Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Nix will graduate in December with a degree in film, television and theatre, and though he is projected to be a top-10 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, he has said he has yet to decide whether or not he will come back to Notre Dame next year. photo by bill panzica it's done a lot for my life. I feel like if I did come back, it would do numerous things for me and help me out, so there's a lot of choices on both sides, but I'm not even thinking about it. … I've never been in this situation where I had to make big decisions. I don't think either decision is wrong. Who wouldn't want to be at Notre Dame? … It's a great place and I enjoy it every day. I enjoy all my experiences — my highs, my lows here." Nix's journey — despite being a success story — has not always been smooth. He has admitted in the past he had trouble adapting at Notre Dame, but he grew to love the university and even its aspects that he has not always found to be so endearing. "It was different, a culture shock somewhat for me coming from where I did. You don't meet a lot of people," Nix said. "You see the same things, it's kind of a hard life where I'm at. You see these people from different places … and then I started to adjust to it, made new friends, met new people, went new places, and I just enjoyed it. "You see 'Home Alone' and stuff and see snow falling and you're like, 'Yeah, it looks magical.' Then you get here, my first time picking up a snowball, I'm like, 'Aw, it's freezing.' I threw it down." Even Nix's relationship with Kelly has evolved during the four-year stretch after the head coach initially didn't know what to make of "this big, jolly guy always hugging me and stuff." "As it relates to not knowing what to make of him, I don't know that anybody has really locked in and figured out Big Lou, and that's okay," Kelly said. "He does what we ask him to do. He's going to have his degree from Notre Dame, and he's worked really hard for us." Even if every sign seems to be pointing Nix to the next level, he is the one player that should surprise no one with the opposite decision. Regardless of his ultimate 2014 route, there's one guarantee: Louis Nix III knows what he wants. ✦