Caleb McGrath, a junior punter from Apple Valley (Minn.) Eastview, announced that he would be attending Minnesota last month.
TGR caught up with McGrath to learn about his commitment, what’s the worst part about being a punter and his upcoming senior season.
TGR: You committed to Minnesota about a month ago. What was the main reason that you decided Minnesota is where you want to play college football?
Caleb McGrath: "It was really close to home and I’ve had multiple other family members play there and it just seemed like the right place for me."
TGR: Who else from your family played at Minnesota?
Caleb McGrath: "My mom and her three sisters all played basketball and volleyball there and my dad was a baseball player and my uncle was a decathlete."
TGR: Have you been to a lot of Gopher games, either football or other sports in the past, because of them?
Caleb McGrath: "Yes. I have been to lots. I’ve been to basketball games, baseball games and football games."
TGR: What other schools were you hearing from besides Minnesota?
Caleb McGrath: :I was hearing from Baylor, Wisconsin, Florida Gators, all four of the Dakotas. I heard from Dartmouth, Princeton and Oklahoma."
TGR: I know that you participated in the Chris Sailor kicking camps. How important do you think that has been for your development as a punter?
Caleb McGrath: "I think it’s been very important. When I first went to a Chris Sailor Camp, I had just started. Like I was two, three months into my punting and I earned a four and a half star in that. It was nice at the time, but didn’t really do much for me until I started a couple of months later and then I got a five star rating and that’s when things started to catch on."
TGR: What are the main things that you have learned through him?
Caleb McGrath: "His main punting instructor is Aaron Perez. He used to live right by me, so he kind of started me and taught me everything he knew. He used to punt for UCLA. He pretty much coached me up for eight months and got me to where I am today."
TGR: What’s the best part about being a punter?
Caleb McGrath: "It’s pretty easy to learn. It only really took me a couple of months to learn how to control myself with all of my technique and my power and it is really easy to catch on."
TGR: What about the worst part?
Caleb McGrath: "People treat you like you’re not part of the team. You feel like are an outcast because you’re not really with the whole team. You’re with your separate group."
TGR: I always feel like punters, unfortunately, unless you have a great punt or a horrible punt, you are kind of unnoticed.
Caleb McGrath: "Yes. Last year, that kind of happened to me. I was very nervous my first time starting, so I shanked my first two balls and no one really talked to me and then I hit a couple 50’s in a row and that’s when stuff started getting fun."
TGR: Does that make it a little more pressure in a way because you know that you are “on an island?” It’s just you.
Caleb McGrath: "You know that everyone is looking at you and you just shanked your first punt ever and now after doing it a second time, now you are like “if this happens again, things are not going to be looking good for me.”
TGR: You are not only learning from Chris and his coaches, but you are probably also learning from some other kickers. Do you pick up other things from other punters, as well?
Caleb McGrath: "Sometimes. There’s nothing really that I’ve paid attention to other punters that I have taken into consideration about mine. I’ve watched some film on rollouts and that’s how I kind of how I started doing those and that’s probably my most consistent ball."
TGR: Are you more of a rugby ball style of kicker or more traditional?
Caleb McGrath: "I do kind of both, but my school likes for me to do rugby style, because I can go with my right and left, so I can go both ways."
TGR: Do you have a soccer background?
Caleb McGrath: "I played a year or two in middle school, but nothing much."
TGR: What was the main reason that you decided to commit when you did to Minnesota? Did you want to get that done before your senior season?
Caleb McGrath: "I was talking with my parents and we are like, we are going to end up committing anyways, so we might as well, instead of going to all those other college camps and wasting money, even though we are going to eventually go to Minnesota. We might as well do it now. We just decided after a phone call with Coach Wenger, the next day, I called him in the middle of the school day and just told him that I wanted to commit."
TGR: Has it changed a little bit for punters and kicker with the transfer portal? I know that a lot of schools have gone with experienced kickers at other schools, maybe smaller schools who have transferred to like, a Big Ten school, even Minnesota, They have a kicker who just transferred from Ball State and they had another kicker who was at another MAC school. Do you kind of watch that as well because in a perfect world, you’d like to be at a school for the next four or five years?
Caleb McGrath: "Yes, so basically they informed me about their situations and they're very honest and upright with what their situations are and what I’m putting at risk and what I’m benefiting from it and I just liked how honest with what their situation were and I really liked that about them. I still ended up committing. I feel like I’ve got a good shot at starting, either my freshman year or my sophomore year."
TGR: You are walking-on initially. Have you talked to them about what you need to do to be a scholarship player down the road?
Caleb McGrath: "Basically, I have to earn the starting spot. So come next fall, when I'm done with my high school career, I will be competing with the other punters on the team for a starting spot and that’s pretty much how it is."
TGR: So, whoever the starter is, will get a scholarship, most likely?
Caleb McGrath: "Yes, that ends up happening and I think he said pretty much every single starting punter that has come through the U has pretty much gotten a scholarship."
TGR: I know that they have a couple of big weekends for kids coming in for visits. Are you going to either of those visits in June?
Caleb McGrath: "I am going on the 15th, I think. Yes, I am. I will be attending those, just more of getting to know the environment, a little bit. Punt in the stadium for a little bit and just work on another day of punting."
TGR: Have you talked to any of the other kids who have committed to Minnesota who are part of Class of 2023 at all?
Caleb McGrath: "I haven't really engaged in conversation yet. We are going on our official visits on the 10th through 12th, so we’ll probably get more bonding time when that comes around."
TGR: They've got a couple of commits from Minnesota kids like Reese Tripp from Kasson-Mantorville and they got two kids from Prior Lake. They are recruiting some other Minnesota kids as well. Is that kind of neat that you are part of a group of Minnesota kids that are going to be playing for the homestate school?
Caleb McGrath: "I do like that because, normally every year we do couple of scrimmages where we take a couple. There are a couple schools around the area and we just scrimmage each other preseason and one of those is Prior Lake, so I'm hoping to see those guys in action, too, because I haven’t really seen them before, so it would be nice to see what they can do."
TGR: What is it going to mean to you the very first day you walk onto the field at Huntington Bank Stadium?
Caleb McGrath: "It's going to be a lot of pressure, first of all. It will mean a lot. It's always been something that I’ve wanted to do ever since I started realizing I was pretty good at punting. Last year, when I went to the camp, I was mediocre at best. I had just gotten my four and a half star rating, but I still wasn't great and I told Wenger that I really wanted to play here and he told me that they weren't currently not recruiting punters last year, but come this year, he wants me to come back and see how much I’ve improved and go from there. Now, it hasn’t even gotten to the camp yet and I already committed."
TGR: You mentioned that you were a four and a half and now you are a five star. What is the difference between a four and a half and a five kicker?
Caleb McGrath: "It was surprisingly a big difference, because there are so many kids that are four and a half stars. Five stars, you pretty much pick the kids that really showed improvement and stood out to you and that’s pretty much what I was able to do, both with Kohl's and Chris Sailor. With Kohl’s, I finished number one in the charting phase in the Midwest and that put up me in the number three spot in the country and I was able to consistently put up good numbers and I did the same with Sailor and now I’m five star for both organizations."
TGR: To be honest, do you think that if you had never gone to a camp, that you would be starting at a pretty low level trying to work your way up? Do you think that is the main reason that people know who you are?
Caleb McGrath: "Absolutely. I was at the underclassmen event for Kohl's and I won the overall camp competition for the first day and that’s when Wenger first DM'ed on Twitter and told me to keep up the good work and that was a really bright moment in my life. I knew that was my motivation and that was my shot and now I have chance to actually play at the U."
TGR: Were you surprised by how many coaches who followed those camps that closely and know who is doing well and who’s not?
Caleb McGrath: "I was very surprised, because once one coach came and they started coming pretty quickly and I started getting junior day invitees, school camp invites. It all happened really fast, because it went from one week, I didn’t have any interest to the next week, I had six of seven."
TGR: What about your senior year coming up? What are the expectations for you guys at Eastview?
Caleb McGrath: "I think we'll be pretty solid. Last year, we consisted of very young players since there weren't enough sophomores to have a sophomore team, we ended up bringing them up. They have the experience and they know what is expected and I feel like they will be very prepared this year and we'll be a very solid team."
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