Linebacker Lance Brandenburgh

Nebraska Weekly Press Conference
Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2006
Memorial Stadium
Lincoln, Neb.
Pre-Missouri

 

Linebacker Lance Brandenburgh

On the team’s sense of urgency for the Missouri game

“We had yesterday off, so we haven’t really talked about it much, but I’m sure we will today in meetings.  We all know how big a game this is coming up against Missouri.  Despite last week’s loss, we’re still right there for the Big 12 North championship and the Big 12 Championship.  We still have our goals intact.  We just have to take care of business from here on out.”

 

On the NU linebackers playing through injury

“We’re all banged up a bit, but during the game, you don’t think about your injury or anything like that.  We just try to stay confident out there, play hard, make all the right reads and things just take care of themselves.”

 

On playing with a cast on his hand

“It’s alright.  I can’t really feel my wrist much and I can’t really move it.  Sometimes, it’s harder using my hands.  I can’t really use my hands as well as I could without the cast, but I can still play with it fine, so it’s not too big.  I can grip with my fingers but not with my thumb.”

 

On the injuries to Nebraska’s linebackers the last two years

“It’s rough.  All of us have had an injury in the past two years.”

 

On compensating for injured teammates

“I don’t really think about it (the injuries).  I’m sure they (McKeon and Octavien) don’t either. They’re both banged up pretty bad right now, too.  We just get out there and trying to do the best we can.”

 

On the mentality of Nebraska for the final three games of last season

“They’re must-win games for us for what we want to do.  We knew at the beginning of the season that this game would be a huge game for us.  It’s between the two of us for the Big 12 North title, so that makes it huge, in itself.”

 

On the confidence level of the team after two losses

“It’s not any different than what it was.  We know how good a team we are and how good a team we can be.  We know that we didn’t play up to our capabilities last week.  Against Texas, we played a great game and things just didn’t go our way.  Last week, we didn’t play like we know we can play.  We’ve all forgotten about it and you can’t think about something like that when you have a huge game coming up like this.  We’ve all forgotten about it.  It’s past us.  I don’t want to think about it any more and we’re done with it.”

 

On playing against Missouri after playing well against them last year

“I grew up in Kansas City, which has a lot of ties to Missouri, so it’s kind of a big game for me.  I know a couple of the guys on the team, Tommy Saunders, one of their receivers and a couple other guys.  It’s a big game and I’m looking forward to it.  Last year, we ran a little different defense.  I’m just going to go out and execute whatever defense we’re running and things will work out.”

 

On Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel

“He’s a very good quarterback.  He can run and pass the ball.  He’s very similar to (Bobby) Reid of Oklahoma State last week.  He’s a great quarterback and we definitely have to stop him.”