All players reported to Texans training camp Thursday to receive their physicals before practice begins on Friday. Defensive lineman Tim Bulman, who enters his second camp with Houston and fourth in the NFL, provided a breakdown of what occurs during the long days of camp.
Brooke Bentley (Texans TV): Today, you come in and take your physical. Is it like the first day of school for you?
Tim Bulman: At the physical, everyone gets to see everyone. We have been on vacation for a couple of weeks, so we get to catch up with old buddies on the team. It's the first time to touch base for everyone on the team. You kind of want to get in and out. All the older guys are in early and out early because they don't want to mess around. You see the rookies linger around here and they are kind of wide-eyed because they don't want to be late for anything. Physicals is that day where it signifies that summer camp is going to kick off.
Brooke Bentley: After this, the rookies go to the hotel and the vets can go home. Houston is one of the few teams that holds camp in town. A lot of teams go out of town for camp. What are the advantages of having training camp in Houston?
{QUOTE}Tim Bulman: I actually really like it. This is my second camp with Houston. I had two with Arizona. We always had to go up to Northern Arizona and it was kind of a hassle traveling and all that. Being able to stay in my own apartment and coming home at least for an hour at night and kind of getting a sense of home and getting out of the camp mode, I enjoy it. I actually really like being where my locker room is. You are used to everything here. I actually really enjoy having the camp where the stadium is.
Brooke Bentley: You kick off practice at 8:30 Friday morning. What is the first day of practice like for you?
Tim Bulman: You find out quick. These rookies will find out that you just throw the pads on and get going, and that's part of being professional. We have to be responsible to know what to do on Friday morning, despite not having meetings - that's being a professional, that's what the coaches expect of us and that's what we are going to get done on Friday.
Brooke Bentley: From Day 1 the coaches start their installs. Explain to fans what installs are and talk about the individual and team drills you go through, especially as a defensive lineman?
Tim Bulman: Install is anything that we are putting in to the practice. So we learn and we get (it) and once we do it, it's in the past and it's in our memory and we have to remember it. We are responsible for Practice One Install – it might be a certain number of plays, and then that's done and afternoon install is a whole new deal. So we have to come in during meetings, we have lunch and you get about three hours to learn the install for the afternoon. Camp is like that. It keeps going. Every day you have something new that you have to learn and you have to get down pat. You have to show the coaches that you can retain that knowledge. That's part of being in camp – they kind of weed out guys that aren't grasping the game as quickly as others. It gets pretty evident around week two, so we'll see what happens. It's pretty simple the first couple of practices.
Individual drills, those are just to get you warmed up. Jethro (Franklin, defensive line coach) loves them. Some of the older guys don't love them so much, but you need them. You need them to get your blood going. You need them to get everything in your head right, that you are going to be out there for a few hours battling in the sun and just competing. It's part of the process of just getting your body warmed up.
Brooke Bentley: During training camp, your weight routine changes a lot. You can't hit the weights like you normally do. Talk about how that routine changes.
Tim Bulman: Dan (Riley, strength and conditioning coach) is pretty cool about it. He gives you time to get in there on your own. You just have to get it done. He knows that your body's going through some serious stress. He really does his best to lighten the weights a little, but you have to maintain strength. You're not going to be doing as much as you do in the offseason but the goal is to maintain that, if not get stronger. He's good with what he does. When you go in there, you try to muster up some energy from somewhere and get it done because that is very important that you maintain your strength throughout training camp and the season.
Brooke Bentley: Does the training room become your best friend?
Tim Bulman: I actually hate the training room because I don't want to spend more than – I grab my bag of ice and then I leave. If I'm going to go do something, I like jumping in the pool. I feel like it cools my whole body down. It's something I've done since college. We've done a lot of pool work after practices, but I try to stay out of the training room. No one really likes to be in there. It just signifies bad things. So I just tape my ankles, grab my tape and I leave.
Brooke Bentley: I know the players do like to spend time in the lounge where you guys can play video games. I hear you are a very accomplished Halo player.
Tim Bulman: That is true. I haven't played in some time, but I would be willing to bet no one on the team could still be able to beat me. I have that much confidence. I think my game is up there. I know Will Demps plays a lot. I know that David Anderson plays a lot and Eric Winston. But whenever I play with them, they just kind of tag along with me. I try to pick up all their slack they leave behind.
Brooke Bentley: During the season you fill out this goal board. Talk about filling out your goals here.
Tim Bulman: These are all goals that we set as a team that we want to accomplish. We see these goals as if we get these goals accomplished, we will win the game. These aren't just made up things. These are actually statistical numbers that have proven that if you do accomplish this certain goal, 70 percent of the time you would win a game. We set these as a team and we want to be the best defense that we can be. We feel that we can accomplish these goals and that's a realistic thing for us to be number one in the NFL.
Brooke Bentley:Training camp is the first step towards accomplishing those goals.
Tim Bulman: Yep, it is. It begins tomorrow. It kind of begins today, but the real deal begins tomorrow morning at 8:30 and everyone is going to be out there with a lot of energy. But I guarantee in about three or four days people are going to be slugging in here. We'll see what happens!
