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Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Monday, Oct. 27, 2014
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Pre-Purdue
On how he feels after playing more snaps this week
“Better than ever.”
On how it feels to still be fresh this time of the season
“It’s been a while. I haven’t felt like this since high school. It’s been about four, four and a half years. I’m a little sore, but it’s something I’ve been longing for for a while.”
On whether he has been fighting fatigue late in the game
“It’s been different. I made it. It’s a good sore, a good hurt. You never want to come out of a game and feel like you really didn’t really do anything or you didn’t leave it all out there, or you didn’t use every ounce of energy you had in you. It’s a good feeling.”
On whether he knew he would play more Saturday following the injury to starting defensive tackle Vincent Valentine at Northwestern
“You could tell in practice he (Vincent Valentine) was still kind of iffy on his elbow. You could tell that he wasn’t probably going to be able to take a big load on Saturday.”
On how much pride the line takes in the stat that only one quarterback has completed more than 50 percent of his passes
“We take a tremendous amount of pride in that. We work on a string. It’s a direct correlation between us and the guys behind us. We get pressure on them and we force them to throw incomplete balls, force them to throw bad balls, picks, interceptions and things like that, and just force big plays. I think that’s something that is often overlooked by spectators when they watch the game. They see, 'oh yeah that guy made a nice interception.' They don’t see that the defensive line and rushing them to force a bad throw.”
On what it’s like playing with defensive lineman Maliek Collins
“It’s fun. He’s an exciting player, and I feel like we kind of complement each other. I feel like all four of us complement each other, especially with Randy (Gregory) as well. With a lot of teams turning their protection towards Randy and trying to scheme against him, that leaves us open a lot. Whoever has a one-on-one, whoever is open has been stepping up and making plays.”
On what he feels the best thing senior center Mark Pelini brings to the table
“His work ethic. He works very hard. He’s a hard-working young man. That is going to carry him very far.”
On how much he pays attention to the Top 25 list coming out
“I just kind of pay attention to what I have to do and what we have to do as a team. You can’t really get too tied up in that and worry about it because then you lose sight of what you have to do yourself.”
On Maliek Collins getting his first sack against Rutgers
“He’s been close a couple of times this year and that was his first sack of the year. So I was amped for him, too. We got back to the sideline and I was like, “man it’s about time buddy”. But yeah, it was fun.”
On only having two more home games this year
“It’s been crazy. The season has been going really fast. It’s hard to think of when you only have four more games. Two more home games. It flew by especially with me having to miss a majority of the season. Trying to make up for time lost, it’s flying by.”
On thinking about Indianapolis (Big Ten Championship game)
“It’s our goal to. That’s our goal as a team and that’s something we set out for at the beginning of the year and it’s obviously still within our reach. We’re going to get it.”
On if cornerback Josh Mitchell bought him lunch or does his laundry for him
“He needs to. He needs to right, that’s what I’m saying. No but we have a good time though.”
On if they give defensive backs Josh Mitchell and Nate Gerry a hard time
“Yeah, him and Nate Gerry. For some of those interceptions he’s got, I think they were both by the D line.”
On what he was thinking when he recovered the fumble of the lateral toss by Josh Mitchell after Randy Gregory's blocked field goal against Rutgers
“I was thinking oh crap. I better jump on this ball. I was like what is he doing, is he throwing it up? First I was like should I scoop it and score, I don’t know. But I just jumped on it.”
On if he knew right away that the ball was live
“Well I didn’t really take the time to even think about it. If it is, it is. I just have to jump on it. I just saw (Trevor) Roach going for it and I better get on it.
On if the ball was being thrown to him
“I don’t know who he was throwing it to, to be honest. It would have been kind of cool if he threw it to me. Get a carry in. I haven’t done that in a while.”
On if he has a touchdown dance
“Oh yeah. I definitely do. You guys thought Jamal’s (Turner) flip into the end zone was something special a couple years ago in the Spring Game, just wait.”