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ROSE BOWL GAME: OREGON v FLORIDA STATEDecember 28, 2014DeForest BucknerPASADENA, CALIFORNIA Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Yeah, I mean, at times, yeah. I mean, but it was instilled in me from a young age, since my dad's situation, I mean, I kind of‑‑ when somebody needs to take charge at some points, when nobody wants to step up, I mean, I'll be the guy. Q. What goes into that? DEFOREST BUCKNER: You know, like just red steak, kalvi (phon). Q. What's that? DEFOREST BUCKNER: It's a different kind of meat. Q. A Hawaiian thing? DEFOREST BUCKNER: Yeah, a lot of local people eat it. Yeah, Korean, Korean. Yeah, he taught me and my brother when we was younger, I mean, we kind of‑‑ pretty much I feel like every time I go home, I'm the one barbecuing‑‑ me and my brother are the ones barbecuing. Actually we had a Christmas party for me Sunday, the day after we got back. I just came back home, and my brother was like, I swear, every time we pull out the grill, it's only when you come home. Q. What goes into making good barbecue, the preparation or the way you cook it? DEFOREST BUCKNER: It's definitely the preparation. My mom does a really good job with soaking the meats and all that stuff and seasoning and that stuff. Me and my brother, we just cook it. The main part of the barbecue is probably from my mom, yeah. Q. When did you first start getting (inaudible)? DEFOREST BUCKNER: I mean, when I first started putting on weight, it was probably after my senior season in high school, just all throughout high school I was pretty much a toothpick. I played basketball so I feel like I had more of a basketball body, and I gradually put on weight, though, every year. My freshman year I was like 185, sophomore year I went up to 205, and then junior year I went up to 220, and then senior year I got up to 240, and then after the season I put on 20 pounds. I was just in the weight room the whole time, and when I got up here, I was like 260. Q. What are you now? DEFOREST BUCKNER: 290. Q. I want to go back to (inaudible) you were kind of getting out of the shower, your mom was (inaudible) do you remember? DEFOREST BUCKNER: Yeah, when I got out of the shower, I was going to my room, and my mom was a got call‑‑ my room is right down the hall from the kitchen, and she answered the phone, and she was like, hello, and she's like, who is this, and she's like, where is my husband. She was just like, what? So I didn't know what was going on because she was being loud, and so I went to the kitchen, I was just like sitting in there while she was talking on the phone, and she's like, all right, I'll be there in a sec. She just hopped off the phone and she's like, your dad was in an accident by 76, and I'll be back. And she just left. I was just like, you know, it happened so fast, and she just got up through‑‑ I was like passing the word on to my brother and sister and we were just waiting there, like how big was the accident, all this stuff. We thought it was kind of like‑‑ I was thinking it was in his truck because I forgot the truck wasn't working so he took his motorcycle to work, so I was just like, oh, man, what's going on, and then my mom called and she was like, I'm in the ambulance right now, your dad was in a really bad accident. She got home, and she was saying my cousin is going to pick us up, take us to my grandma's house. I just remember that whole night I couldn't sleep, couldn't sleep. I think my Uncle Tony called us, my dad's brother, and later on that week he came down, he stayed with us for about a week just to keep our spirits up, and he took care of me, my brother and my sister, my mom, and he was visiting my dad and everything. That was the first time I ever met my uncle, and he became like a second dad to me during that‑‑ just during that week. Yeah, it was very nice to see him. Q. What kind of thoughts were going through your mind? DEFOREST BUCKNER: I mean, my mom told me that it was a bad accident, so I just‑‑ I mean, the worst was going through my mind, you know. I mean, I could lose my dad. I just remember I couldn't sleep at all. It was probably the worst night of my life. Q. How many days from when you first found out? DEFOREST BUCKNER: How many days? Huh. I want to say at most a week, I think. I just remember being in the hospital all the time, especially after his first surgery, we was all in the lobby, me and my whole family. My extended family, too, just being in the lobby, just being in the hotel all night. Q. What do you remember about the first time you saw him? DEFOREST BUCKNER: Just saw everything hooked up to him. Obviously he was in a coma, and he looked kind of beat up. Growing up, my dad, he was a strong guy, so I was like, nothing can take him down, you know what I mean? So I just‑‑ I remember grabbing his hand and just praying. Q. How do you think that affected you? DEFOREST BUCKNER: It shook me a lot. Mostly everything I know is from him. He never played football, but he loved watching football Sundays and Mondays. He would tell me little things I was doing wrong. Even though he didn't play football I still took it into account because he was pretty much my sideline coach for basketball because he played basketball at Ole Miss for a year and stuff like that, and Tennessee. He's from Tennessee and he's an all‑state player and stuff like that. He was pretty much my coach my whole life, any kind of athletics I did. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: I'd say going into my junior year. When I came into high school I was more‑‑ growing up all I played was basketball, since I was seven, and I mean, I started playing football in fifth grade. It was a thing where I loved basketball and I liked football and all of that, and my coach, we were going up to Vegas going into my junior year, during the summer, and I got hurt. I think I partially tore a ligament in my ankle, so I was just like, man, your junior year is the biggest time for basketball and everything. I was like, man, that dream probably got shot down because my coach had some D1 coaches come out to Vegas to watch the tournament. I was just like, well, obviously I've got football, so I just prepared for the football season, and after that season I kind of just flipped a switch, and I mean, now I love football and I like basketball. Q. What do people say about the (inaudible) on film? There's a lot of seniors, and they feel comfortable enough to switch their left tackle to center. What do you see in them? DEFOREST BUCKNER: I mean, they're a big, athletic offensive line. They don't really have a lot of tendencies as a line and as an offense as a whole, so we've just got to‑‑ I mean, prepare for everything. They do a really good job with protecting Jameis in the pass protection and everything, and it should be a good one on Saturday. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Being a freshman, he's a big body and everything, so he's holding his own, and I mean, it's pretty cool how they have that much trust in him and everything, especially everybody else is a senior. It's going to be interesting going against him. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: This year? Andrus Peat from Stanford‑‑ Q. You've got to feel pretty good about how you came out of that one. DEFOREST BUCKNER: Yeah, yeah. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Just making sure you've got initial strike. I mean, it's just from the snap of the ball, you can't really focus on trying to make a play, you've got to focus on your block first, and then once you've got that, then you can throw off and make a play. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Yeah, yeah. Probably like mid‑October, yeah. This game is definitely going to show how our whole defense can stay in it for a whole game. Q. What else do you guys have to do (inaudible)? DEFOREST BUCKNER: I mean, yeah, that was kind of the thing the whole season. If we're up by a touchdown or even four touchdowns or whatever it is, I mean, we don't let our foot off the gas because anything can happen. It's college football. Look at Florida State and all the teams that are up against them, and they kind of let up, and they came back, and they just know how to finish. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Not really. Teams play them honestly and aggressively, too, and they honestly just know how to win. They've got Jameis Winston. He's a playmaker, and a couple other guys like Rashad Greene. They're a second‑half team and they know how to adjust, so when they make those adjustments we're going to have to adjust, too. Q. Can you talk about your relationship with Marcus? DEFOREST BUCKNER: My relationship with Marcus and the other guys from Hawai'i, I didn't know any of them except for Davis who's a freshman this year. He went to my high school. Coming in, I mean, they really embraced me. It's like a family within a family. I didn't know Marcus at all my freshman year. He let me hang out with him. Him and Bronson Yim took me to spots, and Koa Ka'ai, like where to eat, and all that stuff, I took that on and I kind of really tried to help Davis out. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: He's fast. Yeah, he's a fast dude, and when he gets out to the perimeter, you're going to have to make the open‑field tackle on him, because he's a shifty guy. They've started to trust him a lot more towards the end of the season. He's a really good football player. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: I mean, in the Pac‑12 we've got a whole bunch of good running backs, too. We play against a lot of perimeter run teams, and so I mean, I don't think it'll be that big of a disadvantage and stuff like that. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Yeah, I feel like I'm playing a little better. It has to do with the off‑season and what I did and how I prepared with the other guys on the D‑line. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: We all just‑‑ everybody keeps saying that we're soft, and the D‑line is going to have a drop‑off when Taylor Hart and Wade and Ricky leave, so we didn't want that to happen, and we didn't want to prove everybody right, so we just kind of stepped up and just worked in the off‑season. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: We didn't put it to rest until we're finished. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Yeah, I feel like for anybody, you know, when‑‑ if you're still here, you're kind of like, if I don't make the play, then Teddy is going to have to make it, because he's the guy and all that stuff. Yeah, exactly. When he left, I mean, I felt like somebody on the defense was going to‑‑ on the D‑line is going to have to be that guy, and I kind of just‑‑ every day, every day I go out I try to be an impact player. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: No, when you love what you do, I mean, it's not that hard. You kind of just go with it. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Coach pulled me aside a couple times, and he taught me it's your year and stuff like that, you know, and we're going to try and‑‑ like coach tried to adjust the defense a lot more. Coach Pellum, he adjusted the defense for more penetration and being able to move instead of just 2 depth all of the time so we can show our athleticism, and I think he did a really good job this year with helping us, like me and Eric and Balducci to be able to move and not just 2 depth all of the time and I think that's where a lot of our success came from. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: I can't really pinpoint a time of the year. Q. What was the turning point? You obviously were a different player the second half of the season. What happened? DEFOREST BUCKNER: I mean, after the Arizona game, we all knew that wasn't us, the way we practiced up to that point, it wasn't the same as the years before, like running to the ball in practice and finishing and all of that. We kind of definitely stepped up our game in practice and stuff like that, and that's when I really started going hard and stuff like that. It really helped us with finishing plays and making plays when we get to the ball. Q. Was it just the intensity? Was it technique? DEFOREST BUCKNER: It was intensity and it was communication, yeah. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Being from Waianae and representing Waianae, it means a lot to me because it's where I'm from, it's where I grew up, and I mean, it's just nice being able to make a difference in the community in a sense and being able to show younger kids that no matter how small of a place you're from that you can make it in big places. Q. Do you have any family or close friends who (inaudible)? DEFOREST BUCKNER: Fortunately enough, no. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Yeah, I mean, not every day. They cleared up the beaches and stuff, especially across the street from my house. It's nice. It's beautiful out there, and there was a time where you could barely see the beach from my house because there was a lot of tents and stuff like that. But it definitely cleared up years ago. The community, it's a lot better place. Q. It's a long drive (inaudible) what made you start there? DEFOREST BUCKNER: My freshman year in high school. Q. Did you ever think that it was too long a drive? DEFOREST BUCKNER: Every morning. Q. What time did you have to get up? DEFOREST BUCKNER: 4:30. Most days my mom would drive me into school because she worked in town, but sometimes I'd just catch the bus, which took like two hours. I mean, everybody has those days where it's‑‑ the easier route is this way and all that stuff, but I knew my parents and God had a plan for me to go to school, so I just stick with it. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Yeah, it's definitely noticeable. They were giving up a couple sacks and TFLs, and there was a lot more pressure on Jameis, and since they made the switch, it's been noticeable that they've been protecting Jameis a lot better, and their run game has been working a lot more. It's just a thing we're going to have to deal with, and we'll see how the outcome comes on Saturday. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: To see him go down, it was kind of a heartbreaker for anybody on the team. I mean, knowing Ifo and the future he had for himself, it's never good. To anybody really. I felt sad for him because I mean, it's a hard thing to go through, but I mean, we've got a young guy Chris Seisay that is going to play this year and he's been playing really well, and I think he's going to hold his own. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: He likes to stay in the pocket, but when you get pressure on him, I mean, he can beat you with his feet, so we're going to have to do a really good job of containing him. Q. You talked about Seisay. It's not really a black and white situation. How valuable was getting some rest? DEFOREST BUCKNER: Yeah, I mean, it was definitely good. It's a positive thing for them and us as a team because unfortunately Ifo is down, and now Chris has to start. He got other playing time under his belt throughout the year, and he's done a really good job with the receivers and stuff. I think he's going to have a really good game this game. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Definitely. You always want to go against the best, you know, and being able to go against Florida State's offensive line, it's going to be fun. It kind of brings me back to Tennessee last year. I mean, them boys, they was a different breed. They was a different breed. I'm pretty sure all of them are in the league this year. It's just nice being able to go against the top guys. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Yeah, Stanford, Michigan State earlier this year. So it should be a fun game. Q. (Inaudible.) DEFOREST BUCKNER: Yeah, throughout the past like two weeks, Coach has been talking about just putting a body on guys, and Jameis is definitely a guy you've got to put a body on. You can't arm tackle him because he's going to break free. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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