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Nik Needham – November 13, 2019 Download PDF version

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

CB Nik Needham

(What makes Defensive Pass Game Coordinator/Cornerbacks Josh Boyer a good coach? Obviously a lot of credit goes to the players, but he’s gotten a lot out of a group that are young…) – “Definitely just his intensity, love for the game, how serious he takes it. There’s never a day he’s not going to be on my ass. Like I said, when I lost the weight, he’s all – I’d have a bag of chips and he’s on me like, ‘throw that away.’ (laughter) I used to think he was joking, but he was serious and now I understand what that did for me. I appreciate him. He’s definitely helped me develop a lot, so it’s been great to play for him.”

(How about the part of re-dedicating yourself to the game? How important was that?) – “As far as what?”

(You mentioned that they wanted you to be more committed.) – “Oh, yeah. It was just like a wakeup call, I guess, because you’re coming from college and you’re just a young kid (and) don’t really know a lot of things. Then you come here and it’s like, it’s not just a game anymore; it’s a business. I think just attacking that and really understanding that helped me to move on in the future.”

(How much weight did you lose?) – “Like a total, I think like 12 pounds.”

(That much?) – “Yeah. Yeah, it was bad. I was little heavy-set.”

(Do you feel…?) – “Yeah, I feel like I run way faster. I feel like I move faster. I just feel way better.”

(Twelve pounds since when?) – “Like the beginning of training camp?”

(What’s the Needham diet?) – “Just not as much fast food. I’m big on fries and chicken nuggets. (laughter)”

(Did you completely give them up or you just cut back?) – “Cut back. Cut back. But at that moment, I wasn’t trying to eat any of that. Spinach – that was big for me because I was Popeye. I would always watch that. I would just get in there and get a big bowl of spinach and eat it like chips, (laughter) so I could just stay away from the fries and stuff. It definitely helped for sure.”

(Why have you always been an underdog? You mentioned that.) – “Well just in high school, I moved around a lot. I went to three different high schools. I never had a lot of stars or anything like that coming out of high school. I only played one year of varsity my senior year, so I didn’t get a lot of recruiting.”

(Did you play cornerback?) – “Yeah, I played corner and receiver. I liked receiver a lot but there’s a bunch of 5’11” receivers and I’m not very fast, or I’m not super fast, so that didn’t work. That didn’t really work out. (laughter) I’m sorry, what were we talking about?”

(You said you’ve always been an underdog.) – ”And then at UTEP, we went to the bowl game my redshirt year and that was cool, but then after that it was just kind of downhill. We didn’t win a lot of games. My junior year – (we went) 0-12. My senior year (we went) 1-11. Not a lot of people watched UTEP, care about UTEP, even know who we are. I know when I got my offer, I was like, ‘where is that at?’ I think just attacking that…”

(Was that the only offer you got?) – “That was my only offer. Yes, sir.”

(So when you did not get drafted, you were not surprised?) – “No. I mean I had hopes of getting drafted; but like I said, I’ve already embraced this. I always prepare for the worst and am ready to just do my job and attack the next day for sure.”

(What’s next in your career?) – “What’s next? Who do we play this week – Buffalo. That’s next. Practice, really. That’s next, or these meetings – that’s what’s next, so just attack all that.”

(You’ve done a lot of losing the last three seasons so those wins the last two weeks…) – “Yeah, it feels great. I haven’t won in a while, so yeah. (laughter)”

(That’s more than your junior and senior year combined.) – “You feel me? (laughter) That was crazy so it’s already going good. (laughter) It’s already going real good; but yeah, it feels great to win. It’s kind of like you get addicted to it. You need it again, so we need to get another big win this week.”

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