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Published Sep 27, 2016
11 Questions With Nick Westbrook
Sam Beishuizen  •  TheHoosier
Staff Writer

Our series of Indiana football Q&As continues this week with sophomore wide receiver Nick Westbrook.

Westbrook has exploded onto the scene in his second season in Bloomington, already hauling in 15 catches for 332 yards and four touchdowns over three games.

Q: Memorial Stadium is a pretty cool venue, but if I gave you an unlimited budget to design a stadium however you’d like, what would it look like?

A: It would probably be a stadium in some exotic place, like on a volcano in Hawaii.

Yeah, I'll take Memorial Stadium but put it on a volcano in Hawaii.

Clear issue: What if the volcano erupts?

It's dormant, it's dormant. Don't worry.

Q: If you have a bad game or a bad practice, how do you move on from it?

A: I'll go over the film, see what I did wrong and see what I could do to fix the problem. After that, I don't really dwell on it. I'll have my mind on it at the time just to see what happened, but after that I try to clear my mind and focus on whatever else I have to do that day.

Once practice comes around, I'll work on fixing those mistakes.

Q: Forget your physical appearance. I don’t care that you’re 6-foot-3 and weigh 215 pounds. If you could play any other position on the field, what position would you want to play?

A: Obviously quarterback. You get the ball so much. Every snap, you're the one who gets to make the play.

Q: Who’s the best non-football playing athlete at IU?

A: I would probably have to say Lilly King because she won a gold medal. When you're winning Olympic golds, it's kind of hard to beat that.

Do you guys talk about the other athletes that are performing well? Do you even have time?

A: Actually, me and Mitchell Paige and Luke Timian went to the men's soccer game a couple of weekends ago. Maybe it was over the bye week or something like that. We were watching the game and going like, "Wow. We have a really good team."

You don't even realize it because we're so focused in on our practices, but we've got a really good team. Number 10, Tanner Thompson, he was really good.

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

A: I guess the best advice for me was to go experience things and not really worry about failing or messing up or something. No matter what it is, whether it's trying food out or whatever it is, just go try things. You never know what you're going to like or not like.

My mom told me that a while back. I think I wasn't sure if I wanted to play something like flag football. I ended up loving it.

What's been something you tried that was out there that you experienced because of that?

It was a while ago, but I had this burger that was actually a donut.

It was two Krispy Kreme donuts. It was delicious.

Where do I get one of those?

It was a food truck back in Florida. (Westbrook is a native of Lake Mary, Florida).

Q: Do you remember the first time you talked to your head coach Kevin Wilson? Where were you and what were you doing?

A: It was in my house, actually. It was a phone call right after I got my offer. I was just walking around and talking to him. He told me that he wanted me here, and he didn't just want me to be here. He wanted me to play here.

Q: If you could go back in time and play with or against any player, who would you want to share time on the field with?

A: I'll do with first. If I could play with anybody it would probably be A.J. Green. I'd just want to pick up on certain things. He's always been my favorite player, my role model. I really look up to him.

I can't really think of anybody I'd want to play against, though.

Q: Do you ever worry or think about what you’re going to do with all your extra time once football is over? It takes up a ton of your life right now.

A: I mean, sort of. I'm a Kelley guy, so it's almost like the school makes me think about life after football more than I need to. For my Compass Class (a Kelley-specific career class), they're telling me to do this and that for my career. Like, I don't even know what I want to do yet, man.

They've definitely made me think about that. I've tried to go to a few of the events and career fair stuff. (Westbrook is an operations management major but is considering a switch to marketing).

Q: Do you have a favorite TV show or movie you can’t get enough of right now?

A: Man that's hard. I love movies. But as for a TV show, I started watching it a while ago with my parents and started to watch it with Mitchell lately, but it's "Band of Brothers." It's really good. We like finding some series out there and watching it. There's always something out there, but that's my favorite right now.

Q: This is obviously an election year. Now, I’m not going to ask you who you’re voting for, but if you could elect someone into the office from your football team, who would it be?

A: I'd probably say Jacob Bailey.

I keep getting offensive linemen as answers to this.

He's just really smart. Whenever he's talking about something business-wise, it makes sense to me however he says it. He's really knowledgable.

Q: Last one, but every week I ask who I’m interviewing for a question I can ask the next person. Last time, Mitchell Paige wanted me to ask you if you would want to teach a class about Rocket League and what people would be in it?

A: I would love to teach a class on Rocket League. We almost play it every night. We always try and get a couple of games in before bed. It's really interesting because it's a game where it doesn't seem like there's any strategy and you just mess around, but there's a lot of strategy involved. I would definitely teach a class on it.

Q: Do you have a question I can ask the next person? I'm thinking Devine Redding.

A: What's his favorite yoga pose?

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