Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/140522
BY LOU SOMOGYI "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." — Forrest Gump R ecent Notre Dame football players can identify with the fictional movie character from 1994. Their box of "Irish Chocolate" comes in the form of 6-2, 347-pound — or somewhere in that zip code — senior nose guard Louis Nix III, who provides the Fighting Irish locker room with myriad flavors. Some are sweet, others quite tart, and there also are different combinations in his box. "Louis is a lot of different characters — it's like knowing multiple people," explained senior Cat linebacker Prince Shembo of the man whose adopted moniker became "Irish Chocolate" by his sophomore year at Notre Dame. "Some days he's very sarcastic, and some days he's very serious. Some days he won't talk to anybody, other days he wants to talk to everybody. "It depends on the day of the week what kind of Louis you're going to get." The chameleon-like characteristic is what probably prevents Nix from being a predictable, no-doubt-about-it leader of the 2013 football program from Monday through Sunday the way inside linebacker Manti Te'o was last year. Consistency day in and day out is the bedrock of Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly's operation, but that hasn't always been Nix's approach. "I have a serious side, but you know me: I don't like to show it too much," Nix said. "I think you'll know when I'm serious when it comes to game plan, when it's game time or when I'm at a test, or anything like that. "You'll know when I'm locked in and I'm ready to go. But I like to keep everything funny and happy and not be too serious all the time." Nix might even hold the unofficial Notre Dame record among scholarship players for most numbers worn, from his unglamorous No. 67 as a struggling scout team freshman, to requesting No. 9 in 2011-12 to honor his "Big Brother," 2008-10 tight end Kyle Rudolph, who turned pro after his junior season, to requesting No. 1 for his senior year. "No real reason," Nix replied this spring when asked of his latest numerical change. "I thought it would be entertaining to see a big guy with a smaller number. Never seen it before, so why not?" When Kelly was asked during the 2013 spring which players might fill the leadership Nix could become just the third player in the last 25 years to lead the Irish defensive linemen in tackles for three straight seasons, after making 45 and 50 stops in his first two seasons. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2013 FOOTBALL PREVIEW 78-82.Louis Nix III.indd 79 ! 79 6/25/13 2:11 PM