George Fant talks to Field Gulls: Consistency, improvement, and looking for good Seattle hot wings

After Seahawks’ training camp today, I was able to chat with left tackle George Fant about his offseason and training camp performance so far. From my notes over the past two days, he already looks bigger and more agile than he did last year.

For this interview, the bolded paragraphs are my questions, and the non-bolded paragraphs are Fant’s responses.

How do you think training camp has gone so far?

It’s gone good so far. You know it’s training camp. There are ups and downs and you have to get out of slumps and get back into your game. You just gotta settle down and get the plan. We have some new guys on the line with us, so it’s fun to play right now.

Tell me more about your offseason. Coaches have praised your transformation from last year to this year. What specifically did you work on?

We just kind of stayed around and all put in work together in different places. With that, I changed my diet. I had to gain weight in the right way. I stayed in the weight room to gain weight the right way and as fast as possible. I feel like I’ve done that the best way.

How comfortable do you feel at the left tackle position right now?

I feel comfortable. We are just getting back into pads. We are going on week one to week 2, or 2.5 I guess. It feels good to get back in the swing of things. It takes awhile to settle in back to playing. We are right there at it and are ready to play our first preseason game.

Are you guys excited to play the Chargers this weekend?

Very excited, man. We are very excited to get back on the field this season with the new guys we have. Just trying to go up against somebody else, because we are kind of tired of going up against the same guys. We know their moves and they know exactly what we are going to do, so we are ready to play somebody else both ways.

How is preparation for preseason different than regular season games?

It’s different because we worry about us. We don’t worry about the other team. We go and do what we have to do and practice the way we have to. We don’t put too much pressure on what the other team will do. We just go out there and do our job.

Last season a lot was made of the “basketball player with no experience” story. How has that affected your game and what is your first reaction to that?

You just don’t worry about that. Tom [Cable] has been doing this a long time and they feel confident in me and I have my own confidence too. You can’t be worried about that and the thing I am looking forward to the most is just to be more consistent. That’s where it is. You aren’t going to be perfect. You aren’t going to win every rep. You might have one or two in a row where you might do something and you gotta be able to fix it on the fly. You have to go out there and finish the game the right way.

Have you found a mentor on the team? I’m guessing that Luke Joeckel has been a big help with his experience.

Yeah, Luke has been a big help. Luke’s been a blessing for me. If I do anything wrong, before I even get to the sideline he is there to tell me what happened and how to fix it. It’s great to have somebody like that to show you some new things and kind of tell you what you are doing wrong and what you are doing right. It’s not always about something bad it’s sometimes positive. So it’s good to have somebody like that next to me.

With all the left guards that have played on the field, how does that affect communication if someone is not as experienced.

Well the blessing we have here is that we have some really good guards. Luke [Joeckel], Jordan Roos, Rees Odhiambo being next to me. It’s all kind of different combinations. It’s good to have these guys that know what they are doing right next to you. We all know what we are doing and we do it at a really good pace.

What’s something that fans should know about you that they don’t currently know? Can be on the field or off the field.

Food (smiling).

What kind of food?

Hot wings.

What’s a good place around Seattle?

I don’t know, man! Wingstop used to be my spot, but if anybody knows any new wing places where you can get really good hot wings, send me a tweet or something and let me know!

When you aren’t doing football activities what do you do for fun?

Family activities. I’m a dad first and just had my second son not too long ago. It feels so good to be able to play around with them. My second one is already trying to run around the first one. That’s the fun part. Just being a Dad and being around them as a family.

Follow me on Twitter @SamuelRGold for the rest of my camp updates! I will be at camp for one more day.