UC Punter Mason Fletcher Dives Into Growing His Game, First American Football Tackle, And More
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00:00 Russ Eltman, All Bearcats Reporter here talking with UC punter Mason Fletcher
00:05 on Talking Cats with Russ Eltman. Mason, you're coming off of a really great
00:10 season last year and obviously with punting, the competition level I would
00:15 imagine doesn't play as much of a factor because it's just you putting your foot
00:18 on the ball and making sure it goes as far as possible. What have you kind of
00:21 tried to hone in on after such a great year and how have you tried to kind of
00:26 fine tune some things off of what was largely an All-American caliber season?
00:31 I think just trying to stay consistent in what I do. As you said, not too much
00:35 change. You might get some bigger, taller, stronger guys coming at you, which is
00:38 a little bit of a difference, but it's not something that changes what I do.
00:41 So, yeah, I guess just trying to stay consistent in my process and all that
00:45 stuff that I've been practicing for years now.
00:48 You had to make a tackle last week and were crucial in making the stop from that
00:53 becoming a touchdown on that punt return. Have you had to make many tackles in
00:56 your career? When's the last time you had to make one?
00:59 The last time I had to tackle someone was probably three years ago back when I
01:02 was playing Australian football.
01:03 So this is the first American tackle?
01:04 First American tackle, yeah. I was saying it felt a little funny because I didn't
01:07 feel anything without all these pads on, which I'm not used to. I'm used to hitting
01:10 people with my body and not having pads on. But, yeah, sometimes the play doesn't
01:14 go the way you want it to and guys go down or the play breaks down a little bit
01:18 and it sort of ended up with me making a tackle, which is not something you want
01:21 to do ever as a player. But as Coach Coombs said, your job changes sometimes
01:26 and I made the play.
01:27 Last line of defense there, is there a strategy that Coach Coombs kind of goes
01:31 through with you on how to - obviously you're kind of taught how to tackle.
01:35 Everybody on the team knows how to tackle and not hurt themselves. But is there a
01:38 strategy where he says, "Hey, if this last line of defense breaks, you've got to
01:41 start taking this angle. You've got to start doing something to make sure that
01:44 play doesn't go into your end zone for a six"?
01:47 I think in plays like that, you've kind of just got to have your own sort of
01:51 initiative and instinct, yeah, for sure. I think I saw him come up the middle and
01:55 I knew that I was just going to have to try and bring him down in some capacity
01:58 or slow him down. And if he didn't, it probably would have been a touchdown,
02:01 which is not great at all. But as you said, I think it's more so instinct,
02:05 to be honest. I saw him coming and just knew that I couldn't corral him one way
02:09 into other people like maybe some of the front line guys can do. It was more you're
02:12 just going to have to bring him down and that's what happened.
02:14 I've been seeing on some of the national leaderboard kind of rankings where they
02:19 have to do a minimum amount of punts per game or something like that. You just
02:24 aren't qualifying for them because the offense has moved the ball so well.
02:27 Have you had to adjust kind of your in-game process at all of trying to stay
02:32 more ready and trying to know that, "Hey, I might not get as many opportunities
02:35 this year as I did last year," when things weren't necessarily as heavy time
02:39 of possession-wise?
02:40 For sure. I think our offense this year is a lot more aggressive. Last year we
02:43 would have just punted straight away. I think that hasn't happened much this year.
02:47 I think going into games last year, it was probably averaging six or seven punts.
02:50 This year, I think it's three and a half or four. That has been a little different.
02:53 Maybe trying to get some rhythm going, but that's punting for you. If I want to
02:56 punt in the NFL or if I want to punt at a high level, you just have to get used to
02:59 stuff like that. I've been trying to and I think I have done that.
03:04 Multiple years now at the college level, I'm sure you're fine-tuning and trying
03:08 to get your foot as powerful and as on point as it can be to keep moving up to
03:13 that next level of football. Is it just fine-tuning things? Is that the biggest
03:19 thing for you now as a veteran, as an entrenched punter, as a guy that people
03:23 have seen on film what you can do? Is it more so just making sure that that
03:26 happens as much as possible, punt to punt?
03:29 For sure. I think, as you said, a high level of consistency is really important
03:32 as a punter. I think for Australians especially, I think in the NFL they don't
03:36 roll out as much. I've been really lucky to see that with James Smith before me.
03:40 That was his thing, the rollout. I think for me, being able to see that and then
03:45 see that NFL teams don't roll out as much. I think trying to hit the spile or
03:48 hitting the spile, not trying to, hitting the spile. That at a high level, I think
03:53 is something that I got to do freshman year with Coach Brian Mason. Coach Fickle
03:57 was great at letting me do that when he coached the punt team here. Coach Combs
04:00 was great with that as well. I've been really lucky in that sense. I'd say that's
04:03 something I've been doing a lot more is hitting that up and down spile.
04:06 You see punter Mason Fletcher come up to give us some time here on Talk & Catch
04:09 with Russ Seltzman. Final question for Mason. Is there a difference in the way
04:14 you've grown as a punter since you haven't had an entrenched three-year
04:19 relationship with a coach where it's been kind of a different teaching aspect
04:23 each year? Is there a strong, is there positives and negatives of that? Just walk
04:27 me through that kind of unique experience of getting a different coach for you
04:30 individually each year you've been here.
04:32 It's a little different for sure. It's hard to sort of get your feet settled.
04:35 I think you learn a lot as a human. You learn how to deal with people that are
04:38 all very different to each other. I had Coach Brian Mason, Coach Fickle, and then
04:42 Coach Combs who are all similar in one sense but all very different as well.
04:45 So being able to take coaching from people that are totally different, like Coach
04:49 Combs is probably one of the crazy ones. That's why he's so damn good at what he
04:52 does. Coach Mason was pretty reserved and so was Coach Fickle but could light you
04:56 up if you needed to, I guess. But yeah, as I said, just taking coaching from three
04:59 different people differently has been a really good learning point for me. It's
05:03 more so for my character, I think, more so than my punting level.
05:06 Yeah. UC Punter Mason Fletcher, everybody.