Aaron Dessner Quotes

If I got a football scholarship, I was going to be a football player.

I played soccer in college, at this little school in North Carolina called Campbell. It was the only place in the world where they would offer to pay for everything.

I chose Tennessee because I thought they'd give me an opportunity to play.

I went to the University of Arizona on a full athletic scholarship for gymnastics, where I competed and got 9th in the nation at the NCAAs.

The only reason I went to college was to play basketball. I injured my knee and couldn't play.

I went to my first college to play soccer.

I wanted to play football all my life, and when I got accepted to Florida State, it was academically - it wasn't for any kind of scholarship. I kind of sat down and said, 'I'm not going to make it to the NFL. I'm not the size nor the skill.'

My life, even as a college student, has all been through the NCAA, and I'm telling you there's so much good that comes out of it.

My plan always was to play college football, hope to get a few snaps in and then go on to medical school. As I went further in my career and got to my junior year, I realized as I looked around, 'I got a shot here, and I might as well go after it.'

I played college football for free. I had to pay to play, really.

Coaching in college is not a right. It's a privilege.

I thought my freshman year at the University of Miami, I was balling, I was looking forward to the NFL.

The structure of college basketball never made sense to me. The coach is the star and you get up at 5:30 A.M. to run before class. That was never appealing to me.

I didn't go to Harvard because I thought they had good academics. I went because they had crappy enough sports so they'd let me play.

If a guy is not serious about being a student-athlete then why force him into the college system. He's not serious about getting education.

Coming from a small town in New Mexico - Lovington, New Mexico - I was very happy to go to college for free and get a scholarship to play college football.

I would advise that if you can get out on loan and play football, it is the best path to go down.

When I was 15 years old, the Duke-UNC game looked like the funnest game in the world to be a part of. So I chose to make sure I was a part of it for four years, and when I was at Duke, it exceeded all my expectations.

A couple colleges tried recruiting me without Marcus and I just shut it down right away. That was clear from the beginning. It was always a package deal.

In college, I played a lot of 3.

I was very active in college. I wanted to play athletics, and then I looked at wrestling as being a viable option to do that.

I thought I was doing very well at Florida. Then I get suspended. Then my head coach tells me to transfer.

There's still times I wish I could throw on the black and gold singlet and go out there in the Hearnes Center and wrestle for the Missouri Tigers. I miss that and I miss the stuff about college wrestling.

I didn't pick wrestling over football. My coaches picked that for me. I never wanted to wrestle in college. I always wanted to play football. They thought I was too small, but I had a lot of heart.

I worked my whole life and dreamed my whole life of being a professional athlete.