Mack Hollins – December 8, 2021
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Wednesday, December 8, 2021
WR Mack Hollins
(You do such a good job of helping us understand things at times and I want you to know that we appreciate that. This week one of the phrases we’ve heard over and over again is self-scout. If you could help me understand some of the things that the coaches and the people who study statistics and trends and patterns and all of that stuff, what kind of things do they come up with that actually help you guys do your job better?) – “I think it’s easy to get lost in – you’re playing a season and it’s easy to get lost in what everybody else is doing. You don’t really get a time to look and reflect on yourself. Maybe in life in general but in football especially. So this bye week, when you say self-scout, it’s like we get a chance for a week straight, we don’t have to focus on any opponent. We can focus on – let’s watch all of our games, let’s go through all of our practices and I’m not the statistics guy but I’m sure they break it down that this play was successful this many times, this was unsuccessful, we averaged this many yards on this or whatever it may be. Then we can take that and how do we after this bye come back and improve as a team. So being able to do that is critical for a team. Whether it’s an early bye or a bye in Week 15 or whatever week we’re on, that’s a time where not only can players get their bodies back but we can come back and it’s really like a fresh start. Like, ‘Hey, we have these plays that have been working. We have these plays that haven’t been working as well. How can we fix those plays? How can we improve?’”
(You probably lead the team in touchdowns per catch so my self-scout says throw Mack the ball more.) – “If it comes my way, I do my best to make sure the touchdown to catch ratio doesn’t get messed up.”
(Is that something that you had been aware of more, the touchdowns. Was that a number that you knew upon catching a touchdown on Sunday?) – “No. The ball just came to me and – I rarely know my stats. Except for tackles. I always know my tackles. I compete.”
(Why not?) – “I don’t know. Catches kind of just, they come and you can kind of get lost. ‘Oh, I had a cool game I had three.’ But people forget. But with tackles, me and Cethan (Carter) actually go back and forth because me and him both have eight. It’s like who is going to get to double-digits first? Who is going to end the season with the most? It’s a little competition so it’s good.”
(Is there a difference in terms of – every player on special teams obviously knows they have to do it well. You obviously take it really, really seriously, which has made you a staple on the special teams unit and good at it. Is there a difference do you think in mentality of certain special teams players, where some really, really take it seriously like you do and some just see it as a necessary thing to stay in the league?) – “Maybe on some teams but I think on our team, everybody takes special teams really seriously. I think the positions that I’m in are optimal for making tackles, whether that’s on punt or kickoff. All returns that get sent to the back side, I’m the first that has a chance. Obviously at gunner, I’m the first that has a chance. It’s easy to make tackles (the determining factor of) he’s a good special teamer or not. You look at a guy like ‘Fedge’ (Clayton Fejedelem), who is really the leader of our special teams unit. He’s the signal-caller in every unit, whether it’s punt return, kickoff, kickoff return or punt. But he’s not going to be the first guy down there because he has two gunners that are playing well this season and he has a bunch of interior guys that are playing well. So to have all of those guys, he may not have the tackles but if you take him out of the equation, are we as successful? Are we protecting punts as well? Are we identifying what kickers are doing direction-wise? Are we identifying what punters are doing directionally? So it’s easy to say Mack is the guy on special teams because I have tackles and I dance and I do all types of wild stuff to bring attention. But every guy on our unit is a ballplayer. It takes a different type of person to be able to do that. Especially the ones that are playing a bunch of snaps offensively or defensively and can go in there and do well on special teams.”
(I’m curious if your competition with TE Cethan Carter involves yards also because you had one special teams tackle that was for a four-yard loss on punt return.) – “No. It was just pure tackles.”
(How did it feel to drop a guy for a four-yard loss?) – “It was good. You don’t look at the numbers but statistically, if you can back a team up and they go on the negative on punt returns, that helps the team’s average at the end of the year when you say, “Hey, how did our punt unit do?’ It’s good but a tackle is nice. I’d definitely take that over like a five-yard gain or a 15-yard gain or something.”
(Based on what you told us earlier this year, that was more satisfying to you than the touchdown catch, correct?) – “Yeah, I love tackles. Tackles are great. That and downing balls inside the five.”
(How certain were you that you had completed the catch?) – “I knew I caught it for sure. I knew I had my feet in. But I know it can be tough sometimes for refs to see that angle when guys kind of have to hug over the ball. But I knew. If it came down to it, I would have argued to throw the (red) flag. I guess you don’t have to on that because it’s a touchdown score anyway but yeah, I was confident that I had it.”
(When you were re-watching it, were you a little impressed with yourself? Like the concentration, the focus, the toes. It was cool.) – “I think I just made it harder than it needed to be. If I had just jumped a little bit higher, I could have just caught it the first time. But then it wouldn’t have made ESPN and wouldn’t have brought their attention. It wouldn’t really be me.”
(Who are the first guys’ names that come to mind if I ask who is the most improved on this team from a year ago? What two or three guys would pop into your mind on either side of the ball?) – “I don’t know. That’s tough. I think we’ve improved really well as a team. It’s hard to improve as an individual player in this league without your team being successful as well. We’re winning games. Is it because of the quarterback? Or is it because the o-line is starting to mesh a little bit better? Or is it because the running backs are starting to run the ball better so defenses are playing differently. Are receivers getting open? Then likewise on defense. I don’t know if I could identify specific players but I think as a unit, we’re starting to understand, we’re getting a little older and guys are starting to understand what it takes to win. They’re feeling comfortable. I think when you’re a rookie, everything is new. You’re in Week 12 and you’re like the season is done before (your realize) you’ve got five more games before we’re done, because you’re on that college mindset. So getting used to what it’s like to be in the NFL has definitely helped us this year.”
(Do you have any plans for the bye week?) – “Cleaning. I’ve been doing some research on some new animals.”
(What kind of animals?) – “Either another snake or maybe a gator. We’ll see. Then I think I’m going scuba diving at the Frost Museum. So stuff around here but yeah, a staycation.”
(Are you saying that you’re considering acquiring an alligator?) – “Yeah.”
(Where would it stay?) – “You can smart them off in small tanks and then I can swap them out once they get a certain size until I can get a place big enough where I can get the cool pool that I want.”
(Funny but they tend to grow.) – “Yeah. I just swap them out with the alligator farm. I take the little one and they take the big one.”
(What do you do with a pet alligator? Just look at it?) – “Yeah. Like feed it. You can walk it if you want. You can carry it. Like I have the snakes now but they don’t chew up my house like dogs do. I don’t have to clean up their poop as much as dogs. They don’t bark. They don’t keep me up at night. And they don’t fake like they’re going to protect me if a robber came in even though they probably wouldn’t.”
(Dogs wouldn’t eat you either.) – “Gators won’t because I’ve got the little ones.”
(So you’re going to look for an alligator this weekend? Is that on the agenda?) – “Yeah, probably. We’ll see. No wild ones. That’s an offseason project.”
(You said you walk them. So when you walk them, your neighbors think what?) – “’There goes Mack again.’ (laughter) Because I walk around with the snakes already.”
(How many snakes do you have and what kind?) – “Two. I have a boa and a ball python.”
(How big are they?) – “One is like five foot. The other is 11-and-a-half maybe?”
(Have you ever had a dog or a cat?) – “I did, yeah. I would love to have a dog. I ended up getting the snakes in college because everybody gets a dog. Then we go to training camp and we stay in this hotel for a month and all of the guys are like ‘Hey girl I’m talking to at the time.’ ‘Can you take care of my dog?’ Then she’s like ‘Yeah, of course.’ Then the first week goes by and she’s like I don’t want to take care of this dog all day. So she’s like I can’t take care of it. He tries to get somebody to take care of it. Neither of them take care of it. They come home and the house is ruined. They’re paying rent at some place. They get kicked out. So it was like why not get a snake where everything is set. Like I could leave for a month and they’d be fine.”
(So you walk the snakes how?) – “I don’t walk them. I put them around my neck and we go for a walk. Yeah, I don’t take them for slithers. (laughter)”
(So you’ll walk around your neighborhood with the snakes around your neck?) – “Mhm.”
(What are their names?) – “One doesn’t have a name because I was going to breed him originally. And then one is named Nikiti.”
(Back to the alligator. If you were taking the alligator on a walk, do you have a leash for it?) – “Yeah, you could put a little – you know those little rat dogs that people have? Those little slipper dogs, the little tiny ones? The same type of leash.”
