Defensive Tackle Jared Crick

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010
Pre-South Dakota State

Jared Crick
On if they are concerned about the Defensive Line giving up too many yards up the middle
"We're giving up way more yards than we want to, but it is a thing we can fix. When guys gap us or get long rushes because we made a mistake somewhere, as long as it is something we can fix we're still going to feel pretty good about our rush defense."

On the pressure that is taken off of them knowing they have the support of the way the offense is playing
"It's nice when the offense is putting up a ton of points. Defensively, we have to go out and do our job. We're only concerned about our job. The offense should only be able to score three points, and we should still win that game. We just go with the mindset that we have to do our job, and if the offense wants to put up a lot of points, great."

On how they stay motivated this week
"It's just a motivated group. It doesn't matter who the opponent is. We're going to go in with the same mindset and the same emphasis of preparation as we always would no matter the opponent."

On what changed in locking down the run last week at Washington
"Yeah, we just corrected ourselves. The things that happened were just mistakes, misalignments and little things like that. Once we got those corrected, we went back to playing our style of defense."

On playing a lot of minutes with the offense scoring quickly
"It can be, especially against Idaho when we took two to the house and last week when they were putting up points quick. We'd rather have that. We have guys who can come in and give us a blow if we need it. I'd rather play a hundred reps as long as the offense is putting up points for us."

On how helpful it is to use the front four to rush instead of blitzing
"It's huge when we can just double guys in the secondary and drop everyone back in coverage knowing we're going to get a rush up front. We can do a lot with it and knowing it makes us more versatile and helps us out so much. We pride ourselves on not wanting to blitz. We want to pressure ourselves, as a front four. We pride ourselves on not having to blitz."

On the secondary putting heat on Jake Locker at Washington
"I'd like to say that we helped them out, but they played a great game. I can say we got as much pressure as I want, but the secondary did their job. They played their game. They were locking guys down and allowed us to have time to get to them. We help each other out, but more so the secondary did their job."

On receiving one first place vote
"it's kind of neat, but we could care less about the polls or where we're rated. We have to go out and play our game no matter what."

On if this is the best at this time of the year that the defense has been playing
"I think you could say so just because of what we have, the depth we have and the potential of the guys. I'd say our defense is better now than where we were last year at this time. The thing is we just have to keep getting better. I don't think we were better right now than where we were last year at the end of the season. We just have to keep progressing, keep getting better so we can get to that point."

On what he has seen from Baker Steinkuhler
"He just keeps improving every single day. He is working every facet of his game just trying to improve. His hard work is starting to pay off. You see in games he is starting to make some plays for us. You could say he has incredibly huge shoes to fill, but he is doing his job and is going out there and playing hard every single down. That is all I can expect from him."