Tony Bua Press Conference Transcript
April 25, 2004
S TONY BUA
(On what he weighs right now) -- “212.â€Â
(On if he can get heavy enough to play linebacker in the NFL, and if the Dolphins talked to him about playing linebacker) – “I don’t know. They talked about it with me, playing outside linebacker. I played linebacker my first three years at the University of Arkansas and I was about 220 or 224. This past year they moved me to safety, which was better for me, and I weighed about 212. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve always had the question, ‘Am I big enough, tall enough or strong enough to play outside linebacker?’ I did in the SEC. I was the career-leading tackler at Arkansas. I’m just looking forward to getting down there and meeting people like Zach Thomas. I feel like I’ll fit in well those guys, and I’m just looking forward to learning everything I can from them.â€Â
(On if he would describe himself as pretty aggressive) – “I’m just a real aggressive football player. I love to play the game, I love contact and I love hitting people and being hit. It’s the ultimate honor to be drafted, so I’m really looking forward to learning the city of Miami and just getting out to Miami.â€Â
(On the emotional side of football) – “It’s a fine line when you play with emotion. Sometimes you can let it get the best of you. But I think if you don’t go over the line and stay on the straight and narrow, you can get the best of your emotions by playing smart. Football is an emotional game. You’ve got grown men out there trying to kill each other on every single play. It’s an emotional game and you have to learn how to learn how to use your emotions to play the game.â€Â
(On where he is) -- “At my house in New Orleans.â€Â
(On if this is where he expected to get drafted) – “No, not at all. Coach (Houston) Nutt, some of our coaching staff and some of the personnel in the league thought I would be selected in the late third or fourth round. I wanted to go to Miami. I love the city of Miami. I told my fiancée I wanted to go be in either Miami or Tampa Bay. I’m really looking forward to getting out there.â€Â
(On why he loves Miami so much) – “I’ve really never been there, but I heard it’s a wonderful place. It’s a beautiful city, it is warm and they have beaches. So I’m really looking forward to it.â€Â
(On which NFL player he would compare himself to) – “I don’t know. Maybe Adam Archuleta, that type of player who plays real well in the box and plays cover two and cover three. It’s my understanding from the coaches I’m going to be down in the box a lot. I feel like whenever I’m closer to the football I make more plays. I don’t really know who I would compare myself to in the NFL.â€Â
(On the guys he followed as a safety at Arkansas all being physical guys) – “I just think whenever you hang out with guys like Ken (Hamlin) and Kenoy (Kennedy), we just fed off each other. Ken learned how to play the game from Kenoy, and so did I. I just think when you play at the University of Arkansas, the first thing you do is to be physical and have a never-say-die attitude. But most importantly, I think everybody on our defense, for the most part, loved contact, regardless of who it was – Caleb Miller, Ahmad Carroll, Ken Hamlin and myself, we lived to hit and be hit. I don’t really know how to answer that question. I think the coaches make us tough and we just play the way they tell us to play.â€Â
(On if they do anything in practice or games to take the physical part of it to another level) – “Not really. I just think that the mindset is that you’re willing to give up your body on any single play and have no regard for your body whatsoever. That’s the type of mindset that I’m talking about between Ken Hamlin, Kenoy and myself. You just have no regard for your body. We don’t really do anything in practice and than anyone else does.â€Â
(On if there was ever an occasion in practice where he had to take on Shawn Andrews) – “Yeah. When I played outside linebacker for three years, a lot of things they did was bring me off the edge a lot. I just tried to utilize my speed to get around those big guys and stuff like that. But I’ve taken on Shawn Andrews a couple of times. I’ve never taken him on head-up of course. That’s one thing you don’t want to do. People in the NFL will find that out real quick. I’ve had to try to get around him a lot of times. I’ve been successful a few times, maybe I can count on my hand, but that’s about it. Anytime you get by him, he’s 360-370 pounds, so he leans on you and you just fall.â€Â
(On who his agent is) -- “Mark Bloom.â€Â
(On what he studied at Arkansas) – “Communications.â€Â
(On if he has his degree yet) – “It’s in the mail.â€Â
(On if he likes playing special teams) – “At Arkansas, I was one of the premier players on our team, so I never really had the opportunity to play special teams a lot. I’m really looking forward to it. I know that’s you create some value to yourself on the team. Like I said, I just can’t wait to get on any special teams that I can get on. Most importantly I just want to be on the football field. This is all I’ve ever dreamed of; playing football. I don’t want to have to get a real job. I just want to play football for as long as I can, and if that means playing on special teams for the next six years, then that’s what I’ll do.â€Â
(On where he went to high school) – “John Curtis.â€Â
(On some penalties he had, particularly the one in the Florida game) – “I had two late-hit penalties my whole career. One was in the Florida game, at a very crucial time in the game. We were having one of the best comebacks in school history, and I hit the quarterback head-to-head when he was scrambling outside the pocket. The next game, one of the running backs had fallen to the ground and I hit him. It was a questionable call. I think the week before didn’t help me. So I had two late hits my whole career.â€Â
(On if the coaches got on him about the penalties) – “Yeah. They got on me a good bit. I think that when you have a veteran player at the college level, he knows when he makes a mistake. There’s only so much you can say. They got onto me and it was over with and we went on with our season.â€Â
(On what it means to him, being able to play with Zach Thomas and Junior Seau) – “It’s going to be a tremendous honor to be able to be on the same field with those guys. I’m really looking forward to learning as much as possible from all of them. I’m just really anxious to get down there on Thursday, see the facility and go though the whole rookie process.â€Â
GENERAL MANAGER RICK SPIELMAN
(On why he decided to choose Tony Bua) “This kid, when you watch him on tape, he literally was one of the most aggressive guys we have seen on film. He has played safety, he has played linebacker. He weighed 212-pounds at his workout. This guy is the type of person that we convert from safety to linebacker. We feel that he is going to be a hard core special teams player. One of the reasons that you are looking at a guy like this is because we lost Tommy Hendricks as one of our core special teams guys. Now we are starting to get some players, along with what we did in free agency with the Chris Akins of the world, the Will Pooles of the world and now with this kid, not only are we upgrading our depth, but we are also upgrading our special teams as well.â€Â
(On fans who think the team needs more offensive players) “One of the reasons why we moved down was so we can accumulate more picks. So now we have a sixth round pick and three seventh round picks so there will be some other needs that will be addressed. This gives us four more picks to address some needs at other positions.â€Â
(On acquiring offensive players as part of the plan) “We will definitely look at the offensive side of the ball. We just felt that this kid was too good of a football player, the way he plays the game. He is a throwback.â€Â
(On how much weight will Bua need to play linebacker) “He has weighed up to 230 pounds when he played linebacker two years ago at Arkansas. Then he lost his weight and went down to 212 pounds. I was at the South Carolina game on Thursday night in Little Rock and this kid had 17 tackles and laid out their young running back and put him out of the ball game. This guy is going to fly around and hit people and that is something that we look for on special teams and also is going to help our depth at linebacker with the loss of Tommy Hendricks.â€Â
(On how much he needs to get back up to) “Our guys, if they are in the 220s, 218s, our linebackers in this scheme do not have to be that big. They just have to be able to run and they have to be able to hit and cover. This guy can do all of that.â€Â
(On inside linebacker depth) “We will look through college free agency as well. How Dave addressed who would move to where if we had an injury up front, we have a plan on what would happen. I won’t get into that. That is Coach’s area.â€Â
(On if this is like the Tommy Hendricks situation in moving a safety to linebacker) “This kid was pretty exciting to watch when ytch him on tape. Like I said, the game that I saw live and the tapes that we viewed up stairs, this guy is an exciting throwback-type football player.â€Â
(On his late hit penalties this past season) “He has a little anger management issues when he is on the field. Great kid off the field. You can’t do that up here because it costs your team 15 yard penalties, but also that tells you what type of mentality this kid plays with.â€Â
(On Arkansas safeties) “When you watch Arkansas on tape and you watch their defensive side of the ball, those guys run around and hit people. I think Houston Nut and that staff down there does and excellent job on that side of the ball in how they teach aggressiveness and how they teach effort and running to the ball. They have had a lot of productive players that have come out of Arkansas on that defensive side.â€Â
(On his intelligence) “Very smart.â€Â
(On if he has had any calls from teams regarding Adewale Ogunleye) “Not one.â€Â
