2020 NFL Draft Prospect Interview: Austin Edwards, DE, Ferris State University

• Name: Austin Edwards
• Height: 6’4
• Weight:270
• Position: Defensive End
• College: Ferris State University
• Twitter: @AustinEdwards80

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

•  I was born in Lansing Michigan but raised in Waynesboro VA. Waynesboro was a family town not much around, so I always had fun with sports.

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

•  Practice, Strength and Conditioning, Film study. For me the most important thing is perfected your craft. In practice you can sharpen your technique which makes you a better player. Strength and conditioning is important because you need your body always ready to play. If you are not that’s how injuries happen. Then film lastly, I still think it is important to see what you need to improve on and scout opponents but not as much as your mind and body.

What do you worry about, and why?

•  Supporting my Family. My mother is from Haiti and has done everything for me so I can’t wait to be able to help her and our family out.

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

•  Didn’t make the 7^th grade basketball team then I worked hard all summer and ended up making the 8^th grade team. I didn’t play as much as I wanted so kept working harder and ended up on Varsity at the end of my 9^th Grade year.

What do your teammates say is your best quality?

•  My will to win.

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

•  Adam Shaheen from Ashland University, on the Chicago Bears

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

•  I would Coach Sports or Start a Marketing Business and open a restaurant.

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

•  Desk

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

•  Family Member, family is important to me.

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

•  Jackie Robinson from 42, he is one of my favorite athletes of all time.

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

•  Moving from Texas to Lansing Sophomore year of high school. It was tough leaving my friends and community in Taft Texas. Taft is where I really learned to love the game of football and I had some schools looking at me down there and felt like I had to start all over. I just stayed focused when I moved and stayed working hard and was blessed to be able to go to Ferris State.

What is your most embarrassing moment?

•  one winter when I was a kid, I was chasing my brother at our bus stop and slipped on ice and fell and the whole bus saw it.

What was the most memorable play of your collegiate career?

• Last season vs Minnesota State in Semi-Finals. The game was close until we went up 2 scores and my head coach came to the defense and said, “We need a big play.” Right after he said that the next play, I came off the edge and got a big strip sack. We scored the next play and ended the game. This was one of the best feelings I had.

What song best describes your work ethic?

•  Hustle Hard by Acehood

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

•  My Hustle. It helps me make plays even when I’m tired being able to go and make a play.

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

•  Martin Luther King Jr. would love to pick his mind about his philosophies and what he thinks the state of America is in now.

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

•  Ace of Spades.

Who is the most underrated player in the NFL? 

•  Danielle Hunter.

Would you rather be liked or respected, and why?

•  Respected. Not all leaders are liked but they are respected. Not everyone will like you and that is fine, but respect means they trust your word and your actions even if they do not like you. 

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

•  Colin Kaepernick. He still could have been playing in the NFL.

Do you love to win, or hate to lose?

•  Hate to lose

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

• My Mother. She came to America when she was 16 from Haiti by herself. She raised me and my brother and worked 2 jobs to survive. Her hard work is in me and her drive to survive is also. I want to be great at everything and I always thank her for that.