Tommy Armstrong Jr. Quotes

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Monday, Sept. 21, 2015
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Pre-Southern Miss

Tommy Armstrong Jr.
Junior, Quarterback

On the wide receivers' words to him after the game
“(They) helped me out a lot. Just the team in general. Like I told those guys, I kind of felt like I let them down as a leader. I got out of my way sometimes. You know when things are going wrong I wasn’t the guy that they wanted me to be in some areas of the field. I felt like we had a chance to win. I let those guys down, and when we all start making plays, at the end of the game, I kind of shot ourselves in the foot. I could’ve ate a play, but we’ve got to live and learn. I let those guys know that at the end of the day the ball left my hand and I should’ve got a little more air and little more power on the ball. Maybe we could’ve got a touchdown, our defense could’ve held them to a field goal, but like I told my receivers, like I told my offensive line, that one’s on me. We’ve just got to live and learn from our mistakes.”

On rating his own play and what offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf told him
“We really haven’t watched it yet. I watched it a few times on the plane ride back, but as far as right now I’ve been kind of looking at Southern Miss. But as far as my grade, as a team overall, we didn’t do as well as we wanted to. Myself, I didn’t do as well as I wanted to; two interceptions in the red zone which could’ve led to 14 points which could’ve put us over and got us a win. That’s how it goes.”

On if he thinks the throw in overtime is a throw he thinks he can make
“Yeah. I made them all throughout the fourth quarter and I kind of rolled out. That was a post guy, that was a throwback to the tight end, but they (Miami) kind of saw it. I should’ve just took off and got what I could get out of those yards, but seeing Taariq (Allen) run that baseline I should’ve just put it up in the corner of the end zone. I thought I could just zip it in there. That guy (Corn Elder), I didn’t think that he was going to turn around in time, but he turned and saw Taariq and just turned around and the ball was literally right behind him as he turned around. If I would’ve got some air and probably led him (Taariq) a little more to the sideline, it could’ve been an incomplete pass or a touchdown.”

On his comfort level with Coach Langsdorf calling plays to his strengths
“It’s not just my strengths. It’s honestly, overall, how we run plays during the week. We kind of grade plays on how we like them during the week. It is kind of on the quarterbacks, not just myself, but just the quarterback group and Coach Langs, just how well we run them during the week and how well each guys comfortable with running each route. I think it all comes with game planning and being able to see how well our receivers run it and see how well we, as quarterbacks, throw it. That’s where it comes from with the play from him.”

On being more comfortable with Coach Langsdorf
“It’s the same stuff we’ve been working on in the spring and fall. We’ve just got to get better at it and improve catching it and me delivering the ball on time and things like that. Overall it’s just repetition and being able to go out there and practicing versus certain defenses and actually game planning for each team. It kind of helps because we’re not just playing against our defense. We’re playing different defenses each and every week, so we’re going to see a lot of different coverages and things like that.”

On his knowledge of Southern Miss and what he plans on seeing from them
“I watched them play Mississippi State and they threw a lot at that team. They threw a lot of different coverages at the quarterback. They made a lot of tough reads for them. I’m expecting them to come here and throw a lot at our offense. We’ve got to be prepared, we’ve got to make sure we study them as well as we can and just make sure that we prepare for anything because coming off a loss like this we’ve got to make sure we bounce back right. We’re expecting tons of different coverages and just making sure that we’re able to pick up blitzes and we’ve got guys that are healthy enough to go out there and make plays.

On if he’s talked any trash with former Southern Miss quarterback Brett Favre as he has worked out with him in the past
“Nah, not really, no.”

On if he would have gone to Southern Miss, if he would not have been offered by Nebraska
“I’m not really sure. It was (between) Oregon or Southern Miss or here, which I’m here, so that’s not really anything to talk about right now.”

On if he grew up a fan of Southern Miss
“My cousin actually played at Southern Miss. He was actually a strength and conditioning coach there about three years ago… three or four years ago. Now he’s up at Jacksonville.”

On the key, as a player, on how to handle social media after a loss
“Just to stay away from it, just avoid it.”

Junior wide receiver Alonzo Moore said you were on the sideline telling everyone Nebraska was coming back to win when it was 33-10. Do you take pride in being that kind of a leader?
”Yeah, you know, like I said before we were making plays. We just shot ourselves in the foot. We had gains here and there where we were delivering balls and catching 30-40 yard passes in their territory and then we’d get it called back for a guy not being lined up on the ball or a guy holding, or hands to the face or a false start here and there. We've just got to make sure we clean that up. That kind of killed us at the end. It killed us all game. I know Coach Riley preached about it all the time, just making sure we did not have a lot of penalties that kind of affected the game and that’s what happened. We had long drives. We had guys that made plays, but they can’t make plays when they get called back and you go from converting a 3rd-and-14 to having a 3rd-and-23. That’s where that goes.”

On when to trust a play call, all the way through the reads, and when to go make a play
“Just based on if you know if it’s man or if it’s zone. They (Miami) play a lot of man. They kind of rushed their linebackers out to kind of get to the slot guys like Jordan (Westerkamp) and kind of get a hand on them so they couldn’t get a free release. Knowing that some of those times where we’re trying to target Jordan or trying to target Brandon (Reilly) or Alonzo, just particular knowing they’re in man and those guys are just turning and running. If we got an outside rush I was trying to, at least, slide up in the pocket and roll out a little bit and if those linebackers weren’t there to fill in those gaps I just took off and tried to make a play. I tried to get a first down and get out of bounds. That was just kind of the game. My thought process of the whole fourth quarter was… I just told my offensive linemen if they get pressure try to run them up high and I’d scoot up in the pocket and if those linebackers aren’t respecting the run I’d just take off.”

On when he made that note, because earlier in the game he was sticking in the pocket
“Honestly when I started realizing that they were just running out to those slot guys when we’d go two-by-two or three-by-one. They were just trying to get out there and get hands on them, they weren’t really covering the middle of the field. So I think that’s what kind of opened up the passing windows for those guys late in the game.”

On how the team will come out of the gate this week with an 11 a.m. kickoff
“We’ve just got to be able to do what we’re doing. We’ve just got to be able to execute. We’re doing a lot of good things, but like I said, we’re just killing ourselves in certain situations. We’ve got to get smarter on the field. We’ve got to have smart ball players and be able to just take care of the football and be smart when it comes to certain situations. You know, clean up the mistakes we made last week.”