Nebraska Player Quotes

Nebraska Weekly Press Conference
Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2006
Memorial Stadium
Pre-Kansas State

 

Zac Taylor
Senior, Quarterback

On the program’s potential 800th win

“It’s huge.  It says a lot of about the program and tradition.  As everybody knows, not many teams have 800 wins.  It would be a great deal to be a part of that.”

 

On the Nebraska/Kansas State series

“Growing up, I didn’t know much about it.  I knew about plenty Nebraska and KansasState, but I didn’t know much about the games that took place between them.  It was a bit one-sided going into the '90s, and then KansasState got pretty good.  It’s going to be a tough test.  KansasState has a really good football team, and they have lot of good players, so it’s going to be a tough test for us.”

 

On Nebraska’s struggles at KansasState

“It’s huge just for the success of our season.  Another road win against K-State, a team that’s competing for the North championship, would really establish ourselves and get us headed in the right direction in terms of winning the Big 12 championship this year.”

 

On the growing comfort level on Nebraska’s offense

“When we were at USC, that was our first road game, so there was some stuff that we had to get used to.  We were ready for the environment at IowaState.  We kept the ball on the ground and got some good yards from that, so it really managed the clock well.  We had a lot of success in pretty much everything we did.  We had a couple of drives there where we stopped ourselves, but I was pretty happy with how we played offensively.”

 

On KansasState’s defense

“They’ve got a lot of good players.  Some of the guys that we played against last year are still back.  I think that coaching staff is a pretty good, defensive-minded, coaching staff.  They’re going to have them set up and ready to play.  They haven’t given up a lot of points to some teams, so they’re going to be prepared and a tough test for us.”

 

On the excitement of getting the game plan

“We’ll learn more about it at practice today.  That’s when we really start to learn about it, what the coaches have to say to us.  Every week is exciting.  It’s a new, big game.  Every game is the biggest game we play.  It’s just fun to learn about the new team and how much success they’ve had this year and try to prepare ourselves for a win.”

 

On his memories of Manhattan and Bill Snyder Family Stadium

“My dad was a coach there when I was a kid, so I remember sitting on the hill with about 15 other people in the early '80s.”

 

On Nebraska’s fast starts in 2006

“We’re a lot more confident.  One of our goals this year is to win the first quarter of every game to get out to a fast start and get on top of teams early.  We’ve had good play-calling the first 15 plays and I think the two of the last three games, we’ve really kept the ball on the ground.  We’re keeping ourselves in good situations.  We had a lot of 3rd-and-1s and 3rd-and-2s against IowaState, and that’s where we want to be.  That’s a situation we feel we can win in, so if we keep ourselves in those situations, we feel like we can put points on the board early in the first quarter.”

 

On the two-minute offense

“I think at the end of the half, teams are trying not to give up too many yards, so they’re just dropping soft in coverage.  We didn’t hit a lot of deep balls in that two-minute drill (against IowaState).  It was mostly short stuff.  If you do that the whole game, it’s not going to work.  It’s more to your advantage at the end of the half.  I like doing it, the receivers like doing it.  I think you have to get that first first down.  That’s the biggest key that the coaches always tell us.  After that, you kind of have the defense on their heels, because you’re calling out the plays and yelling and you’re running the play pretty quick.  They don’t have much time to figure out what they’re doing.  They might stick with one coverage the whole time down.  It gives you a bit of an advantage, but it’s not something you can do the whole game.  It’s more to your advantage to run it at the end of a half or a game.”

 

On the health on center Kurt Mann

“I don’t remember if he ran with the ones (in practice).  We take snaps from all those guys, so I don’t pay much attention to who’s rotated in or not.  He’s getting plenty of reps, and I’m sure he’ll get a lot this week, too.”

 

On increasing Maurice Purify’s role in the offense

“He’s going to become more and more a part of our game, I think.  Last game, it was a lot of shorter throws, and his strength is to go up and get the ball.  He’ll be used more and more in certain games, and any time we get in a situation like we did the last game, where you just throw the ball up, you’re going to see him a lot in a situation like that, I’m sure.”

 

On determining the number of carries for each Nebraska’s four I-backs

“That’s a tough job.  I’m glad I don’t have to make the decision of who is playing more.  I think each one of them has each had a big game, so there are games when they might get two carries and they might get frustrated, though they haven’t really shown that.  But there’s games where we have two guys go over 100 yards, so I think those guys know that any game can be their time and their breakout game , so they’re waiting around and waiting for that to happen.  When they get the ball, they all do a good job with it.  The good thing is that you don’t hear them complaining about it.  It would be very easy to do, or hear them talk about transferring, but that’s stuff you don’t hear from those guys.”