Former Bills FB Corey Knox: Exclusive Interview

BuffaLowDown: What made you so interested in the fullback position?

Corey: When I initially went out for the football team at UB, I spoke with one of their linebackers. I played with him in the Western New York High School All-Star Game when we were seniors. His name is John Syty. He is now a scout for the Philadelphia Eagles and he’s a great guy. I went to him because I wasn’t getting the time of day from the coaches. I said to him “what position do you guys need?” I told him “I’ve played linebacker, I’d love to play linebacker”. He goes “we got a ton of linebackers. We only have 1 or 2 fullbacks. That might be a position you can sneak into. You’re big, you’re strong, and I know you’re athletic”. That’s what got the ball rolling on the fullback position.

Looking back, if I could have gotten in there as a junior, if I had two solid years, I do stay at linebacker. I could play some inside linebacker. I have the skillset, the physicality, the lateral movement, all that kind of stuff. You can ask anybody from high school, which I know only matters so much, but in high school, I was a much better linebacker than a fullback. I could still get it done at fullback but I played more linebacker. I was very comfortable at that position. I played it since I was a kid so instinctively I took good angles, I was physical at contact, and I wrapped up well. I did the little things you learn from playing the position since you were younger.

[With UB] I only had one year, so my main goal was that I wanted to help the team. So I thought to myself what do I need to do to help this team? They needed me at fullback so that’s where I played. It wasn’t totally foreign to me because we used a fullback in high school. I blocked a lot of powers, I did a lot of iso’s up the middle, a lot of pass blocking, so it wasn’t completely foreign to me but the system in college and the game speed was something I had to pick up on but like I said I worked my butt off on that and that’s how I ended up playing fullback.

Next: Would Corey be willing to switch to a different position?