North Carolina State University Athletics
Preseason Q&A: Special Teams Coach Jerry Petercuskie
8/16/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
But there were a handful of good reasons that Petercuskie, NC State’s special teams coach and recruiting coordinator, wanted to come South with O’Brien, with whom he had worked at Virginia for two years and for at Boston College for 10 years. Like O'Brien, Petercuskie was impressed with the the school's state-of-the-art facilities, the administration's commitment to building a successful program and the devotion of NC State’s passionate fan base and wanted to help build a winning program in Raleigh.
An avid golfer, he also was excited about the opportunity of playing the game year-round, unlike Boston, where the golf season barely outlasts the off-season summer conditioning program. Petercuskie has a major challenge ahead of him as he looks for a replacement placekicker, punter, kickoff specialist and long-snapper. He talked with GoPack.com managing editor Tim Peeler about the progress of the Wolfpack’s special teams and discussed the new staff’s recruiting philosophy.
GoPack.com: You have a lot to replace on special teams, especially the kicking positions that were handled by John Deraney last season. How are your guys coming along?Petercuskie: The greatest thing about this part of it is that we have some pretty good competition right now in camp. Not a lot of experience. Not too many guys have played, but we have some competition, which always makes those guys better. They know they have to come out every day and grind it out and figure out who is going to win the job.
GoPack.com: Can you talk about the guys who are competing for the placekicker job?Petercuskie: There are a number of guys competing in there: Josh Czajkowski, Steven Hauschka and Bradley Pierson. Right now, nobody has really come to the forefront, so they are still competing. Over the next couple of weeks, we are looking for the cream to rise to the top and for someone to win the job.
GoPack.com: Would you prefer to have one guy handling all the kicking duties, or do you want someone separately to do punting, kickoffs and field goal kicking?Petercuskie: It’s a matter of who is the best. It doesn’t matter to us if one guy does it all, if there are three guys doing it or if there is a specialist doing a special kind of kick or punt. It’s the guy who gives us the opportunity to execute what Coach O’Brien wants done.
GoPack.com: Previously, coaches wanted to find the kickoff guy who could get as many touchbacks as possible. The NCAA kind of legislated that out of the game this year by moving the spot of the kickoff back five yards. Does that change what you are looking for in your kickoff specialist?Petercuskie: I think for sure there are going to be more returns in the kicking game, just like there are in the NFL. The ball comes out a lot. What we are looking for is someone who can hang the ball up, preferably around 3.9-4.0 seconds and can get the ball down around the 5-yard line.
GoPack.com: Talk a little about your punters.Petercuskie: We have three kids vying for that also: Jeff Ruiz, Nathan Franklin and Bradley Pierson. The key thing we are looking for there is the consistency aspect of it. They can all hit the ball well when they hit it, but you don’t want John Daly out there where you have a two-stroke penalty half the time.
GoPack.com: When do want to have someone in place for all those things?Petercuskie: We have another 10 days before we finalize things. We just talked about it after practice. They have 10 days to buckle it up and get after it during practice.
GoPack.com: It’s always a forgotten thing until something goes wrong, but you are breaking in a new deep snapper. How is that going so far?Petercuskie: Both Corey Tedder and Mike Mauer are working very hard. They are both students of the game who were here all summer. They haven’t been in a football game, but so far in camp they have done pretty well.
GoPack.com: How much time do you spend working on special teams during a daily practice?Petercuskie: We usually start out with one of the six phases of special teams play at the beginning of practice and then throughout practice. We usually have about 25 minutes of special teams work throughout each practice.
GoPack.com: How difficult was it for you to leave Boston College after having played there, worked there and have your father work there as the defensive coordinator?Petercuskie: We are excited as heck to be here. This is a beautiful place and this is a great opportunity to perform in front of the most enthusiastic group of fans that I have been around in a long time. It’s a joy to be here. My son transferred to NC State and is in the College of Business here. He’s excited about being here because he loves to play golf. He is also doing some video work for us, just like he did at Boston College. It’s been a good transition for the whole family.
GoPack.com: Talk a little bit about the recruiting aspect of your job.Petercuskie: The biggest thing about recruiting that has changed the last couple of years is that it is now a 12-month job. All the guys are working their areas, spear-headed by Coach O’Brien. We have a staff meeting once a week to talk specifically about recruiting. We have six days in the fall during the season when we can have seven guys out on the road recruiting.
GoPack.com: What is your long-term philosophy in terms of getting verbal commitments early and late in the recruiting process?Petercuskie: Coach O’Brien’s philosophy has always been if that we are going to extend to the family our word that we are offering a scholarship, then we expect them to extend their word to us, because there are other families involved. We want everybody to be on the up-and-up. We want them to go with their heart and when they go with it, they stick with it. We wouldn’t mind, now, having a few big announcements on Signing Day, if it is a player that hasn’t made a decision yet. But hopefully, the guys that we have are the right families, and they make a decision based on where they want to go and they stick with it.
GoPack.com: What is your assessment of the quality of high school football talent in the state of North Carolina?Petercuskie: Coach O’Brien has mentioned this many, many times, and it is the philosophy of the entire staff is that we are going to recruit in-state first. If we can get a group of North Carolina players that understand the tradition of NC State football, that is a big factor. We want them to have the institutional loyalty and understand the local rivalries. We will start in the state. Each of our nine guys have an area we recruit. Coach O’Brien is emphatic that we touch all the schools in the state.
GoPack.com: How important are the neighboring states?Petercuskie: I think establishing relationships with coaches in South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and even still in the Northeast corridor where we still have some ties is important. Florida is another spot we will look to as we establish our relationships here in the South.
If you have a question for an assistant coach, e-mail it to tim_peeler@ncsu.edu and it may be included in an upcoming question-and-answer session.
