Ben Petrula press conference Boston College
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00:00Hey, what's going on?
00:01How's it going?
00:02It is remarkable that how much time flies.
00:04I feel like it was yesterday
00:06that you were thrown into the fire,
00:08and now here we are.
00:12I think, first things first, how important is it for you?
00:14I mean, you're in a group of players
00:16who already expressed, like, I want to play this year.
00:18But how big is it for you, and especially in the message
00:22that you guys are putting out on social
00:23that you want to play this year?
00:26Yeah, you know, it's my senior year.
00:29I want to play this season.
00:31I want to play my butt off.
00:33I'm around my friends,
00:34and I think just letting the world know
00:37that we all want to play,
00:38and we're all ready to start the season up
00:40and get through camp.
00:42I think that's really important.
00:45I want to play my senior year,
00:46and a lot of guys want to play this year.
00:48Like, all the guys want to play this year.
00:50So, yeah, just getting excited for that.
00:55We will go next to AJ Black.
00:58Hi, Ben. How's it going?
00:59Good. How are you?
01:00Good. Yesterday, Alec Lindstrom
01:02talked a lot about the culture
01:04that you guys have in the offensive line room.
01:07Can you talk a little bit about your relationships
01:09with the other guys on the line?
01:10You guys seem like you're a pretty close group.
01:13Yeah, I mean, the O-line are a group of best friends.
01:16I think we've been through a lot together.
01:20I would consider all, like, all the older guys,
01:23especially, they're just my actual best friends.
01:26I couldn't, like, it's just a big group of friends,
01:30and I think it makes us a better unit.
01:34Like, I don't know.
01:36Like, I come home and play Xbox with them every day,
01:38and I come home and hang out with them
01:39and eat lunch together, and more last year,
01:43we'd go out to dinner every Thursday before games,
01:45which was a tradition we had, and that's, like,
01:48it's just, like, I think we're really tight-knit,
01:50and it helps our chemistry on the field.
01:53We'll go next to Dan Rubin.
01:56Building on that, the personalities
01:59that go into building that room,
02:02I know we hear from Alec with the podcast
02:04and with Rick's reviews,
02:06but all the different guys that are in there,
02:08what does kind of each guy bring to the table personality-wise?
02:11They're a quiet guy. They're a louder guy.
02:13They're a resident funny man.
02:15Yeah, I think because of the size of the room,
02:17like, pretty much everywhere,
02:19there's always going to be a lot of characters,
02:22a lot of characters, and there's always a type of person
02:26that, like, wants to play a line and wants to be really good.
02:29I think we have a lot of those guys,
02:30so obviously big guys want to be funny, like to laugh.
02:36Alec's more like he's hilarious off the field,
02:40more like kind of, like, whip you in shape on the field,
02:42and he'll get in your butt and yell at you.
02:45I'm kind of more like, I feel like I'm, like,
02:46the older, like, calm him down,
02:49like, we're kind of, like, good cop, bad cop right now,
02:53which is funny, and then, obviously,
02:55just, like, the young guys,
02:57getting to know their personalities
02:58and just trying to mess with them a little bit
03:02and learning about them is, like, a good part.
03:06We'll go next to Julian.
03:11You know what?
03:12You just mentioned the Xbox, and I was just curious.
03:14If you were going to describe to somebody
03:16what, like, a typical day in the BC bubble is like,
03:19like, how would you start?
03:21And then, also, what about it has made it so effective?
03:23Yeah, so I think during the workouts when we first got back,
03:28so we got back, we had our quarantine
03:30for X amount of days in individual rooms.
03:35Like, we had eight men to ourselves
03:36and then moved in to four men into an eight-man suite,
03:41so we each have our own separate room.
03:42We're separated, working out probably.
03:45We're probably in the workouts
03:49anywhere from three to five hours,
03:50like, just around the facility.
03:54Then, kind of, we go to lunch, move from there.
03:59Lunch, and then we just kind of sit in our room,
04:01and that's mostly, like, on the play box,
04:03watch Netflix, just talk to your parents,
04:06just do whatever to kind of stay, like, busy,
04:10and then we had school at this point as well.
04:13Now we move into camp, and camp's a little bit more busy,
04:15so we're pretty much in here all day.
04:19Just football, football, lunch, football, football, so.
04:25We'll go next to Dan.
04:29Has your pre-practice routine changed at all, like,
04:32and if it has, or what are some of the things
04:35that you do pre-practice or post-practice,
04:37you know, if there have been things that have changed
04:40or where you have to get ready or stuff like that
04:42to get yourself kind of in that mindset?
04:45Yeah, so I think Coach Haft is doing a great job
04:48with creating this rotation that we have now,
04:52this 20-minute rotation where we go from locker room.
04:55Well, there are smaller groups in the locker room,
04:57and the locker room is more spread out,
04:59rather than, like, all conductors are in there
05:00at once to get ready at the same time.
05:03So we'll have, like, a rotation where we get taped,
05:06like, a whole O-line, D-line group gets taped.
05:08Like, the DBs and linebackers would go
05:12and have a meeting, and then while those two groups
05:15are doing that, the offensive skill is going to,
05:17like, get ready and get ready to go for practice,
05:20and we just flip every 20 minutes.
05:21So it's kind of like it's a well-oiled machine,
05:24and that really helps, like, get you in the mindset
05:27because you have your meeting in the morning.
05:31So, yeah, I think Coach Haft has done
05:32a really good job with that.
05:34And I saw the video that was posted on social media,
05:38the offensive lineman walking into practice
05:40with the belly slap.
05:43What's the story behind that?
05:46You know, one of the redshirt senior
05:49offensive linemen, Nate Emmer, funny dude.
05:52He gained a lot of weight.
05:54One of my best friends gained a lot of weight.
05:56So he just started, like, slapping his belly around
05:58because it was funny because he was always a skinny guy
06:00because he came in as a D-end.
06:03And we just decided to have some fun with it
06:04and just mess around, and, you know,
06:06we have entrances to meeting or to practice every day.
06:09So we figured we'd give that one a shot.
06:13Ben, thank you for taking the time today to speak to us.
06:15We appreciate it.
06:17No problem. Thank you, guys.