Sept. 12, 2009
Nebraska 38, Arkansas State 9
Memorial Stadium - Lincoln, Neb.
Offensive Lineman Jacob Hickman
On the offensive effort
“Pretty good, I felt like we came out of the gates real well. We didn’t really do that last week and that’s something we needed to make sure we did, set the tempo of the game and I think we really did that especially the opening drive coming out and scoring. I think we started well and had a couple of bumps here and there, but I think we overcame it and I think we had a pretty good game overall.”
On the type of injury he left the game with
“It was just a rolled ankle. It was fine. It was just precautionary.”
On if the offense knew they were going to be focusing on the passing game in short yardage situations
“The reason in short yardage is in goal line they would bring in like six defensive lineman and they had no chance at covering some of our guys. They told us initially, yeah were going to throw right now, so you have to take what they give us. We could run them just as easily, but he said he wanted to throw them because we had an advantage there.”
Linebacker Blake Lawrence
On how the team reacted to head coach Bo Pelini’s comments on the defensive performance earlier in the week
“We just came out and wanted to be more physical. I think we came out with a lot of energy today and the excitement was there. Physicality was I think a step up from last week, but we’re no where near where we want to be. It wasn’t our most physical game. It’s not going to be our most physical game of the year. We want to continue to improve our physicality throughout the year.”
On if the way the defense played was a direct result from what coach Pelini said earlier in the week
“Absolutely, he told you what he told us and that’s that it was a good game, it was a good first win, but we were soft. Today we came out and wanted to impose our will a little bit more and be more physical and let them know how we play football here. We made some strides but we’re not where we need to be.”
On if it took Coach Pelini to say they were playing soft for them to realize it after last week’s game
“As a linebacker group we walked off the field last week and said that wasn’t our best effort. Not only mental errors but physically. We watched the film on Sunday and said we can bring it so much harder than we did. We had to turn it from a mental game to a physical game. That’s a transition we have to make.”
Safety Eric Hagg
On his sack
“I didn’t want him to spin out on me, so when he fell, it happened so fast. I don’t know if he tripped or something so I just tagged him after that.”
On if he was prepared for a big hit for his sack
“Oh yeah, I was coming pretty fast, but I don’t know. I don’t know what would have happened because it never happened.”
On how physical the defense was
“I think it went pretty good. Larry (Asante) got a forced fumble. He hit the guy pretty good. We just have to pick up our mistakes, like mental errors and technique errors. I think we did pretty good. I think we were pretty physical, but we don’t know until we watch the film.”