Cline Taking On More
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The odds were against sophomore tight end Kalvin Cline in a few ways last season.
In only his second season playing football, Cline was asked to be the main tight end option for an offense that sputtered at times. Without junior Ryan Malleck, lost for the season with a shoulder injury, Cline, as raw as his game was, basically was the only threat at tight end.
In season two at Virginia Tech, Cline admits he feels more comfortable with everything the Hokies have asked of him. But right now, his focus is on getting healthy. Cline suffered a knee injury at the Sun Bowl in December, then pulled his right hamstring last month. He's still getting back on track from that.
"So far, I've been making it through about 60 percent of camp," Cline said. "I try to stay out of the drills as much as possible, making the team so we actually work on our stuff, work on our formations. Right now, I'm about 60 or 70 percent ready. Here and there, I might tweak it, so I try to keep it as calm as possible. It's a long season and right now, you don't wanna injure it and sit out any of the season."
But Cline's comfort level might best be reflected in the extra work he's taken on. This year, he's joined Virginia Tech's corps of cadets and participates in drills each morning at 5:30.
On the field, he's added 30 pounds since he arrived last year and is at 250 pounds now. He's also still absorbing as much as he can despite his injury.
"The playbook, I really focused on that," Cline said. "You can put me anywhere now and I know what I have to do, I know the routes. I'm able to read defenses more, because before, I didn't really understand football. I was out there lining up, running the route, catching the ball, that's pretty much what I was doing. But now, I'm able to do different things, manipulate the defense better. That's just helped my overall performance."
Below is Cline's full interview with the media this morning:
Click Here to view this video.