Photo: #92 Keith Newton, at 6-3 and 275 pounds, has helped Winston-Salem State fill a void at nose tackle with his return to the team.By John Dell, JOURNAL REPORTER
The suffocating heat is what Keith Newton remembers the most.
He quit school at Winston-Salem State in the spring of 2005, went home to Raleigh and took a job in a factory that made beef jerky. He quickly found that working 10 to 12 hours a day in an area of the factory without air conditioning could do a lot to straighten out one’s priorities.
“I came to realize how important school was, and that I really missed football,” said Newton, now a 22-year-old junior at WSSU.
Newton (6-3, 275) has plugged a hole for the Rams at nose tackle this season, and he’s making up for lost time.
He came to WSSU in the fall of 2003 ready to take on the world and be a big factor on the field. But he let his grades slip later in his career, quit the team, quit school and said he was doing everything he wasn’t supposed to be doing.
“It was all me,” he said. “I was just doing immature stuff.”
He eventually wound up at the factory, an experience he said he won’t ever forget.
“After a while, I was just like, ‘I’m not doing this,’” Newton said. “I’ve got to get back to school and get that degree.”
Newton said he did a lot of grunt work at GoodMark Foods Inc., a leading producer of meat snacks, including Slim Jims.
“I had to scrape the excess meat out of the pans,” he said. “It was tough work, and it was hot, especially near the ovens where they cooked the meats.”
During his time at GoodMark, Newton met another employee who had a college degree and after just two weeks was able to move from the factory to a position as floor manager. That was enough to convince him that he needed to return to school.
“The part where I worked at, it wasn’t air conditioned, and it was right there where the ovens were,” Newton said. “I remember they had these big trolleys that weighed about 400 pounds with the meat on them and the trolleys would get stuck and we actually had to go inside the ovens to pull them out.
“And I’m talking about it being so hot it burned your eyes and nearly burned your skin. And there was smoke, so it was just tough.”
Photo: #92 Keith Newton
Shaking off would-be blockers is a lot easier for Newton. Convincing Coach Kermit Blount that he was serious about rejoining the team wasn’t as easy.
Newton played one game in 2003, as an offensive lineman, and then was redshirted. He played two games in 2004, was injured and missed the rest of the season. He was academically ineligible for the 2005 season and was back home in Raleigh by the spring of 2006.
“I talked to Coach Blount a few times about coming back once I did get back into school,” Newton said. “Once he saw that I was committed to the team, he let me back on. And I trained a lot with a personal trainer (Marcus Nesby) who really helped me get back.”
Newton was on the team last season but made little impact. He was credited with one tackle in one game. This season, he has filled the gap at nose guard quite nicely. He had his best game in a 19-17 win over Morgan State, making 11 tackles.
“A lot of guys would have packed it in by now,” Blount said. “But I remember talking to his mother when Keith was ineligible, and she knew what a mistake he was making. But he’s rectified that mistake and is on track to get his degree and is helping us.”
Newton has to petition the NCAA to play next season, which he said he will do. He’s having too much fun on the field and in school, where he’s majoring in business.
Newton isn’t sure what he’ll be doing after he graduates. But he knows what he won’t be doing.
“I know one thing, it’s not going to be working in a factory,” he said, “unless I’m management and I’m wearing a tie.”
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