Jordan Westerkamp Quotes

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Oct. 13, 2014
Pre-Northwestern

Sophomore Wide Receiver Jordan Westerkamp

On how the Hail Mary against Northwestern last year put him on the map
“It was an exciting end last year. Northwestern always comes out and plays us well. I still hear that today, you know. People bring that up to me about the Hail Mary. It was a crazy play, but there was so much more that went into that drive and that game as a whole. So obviously people bring it up to me, but I try to remain humble with it like I said last year. It was a crazy play, but I don’t like looking back on it too much. I’m just looking forward to the next game.”

On running through the schematics of that play
“So we have a couple play cards that we talk about that we have for the last four plays at the end of the game, or whatever it is. We were in a situation where we had to come up with some quick plays. One of them was that last play. We call it ‘Geronimo’. What that is, a couple guys running vertical and a couple guys going toward the middle to try and tip it to other guys around them. And I just remember seeing Ron (Kellogg III) scramble and Ameer (Abdullah) made a great block. Our line was holding up really well. He launched it. It seemed like he launched it a 100 yards, but I just remember it being tipped back and thinking ‘oh my gosh, catch the ball’. I was able to make the catch, but like I said, there was so much more that went into that drive and the game as a whole. It was a great game for us. Great win. We’re looking forward to playing them again.”

On the importance of his preparation
“Preparation is key. It’s huge in how well you’ll perform on Saturdays. You can never be too prepared, in my opinion. Just by watching film, going in practice and working on technique. Whatever it is you have to do, I take a lot of pride in that. If it’s catching extra balls after practice or running some extra laps after practice, maybe you didn’t do so well during the practice. Whatever it is, preparation is key and it helps your performance on Saturdays for sure.”

On if there is a lot of things on the line for this team
“Oh absolutely. Our goal is to still get to the Big Ten Championship, and we’re going to do everything we can. We know that it’s open right now. Competition is open, and we’re going to bring everything we’ve got to the table. We’re looking forward to the game this weekend. We’ve got another opportunity to go out there and show the conference that we believe were the best. We’re looking forward to it and we’re looking forward to the rest of the season.”

On the strengths of Northwestern
“They have a really disciplined defense. They’ve been really picking it up recently. They always seem to play really well. It always seems to be a shootout with them. They’ve been playing well. They’re well-coached. I know they’re going to bring it this weekend, but we’ll be ready for it.”