Mississippi State's Kalvin Dinkins grateful for full season of health
Last season Mississippi State defensive lineman Kalvin Dinkins had decent stats with 27 tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks. But it his junior season was more about another produced.
That number was 13, as in total games played last season. It marked the first time in his career that he had played over three games in a season, much less a full season. In fact, last year’s SEC opener against Tennessee was the first SEC game that Dinkins had played in despite being a redshirt junior.
On Thursday, Dinkins talked about his first full season among other topics with the media:
Q: What was the experience of finally getting to play a full season without injuries?
Dinkins: After the first game when I got the jitters out, I just thanked God and got psyched out. It just felt good to finally make it to Week 2 and then just keep on. It just felt great.
Q: What was the biggest key to stay healthy last year?
Dinkins: I started focusing on my nutrition, really watching my nutrition and doing extra recovery on my body with extra strength and extra mobility. All that kind of st8ff really plays a big part in how healthy you can be.
Q: How’s it been working with Coach Ty Warren?
Dinkins: Coach Warren, I ain’t gonna lie. He’s a great dude and I like him. He is a stand-up guy. He will tell you straight up what it is and what it ain’t, and I love that about him. He gets straight to the point and there is no guessing what it’s going to be like because he is going to tell you.
Q: How’s it been working with the new defensive coaches on the staff?
Dinkins: I’m not going to really say new coaches because we’ve already had Coach (Matt) Brock and Coach (Zach) Arnett. And Coach (David) Turner spoke only good about Coach Warren so I didn’t have any reason to not stick around and find out myself. And I like him myself.
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Q: How does Warren and Turner balance each other out?
Dinkins: They’re just good because you get the old wisdom of Coach Turner and bringing in the dinosaur age. He is mixing with the young guys. It’s a great room and a great atmosphere. It’s impossible for us to not be great this year.
Q: Your thoughts on having Will Whitson back for another year?
Dinkins: Me and Will talked about this the whole time he was hurting. He was like, well, if we stay here together we are going to ball and do big things. I told Will I already know that. This is our time and our season to do it.
Q: What’s it been like having Arnett as the defensive coordinator again?
Dinkins: IT is great having Arnett back, him bring back mean, nasty attitude and that relentless pursuit to the ball. It’s great to have him back and we needed that, for sure.
Q: What have you seen from Dealyn Evans so far?
Dinkins: Since he’s been on the field just the way he is growing as a player and a person, and how he is developing to the Mississippi State standard. We are not going to be the most talented group. But we are going to put that hard work in and over time we are going to get so much better.
