SE: Q&A with K-State Ring of Honor Member Terence Newman

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Terence Newman, a Salina native, 2002 Consensus All-American and Thorpe Award Winner as the nation's top defensive back, had one of the most celebrated careers in Kansas State sports history. He is in the K-State Football Ring of Honor.

He also loved playing against KU.

Newman finished his 48-game career at K-State with 134 tackles and 10 interceptions. Newman was a part of four 11-win teams in his five years, and the Wildcats finished outside the Top 10 in the final Associated Press poll just once during his time as a Wildcat.

Newman enjoyed a celebrated 15-year career in the NFL. The No. 5 overall pick in the 2003 NFL Draft to the Dallas Cowboys, Newman was a two-time Pro Bowl selection during a 12-year stint in Dallas, and also played for the Cincinnati Bengals (2012-14) and Minnesota Vikings (2015-2017).

At age 39, Newman was the oldest active defensive player in the NFL when he announced his retirement on September 1, 2018, immediately joining the Vikings coaching staff for one season.

Newman finished his NFL career with 221 career games, including 205 starts, and his 42 interceptions ranked second among active NFL players before he took of his pads for good.

Newman spoke with D. Scott Fritchen of K-State Sports Extra about his K-State career, his NFL career, the Sunflower Showdown rivalry, and playing golf with Darren Sproles:

DSF: As a Salina native, what all went into your decision to play football at K-State?

TN: Terry Allen was the head coach at KU and just after my junior year I attended a KU traveling camp. I was still really skinny, but I was really athletic, fast, could jump, and had great change of direction, and I literally did every drill there that I was exceptional at. They basically offered me a scholarship on the spot. They coveted me and I went throughout my senior season, and they sent me letters, and I got a couple of letters from K-State, but I had no offer. KU offered me from day one, and obviously getting an offer on the spot was a big deal.

I went through my senior season and we played at Manhattan High School, and we had a player who was a phenomenal receiver. He was Wes Welker before Wes Welker was Wes Welker. He wasn't big, he was really quick, but kind of slight as well, but he had hands that were out of this world. He's diving making these circus catches. He's literally the all-world football player. He could do it all. He started gaining a little interest from K-State. Still, I heard nothing from K-State.

Then comes basketball season and I broke my wrist at home against Manhattan High School. And then I got a call from Brent Venables. Venables began hitting me up. Then we set up a visit finally in early November. I took the visit to K-State and I was completely blown away. I got to meet Michael Bishop, Jonathan Beasley, Dyshod Carter, Jerametrius Butler, and I literally just fell in love with everybody I met on my visit — Jeff Kelly, Mark Simoneau, all these guys I got to hang out with. I saw that it was a true family.

Coach Snyder, oh my gosh, you walk into his office to talk to him — I was with my mom — and he was very well-spoken and I was blown away by Coach Snyder and just his demeanor and attitude. He was always positive. He understood what my family was going through with a single mother and I had a sister, and he understood what it means to be around family and wanted me to know at K-State when things aren't going your way you have people you can talk to. I wasn't far from home but at the same time I couldn't run home anytime there was a problem. I wanted to be able to just talk to somebody if I had any issues. Coach Snyder just proved to me that he's a great football coach, and everybody loves him for everything that he's done at Kansas State, but what made him truly genuinely great was that he cares about people. He wanted us to do well. He tried to steer those players who didn't see the things that he felt was important, which was definitely being a student before the athlete. He always tried to steer them in the right direction.

I remember the in-home visit. They came to our house. My mom absolutely loved Coach Snyder. She was just blown away by him as well. That's obviously where I felt comfortable. I had committed to KU early in the process because they had coveted me from the beginning. Basically, they showed me what I needed to see. I'd be able to play multiple positions and run track and do everything that I wanted to do. But K-State had that family environment that I coveted. That's something that you've got to be able to bond with your teammates and bond with them. You're going to spend most of your time with these guys. You have to have people who are going to have your back and you want to have their backs at the same time.

DSF: How did K-State football and Bill Snyder impact your life and your NFL career?

TN: My life? I feel like when we came to K-State, we were all very young-minded players, and we still needed a lot of development, and guidance. Coach Snyder just told me all the things that I needed to hear as a young man transitioning to being on my own. I really had been on my own in a certain type of way for a long time. My mom worked two jobs, she worked nights, so she had to sleep during the day, so I got to see literally what work was when I was young and all the way up until I left high school. My mom had to provide for us, and she really showed me if you work you can get what you need. I watched her grind to provide for us. I realized in college, "You know what? You get one shot. I've come this far. I'm a kid from Salina, Kansas, and I get a scholarship offer to play for Bill Snyder at Kansas State." In my eyes, it was, "I've made it this far. Let's see how far I can make this go."

I had Mike Stoops as my defensive backs coach. I was scared as hell of him. He'd start yelling and would foam at the mouth. I said, "I can't make him mad. He's going to spit on me by accident." We had a damn good secondary. Jarrod Cooper was starting at safety and Lamar Chapman, and Jon McGraw was in the mix as well. Then we had great corners with Dyshod and Jermetrius and Keith Black. I knew I'd be able to learn from these guys. I figured I was just as athletic as these guys, but what we don't really understand is that football in high school is completely different than football in college. There's a learning curve.

I remember going into the first game of the 1998 season and Jon McGraw had hurt his hamstring. I'd been moved to safety, so I practiced at safety all that year. They said, "We might have to play you." I was terrified playing safety being 160 pounds dripping wet. I thought, "These are big boys I'm going to have to bring down. I'm going to have to rope some cattle over here." Luckily, I redshirted, and everything worked out. A lot of people don't know this, but I played safety literally my whole freshman year. After the season, I changed back to cornerback. I was unhappy. I wasn't playing. I felt like I was making plays in practice. I was good enough to play and wasn't getting the opportunity and I didn't know why. Well, of course, being young-minded, I wasn't ready, and that's why I wasn't playing. Of course, we think we're better than we are in everything we do, especially as a kid.

DSF: How would you describe your path from NFL rookie to NFL star to NFL assistant?

TN: Quick. It seems like all the playing days went way quicker than you think it actually goes. Obviously, you go to training camp and a lot of those days run on, and you're like, "Will this ever end?" As you get older, most teams start taking care of you a little bit, so you get a little more rest for your body and a little more rest in the morning, but you still have to go out and perform. You don't notice all the subtle changes to you, either. There comes a point where you're like, "Man, I'm not as flexible as I used to be." Little things like that you start to notice over time, but it takes time before it actually sets in.

When I signed with Cincinnati, my body, I had a bunch of injuries leading up to when I was released from Dallas. I just never fully recovered from probably two of the injuries. I had a knee injury that I didn't rehab properly for whatever reason. I was misdiagnosed early on, and it wasn't until after the season and I had played that I learned the extent of my injury. I hurt my knee in September in practice and what I didn't know is that I had torn a majority of my MCL. What I was told was I had a bone bruise, well, the treatment that you do for a bone bruise is completely different to rehab an MCL. Long story short, that injury literally affected me probably the rest of my career. It wasn't instability in the knee, but it was just strength. As those years progressed, I felt like that leg wasn't as flexible as the other side. Then you have games where you feel like your young self, and then you have games where you're like, "Man, I'm getting up there," and the body doesn't cooperate no matter how much you tug on it. It's like, "I'm going to give you what I can give you, but it's not what you're used to."

That's when you start formulating in your mind, "If I'm feeling like this now, how long do I want to do this?" You kind of come to that decision that maybe you can make it two more years, and then you dedicate yourself to get your body in the best shape you can get it in, to give you the best output that you can expect of yourself.

The mental aspect is just as important as the physical aspect. When I was a youngster, I wasn't playing but yet I thought I had just as much ability and was making plays in practice. It was the mental aspect. The players that play the best football don't have to overthink situations. As a quarterback, you know your progressions, but if you take one short cut, and go from seeing two-high safeties and take your eyes off the safeties too early — you've got to dissect it and say, "Are they going to stay two-shell, or are they cover-2 or are they switching, or running into zone or man coverage?" If you skip that step as a quarterback, you're going to suffer from it. Being a defensive back is no different. If you don't go through your check list, and if you have to think about certain things, you're not going to have a good day. You can do whatever you want to do athletically, but mentally if you're just not there, you're not going to see route triggers and can't jump different routes. You're not going to be sharp. That's something I always learned as a youngster.

Dyshod Carter was one of the smarter football players that I played with. He wasn't the fastest guy, so he had to make up for a lack of speed with being an excellent technician and in being able to understand exactly what the weak points were in our defense and exactly what the opponent was trying to do in their whole system. I picked up the whole mental aspect from Dyshod Carter and he took me under his wing, he taught me how to watch film, and I learned a lot of the mental aspect from him. If you just watch what the other team is giving you, it's going to hold true, and you're going to get what you get. I think that's kind of why Patrick Mahomes is struggling a little bit as well. People have seen this offense for quite a while now and they're being able to match up.

DSF: You retired from the NFL as the oldest active defensive player in the league and were regarded as one of the smartest defensive players in the league. What was that process like from a mental aspect?

TN: The mental aspect for me is the part that allows you to play the game much longer than the physical aspect. Football was all that I had. I didn't have a family, a wife or girlfriend, I didn't have kids, so I was able to just dedicate myself to trying to learn as much about this game that I'm passionate about as possible, and then be able to go out on weekdays and take the portrait of all the things that I was watching, and then on Sundays paint that picture. When you go out and do your job exceptionally and your football team wins, there's no greater feeling.

DSF: Who was the most difficult NFL quarterback you ever faced?

TN: Most difficult? Heck, I had to practice against him every day. Once he became a starter in Dallas, Tony Romo was doing stuff that you see Patrick Mahomes do today. He was doing stuff like that even in college. We played against Romo at K-State and we were in cover-2 and threw a no-look pass on a center route, and I got to the sideline, and they asked me what happened, and I said, "He threw a no-look pass, Coach!" There was nothing else to say. He looked me off, looked at the flat, and I jumped the flat, and as he's still looking at the flat, he throws a center route. He used to do that stuff all the time in Dallas. He's definitely one of the most talented quarterbacks I've ever played against. He definitely surprised me the first time I played against him. The guy is a great athlete. He's an excellent golfer. He's highly skilled in basketball, too. He's a skilled football commentator. It's like, "How the heck are you good at everything?"

It was really cool going to Dallas with Romo in the same class. There's not a lot of times where you get a bunch of guys from one draft class who really make an impact in all phases on a football team. I was on special teams, Jason Witten and Bradie James were on special teams. We just had a bunch of guys from one draft class literally just play on both sides of the football and on special teams. It was something that was really cool because we all came in together and we all had our doubters when things got tough, and we talked each other up, and we had a chance to all play together and have fun, and be leaders, and that was one of the most special things for me.

DSF: The game of college football has changed over the year. What changes do you like and which changes do you dislike?

TN: I like the kickoff situation. We used to always have to grab a ball and down it on kickoffs — catch the ball and take a knee. I like the kicking rules. The one rule I don't like, and it's not that I don't like it, but I think they should add to it, is the whole targeting rule. Right now, you get called for targeting and get ejected from the game. I think they should have a "Targeting 1" and "Targeting 2." Some of the hits are way more egregious than others and some of them are literally just by chance. This guy is ducking and you're aiming at the right target but because you started where you started, and this guy is ducking, you hit him in the head. I feel like that's not targeting. That's one of those bang-bang situations. I think they should use "Targeting 1" and "Targeting 2."

DSF: Darren Sproles told me that he lives right by you in the valley and that you two play golf together. He said that he's not very good at golf and you give him pointers. What can you say about this reconnection with Darren in LA and your golf games?

TN: I'm no longer associated with football. I stopped coaching after the 2018 season. I moved to California. I have a little baby girl, who's 2, named Ariya, and she's a riot, and a cutie, too. She's absolutely adorable. The thing with Darren was really random. We had text just to see what's up. He asked where I was at right now. I told him I was in LA, and he told me that he was in California. I said where at in California. He told me and it turned out he lived right down the street from my house. That's what happened. It's crazy. His country club is literally right across the street from my country club. We started playing golf together. Don't pay attention to anything he says because he is really good at golf. He can really drive the ball. He's a really good golfer. If he says he's not good at golf, it's because he wants to get you on the course and take your money.

DSF: Are you going to play softball in the Jordy Nelson Legends Classic next year at Bill Snyder Family Stadium?

TN: I will be at the Classic next year. No question. God willing.

DSF: Jordy hit 18 homeruns to win the homerun competition. How many homeruns are you going to it?

TN: Nineteen.

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: Q&A with K-State Ring of Honor Member Terence Newman

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