Sophomore Quarterback Taylor Martinez

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Monday, Nov. 21, 2011
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Pre-Iowa

Sophomore Quarterback Taylor Martinez
On what the mood of the team was like yesterday
"It was very quiet. Coach Bo (Pelini) came in and talked to us. Once he left, everyone was kind of in shock that we lost that game. It just seemed like a nightmare. We just got to come back and come back stronger."

On if the have the leadership in place to bounce back on Friday
"Of course. Just because of what happened with Wisconsin. We came back from a 21-point deficit [against Ohio State]. I think we do have the leadership to come back and beat Iowa."

On what it means to play this game for the seniors
"It means everything to me and all the players, especially for the seniors. It's their last game and, hopefully we can win it for them."

On what senior center Mike Caputo has meant to him
"He's meant everything to me. He's been my center for the past two years. He's a great guy. I have two more games with him and I'm going to miss him."

On senior wide receiver Brandon Kinnie
"I've known him for like three years. I've been throwing the ball to him for like two years, too. We messed around in our dorm rooms ever since he's got here. I'm going to miss him, too. I'm going to miss a lot of the seniors."

On if it's emotional on Senior Day for the non-seniors
"Yeah, just because I think this senior class, we're all so close with one another. I don't think another Nebraska football team has been this close with each other. I think every person is going to miss one another."

On what he knows about Iowa's defense
"Not much, so far. We'll go watch some film pretty soon."

On if the players like having this game on the Friday after Thanksgiving
"I really don't care. I'd prefer it on Saturday just to have Thanksgiving with family and friends out here. But other than that, yeah, I prefer it on Friday just so we can watch football on Saturday."

On if he senses the team still has pride to play for
"Yeah, just because this is the seniors' last home game. We have pride for ourselves and the team is that we can't come back and back bounce from that loss."

On if he's heard about the Iowa-Nebraska rivalry
"It's just another game for us. I really haven't talked to many fans about it or any other people. So I'm not sure what it really means, but when it comes game time I'll find out what it means."

On the reception they got at Michigan
"Some of the fans were dirty. Some of the fans were nice. It was comparable. It was a pretty cool place."

On if it was like previous road games
"I'd say Texas A&M - about their fans."

On if there is a reason for the team playing up and down
"During the game we just have to be able to keep momentum as a team and as an offense just keep on moving forward and not let one turnover bring us down as a whole. I think that one of those turnovers pretty much set us off."

On if he loses respect for a team when he sees them faking injuries
"I do sometimes just because you'll see a guy standing up just all of a sudden fall down because we're moving at a fast pace. It just kind of painful to see somebody go down, even though we do have momentum going forward. It's just kind of shocking that somebody would actually go like that."

On if they have a trick play or will open up the playbook this week
"No. We haven't held anything back all year. I think for the last game against Michigan we tried to bring everything out just to beat them so we could try to get into a better bowl. Other than that, we're just going to play our game against Iowa."