Jeremiah Sirles

 

“Our expectations are kind of what they have always been - to win. A lot of us are going into our senior season, and it would be great to go out as a champion, so that is the expectation we have, to win the Big Ten Championship. That is what we came out with last year, and that is what we are coming out with this year. Win them all the way. That is the way we set out - to be perfect, and that is the culture Coach Bo (Pelini) installed in us and that is the culture we are going to set to live by.”

 

“I think we have great leadership set in place. This is the first year coach has put in captains, and we back every single one of our captains. We have a great senior class, a lot of us have been around and played a lot of football on both sides of the ball, and I think that is what is going to lead us over the hump - just believing in the culture we have instilled and the leaders we have put forward as the face of the team.”

 

“We have always said we wanted to have leaders, but now we have a face point, of someone whose face is there. They are the leader, and they are somebody that we can go up to and trust them. I think Coach Bo did a great job of putting people in position that we can go talk to and be a liaison to Coach Bo and all the other coaching staffs. At the same time we have a lot seniors on the offensive side at least, that can go to anyone at any time, because like you said we have been here for three or four years now.”

 

“I think that this is the first year that I have been here that we might be able to start a lot of upperclassmen on the line, and have a lot of depth and people rotating in. You saw last year the rotating and guys in and out as far as keeping us fresh, because we run close to 80 or 90 plays a game. If you do that 13 or 14 times, that can really wear on a person's body, and I think that was one of the reasons why our offensive line had such great success last year, was due to the fact that we could rotate guys in and in different positions and keep throwing fresh bodies to go against the defense.”

 

“Knowing that your quarterback trusts you as an offensive line is a really big thing to me, because we trust him and everything he does, he’s got to trust us, too. Hearing him say that means a lot because I have played with Taylor since we started as redshirt freshmen, and I have watched him grow into being a fantastic quarterback and a great leader and a great teammate. To hear him say that about the line means a lot.”