Nebraska Tight End Thomas Fidone II Pre-Rutgers Press Conference

On maintaining trust in the offense
“Us as an offense and a team know that we’ve put in a lot of work. We trust each other. We have a lot of trust built in the coaches and in the players to go out and make the plays and execute the game plan. A lot of it comes down to the amount of work we have put in. I truly don’t believe any team has worked as hard as we have and put in the amount of work we have in the offseason. We are extremely physical and when we execute things at a high level we are going to be hard to beat.”

On the Rutgers defense
“They just play hard and play with a lot of strain. They are a tough and physical team. In the red zone, they have a lot of success.They are really disciplined with every player doing their job. They are a really physical bunch. They don’t give up huge chunk plays, especially in the red zone. I think their best stat is in the red zone. They don’t give up anything in the red zone. From what I’ve noticed they play a lot of different types of coverages in the red zone. I think they are really good at what they do in that area. They are very disciplined. They also have a lot of old guys. I think ten of the eleven guys on their defense are all juniors and seniors so having a lot of experience helps.”

On how he has grown as a player this year
“For me personally, one thing I have always wanted to work on is my blocking. I feel like that has been a place where I’ve gotten a lot better at blocking. Obviously I need to continue to get better at it. I'm not where I want to be in that area. Blocking and then slowing everything down even more. Being able to see what the defense is in pre or post snap. I think my route running has gotten a lot better, especially against man. When you think it’s zone and they go to man being able to adjust and make a route out of that I think I’ve done a really good job at that. I’m not where I want to be obviously I just need to continue to get better but those are some areas where I have gotten better this year.”