Behind the Facemask: Ramon Buchanan

June 7, 2011

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – They want to tell their story. They want you – their loyal fans – to get to know them better. Over the next two months, HurricaneSports.com will continue the unique journey into the lives of each and every one of  Al Golden’s Hurricanes. 

Ramon Buchanan | Linebacker | Senior | Melbourne, Fla.

I’m a chef and I like to experiment. I’m pretty good with alfredo shrimp pasta.

I’m more of a dinner guy than a breakfast guy. I love wings, so it’s definitely dinner for me.  Sports Grill has some good wings.

My favorite meal to eat is probably crab legs.

I try and stay off Twitter. I’m more of a Facebook guy.

I love to meet new faces. I’m also big into dirt-biking and paintballing.

Palm Bay, Florida is home. It’s about three hours north of here on the east side of the state.

I grew up as a Canes fan. I used to live in Fort Lauderdale, so that’s when I started watching them. They were always playing and always winning, and I thought I wanted to go there.

I moved up to Palm Bay in sixth grade, and it’s Gator Nation up there. I was still a Canes fan, but when I started going on my recruiting trips, the Gators impressed me.

They [Florida] almost persuaded me to go there. I wouldn’t change my decision for the world; I’ve enjoyed my four years here.

My freshman year I worked out with Jonathan Vilma. I’ve watched him play with the Saints a lot. I can see me being a lot like him as a player, he came out as light, not weighing too much.

I keep to myself a lot of the time. Sometimes I’m in my own little world. When you see me walking around, I’m probably not even thinking about what’s around me.

If not the NFL, I want to own my own business. I’d start from the bottom and go all the way up. Maybe own some restaurants or something like that.

My favorite place to visit is Jamaica. My family is from there. You feel the freedom there. You can relax, you can do anything.

One place I would want to go to is Madrid. It’s pretty laid back. I want to go to Spain, and Madrid would be the first place over there I would go.

Sometimes I get superstitious. One time I had an early morning workout and I was walking from the dorms and a black cat walked past me. I went all the way around to avoid it. (laughs) LaRon Byrd is real superstitious. He’ll always shake your hand with two hands and open the door with two hands. He won’t step on cracks when he walks. I got him once, though. We were walking by the U.C one time and I took him down a sidewalk I knew had a lot of cracks on it. I got him good (laughs).

I have two tattoos. I have a lion and my name written in Chinese. I got the lion freshman year and got the other one last year.

I like rap and R&B, but I also like house music. Reggae too.

I have a lot of favorite artists. Young Jeezy, Bob Marley, Rick Ross, Alicia Keys. Bruno Mars too, he has a lot of good music.

If I didn’t play football, I would probably play soccer. I would go overseas to play though (laughs).

I’ve enjoyed working with the new coaches. It’s been good getting to know them these past few months.

I really connect with Coach D’Onofrio. He’s pretty cool, even though he’s crazy. I am lucky to learn from him.

It’s been pretty easy transitioning with the new defense. All the reads are the same; you’re just in a different spot. They’re playing me on the line sometimes now, and that was something I had to get used to because I wasn’t familiar with it.

I’m comfortable with the defense. It took some time to adjust, but I’m good with it now.

On the team, I’m probably tightest with C.J. Holton, Andrew Smith, Olivier Vernon, and Marcus Robinson.

This is my last year and I’m ready to go out big. The coaches are doing a good job with how they have us disciplined and getting us there.

Make sure to check in for a new Behind the Facemask profile each and everyday in preparation for the Hurricane football season opener. For a review of all past profiles, check out Behind the Facemask Central.