The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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22 ■ THE WOLFPACKER TRACKING THE PACK The Wolfpacker staff has enjoyed get- ting to know various guests on their pod- cast nearly every Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. inside of Amedeo's Italian Restaurant in Raleigh. The podcast is always available to listen to on TheWolfpacker.com, iTunes and most everywhere else podcasts can be downloaded. Here are some excerpts from when former NC State punter A.J. Cole hopped on March 26 to discuss his career, how he became the "alpha of the baboons" and more. What is it like for a kicking specialist in train- ing for the NFL Draft? "After the season I did two things in front of scouts. I went to the Gridiron out in Dallas, Texas, and then I played in the Shrine Game with [NCSU teammate] Tyler Jones down in St. Petersburg, Fla. In both of those events there were a bunch of scouts there and you talk to them and have con- versations. You get the basic interview questions. "From there, it just becomes teams reaching out to you and hopefully special teams coordinator and things like that." You averaged 47.5 yards on six punts in the Gator Bowl. Were you personally fired up to go against Texas A&M punter Braden Mann because he was the Ray Guy Award winner for the nation's top punter? "That was fun and Braden is a really good guy. I actually kicked a couple of times over the sum- mer, including once in Atlanta and twice in Wis- consin. I knew him going into the game and he obviously had an incredible season. Winning the Ray Guy Award was great for him. "You want to compete with the best and show that you can do something of your own." Was playing in hurricane conditions against Notre Dame at Carter-Finley Stadium a night- mare for a punter? "Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. I've relived that game and just how unbelievable it was to just catch the ball. "I was actually down in Birmingham [Alabama] for a month and living with and training with the punter from Notre Dame. We were talking about that game and we brought it up every other day. If we would go out there in Birmingham and it was a bad day, we'd say: 'Well, at least it is not a hurricane.' "At the end of the day, once you play in that, it can't be worse." Did you ever have a moment where you could have won an Oscar for selling a rough- ing the punter penalty? "I may have done that a couple of times. The only time I didn't do that and everyone thought I did was against Syracuse this year. That guy smacked me. Guys were like 'Way to sell that.' "I didn't sell anything. I got rocked. I'm on my back looking up at the ceiling of the Carrier Dome thinking, 'Oh my God.'" How hard is it to punt the ball to the prover- bial coffin corner? "The problem of kicking it out of bounds is that you put influence in the refs hands. We have this theory that when the refs are standing back there by the pylon it is all eyes on them and they like to keep walking." Your devotion to help students in Nakuru, Kenya, has been covered extensively the last few years. What is one of your favorite stories from a mission trip? "We went out on a safari in the middle of the week, and the sa- fari was probably an hour away from where we were staying. If you are going to go all the way over there, you might as well see some lions. "We were up on this place called Baboon Point. Fittingly enough, there are a lot of ba- boons up there. We were in this van where the roof pops up and goes up, so you can stand up on the van. You are still covered on top, but you can reach out. An animal technically could get into the van. "I'm standing in the middle of the van and there is this area on the back where the top of the van is. Most everyone was sitting down but I was stand- ing up, looking out to see what there was to see. "There was this baboon that was well over 100 pounds and starts kind of looking at us. In the van, there was [former NCSU kicker] Kyle [Bam- bard] and I, and in the front there was our driver and security guard. We had these four other women with us, so there were eight of us in the van. "Kyle was sitting in the back and was helpless really. The baboon starts looking at us, eyeing me up and down and was hopping toward us. We came to a stop in the van because of where we were. The baboon full-on sprints at us, running at us and hops up and jumps up on top of the van. "I'm sitting there and this was the most fight or flight moment of my life. They have razor sharp teeth, I could smell his breath, and he had razor sharp fangs. "All of the training I've done just kicked in and I kicked it. Just a full punt and extended the leg just like that. What happens with baboons is they don't want to hurt you necessarily, but they want to steal your stuff. The way they do that is to scratch or claw your face or even bite your face so you can't see anything, or gauge your eyes out, to take your backpack. I just grabbed the side of the van, swung my leg up and punted the baboon." — Jacey Zembal A.J. Cole averaged 42.4 yards per punt in his final campaign at NC State. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS