Sir Purr
Well-known member
- Mar 16, 2019
- 1,969
- 0
What was it like to be a part of the turnaround at Baylor?
"Those are the opportunities you look for as a competitor. It's easy to go to a place and inherit winning. And I've been a part of that before. But coming to work every day knowing you have to make your guys better, that's the competitive part of the job. We had to dig in and we had to have conviction. We were unrelenting in that regard. To see it grow little by little... that first year we knew we were going to be fine. It's great to be a part of something that you have such belief in and especially to see it come to life."
What separates a great linebacker from a good linebacker?
"Instincts. Instincts and I would just say mindset. A great linebacker wants to be in on every play. They want a piece of the ballcarrier on every play. There are some guys with instincts, speed and hustle, but they don't have that hunt mentality. There have been some guys here (in Carolina) who have definitely had that 'hunt' mentality. That's the biggest thing to me. You want to get to the ballcarrier at all costs every play -- that's what the great ones do."
As a former walk-on who earned a scholarship at Boston College, what did that experience instill in you?
"I sat and listened to people complain, whether they were highly recruited or whatever. I would walk in the locker room every day and just say, 'How lucky am I that I get to do this?' I didn't care what it was, scout team or conditioning, I was just really thankful and I never took it for granted. I saw it as an opportunity and I knew I would pass guys on the roster because they didn't know how good they had it. I kept my mouth shut and tried to outwork everybody. It's always about that competitive opportunity."