Former Bills FB Corey Knox: Exclusive Interview
By Dennis Moody
BuffaLowDown: It has to be a great experience stepping onto an NFL field. When did you have aspirations of becoming an NFL player?
Corey: Since I was a kid. My dad signed me up to play football at a very young age. Like I mentioned to a couple of other people he worked at Rich Stadium (now Ralph Wilson Stadium) when I was a kid in the HSBC box as a bartender. He would sneak my brother and me into games because he knew all the guys at the gate. I would go to every single home game from the time I was old enough to go until he stopped working there. I grew up in that atmosphere; I was born in ‘89 so I was born right before the Super Bowl years. I was probably too little to understand what was going on but I could definitely feel the energy and joy of what was happening.
I think it definitely impacted me at a young age that I could feel those Super Bowl losses. I think everybody could. Even if you were a baby or just growing up. Kids absorb energy and they can tell when something’s good and when something’s bad. At that point in my life, I started to get decked out in Bills clothes and I think that’s when the wheels started to turn. I grew up playing football in my backyard pretending I was some of the greatest Buffalo Bills of all-time. It just snowballed from that.
I loved playing football in high school. I played linebacker and fullback and I gave it everything I had. I always wanted to play college football but unfortunately, when I graduated high school I wasn’t quite big enough to command a Division I offer. I was a middle linebacker/fullback sitting at 185-190 pounds and those kinds of guys don’t get looked at by the big time schools. Even UB (University of Buffalo) would have probably been a stretch. I ended up having to go away. I got a track and field scholarship to a small school in Fremont Nebraska. I worked my butt off there and got bigger and stronger.
I earned a scholarship to go to that school but eventually wanted to come back to UB, to Buffalo, back home. I ended up doing that but it was a similar situation where I needed to fight to get a try out on the track team. I had a summer workout with the track coach and he was like “I don’t know if I am going to keep you” but I worked my butt off and ended up beating some of his throwers at that workout and he ended up keeping me as a walk on. Then the ball started to roll from there.
I got my foot in the door by outworking the guy next to me, doing everything I could to become a better thrower to try and earn a scholarship and to win conference medals. I slowly but surely every year started to do that. My first year I won a conference medal. My next year I earned a scholarship. The whole time I wanted more and more. By the time I was a junior there I had a 50% ride with books and I was big enough and strong enough to play football at a Division I level. I was about 250-255 pounds and the strongest I’ve ever been.
I was watching the football guys in the weight room saying to myself Damn, I’m throwing up some good numbers here. I think I can really make a difference on that team. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to play for UB. We talked about it in high school. It wasn’t a reality then but it did become a reality by the time I was a junior. I tried to walk on and they didn’t want any part of it. They said “you haven’t played in 3-4 years. There is no way you’ll adjust to the game speed. We can’t take a risk on a guy like you just to waste a spot.” I begged them my junior year to walk on and Jeff Quinn and his staff would not let me. I sat in their office everyday over summer until these coaches finally had a meeting with me. I sat down with one of the defensive coaches and he told me straight up that they don’t have any spots and they are not going to give me a chance.
That whole year I had to watch the football team. I still competed in track and field but the summer of my senior year that next year was my last opportunity. So I did the same thing I did the year before. I went to those coaches and I begged them and I begged them and I begged them. It wasn’t until about 3 weeks before camp that they decided to give me a walk-on spot. I had to beg and beg and beg and finally I got a meeting with Jeff Quinn. I sat there for an hour and a half and I talked his ear off about what I wanted to do and what I was willing to sacrifice for that team. I said I was giving up my scholarships, (it’s a NCAA rule that if you have a partial scholarship for one team, you need to forfeit it to walk on to another team) I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll play special teams, I’ll long snap, I don’t care. I just want to play for the city, I want to play for the team, I want to make a difference and give it everything I have. That’s what I always wanted to do. He gave me a walk-on spot. I had to forfeit my scholarship. I walked on to camp and basically just tried to be a psychopath.
I was the 4th fullback on the depth chart the first day of camp, a week later we had our first day with pads. The second day in pads I was the 3rd string fullback. The next day in pads I become the 2nd string fullback and finally after our first scrimmage at the end of that week I became the 1st string fullback. They started to notice that I was throwing my body at people. I was picking up the playbook and that I was really giving it everything I had. It was better than the guys who were playing in spring ball and some of the guys who already played football there. They recognized the physicality, that I love to hit, that I could catch, I could move my feet. That I really was someone who was giving it everything I had. That’s something I’ve always done and something I’ll always do.
A great moment for me, which probably helped me not only get #1 on the depth chart but my scholarship was that first scrimmage when we were running a power to the left side. The number 2’s were running against the number 1’s. Who was on the left side of that defense at the end linebacker? It was Khalil Mack. I’m sitting there in my first play from scrimmage and we run a power to the left side and I smack him and put him on his back. The next day Jeff Quinn walks into the locker room and comes right up to me and goes “You had a pretty good scrimmage out there”. He was really excited for me. He gave me an opportunity and I ran with it. That’s when everybody started to take me seriously including the coaches.
When you are a walk on those coaches don’t want anything to do with you until you prove that you can do something for them. I don’t think there was a coach on that team that thought I was going to do anything before that. I felt the same situation with the Bills. I felt like they thought I was just a guy they brought on. No one was expecting anything from me but I proved at UB in that scrimmage and at that time that I was worth something. The next day I had a full scholarship offer from Jeff Quinn. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I envisioned that happening with the Bills. I never let that dream go especially when I got the opportunity in college. I said ok I know I’m behind the eight-ball here. I know I only had one year of college football. I only played as a senior. I have a lot to learn about the game. But I will go into this camp for the Bills and I will study more than anybody else did.
I was there first thing in the morning and the last one there at night. Nobody was there, nobody was in the parking lot but I was in the running backs room studying. I was going over plays, I was making playbooks based on the sheets that they were giving us. I was making individualized playbooks for all this stuff. I was really giving it everything I had. I believed that I was going to have a chance to do this because it worked out so well at UB. I thought once the pads got on I was going to be able to further validate all of that hard work and to show my aggressiveness but unfortunately, I didn’t really get a chance to do that.
Next: More on Khalil Mack