Ti20 Off the Boards: Linebacker Geoffrey Cantin-Arku

Tigers in 20: A Memphis Tigers Athletics podcast

Redshirt junior linebacker Geoffrey Cantin-Arku joined GoTigers247 in this episode of Off the Boards.

In the first segment, Geoffrey shares how he he came to play the game of football while growing up in Quebec City, Montreal, Canada. He describes playing hockey as a young kid, but do to the expense of playing hockey he transitioned to play football as a 10 year old. Geoffrey immediately fell in love with the game and a he began to dream of playing in the NFL one day.

While playing for Cégep Garneau, he decided to come to the States and attend a football camp at Syracuse University. After the camp he was immediately offered by Syracuse and joined the Orangemen. Geoffrey explains how difficult it is for young football players in Canada to be noticed and how there are so many young kids in Canada just waiting to be noticed.

On top of coming to America for the first time, Geoffrey had to learn how to speak English. With French being his original language, Geoffrey explains that he had to learn words that American coaches would use with him as they coached him, but he spent quite a bit of time and energy to learn how to speak English fluently. Playing ball in America has been a huge accomplishment for him, but learning to speak English fluently in three years is something he is as proud of as anything else.

In the second segment, Geoffrey shares how Memphis got involved with him after he entered the transfer portal in 2021. He explains how he was offered by Power 5 school, but made the decision to join Memphis because of the culture that Ryan Silverfield and the staff has built. His introduction to the team was with linebacker coach, Jordon Hankins, on a visit early on, and he immediately bonded with Hankins. The deal was done by the time Geoffrey and his mother made an official visit to Memphis, and he experienced the "familial" bond that the players have with each other. Geoffrey explains that his mom is the most important person in the world with him and her approval for the next school he attended was extremely important. His mother loved the staff, immediately trusted them, and also is a massive Elvis fan.

Geoffrey ends the episode talking about the veteran leadership on the Memphis defense and how the camaraderie on the defense made the transition to Memphis easy for him. He specifically talked about Tyler Murray and Zay Cullens as the guys he is closest to on the team and the advances he has made in his game due to their leadership. He believes that the veteran leadership on the team has allowed for the transition to new defensive coordinator, Matt Barnes, to be as seamless as it could possibly be. He also expresses a lot of admiration for Coach Barnes and his ability to teach and share his vision for the defense in a way that makes sense for all the players.

About Off the Boards:

Off the Boards is a video/audio segment where GT247 sits down with local and national sports figures.

Typically, Off the Boards has been a video segment, but we are now turning it into an audio podcast as well to better meet the needs of all of our followers. This new format will allow all of GT247's content to be more accessible to listeners.

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