The Daily Bruin’s Nik Lampros sat down with punter Aaron Perez this week. The redshirt junior has been the Bruin’s punter for every game since the 2005 season and might be most well-known for his 63-yard punt that helped seal last season’s 13-9 upset of USC.
Daily Bruin: How’d you first get into punting?
Aaron Perez: I started out playing soccer. Chris Sailor ““ he was a kicker here ““ his snapper and holder were teachers at my high school. They said, “˜We’ve got a guy, you should come out and do some lessons.’ My dad calls it the best $100 he ever spent.
DB: Are there any specific mechanics you focus on when you’re kicking?
AP: I try and keep my ball straight on the drop. The drop’s pretty crucial. Anytime in the future when you’re with your friends watching the game and I make a bad punt, say, “˜I bet his drop was turned.’ Because that’s probably what it was.
DB: Have you ever had to make any last-second pre-snap adjustments?
AP: Freshman year, we were playing Washington State up at Pullman. I saw some of the coaches flailing their arms, and I looked over and Michael Norris was uncovered because they came out with 10 guys on the field. They’re all pointing, trying to get me to throw him the ball. (Norris) was five yards away from the coaches, so I figured if I got the call he got the call. I took the ball and at the last second I threw a 40 yard beautiful lob to him, but he just kept running. Incomplete pass. Bruce (Davis) thinks I can only throw 15 yards because he doesn’t know the cannon I have, but it was a good 40 yards. I watched it on TiVo, it was a good throw, but he just kept running. That was the end of that.
DB: So do you ever get on the coaches to call more fake punts?
AP: I wish we could throw. I do whatever the coaches say, but yeah, I would love to throw more. I can’t finish my UCLA career 0-1, that’d just be horrendous.
DB: What was going through your mind right before the last punt against USC?
AP: The good athletes talk about getting in the zone, and I had one of those moments. I felt so blessed to be in that position, and I just remember thinking, “˜Don’t mess it up.’ Then we called timeout and I got some more time to think and for some reason I was really calm and I said, “˜Just kick it.’ I ended up kicking it pretty good ““ I don’t know how I did that, but it went far.
DB: Against Florida State, you had the first punt of your career blocked and returned for a touchdown. What were you thinking then?
AP: (Laughing.) Oh man. That guy got drafted in the second round, by the way, so I don’t feel that bad. Joking. All I remember is seeing white right in front of my face, and the only word that came into my mind was “˜crap.’ I was already in the motion, so I just kind of went through with it, but I kind of knew it was going to happen.
DB: When you’re not kicking, what do you guys talk about at practice?
AP: (The coaches) are going to get real mad at me for saying this because they want us to think about ball all the time. But, oh man, it depends on who I’m talking to. If I’m talking to (back-up punter) Danny Rees, then we talk about punting. But those guys, Kai (Forbath), Christian (Yount) ““ they can talk about Facebook and girls all day. I personally don’t have a Facebook or a MySpace ““ I’m kind of over all that stuff ““ but I can sit there and listen to them talk about it all day. … Jimmy Rotstein’s favorite word is “˜phenomenal,’ so every other word out of his mouth is “˜phenomenal.’ … We talk about everything from politics, to class, to punting, to fish. (Some of the guys) have a fish tank in their room. I don’t even know what all we say.
DB: Is there any kind of a gap between the special teams players and the rest of the team?
AP: You would think so, but my belief in that is that you have to create that. You have to say, “˜I’m a kicker, I’m only going to hang out with kickers.’ Some of my best friends on the team are Brigham Harwell, Rodney Van, and I’m close with Ben (Olson). I think that over the last few years, kicking and long snapping has become such a more important part of the game that guys now have more respect for kickers and punters. At the same time, Trey Brown, if I hit a bad punt, he’s the first guy wolfing in my ear. But there’s much more respect than people think.
DB: Other than the kickers, who on the team do you think would make the best punter?
AP: Jerzy Siewierski was actually an all-state punter in Nevada. I always tell him there’re like three cities in Nevada, so it’s not that cool. But Rodney Van, he’s the best inside-the-10 punter in America that no one knows about. Before a game he’ll drop five or six inside the 10 from wherever you want.
DB: Have you ever tried place-kicking?
AP: Senior year in high school, our old kicker graduated, so the coaches said, “˜Hey, this kid’s an All-American punter, he can kick off ““ of course he can kick field goals.’ The first couple of weeks, I was going 9 of 10 in practice, then we come to our first game and I made my first field goal ““ 35-yarder, drained it, could have made it from 60. I missed 18 straight after that, finished the year 1 of 19. That was my attempt at placekicking, and I never have attempted it again. I’m retired.
DB: What do you see yourself doing after college?
AP: Just being happy. I would like to try my hand at the next level, but I’m not one of those guys who feels he has to go to the NFL. I don’t put all my eggs in one basket. I’m interested in college counseling for high schools, and I also want to live in Europe for a couple of years. So in case nothing else works out, I’ll just move to Europe for a few years and be a soccer hooligan.
DB: I’ve heard you don’t really like vegetables. What’s the story there?
AP: They’re trash. I will eat iceberg lettuce because it’s basically water in solid form. Carrots are OK, corn is OK, but as far as anything green ““ green beans, peas ““ I’ll put a couple on my fork and then I’ll down it with Diet Coke so I don’t have to taste it because I can’t stand them. But they do get in my body.
DB: Have you ever flopped to try and draw a late-hit penalty?
AP: In high school one time. I think I hit a bad punt and I knew it, but the guy hit me so I tried to fall down a little harder to see if we could get a penalty and a first down. I don’t think it worked.
DB: What do you think about Internet boards where fans or bloggers rip you guys?
AP: Man, my freshman year I used to read those things like they were science textbooks. Now I realize those writers are all guys who know nothing about what I do. They just know if a punt went 40 yards and if it had good hangtime. I don’t even care anymore; I think it’s funny some times. But I used to let them kill me.
DB: Two weeks from now, against Cal, how do you feel about punting to DeSean Jackson?
AP: The way I look at it, every week I’m punting to a great returner. My take on it is, I have so much faith in our coverage team, if I do my job and hit a good ball, we can cover anybody. I have so much confidence that you could put Devin Hester back there and if I do my job it’s all good.
DB: What about if the coverage breaks down, what goes through your mind if you have to try and tackle him?
AP: Last year that actually happened, and I made the front page of your paper, lying on my stomach watching him run into the end zone. What was going through my mind was, “˜It was supposed to be punt-right, and I punted it down the middle, right to him.’ I thought, “˜I’m going to get a phone call.’ And as soon as I got to the sideline, (former special teams coach John) Wristen called me and said, “˜You see what happens when you don’t kick it right?’ And I said “˜Yes,’ and he hung up the phone on me. I don’t think too much about it. I just hope we do our job and it doesn’t happen.