Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly is one of the players in the crosshairs of the Seattle Seahawks, and spent some time on WNST in Baltimore with Glenn Clark to discuss the excitement for the draft, things he needs to work on, and playing with B.C. linebacker legend Mark Herzlich.
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Has the excitement for the draft built up at this point?:
"It's one of those things that we've been waiting for awhile and it's a week away and everyone's looking forward to seeing what happens. ... I don't think [playing in the NFL] has quite hit me yet. I think it's going to probably hit me when we start heading out to the places and kind of get settled in and finally start working out with the different teams."
What was it like for you to play alongside Mark Herzlich for part of your college career?:
"The thing with Mark, I came in my freshman year and that's when he was sitting out that year. The thing with Mark is he had so much passion and desire. Even though he wasn't playing, I think he was one of the vocal leaders on the team, just getting everybody going. I think coming in you see a guy like that, who's that motivated even though he's not playing, it's an inspiration for everyone."
How would you describe yourself as a player?:
"I think I'm an instinctive player. ... I just go out there, trying not to think too much and just go out there and let yourself play football. That's kind of how I've been, just having fun playing football out there and it comes to me. I try not to divulge myself too much in what's going on."
What areas do you think you need to improve on as you move to the next level?:
"I need to work on there's a lot of things I didn't do at B.C. I didn't do a lot of man coverage. That's going to be big moving forward. I didn't blitz a whole lot. Those are things, moving forward, that I need to work on to be more complete."
Is there anything that has caught you off guard about the whole evaluation process leading up to the draft?:
"They do ask you a lot of weird questions. You take a lot of the psychology tests and they ask you weird questions. ... It's like taking the SAT again. You've got to sit in a room, you've got a Scantron, you've got to bubble all the letters in and there's hundreds of questions asking you all kinds of stuff that you don't have any idea how it has to deal with football at all."
Middle linebacker is a position where it just seems that most players become a leader. Do you try to establish that early on in your NFL career?:
"You've got to come in with that mindset, but you've got to earn the respect from the guys that have been there before. You can't just walk in and be big man on campus. You've got to earn your spot, earn everyone's respect and you've got to know what you're doing so you're not telling people the wrong thing. I think, for me, if you're going to try to correct people, you've got to make sure whatever you're doing is 100 percent right before doing other things."
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You can really tell Kuechly has his head square on his shoulders during this interview, he sure seems like a stand up guy. He's self aware but not self-absorbed, is realistic with himself to know where he needs improvement, but not shy enough to stay away from brining up his strong points; Just the kind of player Peter Carroll loves to have on his teams. Hopefully if he still around the Seahawks can pick him up in the draft.
For more on the Seahawks, please check out Field Gulls.