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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 16, 2018

Dominic Panazoolo

Lubbock, Texas

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Dominic.

Q. What was it like to feel some success there? How did you feel you were punting last Thursday?
DOMINIC PANAZOOLO: To be honest with you, I didn't think it was my best game. It was kind of an emotional ride for me. I mean, I wasn't really hitting the balls the way I wanted to. Kind of lucky on the last two, getting those pinned down. Thanks from (indiscernible) and De'Quan helping me out a little bit there.

Overall I thought it was a pretty solid performance.

Q. How important are those runners to a punter, get it in the spot you want it to be?
DOMINIC PANAZOOLO: Yeah, especially in the pooch game, we want to get it down as close to the goal line as possible. They're one of the big factors in that. Especially in the open field game, we have gone up returners like Turpin. The worst thing you want him doing is taking a touchdown to the house. Having those gunners on the side, you need to put them -- have as much pressure on the returner as possible.

Q. We talk about the offense and the defense, do you think the special teams gets overlooked, how that can affect outcome of the game goes?
DOMINIC PANAZOOLO: Absolutely. I think in the past, special teams has been a factor in wins and losses. I think it's one of those overlooked teams that doesn't really get the credit sometimes.

But this year, I think special teams has really stepped up and doing its job.

Q. How do you feel they factored in for this week?
DOMINIC PANAZOOLO: Yes. It doesn't matter who we're playing, special teams is always going to be a big role, no matter who.

Q. How much pride do you take in the fast that last year Turpin had zero return yards, this year is four or five?
DOMINIC PANAZOOLO: Turpin is always the guy on the calendar I look forward to every year. He's been tipped as one of the best returners in the country. As a punter, that's the thing you strive for to do well against.

Getting zero yards against him, I want to back that up again. This year unluckily he got four yards me or five yards on me. I wish it was zero. I still got the job done.

We just want to limit the returner for as less yards as possible.

Q. Are you doing that about as well as you can? The longest punt return against you is only 12 yards?
DOMINIC PANAZOOLO: So that's like the real big key to our punt scheme, is limiting the return. It's not about kicking your coverage. We could have 70-yard punts, they're going to be returning 20 to 30 yards. We try and keep it to what our returners can get to limit that return so we can get good field position for the defense.

Q. Are you getting in a groove with maybe the pooch punting? You've had so many punts inside the 20. Fourth down is coming up a lot.
DOMINIC PANAZOOLO: Yeah, for sure. I really think the pooch game is my strongest part of punting. I think I can rival anyone in the country when it comes to the pooch, especially coming from the Australian background, the Australian football we've been doing since we were four years old. I'm really comfortable in the element of that pooch punt, getting inside the 20, getting it inside the 20.

Q. You talked about Turpin. Last year you didn't give up any return yards Kansas State, T.J. Anybody else you have on your radar, you've circled, stand out to you in the return game?
DOMINIC PANAZOOLO: You just got to treat every returner the same. You have to treat everyone as if they're Turpin. Going up against this week, taking them for a very strong team. I still have to treat it as they have a strong special teams to execute our plans and be successful in that.

Q. Has Coach Scheier done anything differently with you this year or are you continuing to do a similar plan to what you had last year?
DOMINIC PANAZOOLO: It was fairly similar. Really with him, my game's all mental. Being a kicker, a specialist, is all about your mental game. He's really good about keeping a real positive attitude. Before the game he always tells us all just to go out there and have fun, be ourselves. I think that's really, like, the success is coming from.

In regards to scheme and everything, everything is kept pretty similar. He's just utilizing us for our strengths, what we can do best. He just wants to put that out on the field.

Q. After the Ole Miss game, Kliff was critical of you, harsh in his comments. How do you feel you bounced back from that? Was it hard? Did you shake it off easily?
DOMINIC PANAZOOLO: You can only use that as motivation. When your head coach is disappointed in a performance, the last thing you want to do is perform bad or do anything wrong by him. The only thing you can do is kind of step up and just take that role, take it on the chest, go out and perform the next week.

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