Mississippi State punter Nicholas Barr-Mira maintaining consistency on special teams

While Mississippi State has encountered its share of struggles on both sides of the ball this season, the one consistent has been special teams. In particular, senior punter and former UCLA transfer Nicholas Barr-Mira.

A year ago – his first at Mississippi State – Barr-Mira attempted just one field goal along with a few extra points and his kickoff duties. But this year he has moved to punter and has been a bright spot for the Bulldogs.

In the first four games of the season, Barr-Mira is averaging 45.2 yards a punt. Of his 14 punts, 12 have either been inside the opponents’ 20-yard line or resulted in a fair catch. Last weekend Barr-Mira also handled kickoffs due to an injury to Marlon Hauck, and four of his five kickoffs were touchbacks.

After Tuesday’s practice session, Barr-Mira met with the media:

Q: Outside of one punt, you’ve had a consistent year. What’s your preparation and your process?
Barr-Mira: I think after last season, I knew coming into this season there would be competition at multiple spots – punter, kicker and the kickoff spots. So really the whole offseason I trained at all three equally. I worked on field goals, worked on punting, worked on kickoffs. That continued throughout training camp and I competed in all three to give myself the best shot to see the field and that’s where I ended up. It’s worked out for me and I did it my last season at UCLA and I hope to continue it the remainder of the season.

Q: Did the last staff approach you about punting last season?
Barr-Mira: I think it was a combination of a lot of things. When you’re in the season and in uniform, you really don’t know what’s going on. We could see it was a tough year for us punting but we had a lot of good guys that had put good things on tape and played at a high level before. So it was just a matter of getting in a rhythm and getting in that routine. Keelan (Crimmins) was actually my roommate last year and one of my best friends. Having him go through it as a freshman even though he was 23, it did come up a couple of times me punting last year. But I just never had the opportunity to get on the field.

Q: A good day for you is to get a day off. How do you feel like you can impact the game at Texas? Flipping the field with your punts?
Barr-Mira: Sure, that’s exactly how you can affect the game. Special teams, you only get so many plays a game. It’s a third of the game but you only get a third of those reps. For me, that’s exactly what it is. Go out there and flip the field, give our defense an advantageous situation and allow our offense to get the ball back in good field position. But it’s not just me punting the ball. It’s the snapper and the guys on the coverage teams. We all go out there and it’s about working together. We work hard at it on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to get ready for the game and go do it on Saturday.

Q: Is improving your hangtime something you worked on in the offseason?
Barr-Mira: I think you’re always trying to find ways to improve. Any time you can increase hangtime and have the same distance, you’re forcing fair catches. That’s always something you focus on and I can only get better than that.

Q: You seem to have faith in your gunners to where you just let your punts rip?
Barr-Mira: Yeah we have dudes out here running super-fast speeds. Our gunners are great and tremendous. They’re a big reason why we are doing pretty well. Any time I can give them some more time the better it is and they do a great job.

Q: How much does your approach change week to week with the opponent or is it the same?
Barr-Mira: For the most part it’s the same stuff. You got to look at what they do on film, their schemes, their blocks, their percentages and how many they rush and things like that. Little things like that you pay attention to so that you are aware of it during the game. But for the most part, if you have a clean operation, good protection then a good punt will take care of whatever they throw at you.

Q: How is it with your longsnapper?
Barr-Mira: Hayes (Hammond) is great. He is a Mississippi boy and worked his tail off to get here. He’s doing a great job for us. He is just as big of a part of it as anyone else. It’s not possible without Hayes, for sure.

Q: How do you try to keep everyone’s spirits up after a tough start?
Barr-Mira: Any time you can focus on the process and not the result, it is a good thing. When I was at UCLA, my first year there we were 4-8 and the next year we were 3-4 in the short Covid season. Then when I left there they had nine and eight wins in back to back seasons. So I’ve been through something like this before. For me personally, unfortunately, I’m not going to be here to see the progression of this team. But we’re on the right direction. We just have to focus on the process and you can’t get caught up in the outside noise. Focus on the things you can control. You got to weather the storm a little bit but you keep your head up and you are in a good spot.

Q: Do you check your stats after games?
Barr-Mira: Not typically. When we come in on Monday you have your numbers. The stat we try to focus on is net punting. That is really what I try to focus on the most.