Quarterback Zac Taylor

Nebraska Weekly Press Conference
Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006
Memorial Stadium - Lincoln, Neb.
Pre-Texas A&M

Zac Taylor
Senior, Quarterback
On the importance of a win against the Big 12 South
“We want to get a win in every game we play.  Obviously there is a lot of hype about north teams not really beating south teams, but we want to beat every team we play.  It really doesn’t matter what division their in.  I guess it would be nice for our side of the conference if we got a big win like this.”<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

On the environment at Kyle Field
“It’s going to be very tough.  It’s probably going to be the loudest place we’ve ever played.  I’ve never played there, but I know a lot about it.  I know it’s going to be loud.  I know they’ve got great fans down there and they’ll be respectful.  It’s going to be hard to hear, but we’ve played in some pretty loud stadiums so I feel like we’ve had some good preparation for it.  This is a place I’ve always wanted to play. It will just be neat. I think this is going to be a fun experience for us.”

On clinching the Big 12 North
“It would be great.  It’s obviously one of our goals and the sooner we achieve it the better.  We know how to win out. We don’t want to just win one of our games to clinch it.  Hopefully, if we just go down there and take care of business things will work out and we won’t have to worry about that other stuff.”

On <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Nebraska’s game plan against Missouri
“It was a good game plan.  We knew we could run the ball at them. We’d seen what Oklahoma had done. We caught a lot of flashy passes that helped us out in the passing game.  We didn’t really do a lot of drawback stuff so it was nice.  That was the freshest I’ve ever felt after a game.  I only got hit once or twice and it was nothing too hard so it was definitely the best I’ve ever felt after a game.”

On utilizing screen passes
“It won’t let teams rush us as hard as they want to.  They have to be aware of other things.  When we do it five or six times a game, teams will take note of that and it should back them off a bit and give us some opportunities to sit back there and throw the ball.  They worked.  They worked every time we ran them last game and they’ve really worked every time we’ve used them this year.  So I’m sure we’ll keep using them and teams will have to be ready for them.”

On Texas A&M’s defense
“I’ve seen a lot of 4-2-5’s, which we really haven’t seen a lot of.  We haven’t had time to sit down with coaches and figure out a plan yet, but I’ve been confident in every game plan we’ve come up with this year so whatever we choose to do to attack it I’ll feel comfortable with.”

On what kinds of defenses opponents bring against Nebraska
“Teams have to try and stop our running game.  That’s the biggest thing.  They don’t have to focus on me.  They have to focus on trying to stop the run.  That’s the benefit with my job.  Teams are putting eight guys in the box to try and stop the run then the play action opens things up and makes my job easier.”

On possibly becoming Nebraska’s all-time passing leader
“It would be great.  Any chance you get to be in the Nebraska record books is an honor.  I’d rather win the Big 12 championship and have my team get recognition that way, but it is an honor any time you get to be in the record books.  I wouldn’t expect my record to last very long.  In two or three years there will a new kid up here talking.  I won’t get too comfortable with it yet.”

On breaking the record in just two years
“With this offense, anything is possible.  It is surprising because I had no idea what kind of success I would have before I came here, but once I’ve gotten comfortable in this offense it’s easier to see that things like this can come.  I’ve had the opportunity to play with a lot of great guys here that have really helped me out.  It should be about 11 names up there in that record book next to mine because all of those guys on the field made it possible.”

On the importance of the Big 12 championship
“That’s what I want.  That’s what is important to me.  I want to be remembered as a quarterback that led my team to a championship.  That’s much more important to me than any of the records I have.  That’s what guys like Scott Frost and Eric Crouch and Tommie Frazier are remembered for.  It wasn’t about what kind of records they had.  People just remember they winning games and that’s what I want to be remembered for.”

On pulling Missouri offsides on fourth and one
“It was a big play for us because it allowed us to run more time off the clock instead of making the defense go out there and stop them again.  I didn’t really expect it to work.  I’m going to go out there and try my hardest to make it work, but we’ve done it twice this year and you figure that a team is just going to know what you’re doing, but apparently they didn’t.  If you look at the film every single guy on our team had some kind of dorky thing they did after that play in celebration.  If someone could get a picture about one second after that guy jumped offsides, it would be a pretty funny shot.”

On scoring in the opening drive of the second half
“It’s tough.  It’s really not something you work on.  It’s more of a mindset.  It’s not something we’ve done in the first two games and it’s something we need to do to put teams away.  You have to come out there expecting to score on the first series of the third quarter and it would really help our team out with the bigger lead and getting confidence.  It’s just something we need to be aware of.”

On Nebraska’s receivers
“They are all confident and they know they are going to get the ball if they’re open.  Last game, they weren’t even great passes, guys were just jumping up and making plays.  Terrence (Nunn) caught a pass from Mo (Maurice Purify) and Mo caught a pass from me by just jumping up between two guys and bringing it down.  These guys are just really playing well and I have as much confidence in them as I’ve ever had.”