Avery Moss Quotes (Sept. 16)

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium
Pre-South Dakota State
Monday, Sept. 16, 2013

Redshirt Freshman Defensive End Avery Moss
On having fun while playing
“I feel like in football, especially with how competitive we are, winning is fun. It’s not fun unless you’re winning. To a certain degree, with things like this, we’re not going to have fun if we have a big loss like that. When we’re winning games and rolling with momentum, that’s when we’re having fun.”

On playing not to lose
“I can’t speak for the whole defense, but I can speak for myself. I feel like there were times when the focus wasn’t there. It was in reach, but it wasn’t in my grasp. I feel like that affected the game a lot.”

On if the team is wound too tight
“I don’t feel afraid so much to make mistakes but (Head Coach Bo Pelini) does want perfection. We all love Coach Bo and that’s what we want to give him. There is a certain degree of pressure but there should be pressure on us. We’re Division I college football players. If you don’t feel pressure from that alone, then there’s something wrong with you. I feel like we should be able to go out there and do whatever he wants no matter if it’s the little things he’s going crazy about, or something big that happened on the field. Either way we need to execute the defense and go with whatever he’s envisioned at this point.”

On using the UCLA game as motivation
“It’s not so much motivation as it is a learning experience. I haven’t seen a loss here at home since I’ve been in Nebraska. This is a big learning experience for me. I haven’t been a part of this. Just watching the film from Saturday I heard (Jeremiah) Sirles talking about all those little details. Details, details, details. Little things can affect the big picture so much, but you don’t see it until you watch the film yourself and study it. I think that’s going to be a learning experience for our defense. Once we get those nit-picky things out of the way, then we can be a good defense and overcome adversity.”

On the young defenders moving into leadership roles
“I think it’s very important that we step up. If you run around with no leader, then I don’t think we’ll have much to accomplish. Right now with the leadership of Ciante (Evans) and people like Jason Ankrah, Thad (Randle) and Stanley (Jean-Baptiste) and stuff like that, I think we’re getting it done enough, and we just need to learn from their influence to let our leadership grow and show our leadership with each other.”

On watching the game film
“(I can learn from) all of it. If you make a good play, there is always something you could’ve done in that situation. Even in either of those sacks, I took too wide of a step or too long of a step. There are things you can do differently even in the plays when you do good. Our focus is on the whole game really. The first half and the second half had mistakes in both.”

On the locker room feeling at halftime
“We were doing good but shouldn’t take our foot off the gas. We need to floor it and go harder and harder to the floor. I don’t know exactly what happened but I feel a lot of pressure on myself. I brought a lot of that upon us because we were up 21-3 before the half ended. Me missing that sack I had on Brett Hundley let him go for another first down and let them get a touchdown before the half. That kind of got UCLA’s wheels rolling and gave them the juice and momentum going into the half. That’s why they came out so strong.”

On the missed sack
“I thought I had him for sure. I just didn’t wrap up good enough. He’s a big guy if you see his frame. I didn’t wrap him up good enough. It’s little details like that. He just slithered through my hands and I saw him get that first down on us.”

On how tough it is to move on from a play like that
“It’s really tough. I was even thinking about that play this morning. It’s something that you have to move on from. For me it hurts too bad to move on from just because of how significant of a turnaround it was for our defense.”

On if he gets feedback from fans on social media
“I hear it all from other people who get on social media. All of our teammates will talk about it. I really don’t pay any attention. So far I’ve only had good feedback. I went to the movies yesterday with Vincent Valentine, (Jason) Ankrah and (Michael) Rose and we saw a fan who said he came up from Atlanta and told us to keep our heads up. He said he came all the way here to support us and we need to keep going and don’t let any of these other fans keep us down. I’ve actually had a good experience from the fans since the game. I’m cool with that.”