Nebraska Player Quotes

Junior Quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr.
On the offense
"I feel like we could've scored a lot of points first half. I feel like we stopped ourselves here and there, and we couldn't capitalize, execute in the red zone in the first half. But, we found the end zone a few times in the second half, came out for six, put it up. But, overall I think we could've put a lot more points on the board. Offensive-wise, we did a great job but we could've done better. We can't really deny the fact that we had so many yards, but we could've had that many points as well, and we put our defense in certain situations they shouldn't have been. We've got to take care of that."

On fullback Andy Janovich
"I thought he did a great job. You know, installing certain plays just for him, it was kind of exciting just because he's a physical guy, he shows out on special teams, and just going out there and seeing one or two guys trying to tackle him and he comes off of a five to six-yard gain and turns it into a 35-40 yard gain. It's incredible because you've got to show your fullbacks some love every once in a while just because they go out there and dive in the trenches and try to cut blocks and cut guys down on defensive ends and the linebackers, so you've just got to give credit where it's due, and he did a great job today."

On the crowd sounding different when Janovich had the ball
"A little bit, just because, you know, you'd rather see the fullback get a few touches here and there, maybe in a goal-line situation. But you know, but in open field, breaking off in certain pass plays for 60-70 yards, he did a great job."

On his throw to Brandon Reilly on Nebraska's final drive
"Honestly, it's kind of similar to last game. Just got flushed out a little bit, and I even told my guys, you know, it's third-and-long, if we have to do a scramble drill to do it. I kind of rolled out and I knew we had a post back side, and we had an in from the right side, so I knew I wasn't going to have a lot of guys, but I was hoping Brandon could do the scramble drill like we were supposed to, and if I rolled out to run, he'd maybe cut back. And that's what he ended up doing, just cutting back and that safety, which came down on the end, ran and saw that, so I kind of tried to hurry and get the ball to him. And I got hit on the play, but you know I got the ball luckily to him."

On drives ending in field goals
"it was just lack of execution you know. We had ourselves in right situations. Sometimes I made bad reads, should've thrown it to certain guys, and you know, just being able to be smart on certain plays, not get flagged for anything. We've just got to make plays, and we've got to put ourselves in the right situation. That first half, you know, we kind of killed ourselves and it was just myself making bad reads and not putting the ball in the money for those."

On Nebraska's readiness for Big Ten play
We're ready. You've just got to stay healthy and make sure that we study film like any other week and just know that it's gonna be a tough road. We've got an away game as our first conference game going to Illinois. It's going to be tough. But you know they're doing great. We're doing great, and we've just got to make sure we out-physicial them, make sure we know them better than they know themselves defensive-wise. We've just got to put points on the board. We can't go and settle for three points when we're on the five or six-yard line, or maybe on the 10 or 15, or on third. We've just got to make sure that we settle for touchdowns, not field goals."

On what it takes to win a Big Ten division
"We've got to be physical. We've got to make plays. Like I said before, we've got to stay consistent. We've got to play first half like we play second half, and we've just got to make sure we play every single minute of the game. It's going to be a physical test for us in general. Just to make sure that we are on part of our game and be able to go out there and put our defense in separate situations. Like I told our offensive line, and my offensive guys, our main objective is scoring every time we get the ball, and when we do that, it gives our defense a little relief."

On Big Ten teams being less prone to beating themselves
"It's going to be tough. There are going to be games where it comes down to the last minute or two, or you know the last team to be on offense. Like I said, we score every time we get the ball, and we take advantage of our situations, and our defense gets good looks and they get turnovers, we have a good turnover margin. We're a team to reckon with. We've just got to make sure we're as smart as we can be going into this conference play, and we've got to make sure that our guys are ready."

On the running game
"We're doing great. Like I said, w'vee just got a certain package of runs that we have to install each and every week depending on what type of defense we get, but you know overall I think we're doing a great job. I think the offensive line did a great job of creating holes for our running back. We've just got to run physical and make sure that we take what the defense gives us. Sometimes you're going to get hit. Sometimes you may miss a block, but we've got to make sure we stay physical and earn every yard we get."

On hurdling a defender on a first-half run
"We were already talking about Taariq (Allen) and those guys, you know inside runs we've got to go there and crack them, and he always just puts his head down, so I knew he was going to come up with his head down by talking to those guys, and I tried to just leap over him a little bit and see if I could stay inbounds, but unfortunately I didn't."

On what the receivers said after that run
"Stanley (Morgan Jr.) said I've got to stop hurdling, but other than that everybody was just like, 'Hey, good job.' But Stanley was just like, 'hey you've got to stop hurdling bro," and I'm like, 'all right.' So, if they're about to put their head down that's what I'm going to do."

Redshirt Freshman Defensive End Freedom Akinmoladun
On his sack on the final play of the game
"I was on (junior defensive tackle) Maliek's (Collins) side. That definitely helped me. The offensive line paid a lot of attention to him, and when I got off the ball, I saw the opportunity that I had, and I made the sack."

On how much he has developed with an increase in playing time
"I've developed a lot. I know I can keep developing. I'm trying to be a better defensive end for Nebraska"

On if he felt like he had to make a big play on the final play of the game
"Yeah, when (Southern Miss) had that big pass, I was like, 'We need a play.' I didn't know what the time was, but I was like, 'We need a play, somebody needs to step up,' and I was given the opportunity to step up."

On the move he made to get in position to make a sack on the final play of the game
"I think I just got off the ball, and the tackle was so focused on Maliek Collins, and I took advantage of the opportunity."

On whether being on the field so much in the first half contributed to second-half struggles
"We were on the field a lot, and there were some problems, but we know that we could've fixed it. We know we're going to fix it later on in the year. It's one of those things we're going to look at and fix."

On the differences between the first and second halves defensively
"(Southern Miss) had a few big plays, but that's about it. They weren't able to run, our defensive line was able to keep pressuring. It was just the big plays that killed us."

On whether he was fatigued on the final play of the game
"Yeah, I was tired. I was really tired, and I looked over to Maliek and he was like, 'Alright, we've got to keep going,' and I said 'OK.' He knew that I needed to step up and he knew that he needed to step up. I was definitely tired."

On if he had experienced that type of fatigue before
"I think I have. Definitely during conditioning."

On the mood in the locker room following the game
"That was the team getting together, saying 'OK, we sealed the deal,' We came together as a team, and we finished what we were supposed to do. And it was a good feeling."

On if there were "Hip Hip Hoorays"
"Oh, yeah (laughs)"

On how pleased he was with the run defense
"Our defensive line prides ourselves on stopping the run. We come into games saying 'They will not run the ball.' That was definitely a plus on our part, and we got to the quarterback too, so that's another plus. I think all-around, the defensive line had a good game."

On his confidence in evaluating and analyzing his performance
"Tomorrow, I'm probably going to the film room and watch film with Maliek. We'll go down the list, seeing what we did right and wrong. It helps a lot."

Sophomore Place Kicker Drew Brown
On expecting it to be a big day
"I really wasn't actually, buy hey you've got to be ready for it when it does happen. There's games where you're going to kick a lot and there's games where you're not going to kick a lot and you've just got to be ready for whatever opportunity comes in front of you."

On his 50-yarder to end the half
"It felt good to put that through the uprights. It was also really big for the team to go into halftime with a larger lead then it would have been if it wouldn't have gone in. It's my job to get out there and produce whenever my name's called, and I was able to do that today."

On "icing the kicker"
"In my mind, whenever they called the timeout I was still able to kick the ball and that actually helps more because you can kind of get that feeling of the ball off your foot. Most teams will call the timeout before the ball snap, but it just happened that we got the ball snapped up, and I was able to kick it. So, you've just got to be ready for it."

On the last kick
"I think it was just tipped at the line of scrimmage. I hit the ball well. I'll have to go back and watch and see if my operation time was slow or something like that, but the ball was just tipped at the line of scrimmage."

On the wind factor today
"Not as much as it normally is. Today was a beautiful day to play, to kick, to do anything. Towards the end of the game the wind started to pick up a little bit more, but for the most part it wasn't really a factor at all."

On tying an NCAA record for field goals in a half
"It is kind of cool. It's something that I can reflect on whenever I'm done playing and say, 'You know I had a really good game that day' and I could've put more points on the board and it didn't work out, but yeah it's something cool that I can reflect on in the future whenever I'm done playing."

On a kicker's rollercoaster and his streak
"All players go through rollercoasters for the most part. I mean, I had a really bad start and it cost the team the game. I've had some good past couple games, and I wasn't perfect today like I wanted to be, but I definitely had a pretty good day. It's something I can build off of, something I can look back on the makes and say 'this is what I did good' and look at the misses and say 'this is what I did bad'. It's definitely good to have days like this, so you can reflect both ways."

On building confidence
"It's grown a lot, mostly through practice, definitely kicking the ball well in practice and getting more trust with Jordan (Westerkamp) and Sam (Foltz). I already had trust with them, but just building more and more and more every single week. The confidence level is a lot higher than it was and it's definitely a good thing, but I can't get too high or too low, I've just got to say even."

On switching holders
"Tyson (Broekemeier) did an unbelievable job, and he had to step in to punt and to hold, too. It's things like that that go unnoticed by a lot of people and I appreciate it a ton and his teammates, our teammates, appreciate it even more. He did an unbelieveable job when his name was called and there's a reason he's here and it's for things like that especially."

Sophomore Linebacker Chris Weber
On how he knew that he had to take on a bigger role because of injuries\
"With Bando (Josh Banderas) being down, they told me I'd be the next man up on Friday, so I knew going into it, which helps knowing you're going to be the guy and not having to see if he goes down or something like that. That helps to know that you're just going to be down."

On how he got hurt
"I rolled my ankle a little bit, I'll be good."

On how much the South Alabama game helped him today
"It helped a lot, to not have to be the first time you're out there running everything, it'll help to have a game under your belt. I'm thankful to, once we get into Big Ten play, if Bando goes down then I'll have a couple games under my belt."

On the differene of the defense between the first and second half
"They got a couple things going, they had some deep passes. We stopped the run pretty well in the second half and first half, but they got a couple things going. We bowed up a couple times too in the red zone, but they got some passes going."

On who takes conrol between Dedrick Young, Marcus Newby and him without a veteran
"I'm making the calls, but we're all talking and communicating."

On how it feels to be able to contribute after Coach Banker didn't know much about him coming in
"It feels really good. That was kind of my thing when I came here, I didn't want to sit on the sidelines. I wanted to contribute the best I could and be a team player and that means stepping up when your number is called."

On if he's heard from former linebacker Trevor Roach recently and what has he told him
"Yeah, I texted him to see how he's doing and he texted me, and he texted me after the game. He told me good game."

On if there was a defensive meeting before they went out on the last series and what was said
"They missed the field goal, so we just were in a dime package then, and just to keep everything in front of you, no big plays."

On how composed the team was on the final drive
"We were composed, I'd say. We'd been in that situation before so we knew our alignments and we'd gone over that a couple times."

On if the backup linebackers felt like something had to be done after all the injuries
"Coach Bray told me in fall camp that he thought that I'd help out this year on defense and we knew that. Especially playing linebacker, after one play your guy can go down and your number's called, so you've got to be ready to go."

On how tough it is to tackle fullback Andy Janovich
"It's tough."

On why it's tough to tackle Janovich
"I tried to in high school, I tried to tackle him, and he played tailback then, so he's a load. He runs hard and we didn't really see him carry the ball much in fall camp, so we didn't have to tackle him, but he's a good player for sure."