After being selected by the New England Patriots in the 3rd round, San Diego State QB Kevin O’Connell took his turn being grilled by the Boston media.

Are you still on West Coast time?
“Yes, I am. But as you can probably imagine, when I got that call my day kind of sped up a little bit.”

Were you awake all ready when you got that call, or did it wake you up?
“Oh yeah, my parents and my grandpa and my sister were up having some breakfast around 7:30. We were just kind of hanging out, watching the TV go by. It’s been a pretty insane sequence since.”

You’ve had a pretty meteoric rise since the end of your college season. You might not even on some top five boards at the start of this process and now, you’re a third-round pick. Were you surprised at all that it was the Patriots that took you, given their quarterback situation?
“Through this whole process, all I really wanted was a chance to compete and kind of took it one step at a time as opposed to looking at it as a whole. I wanted go to the Combine and put my best foot forward and then have my Pro Day and any workouts that I might have and try to take it all in and enjoy the process. I really did enjoy it and I really didn’t have any hopes of when I would go as much as where and to go to an organization like New England, which is pretty much the class of the NFL in my mind. They’ve been doing things the right way for so long and it’s a wonderful opportunity.”

What’s it like having the opportunity to learn from one of the best quarterbacks in the game?
“That’s the first thing I thought of to tell you the truth: To learn from the best of the best. I’ve been watching [Tom Brady] for a long time and kind of studying the way he plays the game and carries himself and leads his teammates. Not only that, but to play for the coaching staff with Coach McDaniels and Coach Belichick, it’s going to be the best possible situation for me to grow as a player. All I wanted was an opportunity to grow and come in and learn and to able to learn from the best, both coaching-wise and the leader of the football team, it’s going to be a special experience for me.”

To see the rest of the Q&A, head over to Reiss’s Pieces.