Real Talk Season 2 with QBV #4 Ed Borden Current Tight Ends Coach at the University of New Hampshire

On this Episode of Real Talk, our guys got to talk with Current Tight ends coach at the University of New Hampshire! Before being at UNH, Coach Borden Ran the number two offence in all of Division 3 at Mass Maritime!

During his time at Mass Maritime, the Buccaneers had over 1300 yards of total offense under coach Borden. Along with coaching at UNH and Mass Maritime he spent time coaching at Mount Ida, Umass, and Curry College.

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You are currently at UNH, so talk about your role, position, recruiting?

 “Thanks for having me on, I am the tight ends coach at UNH. Last year I came on after we were let go of UMass where I was the offensive intern analysis, I was able to move into the tight ends role after some staff shakeup with COVID, people deciding to move on and get out of coaching, so I was able to hop in and I was lucky for that. It has been a big blessing for me because of learning a new system of new ideas.

Coach Ferzoco our offensive coordinator a brilliant mind, coach Miller our o-line coach does a lot with the offensive line, and coach Santos our associate head coach and QB coach just being able to learn under those guys have been awesome.”

How have you guys transitioned as a team during these unusual times? 

“UNH has done a great job being at the forefront of testing and kids safety you know a typical day for a student-athlete on campus is they are coming into the building getting a temperature check making sure they don’t have symptoms going to lift in small groups and then you know from there after a couple of weeks of making sure that there was no COVID or spread on campus then we were able to get on to the field in small groups of work whether it would be running or ladders.”

“We have progressed on and on the NCAA gave us the okay to do full practice now, 15 practices you know the kids get tested twice a week, they have to drop off their test at different locations, we made a good decision to keep meeting to small numbers and if we have bigger numbers, we go virtual. We bought masks to help protect with COVID and plastic shields on the helmet, and when the kids take their helmet off, they need to put a mask on. Big-time credit to our training staff, being on top of everybody because when you get into that mode on the field you kind of forget what is going on in the world.”

“It is a great place to be because you forget about all the craziness in the world and they have done a great job going around telling us hey separate or hey make sure we have our mask on. You need that, it's one of the situations where if not taken seriously, you can see some of the bigger program’s leagues shutting down. We have been fortunate and lucky that the campus has been good at protecting the students.”

What is one good thing that has come out of COVID?

“Everything in the world especially us on campus it has been about unifying. All the kids must sacrifice differently now, whether that be not being able to go to the cafeteria and get the food they would normally get or picking people up and getting them to different locations of practice. It's been good to see the leadership of our team step up from our standpoint and really take care of the younger kids. T

hey are in a scary situation, they are at school for the first time, can't really meet anyone because all the classes are online, so all our older guys did a great job with that. Then from a Whole or outside world perspective for us, it's been great to see different people come together in the coaching world and outside it.

I have been hearing from people I haven’t heard from in years, former guys I coached, and they just are checking in seeing how things are going and making sure people are safe. It's been nice to make sure everyone is still on the same path and hearing from old people.”

What do you expect your athletes to do off-campus to stay safe during these times? 

“Well obviously, being a college coach, and going through college, with this past weekend being Halloween it can be a crazy time. We get to see the commitment level of our team, are they going to be going out making poor choices or are they going to be committed to the team and do the right things?

It is easy for you to go down the wrong path, it's hard to stay on the straight narrow, for us it shows the character that coach Mcdonnell has built at UNH. We have older kids who usually live off-campus and have the facilities to host parties and they have done a great job to say no to it.”

“For us, at UNH we have not made the playoffs the last two years, so we are really committed to getting back to the playoffs, we had a great run for a while, and the kids have taken that seriously. All the credit in the world to the kids I will be the first to say it our players have saved my job. If they go out and go crazy and we get a spread on campus more likely than not I don’t have a job.

So, when these kids make that decision for them and the sacrifices it is doing me a big service and keeping employed and I can't thank the players enough for that. They probably don’t understand that when they are making decisions about how many people, can it affect.”

What does a normal offseason look like at UNH?

“We have a top-notch strength and conditioning staff and we really work hard at making sure our guys are in the best condition they can be. They are going to be in the weight room four times a week, we have the mat drills in the morning to build team comradery as well as condition.”

“Those drills are very similar Mr. Pina to what we did at Mount Ida, when we were just making sure you followed the rules any little mistake would reset the whole thing and that’s something important for any team to learn because one fail, we all fail, and the littlest thing can win or lose a football game whether it be not downing a punt or missing the bus the morning of the game you must instill those values and that’s what we do in the offseason.