Recently, Panthers Wire met up with Luke Kuechly, who was promoting his hilarious new Campbell’s Chunky Soup ad in the basement of Draught, a restaurant in Charlotte just a minute’s walk from Bank of America stadium.

Kuechly answered a number of questions about his inspirations, his process and his place in the sport.

Panthers Wire: What football players did you look up to growing up?

Luke Kuechly: When I was growing up, there was Derrick Brooks, Ray Lewis, Zach Thomas were some guys I watched. Being from Cincinnati, the Bengals were always playing the Ravens, and Derrick Brooks was always fun to watch, as was Zach Thomas.

Panthers Wire: Speaking of Ray Lewis, if you look at the stats for your first 74 games and his, they are eerily similar. How do you feel about that?

Luke Kuechly: Well he did it for a long time, and he was very consistent so you know I think that’s the biggest thing in this league, consistency, and you have guys who are able to do that for a long time, so when you talk about linebackers, him and you know Brian Urlacher and those guys I talked about prior, they were able to do it for a long time and at a consistent pace, I think that’s what everyone strives to do.

Panthers Wire: When the offense lines up, what is the mental check list you go through? What do you look at?

Luke Kuechly: I think the biggest thing is you gotta figure out the defense we are playing, you gotta look for formation tendencies, down and distance. You gotta get the defensive line lined up first, the first thing you do is close the front, make sure they are lined up correctly, then you gotta make sure your getting all your adjustments based on formation, down and distance, maybe get your certain personnel groupings in, make adjustments based off that, then pretty much the biggest thing is get the front closed, like I said, and make all your adjustments based on formation.

Panthers Wire: How do you think the defense would fare in a two minute drill against the offense?

Luke Kuechly: We have that situation every week, and honestly it goes back and forth. Those guys do a good job, and Cam and those guys get in a rhythm in that two minute drill and it’s hard to stop them. We do that about once or twice a week and honestly throughout the season it’s been pretty much split down the middle.

Panthers Wire: Well I imagine in a game situation, where you’re actually hitting the quarterback..

Luke Kuechly: Well I think in a gametime [situation], hopefully we would get the edge on them.

Panthers Wire: What was your first big purchase with your first NFL paycheck?

Luke Kuechly: The first big purchase . . . the first thing I wanted was a couch. In the back of my mind, I always wanted a nice big comfortable couch. I got a car and a couch, and those were my two biggest purchases when I got in.

Panthers Wire: What is your favorite kind of running back to tackle?

Luke Kuechly: One that’s not too fast, he’s not going to juke me, but there’s not a lot of guys like those in the NFL right now . . . we just played Devonta Freeman for the [Atlanta] Falcons and he’s a a really good back. He’s quick, he’s shifty, he’s got burst. People always talk about contact balance and he’s got that. He’s a hard guy to tackle. Those guys are fun to play against because they present a challenge on every play and you gotta make sure you’re on your game or they’re going to make you miss.

Panthers Wire: So which one would prefer to tackle, Darren Sproles or Frank Gore?

Luke Kuechly: Oh gosh, I’ve played against both of them, and they both present different challenges. You know, Frank Gore is . . . they’re both difficult because Sproles is going to make you miss, and Frank can make you miss but he can also run through you. There’s different approaches to attack with those guys, but you definitely want to get to them before they get going too quick.

Panthers Wire: Is there a specific memory of the hardest guy you had to tackle?

Luke Kuechly: Marshawn Lynch is a stud. He’s big, he’s physical, he’s strong, he runs real wide. He’s a good player.

Panthers Wire: A couple interviews I read, I saw you mention the word “routine” a lot. Work me through your pregame “routine,” what’s your morning like before a game?

Luke Kuechly: I think you get up, eat breakfast, you get to the stadium, and the routine for me really kicks in during the week. How you attack your week as far as preparation and film study and making sure you’re physically ready to go. As far as on the game, you eat a good breakfast, making sure you’re good to go there, then you go to the stadium and you slowly build up to the game. I think the more you do it in a consistent routine way, I think your body and your mind sort of anticipate the game and once the game roles around, it doesn’t pop up on it.

Panthers Wire: Do you do any last minute film study before the game?

Luke Kuechly: Not really, I think by then I’m pretty much good. I’ll just read over my notes again.

Check out the bloopers and photos from Kuechly’s commercial.

Panthers Wire: How much time do you spend preparing for a game physically vs. mentally?

Luke Kuechly: I think mentally is the biggest part. I couldn’t put an hour number on it, but we’re there a lot, usually Monday, Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and Friday, those are my big preparation days, and each day you watch something different, whether it’s run game or third down, or first and second down pass stuff, and you gotta try to get them all knocked out because you will be put in those situations in the game, and you gotta be ready for them.

Panthers Wire: What do you think of publications that watch all-22 game film and assign grades to players for their performances?

Luke Kuechly: I think there is some legitimacy to it, I think the thing that’s hard is, you know, you could be playing a defense and, you know, we could have different intricacies of that defense during the week, and it could change week to week, and sometimes its easy to tell sometimes its hard to tell. Those guys do a good job, and sometimes little small things are hard to figure out what exactly everyone is doing.

Panthers Wire: Do you have any advice for high school kids playing the linebacker position?

Luke Kuechly: Play with your hands. The better you can play with your hands and keep guys off you, the cleaner you are to get to the ball. You gotta keep the big guys away from you or else it’s difficult to play.

Panthers Wire: Speaking of hands, you have two interceptions so far this season and they looked pretty eerily similar. Was that film study? Or was that just recognizing [where] the play was going?

Luke Kuechly: I think it’s a little of both. You see stuff during practice and during the week, and when you get it during the game it’s cool. We had some of that stuff during the week we practice, and when [they] came out in the formation, you understand that this is what they can run out of that formation. Fortunately for us, they ran what we thought they were going to run and we were able to make a play on it.

Panthers Wire: Do you get excited when they get down in a formation you’re familiar with?

Luke Kuechly: Yeah it just makes you happy that all the preparation you put in worked.

Panthers Wire: I’ve heard that you are a big fishing fan – are there any specific places you plan to go in the future that you haven’t been yet?

Luke Kuechly: I think it’d be cool to go to the Bahamas. They have good bone fishing down there, that’s the place I’ve wanted to go. . . Maybe one of those days I’ll get to do that.

Panthers Wire: If you could take one trait from another linebacker in the league, what would it be?

Luke Kuechly: Oh man . . . one trait . . . if I could be . . . I think if you could be the fastest, I don’t know who the fastest guy out there is, but speed is a great equalizer, and whoever the fastest is out there, I’d take that. . . I think Bobby Wagner’s fast, I think Deion Jones of Atlanta is super fast. Speed is big time, because it can get you out of holes.

Panthers Wire: You’ve intercepted 13 passes. Is there one that sticks out to you the most?

Luke Kuechly: I think the one we got in the divisional game against the Seahawks. It was right in the beginning of the game, the guy up front made a really good move, forcing the ball out and we were able to score a touchdown on it. We went up big early in the game, I think that’s a momentum shifting play that helped us out.

Panthers Wire: What did you do after the Super Bowl loss?

Luke Kuechly: I think you get frustrated and upset that you didn’t win, but at the end of the day you kind of look back down the road and realize it was a great accomplishment at the end of a great season, and you hope you can just get back there and right the ship.

Panthers Wire: When did you start thinking you could make it to the NFL?

Luke Kuechly: I think it’s a process from when you are real young, you know, you think you play in high school, and you do it, and you think you can play in college, and you play in college and you think you can play in the NFL. I think it’s a step by step ladder, and things went well in high school and then college, and fortunately I was able to step it up and make it to the NFL.

Panthers Wire: Who is the fastest Panthers player?

Luke Kuechly: Oh man, the fastest guy on our team. I think Colin Jones, one of our DBs, is fast, I think Damiere Byrd is really fast, Kevon Seymour, our new corner is pretty fast, you got some guys who can run. . . I don’t know who the fastest of those guys are, but they all can go a little bit.

Panthers Wire: What’s the biggest difference between Steve Wilks and Sean McDermott?

Luke Kuechly: I think Wilks will come after you a little more, he’s shown a tendency to blitz guys a little more often, but same general scheme, it’s just a different guy calling it.

Panthers Wire: You have a matchup against Jay Cutler coming up. What do you see from him on tape?

Luke Kuechly: He’s got a big strong arm, he can put the ball wherever he wants. I think he moves better than people give him credit for. He did really well last week [against Oakland], he threw three touchdown passes and for 300 yards. Those guys are good, they have good receivers on the edge. I think Jarvis Landry is really good, I think Devonte Parker is stepping up. They got some guys that can really catch it, and you have to make sure you’re ready for it.

Panthers Wire: Are there any individual goals you have before you retire?

Luke Kuechly: No, I just think that you want to win as many games as you can and play in as many big games as you can. The playoffs, and guys always want to get to the Super Bowl every year, and for me it’s not so much individual, you just want to win as a team.