Trevor Roach Press Conference Quotes

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference Quotes
Monday, Sept. 22, 2014
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Pre-Illinois

On his strip of Duke Johnson during the Miami game
“Basically what happened was we were running a blitz to the right. My job is basically…aw that doesn’t matter.  Basically I read it, it wasn’t even my gap, and I kind of went to try and make the tackle. They kind of had him wrapped up, so I was just like, 'I’ll try to reach for the ball.' I actually didn’t think I had got it. I saw the ball pop out and thought about diving for it. It’s a good thing I didn’t because J. Mitch (Josh Mitchell) picked it up and scored.”

On whether he could sense how much that play would change the game
“At that time, no. I didn’t really think about it much but it was definitely a big changing point in the game.

On his play knocking the ball out
“Initially I was just worried about getting him down. There were a bunch of other people around him so I tried grabbing for it.”

On whether there was more emphasis placed on forcing turnovers this last week in practice
“Throughout fall camp we have always emphasized if someone is wrapped up try to get the ball. It wasn’t a big emphasis this week. It’s just kind of been throughout camp because turnovers are huge.”

On his opportunity to play against Miami
“It was exciting to get out there and see what I could do.  I was just excited.”

On how he felt he played against Miami
“I definitely had good plays and bad plays, obviously like everyone else does.  They were fast….so I don’t know. I did alright.”

On whether that was the fastest team he had played against
“For me personally, yes. That’s easily the fastest team I’ve played.”

On whether he was nervous as to whether he could keep up with Miami
“It was halfway through the game so nerves don’t really set in at that point. Before the game, yeah, I would have been nervous, but when you have already been playing a little while you don’t really worry about that.”

On whether he was surprised as to how much time he played
“I wasn’t expecting that. But I remember going back to my freshman year, I wasn’t expecting to play when Will (Compton) got hurt a long time ago. You just have to be ready.”

On whether he matches up well with a fast team like Miami
“That kind of speed, no.  They were pretty fast. It’s hard, personally I like people who are more of power running backs and try to run through you. People like Ameer (Abdullah) are so hard to tackle because you just go to get your hands on them. Just getting to them is a challenge in itself.”

On his strengths as a player
“I’d say I just don’t get too flustered. I make a mistake, I just forget about it and move on. That’s the key, you see a lot of times people make a mistake and they just let it keep riding and it gets to them. I’d also say I’m good against bigger personnel sets that like to run the ball in close space.”

On how hard it is for a linebacker to hit that play when the team spreads you out
“That’s super hard. I mean he basically has a two-way go on you. I mean he’s obviously going to be faster than you because that’s his job. That’s really hard.”

On getting better at that play
“With what happened Saturday we just have to get up and press them more. You have to close the space and not give them so much room. You have to use your help more and just play your leverage. So I think that’s key, because once you get out of leveraging, it’s a guessing game like you were saying after that.”

On playing the zone
“We’ve been playing a little bit of zone this year which catches teams off guard. That’s when (Joshua) Kalu got his pick. We were in the zone right there. We play a lot of match-up zone, which is more of man coverage but true-zones we’ve been playing a little bit, and I think it’s a good complement to what we’ve been doing.”

On crossing up the quarterback
“Yeah because we don’t run it that often and when we do run it you know it catches them off guard like you were saying, and so they panic and throw it to us sometimes.”

On the environment at Memorial Stadium
“That was a great atmosphere. The fans were going crazy. It was a great time. I would say that was the loudest game since I’ve been here, at least that I can remember.”

On making a big play in that environment
“It’s awesome. You always obviously want to be the best player and make big plays. It was great. Not saying I’m the best player by any means, I didn’t mean to say it like that.”

On this last game being a payoff for hard work and sticking with the program
“Definitely, it was great because it is hard. Like you said you know because a year is a long time. But yeah it’s great.”

On making sure you don’t look past Illinois after this win
“I think our coaches are really good at that. They always say the biggest game is the next game you have up, which I think is true. We got humbled by McNeese State. Give them all the credit, they’re a good team. Situations like that, you have to look at the next opponent and not worry about anything else that’s going on.”

On battling for the starting position
“I mean I hope so, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

On Illinois spreading out and testing the linebackers
“I would imagine they would, but only time could tell I really don’t know.”