Ben Cotton

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Monday, Nov. 22, 2010
Pre-Colorado

Sophomore Tight End Ben Cotton
On how he feels
“I’m good. Just a normal week. Gotta get ready for Colorado.”       

On what happened in the pile when Cotton was penalized
“A lot of things happen when someone piles, a lot of people are scrambling for the football. What happened is in the past and there is nothing to do about it now.”

On what the Texas A&M player was doing
“Just trying to find his way to the football.”

On if he has seen the video replay of that incident
“I have seen the replay. Once again, I gotta make sure I handle myself better coming to the sideline. I have to make sure not to take my helmet off. That was my mistake. Once again, it is in the past. Nothing I can do about it now.”

On who it is worse to hear criticism on the penalty from Coach Pelini or his dad Coach Cotton
“At the time, it was tough to stand there and with Coach Pelini but once again he just wants the best for the team and it was a selfish act on my part. Taking my helmet off and not thinking straight there. He has our back, and I’ve got his back.”

On if he regrets kicking
“Yeah, I regret the whole thing. I need to make sure that I handle myself better. I lost my cool with my foot there, and I need to make sure I don’t cost my team yards in penalties next time.”

On what they need to do to get the offense rolling again
"I think we just struggled with maintaining our swagger Saturday. We needed to go out there with a confident attitude, the attitude we had all season. We just got away from that a little bit. I don’t think anybody’s attitude has changed and nobody thinks we aren’t as good as we were. We all know how good we are and can be. We will get right back to that in practice today.”

With the success on the road, was it a surprise the offense didn’t perform to expectations
“I didn’t see any difference between anyone’s attitude or anything like that. It was weird the way things work out. We were moving the ball well until about midfield and we kept shooting ourselves in the foot. We just have to do better in the penalty area and eliminate those.”

On if the players are distracted by the attention given to Coach Pelini and Taylor Martinez
“There is always a distraction in one way or another. People can get caught up but our team has done a great job staying focused and doing what we can do to make sure we play as well as we can on Friday and with the whole Taylor thing, to my knowledge nothing has changed. The team is still the team we have had the whole time and nobody is distracted.”

On what Cotton thinks of people’s perception of Pelini
"People can speculate and think what they want to think. It is just like when you are a little kid, if someone is picking on you, it is probably because they don’t really like you. The harder a coach is on you, the more he likes you. The more he wants to see you do well, and succeed. That is the same thing with Coach Pelini. He wants the best for every guy on this team. He is going to do everything he can to push you as a player.”

On what is still in front of this team with Colorado coming up
“We are just worried about Colorado. It is a one-game season right now, and we have to take it a week at a time. 100 percent of our focus is on Colorado. We have a short week so we have to accelerate that whole process. We need to be prepared to play Friday instead of Saturday.”

On if he had any other interactions with Texas A&M players during the game
“Honestly, I didn’t know who was in the pile with me for either team. I was just worried about holding onto the football. But, no I didn’t.”

On if it surprises him that over a quarter of a million people have watched the video of the incident on YouTube
“It isn’t the first way I thought my name would get out there, but what happens happens. I’m just moving on.”

On if he knows he is going to get yelled at from Coach Pelini when drawing a flag
“Well, obviously any coach and even the teammates would be upset if we got a personal foul penalty. Or unsportsmanlike conduct. You can find a way to control that, no matter what happens. I just didn’t do my part in making sure I controlled my reaction, but I’m going to do my best to make sure I fix that.”

On how that can be fixed when it is happening in the moment
“Count to 10. I don’t know. Count to 10 in my head and take a deep breath. Just hope I get out of there alive.”

On if it's hard to take a deep breath in a pileup
“Well, yeah. Sometimes you just gotta grit your teeth and do what is best for the team. I just need to learn and move on from that experience.”