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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 28, 2011Justin TuckerQ. Have you come down off cloud nine yet? JUSTIN TUCKER: Yeah, we've got a 24‑hour rule around here. I know you guys have probably heard that all day but we've really got to stick to it, especially going into championship weekend. We've got a big game ahead of us. Our focus is now it's turned from A&M, mission accomplished, and now we're going toward the Baylor Bears. Q. Mack said it's 72 hours this week. JUSTIN TUCKER: I guess if you want to be a technical about it, we had a couple days to spend with our families. You can say the 72‑hour rule. But I guess in principle it's the same thing; we've got to shift our focus and move onto the next week. Q. How many phone calls, texts? Did the President of America call you? What happened? JUSTIN TUCKER: No, I didn't have the honor of hearing from our president, but I did get quite a few Tweets and Facebook messages. It was really cool to know that our fans appreciate a big win just as much as we all do in the locker room. Q. Mack said you guys were called the Automatic team, or that's what he calls the grouping of you and Cade McCrary? JUSTIN TUCKER: That's right. That's a Texas tradition actually. That's been around for a long time. We have different names for all of our special teams. The punt team is Rangers, Coach Akina's return team is Posse. But yeah, Team Automatic is the name for our field goal and extra point unit, and it is important to us that we remain automatic when we go onto the field. The name is‑‑ it's fitting most of the time, so it is‑‑ but it is one of those Texas tradition things. Q. Did I hear you're one of the guys who is potentially graduating on Saturday? JUSTIN TUCKER: I'm going to graduate this semester. Q. How does that work when you're not able to walk? Do you still do a separate ceremony or how does that happen? JUSTIN TUCKER: I actually don't know. I know that we are playing Baylor at the exact same time that we are supposed to be walking or graduating. But what I'm planning on doing is either coming back and walking in the spring or just doing a smaller sort of ceremony with some of the other guys on the team who are graduating around the same time. Q. Coach joked about the 24‑hour, 72‑rule. Does it make that much of a difference for you or can you carry that momentum and emotion into the Baylor game? JUSTIN TUCKER: Well, it certainly is a part of any football player's and coach's mindset is you do have to have a 24‑hour rule, especially after‑‑ I mean, I know the kick that I made was‑‑ it's a big kick, and you guys asked me if I had come down from cloud nine yet. Yeah, I mean, that's part of it. That's the nature of the beast, and this is a business when it comes down to it, people's jobs are on the line, and there's a lot of pride at stake. But being able to move forward after your successes or your losses or failures is a very key component of what makes a good team good or makes a team be able to improve on a weekly basis. Q. Mack said he asked Cade after the game if he was nervous, and he said he was scared to death or something like that. Did you say anything to him before the kick? You said you weren't really nervous, right? JUSTIN TUCKER: No, I mean, I was all smiles. I mean, I was just having a good time enjoying the moment because that's about as hostile of an environment as you can have in college football, Kyle Field with their 85,000‑plus fans, however many there were. They were pretty dang loud. So I can understand that Cade may have said to Coach Brown that he was nervous, but what I always say to him before any kick is pretty much the same. We have a little saying that we keep between ourselves. Maybe one day after I graduate I'll share it with y'all, but we've got to keep it in the family until then. Q. But you didn't notice him nervous or‑‑ JUSTIN TUCKER: I mean, he did a great job. He put the ball exactly where it needed to be. I always give him just a little spot, and it's about the diameter of a dime, and he put it right on there and had the laces pointing exactly where it needed to go. So kudos to him. If he was nervous, I couldn't tell, because he and Alex Zumberge did a great job. Q. Where do you need to make the most improvement in the punting game? Where do you think you need to‑‑ JUSTIN TUCKER: Going into this week, I'm really trying to just focus on getting more distance out of my punts. It sounds like it's pretty simple because it is. A lot of guys who are specialists, kickers or punters or sometimes even quarterbacks, they'll be a head case and say, well, I need to change this about what I'm doing, and then it leads to inconsistencies. So what I'm trying to do is just keep it simple. I mean, my grandfather when I was a junior in high school gave me the best advice. He wasn't a kicker, he was a linebacker back in the day, but he told me, just kick the ball. It's pretty simple. Just kick it as hard as you can, and the rest will take care of itself. As far as going through this week, punting, I'm just going to try to kick it farther. Q. What are your aspirations, professional punter or placekicker, or do you care? JUSTIN TUCKER: Obviously I'd love to do everything from take snaps at QB to catching touchdown passes. But as it is, I do love scoring points and putting points on the board for our team and just propelling us to victories is probably one of the most satisfying things about being a placekicker and a kickoff guy. And as far as punting, being an option to mix it up with a different style of punting is something that I can do, or pooch punting is something that I've been pretty good at. But as far as professionally, we'll worry about that when the time comes. As far as any other football‑related things, postgraduate, that will come after Baylor. Q. People have said because you've had to do so much this year, your leg was tired. Has that happened at any point this year, that you've felt the effects of it? JUSTIN TUCKER: I really wouldn't say I've felt the effects of it. As with anybody else on the team, you're going to get nicked up and you might have bumps and scrapes and scars and you might be sore. For me I don't really get hit a lot or hit too many people to where I'm in the training room for hours and hours after a game. So for me what it is, it is‑‑ there can be a little bit of attrition over the course of a season, but it's just a mindset. Whereas like a couple seasons ago I was maybe letting it get to me a little bit later in the season where I would lose a couple yards on my kickoffs, I would lose maybe three or four, and this season instead of losing yards I'm‑‑ I may lose a yard or two on a kickoff, but I'm still hitting a 4‑0 or 4‑1 or 4‑3 hang time and allowing our coverage to get down there. Props to our Wild Bunch, that's a nickname for our kickoff coverage team, they did a great job this week with some big tackles inside the 25 setting our defense up with good field position. But as far as the leg getting tired, that's just‑‑ it's really more of a mindset than anything, I think, at this point. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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