Zac Taylor Quotes

Nebraska Weekly Press Conference
Pregame vs. Troy
Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2006
Memorial Stadium

Quarterback Zac Taylor

On getting back on the field after losing to USC
“It’s going to be nice.  Troy is going to be a tough team.  After any loss you are ready to get back out there and give it another shot so I think the team is excited to get going again.”

On what his frustrations were from the USC game
“The stupid mastakes we were making on offense.  I missed a throw on fourth and 10 and the fumble we had in the backfield.  Those things really hurt us.  If we would have converted on those two drives, we would have had a pretty good shot at winning it.”

On Nebraska’s passing fewer times than previous weeks and affect on him
“It’s a little tough sometimes.  But I think any quarterback would naturally like to be selfish and throw the ball 80 times a game.  That’s how quarterbacks feel.  I understand why we did it.  It makes sense.  We were in the game.  We had our shots.  We just didn’t execute when we needed to.”

On Nebraska’s momentum after its touchdown
“I think the whole offense had momentum and we had a lot of confidence after that drive.  It was just tough.  USC is going to score points.  Our defense had been balanced out all day long.  They had been making great stops.  You’re not going to stop USC every drive of the game.  They’re going to score.  Unfortunately they countered after that touchdown and that kind of put things out of reach.”

On Nebraska’s confidence in its ability to win after USC scored that touchdown
“It was 21-10 and the biggest thing everyone was saying on the sideline is that we’d been in this situation before.  There were 13 minutes left in the game and we’d been down 11 before to great teams and came back and won.  We weren’t nervous.  We thought if we got the ball back we’d make a good game of it, but unfortunately it just didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.”

On relying on the run
“We thought we could run the ball on them.  Teams hadn’t really tried to just line up and run on them and we thought we had the bodies to be able to do it.  On a lot of things we were really close to breaking it, we just missed one little block or something like that.  But overall, I thought we did a good job.  We were in the game.  It’s tough to go out to USC and play with those guys and I thought we did a pretty good job of it.”

On I-Back Kenny Wilson’s performance
“He’s great.  He’s physical.  He’s not going to get caught up in the backfield and get lost yardage.  There were some times when he should have been hit in the backfield and he made a guy miss.  He really just does a great job of getting forward and getting yards.  We’re really going to need him this season.”

On handling the negative reactions to the game
“That’s something we haven’t really talked about and I don’t think it’s something we’ll worry about.  We’re going to get our shots.  We’re going to play a lot more teams.  Troy has got a lot of national respect right now and we need to go out there and beat them.  Down the road in conference we’re going to play some more great teams and we’re going to get our shots.  We’re not worried about what everybody around the world is thinking about us right now.  We went into USC and we played with one of the top teams in the country and that’s a lot more than a lot of teams can say.  We were in the game in the fourth quarter and that’s about all you can ask for.  We had our chances.  We just didn’t take advantage of them.”

On Nebraska’s running strategy
“We knew we were going to run the ball a lot.  If we had had a couple more drives, we would have been able to do a couple more things.  They had some long possessions in the fourth quarter that hurt us a bit.  USC is used to putting up 50 points in a game.  So if you give them a lot of possessions they are going to score points.  I thought we did a good job of controlling the ball and managed the clock very well.  A quarterback always wants to throw the ball every play.  If it was my choice, I’d not even recruit running backs anymore.  I’d just throw the ball every play.  But for the good of the team, it made sense.  I understand why we did it.  I thought that we had a pretty good game plan going in.”

On Nebraska’s limited number of snaps
“When the ball is (being run) on the ground, you’re not going to have a whole lot of snaps.  If you keep it on the ground, the clock’s going to keep moving and you’re not going to get a lot of snaps and that’s just the nature of playing that type of game.”

On punter Dan Titchner’s pass completion
“I was impressed.  I had no clue we were doing that.  I thought he was just panicking and he bobbled the snap and was just throwing it so it scared me, but he knew what he was doing and it was a good throw.”

On Nebraska’s blocking
“I think everybody did a great job.  I think you have to give a lot of credit to USC.  They’re tough to block.  They’ve got so much speed that it’s tough for your line to get out there and make the play.  A lot of times we did do a good job and we made plays and we’d get 10 yards on a sweep or something like that.  But you’ve got to give a lot of credit to USC.  It’s not just guys missing blocks.  It’s USC making plays.  In a game like that, it’s going to happen.”

On tight end Matt Herian’s play
“He’s been great.  He’s another guy you can always count on.  He’s not the fastest guy in the world, but he’s just so smooth running that he gets himself open.  Any time you call a play that he’s the primary, he’s going to get himself open and he’s going to make the catch.  I haven’t seen him drop a ball yet.  It’s good to have a target like that.”

On center Brett Byford’s play
“He did great.  He was our offensive player of the game.  I have a lot of confidence in Brett.  He’s got a good head on his shoulders and he’s a smart kid.  It’s amazing, he wasn’t nervous at all going into the game as far as I could see.  And that’s amazing considering he had just played against Nicholls State and really his first big game is against USC.  I’m proud of Brett and we’re going to need him more as the season goes on.”

On the pressure USC put on him
“I think our offensive line has come a long way.  They did a good job of communicating, especially in that loud environment.  That’s the biggest thing is that they couldn’t really talk back and forth just because it was so loud out there.  They did a good job.  USC is smart with their blitzes.  They know how to get to you.  I thought we did a good job though.  I think I was only hit two or three times and going into a game like that, that’s about all I can ask for.” 

On comparing the loss to others
“It was tough.  We felt we could go in there and win that game.  We knew we were going to have to go in there and make no mistakes and obviously that didn’t happen.  It’s tough when you go in there expecting to beat a big team like that and come out with a loss.  I think we’ve rebounded pretty well.  The guys seemed pretty upbeat yesterday and we know we’ve got another big game this week.”

On using USC as a barometer for Nebraska’s progress
“We’ve got a ways to go, but we felt like we played with those guys.  Obviously they didn’t make any mistakes.  They are a very good ball team, but we can play with a team like that and we can beat a team like that.  We can’t make mistakes like we did, but I think we’re more than capable of playing teams like that.”