Senior cornerback and return specialist Chika Madu, whose record-breaking season has attracted attention and several honors, attributes his success over this past season to God.

Madu was recently named the Southland Conference Player of the Week, National Special Teams Player of the Week and Louisiana Sports Writer Association Special Teams Player of the Week.

The Oklahoma native was responsible for two of the Colonels’ touchdowns against Stephen F. Austin University for the Homecoming game. He scored on a 91 and 94-yard kick return. He completed the game with 304 yards on nine returns. By doing this he set the Southland Conference and Nicholls State University’s single-game kick returns in yards and touchdowns.

Madu has accumulated 1,838 kick return yards for his career, surpassing hall of famer Darryl Pounds’ previous record of 1,555. He has also beaten his own single-season record of 807 return yards with 1,031.

“It is always a blessing to achieve a goal and get honored for it,” Madu said. “I try as hard as I can to put on for my team and I play as hard as I can.”

According to the record-breaking player, he set goals at the beginning of the season. To make sure these goals were achieved, Madu knew he had to stay healthy.

“It is a gift to have good health,” Madu said. “It is also a blessing to be No. 1 all-time for anything. This has never really happened to me before.”

Madu attributes his success to God, and said without him, nothing would be possible.

“When I get on the filed right before I am about to catch a kickoff, I let the Lord know that whatever I do, I do it to glorify his name,” Madu said. “My older brother instilled in my mind the belief that anything I do in life should be for God, so I am running for him on the field. He keeps me safe and kills my fear.”

The humble follower of the Lord admits that he watches a lot of films on other players so he can learn how to become better.

“Devin Hester, Adam Jones, Dante Hall and Ted Ginn are all guys that I try to model my style after,” Madu said. “I have developed my own style, but I use some of their techniques. I see how they use the field, and it works. So far, it has worked for me too.”

For the rest of the season, Madu hopes the team can step up to the level of play. The level of play will be high when the Colonels take on McNeese State University this Saturday on the road.

Madu believes that the great atmosphere at McNeese will make everyone on the team play better and faster. The Colonels will need all the strength and speed that can muster, as they are still winless in conference.

For Madu, he hopes that contributing to his team as much as possible will assist in them defeating the Cowboys.

“I just want to contribute to all aspects of the game, whether that is on defense or special teams,” Madu said. “I just want to help my team.”