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Speaker 1: Welcome inside the Colts Radio studio. Joining us now the

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Speaker 1: kicker for the Indianapolis Colts going into his third year.

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Speaker 1: Welcome Rodrigo blanket ship out of Georgia, hot Rod, Welcome back, man,

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Speaker 1: How are you? I am wonderful, Thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for having me. Absolutely well. First off, let's pick up

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Speaker 1: with the kicking competition in training camp between yourself and

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Speaker 1: Jake Verity. You'll win it not foreign to you, right,

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Speaker 1: you had to win these kicking battles in the past.

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Speaker 1: How did that go? And then what do you think

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Speaker 1: it boiled down to in terms of your consistency to

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Speaker 1: make this team once again? Yeah, I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm no stranger competition. You know, going back to my

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Speaker 1: time at the University of Georgia, I was in several

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Speaker 1: kicking battles in my years there as well. So right,

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Speaker 1: you know, I think that that really kind of prepared

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Speaker 1: me for you know, life in the NFL. And you

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Speaker 1: know there's guys, there's only so many positions, only so

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Speaker 1: many jobs available, and so you know, there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of guys, a lot of really talented guys that are

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Speaker 1: competing for those spots, and Jake is one of them.

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Speaker 1: You know, he's an incredibly talented kicker in his own right. UM,

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Speaker 1: So you know it's definitely, uh, definitely not easy. Um.

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Speaker 1: Definitely had to earn it every single day because you know,

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Speaker 1: he was bringing the juice every day and so I

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Speaker 1: you know, I had to try and match that or

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Speaker 1: exceeded every single day at practice that we were competing. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, so he's a you know, really incredible kicker. UM.

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Speaker 1: And you know, I don't think that this will be

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Speaker 1: the last time that we hear from him. I definitely

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Speaker 1: think he's going to have opportunities to make noise um

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Speaker 1: in some other places. UM. But ultimately, I think it

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Speaker 1: just kind of came down to, you know, just being

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Speaker 1: being more consistent, you know, just you know, having a

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Speaker 1: you know higher standard of uh performance that I was

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Speaker 1: bringing to practice every day and just consistently, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: being the top performer I think is ultimately, UM, what

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Speaker 1: did it? Yeah, that's Jake Verity that you speak of.

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Speaker 1: For those that don't know what what's that like to

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Speaker 1: be in a kicking battle? Can can you summarize that?

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Speaker 1: I know it's a loaded question, but for those that

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Speaker 1: don't know how intense that is what's that like? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean you know, I think, uh, you know, when

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Speaker 1: when you have another guy there, Um, you know, it

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Speaker 1: definitely is a little bit puts you in a little

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Speaker 1: with different headspace. You know. I kind of think like,

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Speaker 1: you know, if when it's when it's just you, you know,

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Speaker 1: if if we kick you know, ten field goals in

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Speaker 1: a script or whatever, and you make all ten kicks,

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Speaker 1: you know, when it's just you, you're feeling pretty good.

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Speaker 1: You're like, man, I just made one hundred percent, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, so I'm I'm feeling pretty good about that.

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Speaker 1: But if there's another guy there, you know, you could

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Speaker 1: make all of your kicks and he also makes all

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Speaker 1: of his kicks, you know, then you're like, oh man,

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Speaker 1: you know, like I made all my kicks and you

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Speaker 1: know that was only good enough to tie kind of

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Speaker 1: meant you know. And so it's just you know, kind

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Speaker 1: of put you in a little bit different headspace where, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, like you can you can do your best,

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Speaker 1: and sometimes you still feel like maybe that's not quite

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Speaker 1: cutting it, you know, so you have to you know,

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Speaker 1: even further elevate and even further try and raise your

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Speaker 1: game the next time out. So um, and you know,

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Speaker 1: and that's how it should be. You know, that's what

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Speaker 1: competition should do. Competition should bring out the best in you.

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Speaker 1: It should you know, push you to the very edge

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Speaker 1: every single day and that's how you're going to get better.

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Speaker 1: That's Rodrigo Blanket ship with US Colts kicker. And for

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Speaker 1: those again that don't know, it's it's not uncommon for

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Speaker 1: every NFL team to have multiple kickers on the roster

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Speaker 1: during the preseason, during training camp. I mean at a

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Speaker 1: minitary head a guy in here most years. Do you

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Speaker 1: feel like, with that said, do you feel like, even

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Speaker 1: though it's it's common, you feel like you have to

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Speaker 1: come in and reprove yourself every year? You have to

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Speaker 1: have this edge about you to start camp every single

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Speaker 1: time out. Absolutely? Yeah, you know, I think that regardless

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Speaker 1: of who you are, you know, you should want to

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Speaker 1: come into camp every season and prove why you belong there,

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Speaker 1: you know, and earn your place. You know. I had

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Speaker 1: re shared the story from the Colts announcing officially or

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Speaker 1: fifty three man roster, and I said, you know, everything

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Speaker 1: is earned, you know, nothing is given. You have to

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Speaker 1: earn everything in this league. You know, this is the

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Speaker 1: highest level of football. And so you know, especially for

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Speaker 1: you know, my position where there's only one per team, right,

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Speaker 1: you know, you absolutely have to come in every year

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Speaker 1: with the mindset that I'm going to earn my keep.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna earn my place here every single year. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: So with that said, again, I know you have to

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Speaker 1: continue to earn it and you have to continue to

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Speaker 1: prove yourself every day. Everybody in the NFL does, right, Yes,

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Speaker 1: but do you feel like a weight has been lifted

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Speaker 1: off your shoulders because you did win that initial kicking battle.

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Speaker 1: Now you can focus on just being the best you

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Speaker 1: can as the only kicker out there on the practice field,

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Speaker 1: in the game field. I definitely think there was a

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Speaker 1: little bit of relief. Yeah, but now now the game's

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Speaker 1: counts a different pressure, right, Yeah, Now it's a different

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Speaker 1: pressure because now you know, every everything that we're doing

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Speaker 1: from here on out is you know, going to contribute

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Speaker 1: to our goals to you know, make the playoffs, go

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Speaker 1: to the AHD Championship, go to the Super Bowl. So

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Speaker 1: you know, there there was a moment of relief, but um,

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Speaker 1: and now it's a like you said, a different kind

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Speaker 1: of pressure because now everything counts. That's Rodrigo Blanketship with us.

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Speaker 1: Take me back to last year. I know that injury

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Speaker 1: in Week five ended your season. How tough was that

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Speaker 1: last year to deal with the injury. But then no,

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Speaker 1: you just you just couldn't be out there doing your job,

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Speaker 1: you know, with the team that that you started with

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Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty. Yeah. Um, you know, I think

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Speaker 1: that mentally and emotionally it was, um was more challenging

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Speaker 1: than it was physically. I mean, we have we have

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Speaker 1: an incredible sports medicine staff and you know, our our

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Speaker 1: trainers you know, got me on a on a good

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Speaker 1: plan to get me back to being healthy as quickly

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Speaker 1: as possible. Um, you know, but once I had gotten

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Speaker 1: to that point, that was when, you know, mentally and

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Speaker 1: emotionally became more challenging, because there came a point where

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Speaker 1: I felt like I was healthy and I felt like

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Speaker 1: I was capable of you know, going back out and

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Speaker 1: you know, trying to help our team win games, and

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Speaker 1: I wasn't out there, and so you know, that was

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Speaker 1: most challenging for me. But um, you know, ultimately I

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Speaker 1: kind of had to remind myself that, you know, this

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Speaker 1: is what the team felt like was best for the team,

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Speaker 1: you know, um, And so if that meant that I

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Speaker 1: just had to you know, just support the team, um

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Speaker 1: and just wait for my opportunity, then that's what I

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Speaker 1: had to do, because ultimately, you know, our our management,

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Speaker 1: our coaches felt like, um, you know, that was what

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Speaker 1: was best for the team, and at the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, that's what I care about most. I mean,

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Speaker 1: but certainly an unfortunate situation that happened to you, right

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Speaker 1: you got injured in warmups right against the Baltimore Ravens

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Speaker 1: or warming up for that game on Monday night football.

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Speaker 1: When when did you feel like something was a little

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Speaker 1: off throughout the course of that night. Hum, I think

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Speaker 1: when we was it right away or I don't know

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Speaker 1: that it was right away, but um, it definitely kind

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Speaker 1: of progressed, and you know, I started to feel that

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Speaker 1: pain more strongly when we came back out of the

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Speaker 1: locker room, like right before the opening kickoff. I usually

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Speaker 1: hit a few more balls off of off of the

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Speaker 1: sticks at that time leading up to the opening kickoff,

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Speaker 1: and so I think at that point that was when

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Speaker 1: it became you know, very intolerable. Yeah, well, I mean

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Speaker 1: this is a little bit inside football, but you know,

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Speaker 1: last year because of you know, the COVID background, you know,

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Speaker 1: the radio crew, we still weren't going to games. Um,

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Speaker 1: so I wish you would have texted me or something

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Speaker 1: because we didn't. We weren't. We weren't at the game.

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Speaker 1: So to see Rigoberto Sanchez lining up for field goal,

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Speaker 1: no one had any idea what was going on. So

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Speaker 1: I'm glad it all worked out for you again coming

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Speaker 1: out of college in two thoy twenty year, last year

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Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen at Georgia. From that point on right now,

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Speaker 1: where do you think you have improved the most? How

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Speaker 1: do you think your game has suddenly gotten better over

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Speaker 1: the course of three years? Here, tough question. I would

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Speaker 1: like to say that, you know, I was like NFL

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Speaker 1: ready the second that I finished my college career, but

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Speaker 1: that you know, definitely wasn't the case. I think that

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Speaker 1: something that I've you know, really had to work on.

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Speaker 1: Looking at my field goal specifically, it's just elevation. Um,

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Speaker 1: I think that that was you know, something that weighed

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Speaker 1: heavily into my evaluation coming out of college was that

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Speaker 1: I just didn't have the best trajectory kicking field goals,

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Speaker 1: where you know, some of my balls would kind of

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Speaker 1: come out low, and that gave you know, teams opportunities

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Speaker 1: to um, you know, get blocks the line of scrimmage.

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Speaker 1: And I think that you know, there were a couple

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Speaker 1: examples of that that teams looked at where I had

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Speaker 1: a kick against South Carolina my senior year and then

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Speaker 1: another one against Missouri my junior year where they were

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Speaker 1: blocked to the line of scrimmage due to you know,

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Speaker 1: inadequate trajectory, right, And I think that that's been something

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Speaker 1: that I've had to really work on getting with my

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Speaker 1: kicking coach in the offseason to kind of adjust my

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Speaker 1: swing just a little bit to make sure that I'm

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Speaker 1: getting that ball placement or ball striking yeah yeah, just

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Speaker 1: kind of like foot placement right on the ball and

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Speaker 1: then it sounds so easy, but it's not. Yeah yeah.

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Speaker 1: And then also you know, just the path of your

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Speaker 1: swing sure, getting from the end of your drawback to

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Speaker 1: impact as well. Well. I mean, Sam Ellinger has talked

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Speaker 1: about working with Tom House, the throwing coach, on biomechanics.

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Speaker 1: This is sort of the same but just a different

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Speaker 1: body part. Right, You're using your leg instead of your arm.

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Speaker 1: How long does that take to where the change that

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Speaker 1: is necessary become so commonplace you don't even think about

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Speaker 1: the fact that you're doing it differently. I mean that

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Speaker 1: takes time. You know, you can you know, you can

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Speaker 1: make a change, you know, and you can see the

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Speaker 1: results of it immediately. But you know, having developed muscle

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Speaker 1: memory over that's just it. You know, so many reps,

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Speaker 1: you're trying to rewrite something that you've been doing for

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Speaker 1: a very long time. So you know, I think that

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Speaker 1: it definitely, you know, has taken a significant amount of

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Speaker 1: time to where I feel like that adjustment has been weighed,

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Speaker 1: where I'm consistently getting more elevation and trajectory than I

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Speaker 1: did now compared to my senior year Georgia. But you know,

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Speaker 1: this is three years later, no question about a Rodrigo

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Speaker 1: Blankenship is with US colts kicker also in the special

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Speaker 1: team's realm. Unfortunately, you know, Rigaberto Sanchez went down without

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Speaker 1: achilles injury a couple of weeks ago during a conditioning drill.

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Speaker 1: Just a really unfortunate accident, Just an unfortunate occurrence because

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Speaker 1: of how it happened, Hey, how's he doing? And then

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Speaker 1: be you know, just how tub is that to see

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Speaker 1: as his teammate and how valuable he is to this

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Speaker 1: team when he's healthy. Yeah, I mean, you know, like

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Speaker 1: you said, he's you know, he's an incredibly important part

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Speaker 1: of this team. I mean obviously being an incredible punter,

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Speaker 1: incredible kick off specialist, and incredible holder. Um. You know

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Speaker 1: what what he brings on the field is um, you know,

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Speaker 1: critical for our team. UM, but also off the field.

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Speaker 1: You know, he's an incredible human being. You know, it's

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Speaker 1: really easy to He's really easy to get along with. UM.

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Speaker 1: You know, just a really great guy and we all

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Speaker 1: you know, very much love and care for him. UM.

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Speaker 1: So that was very difficult to see, um and what happened. UM,

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Speaker 1: But he he is doing pretty well. UM. You know,

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Speaker 1: he had his surgery on Friday, UM, and he said

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Speaker 1: that it went really well. You there, no hiccup stare, Um,

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Speaker 1: the operation went clean. So UM, that was really encouraging

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Speaker 1: to hear. UM. And I know that, uh my wife

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Speaker 1: Logan went over to the Sanchez's house to watch our

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Speaker 1: our last preseason game with him in Cynthia UM. And

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Speaker 1: so you know, I think that really that's just the

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Speaker 1: best thing we can do right now, is you know,

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Speaker 1: just just support him and encourage him and just let

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Speaker 1: him know, um that we care about him and that

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Speaker 1: we can't wait to have him back because he is,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of the heart and soul of this team,

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Speaker 1: and so we just need to continue to support him

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Speaker 1: however we can. Now you talk about the value that

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Speaker 1: he has. I mean, one of the biggest values that

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Speaker 1: he has to this team or does for this team

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Speaker 1: is that is the kickoff. And it's it's not just

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Speaker 1: again it's it sounds so easier said than done, but

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Speaker 1: the placement on the kickoff so that you can cover

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Speaker 1: it effectively. And now that's something that you're gonna have

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Speaker 1: to take over. Um, what what challenges do you foresee

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Speaker 1: in doing that, because again that's something that you haven't

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Speaker 1: done to this point in the NFL. Is the kickoffs. Yeah, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, he definitely sets the bar very high. Yeah. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, we we like to be aggressive on you know,

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Speaker 1: on kickoffs. There are some teams that kind of have

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Speaker 1: a little bit different mentality where um, you know, they

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Speaker 1: may just want to try and hit touchbacks and just

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Speaker 1: you know, eliminate the possibility for a return, um, if

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Speaker 1: at all possible. But I know that we like to

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Speaker 1: be a little bit more aggressive. We want to you know,

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Speaker 1: use our kickoff as a weapon and you know, try

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Speaker 1: and go on the offensive. And so we like to

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Speaker 1: try and force returns and you know, try and make

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Speaker 1: tackles inside the twenty five, inside the twenty if possible, right,

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Speaker 1: and you know, over the course of a game, that

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Speaker 1: adds up. That's kind of the hitting yardage that that

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Speaker 1: we talk about a lot um, you know, and stuff

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Speaker 1: like that. So yeah, definitely we want to try and

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Speaker 1: use that as a weapon. And it's going to be

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Speaker 1: a tall order because, uh, for a majority of my

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Speaker 1: college career, I would just hit touchbacks. You know, I'm

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Speaker 1: just trying to drive the ball, just get it out

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Speaker 1: of the end. And you can do that, yeah with

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Speaker 1: these because of how good you are, but how how

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Speaker 1: tough is it to strike the ball with enough velocity

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Speaker 1: and force but at the same time not kicking into

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Speaker 1: the end Zoe. Yeah, that's like that sweet spot. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's it is a challenge, you know, because you know,

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Speaker 1: we want to get you know, four point two four

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Speaker 1: point three seconds of hang time on a kickoff, but

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Speaker 1: you know that it's it's easier to do that when

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Speaker 1: you're just trying to kick it as hard as you

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Speaker 1: can and hit it as far as you can. The

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Speaker 1: hang time just kind of comes along with it. You know,

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Speaker 1: if you hit a kickoff seventy five plus yards to

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Speaker 1: the back of the end zone, you know, well guess

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Speaker 1: what the yeah, they're about the twenty five. But chances

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Speaker 1: are you've hit a ball that's got around four point

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Speaker 1: two plus seconds at hang time. But you know, it's

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Speaker 1: you know, takes more control, um, you know, to be

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Speaker 1: able to hit that same hank time, but keep it

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Speaker 1: at the goal line, you know, keep it, you know,

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Speaker 1: anywhere between maybe like two yards deep and say the

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Speaker 1: four yard line, you know, because you know, just based

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Speaker 1: on you know what what our what our experts tell

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Speaker 1: us are our analytics guys tell us, you know, George

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Speaker 1: Lee and John park Um, you know, they they kind

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Speaker 1: of dive intall in numbers and that stuff. That's kind

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Speaker 1: of the sweet spot where um teams are still gonna

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Speaker 1: be likely to return the ball, right Um. So trying

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Speaker 1: to hit that kind of ball with exceptional hang time

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Speaker 1: but also not blasted out of the end zone is

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Speaker 1: definitely a new challenge. It's it's so much talent. It's

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Speaker 1: like hitting the perfect golf shot. Yeah, you know for

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Speaker 1: those that can understand that. Um. So, with Rigo's injury,

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Speaker 1: Matt Hawk is here, He's gonna be the punter but

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Speaker 1: also your holder. How is how is that chemistry going

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Speaker 1: on field goals and pats with him now being your holder? Yeah? Um,

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Speaker 1: I think it's been going pretty well. Um. You know

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Speaker 1: Matt is uh, you know, he's professional in every sense

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Speaker 1: of the word. Um. You know, he comes to work,

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Speaker 1: he's going to get his work done, and he's gonna

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Speaker 1: do whatever he can to help us get our work done. Um.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that we've had we've had a

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Speaker 1: pretty smooth transition, as smooth as it could be. We

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Speaker 1: only had like one day of practice with him before

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Speaker 1: the preseason, you made. Um yeah, so in knock on wood.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully we can keep that going right. Um. But it's

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Speaker 1: been really good to get to use this week to

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Speaker 1: you know, get more of that work in. UM, work

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Speaker 1: him through you know, the cadence for our field goal operation. Um,

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Speaker 1: working on the lean, just making sure that he's got

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Speaker 1: it just right. Um. And and he's working real diligently

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Speaker 1: to to get everything right for us. All right. So

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Speaker 1: I know the answer to this question is laces out,

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Speaker 1: no dub. But for for for you, what what is

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Speaker 1: the perfect hold? What? What does that look like? I

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Speaker 1: don't know how to I mean I can say words now,

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Speaker 1: and you know what does it lean? Does little bit?

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Speaker 1: We got the cameras in the cameras yeah, so um,

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Speaker 1: you know, I think for for any kicker, you usually

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Speaker 1: want a little bit of lean where the top of

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Speaker 1: the ball is slightly towards the holder. Okay, so for me,

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Speaker 1: being a right footed kicker, you know, the top of

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Speaker 1: the ball is going to be leaning slightly to the

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Speaker 1: right towards him. And then outside of that, that's when

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Speaker 1: you kind of get a little bit of variation. But

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Speaker 1: for me personally, I also like the ball to be

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Speaker 1: leaning slightly forward. And the thinking there is that, you know,

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Speaker 1: the sweet spot of the ball is kind of the

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Speaker 1: lower third or lower quarter of the football, depending on

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Speaker 1: you know, if you're a tall guy or a short guy.

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Speaker 1: You know, if you have a big foot or a

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Speaker 1: small foot, all those kind of factor into where your

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Speaker 1: personal sweet spot on the ball is. But it's going

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Speaker 1: to be on that lower section of the ball, and

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Speaker 1: so by leaning the ball slightly forward, you kind of

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Speaker 1: expose that sweet spot a little bit more so that's

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Speaker 1: the thinking for me, having it leaned slightly forward and

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Speaker 1: slightly to the holder. It makes perfect sense too. I'm

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Speaker 1: learning a lot here. I mean I could I could

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Speaker 1: geek out on this stuff all day, the science of

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Speaker 1: football and kicking here. Yeah. Well, I know you've got

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Speaker 1: a lot going on, and I appreciate you getting and

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Speaker 1: all of that. But before I let you go, just

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Speaker 1: if you can talk about you know that the psyche

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Speaker 1: of this team. Regular season football starts next week, back

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Speaker 1: to back road games in the AFC South. What is

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Speaker 1: the mentality of this team sort of chomping at the

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Speaker 1: bit getting ready for this season to get going here? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean I think that our mentality is like we're

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Speaker 1: ready to you know, go on the offensive, and I

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Speaker 1: think that we're ready to show people were all about.

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Speaker 1: We're very excited for this season. We brought in a

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Speaker 1: lot of you know, big time guys that have played

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Speaker 1: big time football in their careers, and we're really excited

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Speaker 1: to you know, have those new pieces to this team.

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Speaker 1: And I think we're ready to kind of just go

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Speaker 1: out and chalk the world and you know, have a

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Speaker 1: strong start to the season, have some fun too. That's

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Speaker 1: rod Rigo blanket Chip Colts kicker back for year number three.

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Speaker 1: Rod thanks so much for the time man, always a

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Speaker 1: pleasure to talk to you, and best of luck. Yes, Sarah,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me