Defensive Tackle Ndamukong Suh

Nebraska Football Weekly Press Conference
Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009
Memorial Stadium - Lincoln, Neb.
Pre-Texas Tech

On all the national attention he’s receiving
“It’s all good and gravy, but like Coach Pelini said, it’s early in the season. We’ve just got to continue to stay focused and move on and get ready for this Texas Tech team to come in here and give us a hard time, and definitely stay focused on them and go about our business.”<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

On how he handles the attention
“It’s easy and it’s not easy. It’s a lot of attention. But I think it’s easier for me to deal with it just because I have a grounded family and success is not something that should be new. It’s something that should be expected. Along with that success, things are obviously going to get a little more hyped up and things of that sort. You just roll with the punches and make sure you stay focused on the important things.”

On how his family keeps him grounded
“I’m real close with my older sister and she writes me notes, she wrote me an e-mail before the game...go out there, I’m proud of your last game, but that’s only one game. You’ve got to keep focused and move forward to the next game. And they’re proud of me. Basically they just give me encouragement and they also give me critiques and whatnot as far as they know about football, because family is more onto the soccer side. For what they do know, they definitely keep me grounded. My mom is funny, she’s like, ?Why don’t you make these plays and why don’t you do this.’ I’m like, ?Mom, it’s not always my job to make plays, but to help somebody else make the play.’”

On if the coaches have had to help him stay grounded
“No, not really. I don’t think they feel the need to address it because they know the kind of person I am and how I’ve dealt with it in the past. So as for their concern, they really just are kind of moving on and staying focused as long as I am and getting ready for the next game.”

On if he feels a responsibility for helping the program gain national attention
“Yeah I definitely have no problem with helping get this program back to where it’s supposed to be and the national attention it received in the 90s and whatnot. If I’m supposed to be that spokesperson, if that’s supposed to be my God-willing thing to do, is help, along with getting school and stuff done, I’m more than happy to do that, as long as it helps this team to win and move forward.”

On if his success can help recruiting
“I’d like to be an example of what these coaches have taught me in these last two years, in this short amount of time I’ve been with them. Now, you come in and be a recruit and have four years under their belt, just imagine how much better you can be than me.”