if you don't do that at the end of the day like even if you put 95% into what you're doing you're going to look back when you're older and going to be like I could have put 5 more per and like where would have I been if I put five more percent in so I think just give every give everything you got to it things that you want to do whether it be football whether it be school if something else even if it's something else that you're trying to do in life if you put 100% into it you're never going to regret what you did because you know you you put everything into it that's an amazing Answer Man and the last question I want to ask you what should we as college football fans expect from El a Manor in 2024 um yeah just a very gritty player somebody who's going to can be flashy at sometimes but you can always count on me to get my job done when I need to hell yeah man I love that well listen man this has been an awesome awesome interview best of luck this upcoming season thank you I appreciate it hey thanks for watching the PFF college football show before I let you go though we have an unbelievable deal for you guys right now if you use the code cfb2 you get 25% off your PFF Plus annual subscription we got the 2024 college football preview 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