Stanford OL A.T. Hall expects Cardinal to start strong in 2017
STANFORD, Calif. — Stanford’s offensive line calls itself “the most interesting line in the world” because of its diverse array of personalities and academic majors, but it wasn’t the most productive last season. Though the Cardinal finished 10-3, its offense struggled the first half of last season as teams geared their game plans to stop Christian McCaffrey, who still finished with 1,603 rushing yards. The offensive line also gave up 34 sacks, which is uncharacteristic of a Stanford team.
Though McCaffrey is gone, four starters return up front as Stanford looks to re-establish its identity as a dominant team in the trenches. USA TODAY Sports recently sat down with senior left tackle A.T. Hall to talk about playing at Stanford and what makes their offensive line unique.
Q: Why were you guys the most interesting offensive line in the world last season?
A: Last year there was a big thing on that because of all the different majors we had. (Left guard) Dave (Bright) was biomechnical engineering. (Right guard) Johnny (Caspers) was I think environmental engineering, something that has to do with nature. And (right tackle) Casey (Tucker) is a philosophy major. I’m science, technology and society and (center) Jesse (Burkett) is Japanese. If you look where else in the country I don’t think you’ll find that and everyone having a different major and none being like sociology or communications or something down that path. When you look at the rosters of other teams when I scout, I go, wow they're all taking the same major.
Q: What’s the science, technology and society major?
A: So, OK. Within science, technology and society there’s a bunch of different paths. The one I’m doing is business, innovation and organizations so especially in Silicon Valley, it’s learning to develop a new product and innovate a product and be able to actually bring it to market and what you need to do to do that. A lot of it is product design, which i find really interesting, but I also wanted to get some of the business aspects to it as well because if you just did product design I wouldn’t learn about markets.
Q: It sounds like Shark Tank where you have to invent something and then figure out how to package it and sell it.
A: It’s not like super engineering intensive as some other engineering courses are. I don’t take a lot of physics or math but I do take a lot of product design courses where I have to sketch hundreds of images and what I want to develop and go about the process of getting it to somebody to produce it for me and who’s going to sell it for me and market it for me. I find it pretty interesting.
Q: Do you get any practical, real world internship experience?
A: A lot of guys do. So during the summers, they always try to help us out. If you want to do one, they’ll get you one. I decided to take classes most of the time but this next year I really want to do that. I’m working towards getting one this upcoming summer. I feel like I need to do it at least one time before i go out into the real world.
Q: Was that what drew you to Stanford, some of those opportunities?
A: Yes, because my dad (Travis Hall) played in the NFL a long time (1995-2004), and my dad and my mom were always like football ends. Make a decision that’s going to help you later on in life because once you stop playing and you don’t have a degree or a real set of skills, what are you going to do? If you’re not super big time you can’t sell your image forever so that was really the biggest thing that drew me here and I put a high value on academics and wanted to learn something.
Q: You’re big into cars, right? You’ve rebuilt junk cars?
A: I haven’t done it in a long time but in high school me and my stepfather, he went and got a car and was like, we’re breaking it down to the chassis and labeling all the parts, super detailed, put all the nuts and bolts in Ziplock bag. We had parts all over the garage and he was like, put it back together and I’ll give you what you need. It’s yours. It took me 2½, three years. It took me so long. And then I finally got to drive it in my senior year. It was real fun
Q: What kind of car was it?
A: It was a 1988 K5 (Chevrolet) Blazer. It was awesome. I loved that car so much.
Q: Did you know anything about how to build cars?
A: No. He literally gave me the big manual and was like, here you go, I’m here to help if you need it. I’d love to do that again as I get older, an old ’69 Mustang or Camaro Super Sport or something. That would be awesome.
Q: I assume you’d like to play in the NFL. That’s the main goal, and then what?
A: Not sure what’s going to happen, but how I see it, you can only play football for so long. Use the connections you make there and the experience there and all that stuff and take it and build whatever you can when you're finished. Even if it’s just for two years, you still meet so many bigwigs, who knows what you can do with that. Then you meet a lot of other guys with a lot of money who can possibly go on ventures with you. Zach Ertz or Coby Fleener, I can’t remember, one of them, goes in the Stanford phone book every year when they travel to a new city finds somebody who lives in that city and gives them a call and just says, hey do you want to have lunch or dinner just to build his network. I think that’s really cool. That’s something I’d totally do if I get a shot to play, but I’ve still got a long way to go.
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Q: One of the things I’ve seen at different programs, there’s a big separation between the athletes and the rest of campus. Not just academically but socially. At so schools they want to keep the athletes in the athletic building every minute they’re not in class. It seems like that takes away from the experience. How is it here in terms of integrating with the rest of campus life?
A: Are you kidding me? Your freshman year, you don’t have a choice where you live. You fill out a questionnaire and they match you with roommates and put you into a dorm and you just meet so many new people and get exposed to different ways of life. My roommates, one of them was from Colombia, one was from Saratoga, Calif. One was from San Diego, and I’m from Arizona. We didn’t know each other. My neighbor sold a piece of code for $17 million and he’s like 18 years old and he’s like, yeah I just want to keep studying even though I’ve got plenty of money. There was a girl who lived the other way who was on Shark Tank and sold her product. The people here are just incredible. I’m so happy to have an opportunity to meet people outside of football. Some of my best friends here don’t play sports and it’s cool to be around those people because they think and operate and interact with everyone so differently than athletes do. Hanging around those types of people make you smarter, which is really cool.
Q: It’s probably a different experience because at a lot of schools, football players walk around and they’re sort of celebrities and everyone wants to talk to them about football.
A: I love it because the friends I chose here, the first question they ask me isn’t how’s football. It’s always like, how’s class or have you done your home? Those are the types of people I like to put myself around because realistically you spend 50, 60 hours a week doing football. And the cool thing I love about this place most is football players aren't superstars here in the slightest.
Q: Even Christian McCaffrey?
A: He’s a little bit of a different animal because he was world renowned. But still, I had classes with Christian and he was just another kid in class. Contributed like everybody else. Teachers didn’t favor him, didn’t dislike him. He was just as student like everyone else.
Q: Well, even if you don’t like to talk about football in your free time, I’ve got some football questions (laughter). Last season a lot of people kind of had the sense that it was a disappointing season for Stanford but you guys won 10 games. That’s kind of the standard that has been established here. Did it feel like a disappointing season to you guys?
A: It was disappointing in the fact that we set very, very very high goals. We had the talent and work ethic to go to the playoff. That’s how we thought about it, straight up. But there was a rough patch where we lost some games and everyone was down and it was tough. But we rallied. It was like, guys, what’s going on? We’re so much better than this. And we got it rolling. We had a lot of guys who had never played before and it took them a little time and it clicked and off we went.
Q: I remember watching you play Washington, and it didn’t look like Stanford. That wasn’t something teams had done to you before.
A: I can only talk for my experience, but I’d never played in a game that loud and that noise rocked my world. Couldn’t think, didn’t know what to do, couldn’t hear the snap count. I was just shocked. That was just such a big piece of experience I needed to help build me as a football player to play in a game like that. So much pressure. It was No. 4 vs No. 6 or something like that. And they were obviously a very good football team. Really good. By far the best defense we played, not even comparable to anybody else we played against. But I feel like (quarterback Ryan) Burns managed the game pretty well but for me it was a matter of just hearing him. He was changing protections, I’m like, I can’t hear you dude. I’m looking back at him just like, looking for him to point at people, hope I go the right way.
Q: So that’s why you guys looked so discombobulated up front.
A: It was unreal. My dad played in a lot of big games in the NFL, and I've been to a lot of SEC games. I’ve never been to a game that loud in my life. I went to the Iron Bowl when Cam (Newton) played, and it wasn’t that loud. Not even close. It blew my mind.
Q: As exposed as you were to the SEC, you didn’t ever have a huge temptation to play there?
A: No, not really. My goal was to get into here and if I didn’t, I didn’t know where I was going to go but I was looking at higher academic institutions whether they were good or not at football. That was more important to me than playing for a big-time school. Something my dad always told me was if you’re good, you’ll play in the NFL, period. Doesn't matter where your'e from.
Q: This season you’ll have a lot more experience coming in than last year. Do you feel like that’s going to translate to maybe a faster start?
A: Without a doubt. Our O-Line now, everyone’s comfortable. Everyone’s played and started an entire season. We know all the calls. We know everything in and out. We’re ready to go. I’m biting at the bit to play again now that I’m more healed. I think it will translate well. I don’t think we’ll lose a stride from where we left off last season.
Q: Were you guys surprised how it blew up into a big story when Christian sat out the bowl game?
A: Yeah. Honestly, I just don’t think it needed to be that blown up. I understand the business side of football a lot more than a lot of people do. It’s been in my family a long time, and he was just like, look, I’ve got millions and millions of dollars on the line. I’m not going to risk it. It bothered some people, but it didn’t bother me because I understand it.
Q: It bothered people on the team?
A: Not really. Most of the guys were behind him but people outside talking about it. At some point you have to look after yourself, that’s how I think about it. We love him to death. It didn’t change how I think about him even in the slightest. As a matter of fact, I have more respect for it because that’s a really hard decision to make. And there was never a second ever where he wasn’t giving everything he had for the team at all times. There was no question whether he cared about the boys or not. You knew he was in it 100%, so I understood.
Q: Why do you feel like you guys are in a good position to get back to the top of the division?
A: Until people can figure out how to stop us from running the ball, I don’t think we have any issues and that’s something we take too much pride in. We won’t let someone stop us from running the ball ever. Until somebody can figure out how to do that I think we’ll be fine.
Q: And (running back) Bryce (Love) got some experience being the No. 1 guy last year.
A: Bryce is a beast. I’m not worried about Bryce, and we’ve got running backs behind him that are going to be really, really good.
Q: What makes him a beast?
A: He’s elusive, got great vision, he’s obviously fast. Ridiculously fast. He carries himself well, knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s a junior but carries himself like a fifth year guy. We’re going to run the ball real, real well. We’ve got some dudes up front who just want to destroy people.
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