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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 25, 2018

Clayton Hatfield

Lubbock, Texas

Q. You kind of had to ride the wave of adversity a little bit through the last year, just kind of coming off some injuries and having to play hurt a little bit. How relieved are you finally to be healthy and to be able to be out there and contribute?
CLAYTON HATFIELD: It's great. It's a really good feeling. I love it, being with the team again. You know, we're pretty hot right now, so it's been a lot of fun. It's been a good experience so far.

Q. Coach Kingsbury just said they played a full game, but you guys aren't playing the best football that he thinks that you can. Just from your perspective and being able to watch the offense and the defense, what do you think? Where do you think we're at?
CLAYTON HATFIELD: I think we're doing really good. I think we're pretty -- we're rolling really good right now. Everyone is playing their butt off, playing hard for each other. It's something we haven't seen here in a while, so it's been really good.

Including myself, I haven't had the best game yet, either, so hopefully just keep getting better, this week will be perfect, and we play a really good team.

Q. Are you able to just clear your mind at this point and not have to worry about when I step down is something going to happen or anything like that?
CLAYTON HATFIELD: Oh, yeah. I mean, the pressure is all gone as far as injury. All I'm thinking about now is making the next kick, and that's all we're worried about this weekend, just making that first extra point, first field goal, whatever it is.

Q. Clayton, seems like you've had quite a few touchbacks this year, also a lot of fair catches with the kickoff rule. How do you feel about what you have done on kickoffs?
CLAYTON HATFIELD: So far on kickoffs I've been a little inconsistent. We've been trying to go for touchbacks mostly lately. It's been really good. It's helped me a few times. I hit the ball to the goal line, but thankfully I've been hitting it high enough that the fair catch rule has helped me out some so our team can get out there, and if I hit a bad ball or something like that, they can kind of bail me out by calling fair catch.

You've got to have luck on your side, I guess, depending on what the team does. But it's interesting, it makes the game a little bit faster, I think, not as hard on the guys. I know the guys really like the new rule. It helps, if I don't hit a good ball, they still fair catch it, so that way they get some rest.

Q. Have y'all talked also especially with the number of fair catches that return men have been doing possibly changing strategy sometimes just to kick the ball high, not necessarily worry about touchbacks, but hey, if you kick it high, get it to the 5-yard line, it's going to make it tough for the return man?
CLAYTON HATFIELD: Yeah, that's our goal each week. Coach tells me I work on hitting it to the 5 or deeper with good hang time, at least four seconds of hang time, that gives us enough time to get inside the 30-yard line, make a play, hopefully tackle inside the 15 like we did a couple times last weekend, and so that's where the rule is kind of iffy. You kind of give the return team a question whether he's going to fair catch it or not because if he's standing on the goal line and he's looking up, you don't know what's going on. So it's to our advantage both ways, whether he fair catches it or not.

Q. Going into last week, you and Matt Amendola were tied for fifth among active kickers in the nation in career field goal percentage. Of course he missed one and had the streak of 18 in a row snapped. When you're a kicker, obviously you want your team to win, but do you sympathize with other kickers?
CLAYTON HATFIELD: Oh, yeah. I always want them to do good. I know a few guys around the league, and it sucks because there's so much pressure on our spot. I don't want us to win a game because the kicker sucks. But at the same time you're kind of rooting for him to -- you want him to do good, but at the same time you don't want him to do too good so we win, but you don't want him to do bad. It's kind of a tricky spot when you're playing against other kickers.

Q. Seems like you're back in the groove obviously on field goals. What happened on the one that you missed the other night?
CLAYTON HATFIELD: Just pulled it a little bit. I think my alignment was just a little bit left, and I just kind of came outside the ball a little bit. It was just kind of late in the game. I guess -- we're practicing this week kind of the scenario that we were in, waiting, time out, penalty, back it up, just kind of being ready at all times. That was on me not being ready for that field goal. I should have just stepped up there and kicked it like nothing was going on.

Q. Mentally what's the process for you for not allowing one missed field goal to kind of start rolling the rock downhill?
CLAYTON HATFIELD: I mean, you've just got to think about it as, you know what, you're going to get more opportunities. We've got a lot more games left. Got a lot more chances in the red zone, and extra points. I got an extra point afterwards that really kind of boosted me back up, but then the kickoff out of bounds kind of sucked. You know, it's really good. Just got to have the mindset, you know what, I missed this one, the next one I'm going to make. There's no way I'm going to miss the next one.

Q. Unfortunately you brought it up; kicking the ball out of bounds, there's been one in at least the last three games. What's causing that? Is it just trying to angle it too much? Is it not getting the right foot on it? What's been the factor in those?
CLAYTON HATFIELD: Just later in the game, you just kind of get a little tired, try to put a little extra behind it. Everybody gets all excited, and it's just like, go kick this one really hard, and I just kind of get in my own head. I've just got to be able to kind of let everything go, what everybody tells me, and just go out there and do my job. Mentally, thankfully we've been able to get away with it, but mentally I need to finish games just like our team has been preaching all year, finishing, and that comes down to my position, as well.

Q. And it wasn't all you last year, but it was a similar problem last year in I think it was eight times last year that the team total kicked it out of bounds on the kickoff.
CLAYTON HATFIELD: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of pressure to pin them deep in that corner. With the new rule, you can get away with it. We're not one to hit it to the hash on the goal line like I did last week where they fair caught it and they returned a couple. But our target box is about five yards outside the numbers to either side and 5-yard line deeper, so that's kind of like our target every time with at least four seconds of hang time. So if we can do that, we think whether or not they return it, we're going to have a good shot of getting them inside the 20 or 25.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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