Nebraska Quarterback Zac Taylor

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006
Memorial Stadium
Pre-Iowa State

Quarterback Zac Taylor
On his performance against Kansas|
"There were some throws that I missed on that I think the first couple of games I hit. For whatever reason I just wasn’t on. It’s all correctable stuff. That’s the good news. There wasn’t a whole lot of stuff that was out of our control. We can fix it all."

On whether or not Nebraska will have to score 50 points to beat Iowa State
"We’re going to try and score 50 points. Our defense will be ready for them and they’ve got a great offense so it’s going to be a tough task, but we’re going to try and score as many points as we can."

On playing to overtime against Kansas
"It’s fun. When you get into a game like that you are really into a rhythm and there are big plays on both sides of the ball. It’s an exciting game, especially for the fans, but its fun to play in as well."

On creating big plays
"I think it’s good because it scares defenses when they know that you can score on three plays over 70 yards. That’s good for us just to be able to put that on film and have teams be aware of that."

On his chemistry with wide receiver Frantz Hardy
"It’s just another year’s experience that I have with him. We’ve got great chemistry on the deep ball and that’s something that he showed. A couple of passes in that game I just threw the ball up there and let him go get it. That’s kind of what you do with Frantz because he’s so fast. You just put it out there and let him go beat everybody. I feel like I’ve got just as good of chemistry with everybody else, but it helps having played with him so long."

On how Hardy has improved since coming to Nebraska
"He’s added a couple more pounds, that’s for sure. He was a stick when he played out there. He’s not exactly weighing 240 right now, but he definitely got a lot bigger. In junior college, you just kind of run your route and you get open. And now you have to figure out ways to beat press and things like that that he didn’t have to work on out there. Just the little things that he’s learned from Coach (Ted) Gilmore has really helped him out."

On Nebraska’s mentality going to Iowa State
"This is a big game. We have to prove that we can win on the road in the Big 12 and this is our first step to doing that. It’s going to be a very tough task because they’ve won the last two at Ames against us and they’ve got a great team. So this is huge for us. It would be huge if we could start 2-0 right off the bat, but it’s going take all we’ve got to pull out a win out there."

On Nebraska’s I-back rotation
"I’d say they all had about the same amount of carries last game or at least that’s the way it seems to me. But whoever gets hot, they roll with him and they’ve all been hot at some point or another. I think they’d all prefer to carry the ball every snap. Every guy is going to be selfish like that. I want the ball in my hands every play. But I think they all know how it works. We’ve got four great, fresh backs and they can all make plays so they understand how it works and they are doing a great job of handling that."

On Nebraska’s October schedule
"It’ll be big. We’ve got three road games coming up and the home one against Texas. This is just that first step. We really need to get this win against Iowa State because if we lose it will set us back. We know we’ve got some big games ahead of us, but this is the biggest game in front of us right now."

On wide receiver Maurice Purify’s progress and potential
"Watching him on film, he gets open. Guys are afraid to cover him. Guys are scared to death that he’s going to run by them. He needs to get more confident. He shows big in games. He hasn’t dropped a pass I’ve thrown to him in a game yet, and he makes big plays in the back of the end zone. He’s definitely becoming more and more of a threat every game, and you’ll continue to see a lot of him. He’s a great player already, and once he starts to feel more and more comfortable in our system he’s going to make big plays. He’s going to be a threat as the season goes on."

On establishing the run in the Big 12
"We started out strong against Kansas. You’ve got to give credit to Kansas. They had a good game plan going in and they did a good job of stopping our run. We had some plays early on that got us going and we had some bits and pieces there in the third quarter. I think we can run the ball on anybody with our offensive line. There are times on any drive when teams are going to stop you. They are on scholarship too and they are going to make plays. But I’m happy. I think we still got over 100 yards last game and we’ll look for more of the same this week I’m sure."

On if Nebraska will key in on Iowa State’s struggling pass defense
"It’s something you notice, but we seem to get everybody’s best shot when we play them. That’s what we saw this last week. People kept saying that they saw Kansas struggling going into our game, but that wasn’t the same team we saw on film when they stepped on the field against us. Iowa State has got some great athletes and they’re going to give it their best effort too. A lot of that stuff you just throw out the window when you step on the field. You don’t look at how they are ranked in certain statistical categories. You just know that they are going to play their best and it’s going to be a tough contest."

On what they expect from Iowa State
"Iowa State is going to be gunning for us because of how things turned out last year. The other teams we play as well will be after us. That’s just something we prepare for. It just makes you work harder in practice and you’re just aware of the fact that you can’t have a let down or you’re going to get beat. We just have to stay on top of our game the whole time."

On his performance against Iowa State last season
"That game the receivers really played a big role. They just played really smart and they were getting open. We ran a lot of crossing routes against them and the receivers were smart about sitting it down. I had a lot of time to find them. That was the big thing. Really everyone was just on the same page that game. It was clicking. Once you get on a roll, plays are just going to start to happen."

On the challenges of playing on the road
"It’s tough. The first thing you look at is where the play clock is. That first quarter you have to get used to how loud it’s going to be and whether you have to use the silent count. So when you go into a new stadium there are a lot of things you have to figure out before the game and just get used to the stadium design. There is some stuff you can’t prepare for, but you can prepare for others like just finding the little things you need to see during the game."

On what the offense needs to change from the Kansas game
"Just finishing teams early. I think that’s something different we could have done. Kansas is going to come and play hard, but if you get up on teams early like that it really put the dagger in them. There were just some things we could have done early on to be more consistent and finish them."