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VOLUME 26, ISSUE 2 97 the number seemed significant. "I saw where this step was off or this hand was off, just the small things that can make a huge dif- ference," King said. "And when we came out for the Minnesota game, I told (Kugler) right before the game, when we woke up in the hotel room, I told him I was having one of those days." And then the Gophers did something to rev him up even more. On a first-and-goal from the 1 on Purdue's first drive, Blough tried to punch the ball in but was stopped. And then Blough got yanked from the pile by his legs by Minnesota linebacker Cody Poock. King didn't quite like that — and told Poock so by kneeling to get in Poock's face, as much as he could considering Poock still was sitting on the ground. The post-snap activity brought flags, but offsetting unsportsmanlike penalties kept the ball on the goal line. King couldn't quite remember what happened on the next snap until he went back and watched it on the film. At the time, he said it was a "blur" because he was so angry. What King saw on tape: He abso- lutely smoked his assignment, driving the defensive tackle into the ground, to clear space for Knox to rush into the end zone behind him. King let a quick fist pump fly as soon as he got up, and the action looked more like a response to his play, not the TD. It was a play that stuck out. "I see things on film that I do sometimes that I know look special and I need to learn how to do it every play," King said. "I know when I go back and watch film, if I'm mad or something like that, I hit an- other gear that I've got to be able to stay in all game. "I don't have an issue where I'm sometimes (play- ing) hard, sometimes not playing hard, but being able to stay in that angry gear and just want to rip people's head off every play? I definitely want to be able to do that all the time instead of sometimes." Of course, success isn't strictly based on attitude, though, clearly, it helps. King's learned much goes into being a complete offensive lineman. Fine-tuning technique and film study have played big roles in his development, too. In terms of the technical aspects, King says he didn't know how to do some basic things a college freshman should do — to "set" or "kick the wall," ba- sic footwork for linemen in pass protection — when he first got to Purdue because he didn't have to do it in high school. He didn't know how to use his hands very well, a common trait among young linemen. Too often in high school, he'd block with his forearms. And, be- cause he was typically bigger, he could essentially stun a defender enough with an initial hit that that was it. Trying to block college linemen with forearms? Doesn't quite work, as they'll usually rush right past the weak attempt. So improving his hands was a must, and it's some- thing he's still focusing on, years into the process. Entering this season, King watched as much tape as he could of the Dallas Cowboys, not just because they're the Arkansas native's favorite team but be- cause of their solid play up front. Specifically, he was beady-eying hand placement. "Before, I would miss high, like up by the shoul- der pads. You see a lot of young guys coming in, they want to clamp. I had the clamping problem where I'd just try to grab people, and it doesn't work like that," King said. "If your hands are wrong, usually then your feet are wrong, and then you get caught holding or just getting beat somewhere. So I've just learned how to really shoot them. From, obviously, Coach Bridge screaming at me a thousand times and watching the NFL film, you see what works. That's been huge for me." Early in his career, he also often relied too much on his athleticism. A former basketball player — he can still dunk at 300-plus pounds, evidenced by a vid- eo tweeted in August with the hashtag "OLinemenA- reAthletesToo" — King would frustrate coaches be-