BEREA, Ohio -- Former University of Utah inside linebacker Nate Orchard knew it was time to mature and take his responsibilities seriously.
A husband to the former Maegan Webber and father to a daughter, Katherine Mae, Orchard buckled down in his approach to the game of football prior to his senior season at Utah, and that led to a career-best 18.5 sacks for 118 lost yards in 13 games for the Utes, which led the Cleveland Browns to select him with the 51st overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft.
"The jump from 3.5 to 18.5, it was a mindset," Orchard said. "Being married, having the stability and realizing that football is the way I'm going to feed my family, I have to take it more seriously and do my work and become the best player I know I can be, and I did just that.
"I come with stability. That's the biggest thing. I come to football, do my work. Off the field, I do what I need to do, and just keep that aspect and stay responsible."
Although Orchard credited the increased production to his maturity level, the seeds to his success were planted long before he stepped on Utah's campus.
The son of Tonga native Ana Fakahafua, Orchard was born in the Inglewood section of Los Angeles, California, and moved around a lot as a child before he landed in Utah at the age of 10. He eventually moved in with the family of his coach, Dave Orchard. Grateful for the sacrifices Dave and Katherine Orchard made by welcoming him in their family, Orchard took his legal guardian's name prior to his wedding.
"I moved in with the Orchard family, went to my coach's house and pretty much asked him if I could live with them. He said yes. I've been with them for 10 years now," Orchard said. "They've been great to me. They never gave up on me. I ran away a lot as a kid, was stubborn, didn't want to be in the environment. It was a new culture, so it was a culture shock.
"I made it work and right before I got married three years ago, I had some complications with my family. I couldn't find out who my real father was and I knew that the Orchard family was true to me and I changed my name to theirs, knowing that these are my parents and I'm proud to call them mom and dad, so I changed my last name to theirs right before I got married."
By settling in with his new family and at Utah despite a position change from wide receiver to defensive end, Orchard found a mission on the football field, and that was "just wanting to get home, man, just get to the quarterback."
Now that the hard work manifested itself into a chance at an NFL career, Orchard looks forward to working with his new family, particularly Browns defensive coordinator Jim O'Neil and assistant linebackers coach Brian Fleury, as well as former Utah standout Paul Kruger, in order to make Cleveland's defense very difficult to play against.
"Converting to outside linebacker for the Browns, that's something I'm excited for, and I can't wait to get coached up by Coach Fleury and do amazing things, go out and be under his wing with the rest of that outside linebacker group," Orchard said. "Paul Kruger's there, a former Ute, so I'm looking forward to learning from him.
"We haven't talked too much about being in Cleveland. We talk more about the NFL life and how it's so different than college. It has a more business aspect to it, but he was here in the summer, last summer, working out with the team, conditioning and things like that. I had a chance to hang out with him and talk. I'm looking forward to being a teammate."
