Northeastern University's Liam Ezekiel has a distinguished
resume with endless records and honors. That resume is
the result of a football player's work on the field.
And as we learned with our recent opportunity to ask Liam
Ezekiel some questions, fitting the middle linebacker he
presents himself to be on the football field, Liam just
wants to make plays on the field and win games.
Some teams will undoubtedly conclude, for a number of
reasons including some of the insight acquired from our
interview, that there will be a point in the draft when
selecting Liam Ezekiel represents value. But as a
Division 1-AA star that was originally headed for West
Virginia, the small-school knock will be an interesting
dynamic when the NFL draft commences and NFL GMs and
scouting staffs weigh the Atlantic-10's level of
competition against the empirical evidence that this is a
special kind of football player.
DraftBoardInsider.com:
As a player at Northeastern that's set records and
achieved a lot in terms of stats and awards like being
named first team All-American, you have to
be proud of the accolades, but can you explain how all of
that stacks up to the success of the 2002 season with a
playoff berth that no one gave any chance to at the
beginning of that season?
Liam Ezekiel: It is great to receive individual
rewards but those come hand and hand with team success.
Team success is always of greater importance. To me I’d
rather win all the games and get nothing as far as
personal accolades go. And I love to be a sleeper gives
me more drive to prove people wrong and show them what I
am capable of individually and my team.
DraftBoardInsider.com: As you enter your final
season at Northeastern, when you look back at your
decision to attend Northeastern instead of going to West
Virginia, what comes to mind as the best aspect of doing
that?
Liam Ezekiel: The best aspect of being at
Northeastern is that it is home I am close to my family
and they get to see me play and at the time of that
decision I just wasn’t ready to leave home.
DraftBoardInsider.com: When you look at how you've
developed as a football player, playing in the Atlantic-10
conference, what part of your game do you think has
improved the most during your college career and what
remains as an area that you're committed to improve upon?
Liam Ezekiel: The most improved area of my game is
recognizing offensive sets and knowing what plays I'm
going to see. My ability to know what the play is before
the ball is snapped, by seeing guys leaning or having
their feet or arms in a different position. And when I
think about improvement I think about all areas I can
always get better at everything.
DraftBoardInsider.com: Have you made specific
goals for yourself, as well as the team and the defense
for the 2004 season? If so, what are they?
Liam Ezekiel: I want to have the best defense in
our league. I would also like for my team to get back to
the playoffs. My personal goals have been the same since
I was a kid, to be the best. Basically my number one goal
is to make sure this isn't my last year of football.
DraftBoardInsider.com: At this particular point in
your football career, how much does being an NFL prospect
enter into your thoughts when setting goals or approaching
the game of football?
Liam Ezekiel: It's in my mind all the time because
I know that how I play this year has a huge impact on my
future. My goals have always been the same I just want to
make plays and hit people. The game of football has
always been my life and I just want to keep it that way.
It's difficult to prognosticate in September how a player
like Liam Ezekiel's draft stock will be perceived next
April. Even then it can be a case of one team's reach is
another team's value. But one subplot that might be worth
paying attention to, when you consider the makeup of the
player and the person, will be whether or not one could
look down the road from Northeastern to Gillette Stadium
and find the 2003 NFL Executive of the Year, Scott Pioli,
envisioning Liam Ezekiel making a contribution to a team,
and specifically a LB unit, where it would appear he'd fit
in like it was home.
