Kickin’ it with: Stanford P Jake Bailey
The Kickin’ it with BCO series continues with an interview with Stanford’s returning starting punter and 2016 All-Pac-12 honorable mention performer Jake Bailey.
Have you ever wondered why punters don’t get more love? Maybe thought that the battle of field position is more important than the battle in the trenches? Well so have we…and that’s why the boys at BCO are excited to present their ever first interview series for the 2017 NCAA football sesaon; Kickin’ it with BCO. Each week from now until the end of football season, the guys from Ball Control Offense will give you a look inside the minds of some of the least appreciated, most talented, and somewhat athletic athletes in all of Division 1 football.
This weeks interview is with Jake Bailey, punter for Stanford University. The team at BCO can honestly say that Jake is one of the most humble, well-spoken, and impressive young men that we’ve talked to, not just in college football, but in all walks of life. We talked to Jake about what it was like punting to Christian McCaffery, his internship experience with Condoleezza Rice, and his thoughts on the ever-challenging definition of a ‘student-athlete’.
Previously on Kickin’ it with BCO:
So to get the conversation going, the first thing we want to ask is how’s preseason going so far? The team has a lot of turnover from last year, so how’s it looking so far?
It’s good! Pre-season is going by fast right now because our first game is in Australia (playing Rice) and we play a week early on August 26th, so preseason started early, is going fast, and we’re getting a lot of work in. Overall, it’s been good though so far…just trying to build on last year.
Anyone specifically standing out that you want to give a shout-out to?
I can always shout-out my kickers…Jet Toner and Collin Riccitelli! And of course, both my snappers, Richard McNitzky and C.J. Keller.
With the Australia trip coming up, have you guys gotten the itinerary yet? Anything cool that you all will get to do as a team?
We’ve gotten a minor itinerary…I know first day we’re going to the Sydney Zoo, so that should be fun. On the second day, we’re going to the main beach there, which I believe is Bondi Beach. And then all the other days, as you could guess, we’ll just be practicing. Super excited for all of it though.
How long is the trip in total? Do you think it’ll be hard to get back into the swing of things (regular season, start of classes, etc.) when you get back?
7 days. We’re going to be leaving on the 19th and coming back right after the game. And one thing about Stanford is we’re on the quarter system, so we don’t actually start school until the last week of September this year..which is a positive sometimes at the start of the season, but can also be a big negative. For one, we don’t have the students here. So, for example, last season, USC came up here to play, we had an almost entirely empty student section, so it was pretty quiet, but at the same time, you don’t have to be worried about school, so that’s pretty nice. Big time positives and negatives.
Carrying on with preseason, we saw that you’re on the preseason Ray Guy watch list. Any thoughts on that?
Oh, it’s nothing different. I believe I was on it last year too. The system our coach puts in place makes it really easy for whoever’s at the helm punting the ball to look really good.
What specifically does the coaching staff do to make you all look so good?
So, Coach (Pete) Alamar is my special teams coach, and he has pretty much developed the entire punt system that we currently use, and that I know Oregon copies to an extent as well. The idea behind it is that he wants to protect the punter as much as possible, but also get as many people downfield as possible to cover the returner. So being able to get my guys down there, get the net going, and having it be easy for them to tackle the returner makes it a lot easier for me when I put the ball up.
Looking back to last year, what was it like playing with Christian McCaffery?
Well I was actually never on the field at the same time he was *laughs* , which was actually awesome because I got to watch him go to work every single play where he touched the ball from the best seat in the house. I grew up watching Reggie Bush a lot…I guess you could say I was a mini-USC fan…and every day, I saw a lot of Reggie Bush in Christian McCaffery.
How about in practice? You get a lot of work in with him then?
Oh yeah…I don’t think in my two years of punting to him that I ever saw him drop a ball in practice. He practiced really hard, and clearly it showed off in the games.
At a place like Stanford, you’re surrounded by such top-notch talent with your teammates…what was it like watching guys like Christian or Solomon Thomas climb the draft boards this past spring?
It was really, really cool. Absolutely showed that one game can change a guy’s entire career. Solly (Solomon Thomas) was projected around that third or fourth round range before the Sun Bowl last year (Stanford beat UNC 25–23) and then he had an outstanding game (seven tackles, 2 TFL, 1 sack) and his draft stock rose all the way to being the third pick in the draft. So that’s pretty incredible. From the perspective of a specialist, it was cool to see that really anyone can get their shot if they play well and have some good tape to show.
We’ve actually got some team members here at BCO that have traveled out for the Sun Bowl…what’d you think of El Paso, TX?
Oh, El Paso is actually awesome! We went to the Rose Bowl the year previous when we beat Iowa and that was a great experience, but the El Paso Sun Bowl was so much more personable. We felt like everyone really wanted you to be there, and they were happy that Stanford was matching up with North Carolina in their hometown. Everyone really showed out for the game, and it was super cool being on the Army base down there (Ft. Bliss) since it houses the entirety of America’s tank infantry…we got to play around in a few tanks, which is always fun.
So that’s all in the past now…what’re the overall team expectations looking like for this year?
We always strive for a Pac-12 Championship every year and obviously a bowl game after that, but teams here in recent years have really been striving to get to that National Championship level. So that’s our current team goal, and we’re gonna be trying our hardest to get there.
Any individual Jake Bailey expectations for the season?
I really just want to have a better season than I did last year. Punting is very easy to grade because it’s very objective; you know exactly what you did wrong on each punt. For example, if it goes in the middle of the field, that’s not the outcome you want to have. We want to have each punt on the sidelines so it puts the returner in a small box. I just want more consistency from myself, and the big punts will come along in time if the consistency is there.
There’s obviously a balance with it, but do you think it’s more important to have a better hang time or to really focus on getting the ball to the sideline or even out of bounds?
Okay, so my coach (Coach Alamar)…I always think this is funny and I think you guys will like this…he always says “we’re in the business of real estate acquisition, and the football field is the real estate the we need to acquire.” And the best way for us to go about doing that is for my punts to be the furthest it can be, with the adequate hang-time, and as close to the sideline as possible. In terms of defining that adequate hangtime, you typically want the ball to stay in the air for a second for every ten yards of distance it travels…so a 40-yarder should be up for ~4.0 seconds, a 50-yarder for ~5.0 seconds, etc, so your coverage net is there by the time the guy catches the ball. So I wouldn’t say any individual factor is more important than the others…you need them all.
Coach Alamar sounds like he’s been pretty influential for your development. How do you think your game has changed and/or improved since you first started at Stanford?
For me, more so than anything else, it’s been a lot of mental development. I came in with what most people would call a pretty big leg, but it was always the handling of ‘playing college football’; being there and being able to be consistent always for my team…but overall I made big strides last year, and have been able to continue to do so this off-season, so whatever he’s doing it’s working.
So playing in the Pac-12 you’re going up against some top notch competition….who’s the worst guy you’ve had lined up to rush against you and who’s been the most dangerous returner you’ve had to boot one off to?
Oh man….well going back, in high school, the high-caliber guy I faced off with was Darren Carrington, who was a number one receiver recruit for Oregon. He was pretty good back in high school, and he was a senior when I was a sophomore. I was playing cornerback on him, and he absolutely burned me one time. In college, the guy that I’m thankful declared for the NFL Draft and I no longer have to punt to is Adoree’ Jackson from USC. He was scary when he got the ball in his hands…game changer for sure.
As a former DB, do you ever miss getting to play on defense?
Sure, I miss playing DB a whole lot…what I’m playing right now is a totally different sport than the guys on defense. It’s non-contact, there’s no cardio involved in it, it’s almost like a day at the golf course for me sometimes, so yeah, I totally miss it. But, there are a ton of aspects that I love about punting too. It’s all about hitting that one punt as perfect as you can, and since you only get one chance, when you do hit it right, it’s a pretty good feeling.
Being both a student and an athlete at Stanford carries a lot of weight with it in just title alone. What’s it like trying to manage all of your responsibilities?
It’s pretty tough. During the season, we’ve got twenty hours a week dedicated to mandatory football activities, and for the most part, if you want to graduate on time, at Stanford you have to put in around sixteen hours of classwork per week. So that’s a decent chunk of time out of your week *laughs* that goes just to being a student-athlete. I’m sure you guys saw Josh Rosen’s comments the other week in his interview saying that ‘college football and academics don’t mix’. I slightly disagree with that. I figured out a good way to time manage my schedule, and be on time to practice, and get a good job. So if you just spend more time organizing, you can manage all of it, and that’s just how the real world works.
Going off the Josh Rosen comments, have you ever thought about splitting school and college athletic into two entirely distinct entities? Any thoughts on the idea of going to school to ‘major in football’?
I guess that’s something that could exist…it’s definetly not something that I would be interested in. That’s why I wanted to come to Stanford so much. The average half-life of a football player is around four years in the NFL. So if you’re lucky enough, like some punters are, to play 20 years in the NFL, you still need to find a job afterwards, so I’d like to have the opportunity to do what I like once I finish my life in football.
Way to represent Stanford well right there…casually throwing out the term half-life. You’re obviously a smart guy, but what was it like applying to Stanford as a student-athlete?
It was a tough process. In high school, I was offered the summer after my junior year. Stanford was actually my first offer, I knew it was my first choice, and I knew I’d be stupid to turn it down because of all of the opportunities that the school could provide after football. But overall, yeah very tough process. Stanford has the hardest college application out of pretty much any school. Their essays require a certain level of meticulous writing, and I know a lot of people who have wanted to play football here and those essays have been where they get dinged and don’t quite get there. I can honestly say that doing well in the classroom in high school paid off big time for me.
Stanford students are swamped with opportunities to gain amazing work experience out there in Palo Alto. Is it possible as a student-athlete to get similar caliber work experience?
Oh sure, you can do a lot as a Stanford football player, and that’s one of the things that Coach Shaw really preaches when he’s recruiting guys; you don’t just play football here…you try to rally just be the best that you can at life. During the summer after my freshman year, I actually interned with Condoleezza Rice who works here on campus, and that was an incredible opportunity for me. I learned so much from just being in her office and watching her interact with people. I got to go to a few of her events, and just watching the way she carried herself while public speaking and being able to pick up a few tips from her was invaluable.
Cameron Fleming of the Patriots majored in aeronautics and astro nautics at Stanford. At 6'5", he was an inch too tall to be an astronaut, so he decided to put his efforts into becoming a professional football player. Are there any astonishingly smart guys like that on the team currently?
There are a few guys on the team that are incredibly smart, but one guy that comes to mind specifically who’s in my class and is front my hometown too (San Diego) is Frank Buncom. That guy’s extremely smart. He’s a human biology major, trying to be a doctor eventually, and just the way you see him attack everything is the classroom is amazing. The man works 24/7 really.
Going off of the NFL topic, we know you’re going to be prepped for life after football, but is playing professionally a goal for you, or do you more so see college being the end of the line?
I guess I have to have an end goal, and if I’m putting ~20 hours a week into football, it’s naturally something I would want to have pan out in some type of way. So yeah, I 100% want to play at the next level if the opportunity presents itself. It would be pretty nice to have a 20-year career in the league, but I’ll play the cards I’m dealt and be happy with whatever happens.
We were snooping around a little on the internet and saw that you’re currently in the process of getting your pilots’ license? Tell us about that.
Yeah! So I didn’t work this past summer and that was main time-consumer. Coming into the summer, I already had twenty hours of the minimum forty hours that I needed to get it done, so I was going to just grind it out to get those hours in…had to knock out my cross-countries, solo cross-countries, all that type of stuff. I got extremely close, where it was only a few days before camp and I had to unfortunately make the adult decision and say nope, I’m gonna shut it down here and shift the focus to football. But hopefully, in December, I’ll get to pick it back up. It’s actually all a pretty special thing (getting the pilots’ license) for me because my dad flew recreationaly, my grandpa flew for TWA for 20+ years and flew bombers in Korea, and my great-grandpa also flew airplanes. So it’s something I’ve really always wanted to do. There’s nothing like taking off from the ground and having the controls of a plane. It’s a very individual feeling.
What was it like on your first take-off and landing?
On my first solo…it was actually pretty cool…it was this past spring and I was flying at Palo Alto Airport. I’ve found out that flying is a lot like football, especially as a punter; you only get one shot and if you mess up…that’s not good *laughs* you don’t want to mess up. But it all comes down to keeping a calm head and if you’ve practiced enough, just let your practice take over. But on the first solo, I was actually in the air and they closed the runway, so they made me self-direct back to a different runway so I could safely land. Huge curve-ball that they threw at me for my first solo.
Well Jake, I think we can say that even if you don’t end up being the best punter we talk to, you are by far and away the most impressive person we will talk to. Good luck on the season and finishing up the pilots’ license!
Thanks a ton guys, and it was great talking to you too!
Final Thoughts
Off the bat, we were all curious what it would be like talking to a football player from Stanford,especially COB, who applied to Stanford, and whose subsequent rejection looked something like this (still bitter). Would he be as smart as the stereotypical Stanford kid? Would he be a jock who just got in because of sports? There was a little bit of an expectation that he would be smart but that he really got in for football more than anything else, but boy were we wrong.
Jake was a DB, WR, Punter, and Kicker in high school. Despite the fact that his Hudl highlights are littered with pick-six’s, he elected to give up DB and WR to focus on Punting and Kicking. That decision proved to be the right one, as he hit 3 50+ yard field goals (12/16 total) and averaged 44.1 yards per punt (including a 71 yarder) during his senior year, on the way to being named a 5 star recruit for both positions, the 4th best kicker (per ESPN) and 6th best punter (per 247 Sports) in the US, all while sporting a casual 4.03 GPA.
Jake is coming off of his sophomore year, when took over as the starting punter in addition to retaining Kickoff duties and was named to the Preseason Ray Guy watchlist. He put up the 4th best punt average in school history (43.52 yard), with 13 50+ yard punts and 44 touchbacks on 71 kickoffs, helping push Stanford to a 10–3 regular season record and a Sun Bowl victory over North Carolina. By the end of the season, Jake had racked up a Ray Guy Player of the Week, an All Pac-12 Honorable Mention, and an All Bowl Honorable Mention.
As a whole, it was a slightly disappointing season for Stanford, who had just come off of a magical 12–2 season (powered by wunderkind Christian McCaffrey) where they convincingly won the Rose Bowl over Iowa and finished #3 in the final AP Poll, their best finish in 76 years. After 3 big victories over USC, UCLA, and Kansas State, Stanford stumbled, getting beat up in back to back weeks by Washington and Washington State, effectively ending their shot at getting back to the Pac-12 championship game.
This season presents a chance for Jake to build on a stellar sophomore season and a chance for Stanford to make a push back to the Pac-12 championship. Jake is already off to a hot start, being named back to the Ray Guy Watchlist (which he pooh-pooh’d as a non-event). On the other hand, Stanford as a whole faces an uphill battle, having to go through Washington (who lost a lot of talent from last year as well) and Washington State to win the Pac-12 North and likely a very dangerous USC to win the Pac-12 title. In addition to that challenge is the fact that Stanford lost both Solomon Thomas and Christian McCaffrey to the draft and starting QB Keller Chryst is coming off of a serious knee injury in the Sun Bowl. Will Bryce Love be able to fill the space left by Christan McCaffrey? Will Keller Chryst be able to return to form? Will Harrison Phillip and Dylan Jackson be able to produce without Solomon Thomas? That’s a lot of question marks.
The only position that doesn’t have a question mark is punter, where Jake will look to continue his growth under Coach Alamar. If Jake can continue to “acquire real estate” like he did last year, he will have a chance to help Stanford repeat as the 2nd best special team unit (per ESPN) in the NCAA even though they lost starting kicker, Conrad Ukropina, and key return man Christian McCaffrey.
Off the field, Jake looks to build on his already impressive resume, as he continues his studies on the path to earning a degree in Science, Technology, and Society. Given the fact that Jake has already interned in Condi’s (yeah, we’re on a first name basis, get over it) office, he seems to have a very bright future outside of football. This bodes well for his plan to have a 20 year NFL career and follow it up with a successful career off the gridiron (did someone say future Senator?). We also would like to wish Jake the best of luck finishing off the last 20 hours to earn his pilot’s license. If my first flight ended with me having to self-direct to land, I’m not sure I would’ve continued flying. Just goes to show what this kid is made of. Long story short, this kid is a winner on and off the field.
Final Fun Tidbits
- Jake has absolutely no fear of name-dropping. Casually throwing out the fact that he interned in Condoleezza Rice’s office was a pretty ballsy move. We can say that was the best (and probably only) name drop we’ve gotten so far, and we love it. We at BCO know how to name drop too, Jake. Someone on the staff once took a dump in the stall next to Ice Cube at LAX one time. Top that, Jake.
- Jake holds the record for the longest pick-six in San Diego CIF (high school football for all you non-Californians) with a 106 yard return for a TD.
- Fun fact, Jake also holds the long jump record at Santa Fe Christian. 21 feet 4 inches, to be exact. What can’t this kid do?
- One last question we had for Jake that we didn’t get to ask was: when do you expect to get the invite to Andrew Luck’s book club? We’re still waiting on ours, so when you get in, make sure to do us a solid and remind him for us.
We would like to thank the Stanford football program and Jake Bailey for taking their time to do this fantastic interview. Stanford opens their season this weekend on August 26th with a match-up versus Rice in Australia.
