UL-Lafayette's Jacob Kibodi Grew Up a Saints Fans, Brings Versatility and Is a Big Football Junkie

hey Jacob congratulations man first of all how's it feel to stick around in Louisiana thank you man it feels great it's the dream come true is this uh you know when you you know play with play over at Lafayette you've got your you're here from Louisiana was was New Orleans where the than somebody that was like firmly on the list for you uh post draft year definitely at the top of the list um you know growing up the Saints you know being from Bano that's my you know favorite team so uh that's definitely where where I want to play that's cool did you have a lot of offers that contended with them or how'd that kind of shake up for you um I let my agent handle most of that but I believe I had a few hey Jacob how best would you kind of describe your your run style and the way you play um I definitely try to be a balanced bag um with my size most people think I'll be like a a downhill punishing back but I definitely take a pride in being versatile um I play receiver throughout my career too so um pass catch and a run rout is something I definitely take pride in Levi Lewis said that you were a really really good route Runner uh out of the backfield is that something you're excited to kind of show a little bit more of at the next level definitely definitely um just because of the system here we I wasn't able to Showcase that but I definitely played you know when I was at AUM I play receiver and also my first year here I played receiver as well so um I definitely you know look to show that how was that transition going from wide receiver to running back when you made that switch honestly it's natural um because I went to a small private school you know we at a small private school you you play all positions honestly so um I've been doing it my whole life so it was it was a natural smooth transition Jacob Jake and maybe talk about you know coming out of high school Louisiana how you enjoy playing at Louisiana and how you ended up at Louisiana um in high school it was I mean high school ball you know it's fun is uh you out there with your boys grinding and you know just making memories and um so I definitely Lov my high school experience and then um how I got here was just um you know like it was time for me to leave a& them and I end up transferring to UIW just because the the you know the NCAA transfer rules weren't what they are now and so you couldn't transfer you know somewhere and play right away so um I had to go down and then Co happened and canceled our season then I'm Ro here you know spring of 21 and um I enjoyed my time here you know I mean I definitely grew a lot as a man and as a person and definitely as a player so I mean I enjoy my time here Jacob uh were you teammates with both Kellen and Eric McCoy or was it just Eric both it was both it was both so see Guy good good I was gonna say if you had any conversations with him I haven't yet but um when I get there I'm definitely gonna um you know tap in with those guys uh you were talking about your trans we talking about your transition from a wide receiver to running back and like your pass catching ability out of the back field obviously I mean elephant in a room there there's the guy Alvin chimra in New Orleans that's got a very similar game is he somebody that you've like watched paid attention to you know molded your game after a little bit like like what's the what's kind of the influence there of course uh meet being a Saints fan you know um Al is definitely doing his thing um the versatility is definitely something that sticks out when watching him um I mean he has you know Alin C for a reason you know I mean he's a household name for a reason so uh definitely I definitely study his game is there anything in particular when it comes to the transition to the NFL that you're you're looking forward to maybe taking you know next steps in certain areas of your game anything like that anything you're focusing on this offseason before you um or as you kind of you work to land a spot uh definitely I'm just just everything in general you know I feel like everything every part of my game can improve but uh I'm definitely trying to lock in and hold in on um P protection and then what was your pre-draft process like like were you were you in touch with New Orleans were you in touch with other teams throughout the throughout the draft process I did um I had a nice conversation with New Orleans um at my pro day um my draft process it was it was smooth um I was in Dallas training um I was able to get into the shrine bowl and you know it was it was it was a smooth process how were your conversations uh with the Saints they were they kind of in-depth conversations just kind of you know passing conversations like how' those go um I think we had both um one of the main things you know at prod day that we talked about was my versatility because I actually ran Rous as a receiver and running back out the backfield so their versatility was a big thing were they uh part of the focus of focusing on pass protection do they give you that kind of say hey this is maybe one thing that we'd be looking for at the next level or anything like that or is that something you just kind of look at on your own and say hey that's an area where I can improve that's something I look at on my own and be like this is the area where I can get better at Jake up what specific things you feel that you can bring to the Saints um maturity in the running back room for sure um I think I'm be a hard worker um somebody who definitely goes in and do the right thing um somebody who loves the game I'm a football junkie uh versatility you know um man somebody who loves the team like I'm I'm always a fan I grew up a fan before you know I even signed to the Saint so the fact that I'm here man I just they're going to get 100% out of me how would you define that classification of football J for yourself uh it might be unhealthy man um I I I live it I breathe it you know I wake up watching it I go to sleep watching it um that that's that is my life you know I mean so um this is this is what I love to do you think you might have a um you know let's I know the NFL focus is the Focus right now but is post NFL is coaching something that might of interest to you with that kind of football junk you got going on it could be it could be but you know definitely the Focus right now is you know making this team and um trying to leave an impact on this team in some kind of way