Wide Receiver Brandon Kinnie

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Pre-Kansas

On what it is like to be a Kansas City guy
"Same old - another game. They asked me earlier if I was getting recruited by Kansas or Kansas State, and I was coming out of junior college. I took an unofficial tour to Kansas and (Coach Mark) Mangino introduced himself to me like six or seven times because he couldn't remember who I was or why I was there. That kind of took them out of the process. No biggie. There are a couple players on their team that I know of from high school, but not that I know. Just another game."

On Mangino not knowing who Kinnie
"Yeah, he just kept introducing himself to me over and over. We would walk around the field and introduce himself, walk around the field, introduce himself. I felt like saying 'I just talked to you, man'. I was out of that Kansas boat."

On how he feels about being down to third- and fourth-string quarterbacks and if he is confident in them
"I've been saying all year that the whole team is confident with any of those three guys back there playing for us at any point of the game. There is no confidence builder because we all have confidence already. We are confident at any point of time in the game or the season."

On how the running game is more available than last year
"I thought we were just trying to figure out some things last year. I think we are pretty much balanced this year. We are better this year but I feel like we always had a run game. I think our passing game is coming along this year. I think we are balanced."

On if Rex Burkhead can throw the ball
"Yeah, real good. We have seen him in practice a couple of times. A few trick plays and just throwing the ball. He and Mike McNeill can both throw." 

On how the team prepares for the grind and injuries at this point in the season
"Just push through it. We have to win and we have a process. We have a goal to accomplish so we just have to push through."

On if it is easier to have something to play for
"I guess you could say that, yeah. We still have a goal and it is right out there in front of us to make."

On how Burkhead is viewed among teammates
"Very respected and down to earth. Great to talk to and funny, everything. He is a great football player as well."

On if Burkhead gets a spring in his step when he knows he is running the wildcat
"Nah. He is the same all the time. I was happy we put it in because I like seeing it. At the bowl game when we put it in I was excited about it. I like seeing him run it because he is so professional at it. I always make jokes and ask him about it. He looks amazing running it."

On if Kansas scoring 35 points in the fourth quarter got NU's attention
"We weren't looking at the game, but we saw the scores and I looked up and it was like 45-17, and then I looked up again and 52-something and I thought "how did they do that"? It's just another game that we are going to go out and prepare the same. We want to go out and get our win."

On if they learned anything from the South Dakota State game that they'll bring to the Kansas game
"Coach (Ted) Gilmore said something about that. We are going to go out and prepare like we have been preparing and keep the momentum and the ball rolling. Like I said, our goal is still out there to get."

On if he knows who Turner Gill is
"No."

On if anybody has told him who Turner Gill is
"Yeah, I've heard of him. I heard he was a quarterback maybe. That's about it."

On if he had a chance to talk to Niles Paul about taking heat from fans
"Oh he's fine. Confident guy, so he is fine."

On if he plans to get any of his former teammates from Fort Scott up to Lincoln
"A lot of these guys there now I didn't' play with or know of. (Jermarcus) Yoshi (Hardrick) and Lavontae (David) know them better than I do. I heard we were recruiting a couple of them but that's all. I don't know them that well."

On being the 'dad' of the Fort Scott players
"I guess you could say so. He (Jermarcus Hardrick) always thinks he is the oldest because he is the biggest. That means nothing. I like to show them the ropes and what it takes to get it done. I'm still learning as well. Just teaching how to make the junior college transition to D-I."

On if Hardrick takes advice from Kinnie
"Yeah, he likes to think he knows everything. But he listens."

On how difficult it is to make the JUCO to Division I transition
"Yeah its very hard. Playbook, speed of the game and schedule-wise and studies and stuff. The biggest thing is getting comfortable and getting the schedule and planning things out and when you do that, everything is fine and falls into place."

On if his ankle is still bothering him
"It's fine. It was my foot. Still bothering me but it's fine. I'm full speed and it's all right."

On if it is one of those things that just won't heal
"Yeah, but its nothing to cry about."

On how bad the team wants to get back to the Big 12 Championship
"Bad. It is bad and we don't want to jump ahead of ourselves. We still have a season to finish. I just know that we want to get to that title game again."

On if Texas gave the Huskers any kind of lesson
Nah, it was just another game. It was a loss. It is in the past."

On if he likes the no-huddle offense
"Yeah, I mean, whatever we do, I'm fine with if it will help us win. Absolutely fine with it."

On if he wants his pictures on one of the play cards
"No don't put me up there. I don't want to be up there."

On if the pictures help
"With the plays being called, and you kind of know the personnel. You don't need to look at the card as much but we know what plays we run out of that. We work on it all week with our plays and our schemes. When they call it, we know what it is out of and we know who is in and who isn't."

On when the coaches started doing the players and the cards
"Probably last week. We had it for Missouri but didn't have to use it."

On watching Big 12 teams lose, and what it means to the Huskers getting to Dallas
"Just crazy. Especially K-State. We want to get back really bad, but it is a process and we have three games left. We can't jump ahead to that, so we have to win out first and finish our goal before anything else."