football player<\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019ve played football my whole life. It\u2019s in my DNA. My sister played football. All my little brothers play football.All I know is as far back as I can remember i had a football in my hand.<\/p>\n
What are your favorite moments from your football life?<\/strong><\/p>\nAll the fall camps I went through. Those were the most genuine times I had with the guys with no school. We are just all working and trying to get better before the season. And those are my favorite moments involving football.<\/p>\n
What are you looking to achieve as a football player going forward?<\/strong><\/p>\nI think everyone\u2019s goal when you\u2019ve played as long as I\u2019ve had is to go pro and God willing that I will be able to go pro.<\/p>\n
If you could hang out with any football player past or present for a day, who and why?<\/strong><\/p>\nI think Roquan Smith. That\u2019s a guy who I really have started to watch even more like a shorter guy more my build and the way he sees the game\u00a0is exceptional ever since he\u2019s gotten into the league\u00a0he\u2019s been a playmaker and if I happen to turn out half as good as he is I\u2019ll have a good career.<\/p>\n
Which one of your family members inspires you the most and why?<\/strong><\/p>\nMy older sister. She\u2019s been through so much in her life and she gave me a nephew and one thing about her is she never makes it about herself she just puts her head down and works and that\u2019s one thing that inspires me because I play a kids game and brother it\u2019s fun but that\u2019s not the real world. So the fact that she probably goes to a job she doesn\u2019t like so much and she gets up everyday and\u00a0\u00a0goes to work that\u2019s inspiring.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What is your favorite defensive scheme and why?<\/strong><\/p>\nI love a 4-2-5 but I think what I truly excel\u00a0at is a 4-3. I think having an extra linebacker out there we are able to do so much more. I\u2019m able to play outside linebacker and middle rather than a 4-2-5 and I\u2019m middle linebacker and I\u2019m only outside on blitzes when we have a smaller defensive back in the middle like the only time I\u2019m outside is blitzes and the weakness is more run heavy things so having to have a smaller guy out there is easy but I think a 4-3 is good because later in the season we had a 4-3 and it ended up working out for us.<\/p>\n
What should we know about Theron Gaines the person?<\/strong><\/p>\nThat I\u2019m a Christian and I think that\u2019s the biggest thing as a football player with the right tools and it\u2019s easy to not put the\u00a0glory on the lord. But I\u2019m a Christian and the way I play is all heart and passion and I love\u00a0playing football. Football is not a hobby to me and I\u2019ve always\u00a0treated this game with love and respect and god willing hopefully football sees me again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What stands out about your film the most?<\/strong><\/p>\nYou can see my passion and tenacity and the way I play I don\u2019t take plays off and every play is a play I can make and when you turn it on you see how good I am as a former defensive end how good I am in the pass rush and run fits and this was my first year doing it and skys the limit and I\u2019m still a raw talent trying to refine.<\/p>\n
How do you handle challenges both in life and on the football field?<\/strong><\/p>\nFirst thing pray about it and then also be more level headed\u00a0and take everything at a level headed position and don\u2019t react emotionally to nothing and have all the details before I react to it and when I changed to linebacker because of me looking at the core I had to look at the whole field and it was a struggle for me but I just staying persistent at it and being level headed\u00a0and getting coached and being coachable and honestly from all the other linebackers being open ears, taking in suggestions and taking in everybody else\u2019s\u00a0opinions that was a big thing and even off the field when something else goes wrong calling my dad, calling my mom, calling my brothers, calling my sisters, talking to my coaches and talking to God and getting everyone else\u2019s opinions before making a decision.<\/p>\n
10.What would a team get in a player like you?<\/p>\n
A kid who is ready to work with no off the field troubles, a kid who is coming from the FCS where everything in life has only been by a shot and opportunity, who is willing to work his butt off and play special teams and do anything he needs to do to get on that bus and I was a starter on 2 special teams and I went to my coaches and told them I want to stay on special teams. I take pride in everything I put on the field, if it\u2019s on special teams and even on the bench and a kid who is ready to go who is excited and blessed to even be in a position like this.<\/p>\n
What do you love the most about the game of football?<\/strong><\/p>\nThat it\u2019s honestly for me life and I get firsthand opportunities to strengthen myself for life. You\u2019re going to get knocked down and go through trials and tribulations. It\u2019s never about you getting knocked down, it\u2019s about what you do after that and I know if I get knocked down I\u2019m going to pick myself up and be ready to work again.<\/p>\n
Who is the most underrated player you\u2019ve played with and why?<\/strong><\/p>\nEric Taylor, he plays nickel for Tennessee\u00a0Tech. he is one of the most underrated guys he\u2019s a shorter guy who doesn\u2019t\u00a0have the prototypical what you want as a nickel and I\u2019ve seen him work and he\u2019s going to really\u00a0 put the world on notice this year at Tennessee Tech and you are going to really see a guy who doesn\u2019t care how big or tall you are and he\u2019s putting in the same amount of work you\u2019ve put in and he\u2019s so underappreciated and underrated from the outside world and he\u2019s a dog who can play any defensive back spot and he is like a short linebacker who can play in the box with us and guys now a days they don\u2019t want to be in the box but he\u2019s willing to go out there\u00a0and do the grimey things with a smile on his face and get up next play and do it again and he wants to hit tight ends and tackles and I think he\u2019s going to get some recognition real soon.<\/p>\n
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Writer\/Scout\/Interviewer for Draft Diamonds since January 2020. You can find me on X at @jrberendzen and Instagram at justinberendzen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Read More<\/a> Justin Berendzen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 NFL Draft Prospect Interview: Theron Gaines, LB, Tennessee Tech Name: Theron Gaines Position: LB College: Tennessee Tech Height: 5\u2032 11\u2033 Weight: 235 lbs X: @GainesTheron Instagram: @theron._.gaines What made you decide you wanted to be a football player? I\u2019ve played football my whole life. It\u2019s in my DNA. My sister played football. All my<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":884062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774,3790,32661],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-884061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-draft","8":"category-football","9":"category-prospect"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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