North Carolina State University Athletics
Red & White Preview: Specialists
8/11/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Editor’s note: Throughout the preseason, GoPack.com will present a Q&A with one player from each position on offense and defense to talk about the personalities and players within that group. Sophomore placekicker Josh Czajkowski leads off discussing the specialists. Look for more previews throughout the preseason.
GoPack: How do you feel about your role with the team?
Czajkowski: As of right now, my role is to do anything to help the team. You work really hard all day long to get your five minutes of practice to do what you have been working on every day. The primary thing for me is to be consistent and smooth in whatever I can do to get the ball through the uprights basically.
GoPack.com: Was it hard waiting for your turn to be the starting placekicker?
Czajkowski: Stephen Hauschka was a great kicker and I loved watching him kick. Just being around him and John Deraney was huge for me, because they were both so successful. It puts the idea in your head: I was waiting behind two NFL guys. I am eager to fill their shoes and get my shot.
GoPack.com: What did you do differently this summer to prepare for this season?
Czajkowski: I worked more on consistency and being smooth through the ball. It has made a world of difference.
GoPack.com: How has the competition been in the preseason so far?
Czajkowski: You are always being pushed. Guys on the team want you to be better, so there is always competition between the specialists. We are around each other all the time and we are always trying to push each other.
GoPack.com: You guys spend most of your time on the lower practice field kicking and punting. How different is practice for the specialists than for everybody else?
Czajkowski: Physically, the other guys are getting more of a beating. Mentally, however, we probably take more of a pounding, because we are waiting around all practice long for our five minutes. You get that one shot and it has to go through.
GoPack: What do you think about the two punters, Bradley Pierson and Jeff Ruiz, so far?
Czajkowski: I see great improvement from last summer until now from both of them. They are both striking the ball well. They are both more energetic through the ball than before. They are just bombing it.
GoPack: Which are tougher, punters or placekickers?
Czajkowski: It’s basically the same. They are supposedly more physical, because they run down the field and try to make tackles. And, when they get hit, it is usually harder. But if we leave our leg up in the air, we will get rocked. We are all hard-core about the kicking thing.
GoPack: Bradley is back as the holder this year, right?
Czajkowski: Brad’s been very good at that and we are still clicking together. The whole unit, with our long snappers Mike Mauer and Corey Tedder, has good chemistry.
GoPack.com: How would you describe the specialists as a group?
Czajkowski: We are all hard-core kicking guys.
GoPack.com: I have to say, you look a little hard-core, with the tattoos and the Mohawk haircut. How many tattoos do you have?
Czajkowski: I have 21 tattoos. I got my first one when I was 16. Then, after I committed here, I got an NC State logo around my bicep. Then I got the word “P-A-C-K” tattooed down my forearm. It’s all about the school and doing what it takes to win.
GoPack: Do you have any more planned any time soon?
Czajkowski: Probably not. I am not going to have much free time for a while. It will be a couple more months, at least.
GoPack: Whose idea was it to get the Mohawk haircuts?
Czajkowski: We all decided to do it after our first preseason practice. It was just kind of a thing the specialists did to bond as a unit. Mauer was a little bit of a holdout. He had long hair and he grown it out for a whole year and didn’t want to cut it. The one guy we couldn’t get to budge on it was [special teams coach Jerry] Petercuskie.
