Senior Safety Austin Cassidy

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Monday, Oct. 17, 2011
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Pre-Minnesota

Senior Safety Austin Cassidy
On how the loss of Jared Crick will affect the defense
"Well I think his leadership, obviously is one, and, obviously his play. He's a pretty dang good football player. It hurts us even in the secondary having a guy like that out because we don't get as much pressure on the quarterback and at the same time I'm sure with running the ball, if they're not designating two guys for Jared that's another guy for a linebacker of another guy. It'll hurt, but we have capable guys. We have good backups and guys that have seen a lot of time behind him, so I wouldn't anticipate the fallout to be too much."

On if the injury could galvanize the defensive unit
"We're already pretty close, I'd say just cause some of the stuff we've been through this year, the disappointment we've already had as a unit. I really don't think his leadership is going to be missed that much. He's still going to be around. He's around practice every day, he goes to meetings, and does the normal stuff. He's just not out on the field. That's going to be missed, but besides that, he's still going to be around just as much, so it won't really that big of a difference to us, I guess, as far as leadership is concerned."

On playing well without Crick in the Wyoming game
"I don't know. When you're out on the field, you're not thinking about who's out there with you. You're thinking about the calls and making sure you're in the right place, but it is encouraging to know that the guys that were behind him and that are going to be starting and playing more now have that experience and they've been in the big games and stuff. That's helpful, I guess."

On if the Minnesota game will be a game that the secondary will be called on more
"Yeah, obviously, just seeing what they do, it's going to be an opportunity for us to go out there and, hopefully, show that we've improved and get some more guys in the game. The focus is really on us, we've got to do what we need to do this week, and obviously, last week, to earn the right to go out there and play well."

On if in practice last Wednesday and Thursday if Stanley Jean-Baptiste practiced with the first team defense
"I think so. I don't remember. I'm not quite sure, but they always rotate so many people in and mix it up to make sure everyone's playing with different groups. I think that's the one thing, is when we have that out there in games and people are worried about there being different combinations with people, we get that all the time in practice. There really is no set group of ones and twos, we're always shuffling through. Chemistry really isn't that big of an issue, I'd say."

On the rise of Jean-Baptiste
"It's pretty impressive. I know it took me like three years to learn the defense, and I'm still learning it. He did it in three weeks, that's pretty impressive. Hopefully he can continue to play like he did against Ohio State. That would obviously be huge for us to have another guy across from Alfonzo [Dennard] that really has potential to shut someone down.

On his first thoughts when the Jean-Baptiste move happened
"When he was first in the room, I thought he was sitting in there to play safety. And then they said corner and I was like oh my goodness. I was surprised. I think most people were surprised. I think he was a little surprised, but with his body type, he has the potential to be a really rare corner if he can do it the way the coaches want him to do it.

On how he feels about the team coming out of the bye week
"I'd just say refreshed. I know I personally feel refreshed. I think most people on the team, it was nice to relax on Saturday and watch some other games and stuff and have a couple days off. I think everyone's just maybe a little refreshed both physically and mentally."

On the biggest challenge of facing a dual-threat quarterback
"I think you really need to know where you're getting your help on the run, who's in the run fit and where your eyes have to be at all times. Usually one of the safeties is going to have help on the run and if you don't have your eyes on the right place at the right time, then either there's going to be a wide receiver running down the field wide open, or the quarterback is going to be at 15 yards before anyone gets to him. You just have to be on top of your game and make sure you're reading the right keys and have your eyes in the right place."

On being bothered by people saying the offense might have to carry the team the rest of this year
"It's disappointing. Obviously, we've had some disappointing performances, but I think you see that when we do play well, and do play up to our potential we're a pretty dang good defense. Then when we're not looking at our keys, not sure of our assignments and not doing the right thing out there we look like a high school football team. So that's disappointing, but at the same time it's encouraging to know that we can shut people down if we do the right thing. I'm just thankful our offense has scored more points than the teams we've played so far. Hats off to them, but as a defensive unit, we're just worried about ourselves right now.