NFL Draft Diamonds Prospect Interview: Adrian Hughes-Tovar, TE, Dickinson State

NFL Draft Diamonds has interviewed some of the best small schoolers to make it to the NFL.  Last year our team interviewed over 750 players from NAIA to the FBS.  This year we went to NFL teams scouts for every question on this interview.  Ten NFL scouts who are avid readers of Draft Diamonds put this interview together for our reader’s pleasure.  We hope you enjoy this interview, with another potential NFL draft prospect.

• Name: Adrian Hughes-Tovar
• Height: 6’7
• Weight: 250
• Position: Tight end
• College: Dickinson State
• Twitter: @8drianHT

Tell us about your hometown, and what you love most about it?

• Riverside, is a place of famed ballplayers from Reggie Miller to Khawhi Leonard. The place has so much history I can’t help but try and represent in any way I can. Riverside raised me and I could never forget it.

List these three in order of importance and why: Film Study, Strength and Conditioning and Practice?

• Practice is my favorite you get to try new moves and tweak your game to be perfect in every aspect. Strength and conditioning are where players separate themselves. How much work can you get in? Film study is something I’m still trying to learn how to do but it is quickly growing on me and I’m sure It’ll be one of my favorite tools soon.

What do you worry about, and why?

• Worry about not getting the recognition because my specialty in college is block first. I’m not too worried because I put in the work and it’s just got to come to light.

Give me an example of when you failed at something. How did you react and how did you overcome failure?

• In high school, I played basketball and had an offer from Eastern Michigan but my grades held me back. I switched to football in JUCO and without failing in highscool I might not have found football like I did. Shouts out riverside city college!

What do your teammates say is your best quality?

• I’d say I’m their #1 supporter, there are coaches and others that can scold a player but my teammates are my brothers and i’m gonna try and help hype them and teach them any way I can.

Who is the best player you have ever played against in college?

• There was a player that was 6’5 250, a Defensive end, he was a boulder but I’d say I still won the battle but he was forsure my greatest test.

What would your career be if you couldn’t play football?

• My degree is Computer Tech but without, football I would have never found the love for that. Football has taken me many places and taught me many things, the game has brought me so much.

Room, desk and car – which do you clean first?

• Car, it’s what people see in public haha so it’s gotta be first.

If there was a disaster and you could either save three strangers or one family member, which would you choose and why?

• Gotta go with family no matter what the math is, family pride is taken seriously with mine.

If you could be any television or movie character, who would you be and why?

• The guy in limitless that expands his mind to be a super computer.

Tell me about your biggest adversity in life and how you’ve dealt with or overcome it?

• Switching to a total new sport in juco was tough but I made it out and I see the growth in myself. My motto has always been to keep my head down and grind it out. I live by it faithfully.

What is your most embarrassing moment?

• Almost leaving college to find a regular job, I was close to giving up before coming to Dickinson State but I couldn’t do it last minute and kept grinding because I have one life to give it everything I’ve got.

What was the most memorable play of your collegiate career?

• Today, beating Northwestern at their house to secure the first away win in Dickinson State program history.

What song best describes your work ethic?

• Kick push by Lupe Fiasco

What is the most important trait you can have (Physical or Non-Physical) to help you succeed at the next level?

• Personally, my height helps so much, like right off the bat I’ve got an advantage. But a mental one is that learning from mistakes, don’t make the same one twice!

If you could bring one person back from the dead for one day, who would it be and why?

• My aunt Kisa Hughes, she passed away from colon cancer but was one of the most influential people in my life, her soul was kind and had made me and kind person in a cold world. She was an angel on earth and we spent so much time before she passed, she used to tell my mom that I and my brother were her kids. She was all love and she passed when I was 12 but her memory will never die as long as I’m living.

If you were to open a dance club, what would you name it?

• The Boom-Boom Room haha

Who is the most overrated player in the NFL?

• Somebody saw something in all of them and they got to a place which I dream of reaching so I can’t hate on anybody right now

Would you rather be liked or respected, and why?

• Respected. I was not placed on this earth to be liked by everybody and that’s fine with me as long as they steer clear and let me do my thang

What player who had his career derailed by off-field issues do you feel for the most and why?

• Aaron Hernandez, I recently started listening to podcasts about his brain and he was a cold killer but I also wonder how much of the CTE aspect affected the dude’s whole outlook on life because to kill and especially at that level you’ve got to want to derail yourself. Sad story all around.

Do you love to win, or hate to lose?

• I hate losing, I’ve always been on a winning team so it’s hard to decide. it I’m sure I love winning and hate losing

Who has been the biggest influence on your life and explain why?

• My mother raised me and taught me the meaning of head down and grind. She’s my rock and without her, nothing I’ve ever done could have been achieved. Sometimes I don’t think she knows that but I wouldn’t ask for anybody else. She’s the one. My mother and my family raised me so all this goes to them I just wanna make my people proud, which I’m sure I’ve done but why stop let’s see what I can do with them behind me. Lil bro gets a shout out too he’s one part of our family trio that rode together. Wish I could celebrate this win with them.