Nebraska Postgame Quotes
vs. Texas A&M
Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Quarterback Sam Keller
On the loss (Audio)
"It’s really, really tough. Extremely tough. We’re just trying so hard to win and make something happen. We all play together and we felt good coming in to this one and there’s not much you can say really. You just have to keep trying and working hard and try to stay focused."
On Nebraska sticking together for four more games (Audio)
"It’s tough. It’s tougher than you would think, but we can do it. We’re going to do it. There is no other way to go, you just have to keep fighting and keep trying. Never, ever, ever quit. We don’t have quitters here. Things have not been going our way at all for three weeks now and you can’t just quit because it keeps happening. You just have to keep fighting. You just have to keep trying. That’s all we’re going to do."
On having Coach Shawn Watson on the sideline (Audio)
"It was great. Coach Watson and Coach Callahan work together through the microphone when he’s (Coach Watson) is upstairs, but it was the same thing between them only on the field. We love Coach Watson, I love him, and he brings a spark and a little communication down there and it was nice. We felt like we were rolling pretty good. But between the two of them, Coach Callahan and Coach Watson, we felt like we had a good plan. We just have to make more plays on offense. I have to make more plays."
On losing focus during the changes in the Athletic Department last week (Audio)
"It was what it was. We as players have a responsibility to play and at practice and to work hard every day and it’s not our job to worry about what’s going on. It’s way above us. We just have to have faith in our coaches and faith in what we do and in each other and try to stay focused as best as we can. I think we did a good job of that this week."
Defensive Lineman Zach Potter
On the season being a "nightmare" (Audio)
"I wouldn’t say it’s a nightmare, but it’s obviously real frustrating. It’s not something you want to keep dealing with. Obviously we’ve lost three in a row now and it’s not anything real fun. But I would not considerate a nightmare."
On Coach Callahan taking more interest in the defense (Audio)
"Every time you have Coach Callahan down with you, you usually get a little better look. He’s kind of scary-well, I don’t want to say he’s a scary guy-but he gets you going a little more and you’re a little more intense. But it helped a little bit."
On the rest of the season (Audio)
"We have to stick together. We’ve stayed together through everything and this is only our fourth loss, so we’re still 4-4. We still have four games left. If we just quit now I don’t really want to end up being 4-8. We just have to keep going."
Wide Receiver Nate Swift
On the mood in the locker room
"It is not good. We have a lot of guys trying to keep other guys up. Trying to keep guys out of the dumps and obviously it is not good in the locker room right now. I know a lot of guys are just taking their time."
On Nebraska's preparation
"We work our butts off everyday at practice four or five times at week. On and off the field, watching film and everything to. Everyone of the past three games I thought we were really prepared for, we just did not go out there and execute."
On the morale of the team
"Try to keep everybody up, keep talking to all the guys. Maybe if they had a bad play or had something bad happen to them, or the offense has a bad series we get together and meet. Coach Watson was on the sidelines which was unusual, but that helped out a little bit, having him on the sidelines keeping everybody up."
On the fumbled punt
"That was not my favorite play of the game, but that happens. It has never happened to me before. They put me back there to catch the punts and I did not do that today."
On his feeling after Texas A&M's score
"Not a very good feeling. I hold that one on my shoulders, and that definitely put them back in the lead and gave them the lead for the rest of the game."
On the momentum swing
"I think so a little bit, we stopped them a couple times with our defense there, and we had gotten the ball back. Going down and scoring would have been great, so I definitely think that was a big momentum swing."
Tight End Sean Hill
On the mood
"Could be better, but it is a tough loss. We wanted to win so bad. We were so close in so many situations but we just couldn’t put things together on offense and they keep making plays when they were on offense. They made it hard for us to win. It was hard but we cant live in the past, we will be ready come tomorrow. We'll watch film, game plan for Tuesday, and prepare for Texas. You can't let these kind of loses linger."
On the offense's performance
"We played well offensively I thought. We moved the ball, made nice runs, nice catches, screen game worked well, but critical situations we could not make the catch, or the run, or the block. They made the tackle when they had to. We need to be better on those critical situations."
On preparing during the week and losing on Saturday
"Its hard. Everyone works hard though, Texas A&M works hard, every team in Division I football works hard and you don’t always win, and that’s life. We will learn from it, were not going to give up by any means, we're going to keep working hard, and we will be ready to go Tuesday. We will be busting it, getting ready for Texas."
On staying positive
"Everyone is positive in there. I mean what else can you say. We broke it down as a team and then the offense talked. We'll be ready to go. It is not wearing on us, you cannot give up. This is where teams will split, but we're not going to let it. We're still tight, and still positive till the waning seconds of the game. We are going to keep positive and keep on plugging away."
On overcoming distractions during the week
"I would not say distracted, I mean it is obviously out there. People are asking football players questions but it does not really affect us. It was not affecting our coaches, it was not affecting our staff that we work with immediately."