Interesting comments below from Romberg. I've been a Gaynor fan for a while and believe he is the key to the OL. Everybody suffered when he went down in spring:
“You know who did that for me? The leader of the offensive line, Corey Gaynor,” Romberg said. “He told kids ‘shut up, we got a legend here’”
“I love this kid,” Romberg said. “I'm not gonna lie to you, I liked him two years ago when he came out of high school, and his highlight video was sick, like to the point where I've never seen anything like it as an offensive lineman. Nasty crazy. Then I went to paradise camp and, and some of the current players were there and they were kind of treating him poorly. Like he was the the whipping boy, like he was the butt of every joke. I grabbed him and I said, Hey, man, don't let this be something that's a common place situation. I know you're a nasty dude and I know you'll probably punch somebody in the mouth if they say something wrong to you. Don't let some of these older guys treat you the way that they're treating you right now because everybody else is watching them treat you like a whipping boy. Don't let that happen. Nip that in the bud.
“Even the coach was doing it. Like the coach was always walking over and hitting him on the head with the paper like you dummy. You big dummy. And I was like [to Gaynor], stop that now. If you're going to be the player that I know you can be, don't let them do that to you right now. Make sure you stop this and I was being dead serious.”
“He got redshirted last year and he was a little humiliated, very similar to my situation after my first year I played and I redshirt my second year,” Romberg said. “I was like, look, man, I went through it too. I didn't want anybody around me, I didn't want my family around me because there was no point in coming down to the to the stadium. I didn't want to see what my games because I wasn't playing I felt like a nobody. I know it's a little heartbreaking as a player to come in and play and then they want you to redshirt your second year, but I was like look, the next three years of your life are going to be something real special. I think you're so **** good that if you have a good couple years here, you probably bounce in your junior year. That's all going to be your decision but for right now, you need to get this thing right.”
“He's really the coach when the coach is not there,” Romberg said. “Which is awesome for a kid becoming a sophomore this year. A redshirt sophomore, your leader? He's the guy that's telling you what to do? He's the badass and the tough guy. I'm in on Corey Gaynor and I think everybody else should be too who is a Canes fan—to really be in on Corey Gaynor."