Chris Weber Quotes

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Sept. 28, 2015
Pre-Illinois

Chris Weber
Sophomore, Linebacker
On preparing for this week with not knowing the status of Josh Banderas
“Just kind of the same as it’s always been. Just kind of prepare as well as I can just to be ready if it I is my chance to start or even if it’s a back-up role. A man could go down at any time so you've got to be ready to go.”

On the reason behind success of players from the Elkhorn program
“I think a lot of it is the culture that we saw when we were at Elkhorn. How Coach Wortman presented it and how hard he showed us that we needed to work in order to be successful and then it kind just gets passed down from the seniors to the underclassmen and everybody kind of picks up on it.”

On the confidence of the defense right now
“I think we’re still confident. From what we’ve seen on film. A lot of what teams are getting against us is our own fault. We’re beating ourselves as far as in pass coverage with our zone coverage underneath and even in man coverage, with not using our leverage and that type of things. I mean, we’re stopping the run, but we have to be able to stop the pass if that’s what teams are doing.”

On if the solutions to the problems the defense has been having are within reach
“Absolutely. Everybody just has to do their job. We have to get pass rush up front, linebackers need to get to their drops. If we’re in man coverage we have to man up the back and the back end has to do their thing.  Really pass coverage isn’t just on the back-end. It’s on every aspect of it.”

On what he knows about the Illinois offense
“I really haven’t watched that much of them yet. I’m sure they will [attack the linebackers]. That’s kind of a reoccurring thing that teams have tried to attack us in pass coverage. You’ll probably see a lot of backs out of the backfield on linebackers and stuff like that that teams have had success so we’ll be ready for that.”

On how much he learned from Southern Miss and watching film
“They kind of knew what we ran a couple of times. It was really a screen pass where the ref said that because it was behind the line of scrimmage that guy could block so they took advantage of that and we’ll have to look at it. Really it’s seeing the formation they’re in and the [offensive] line so you can execute your coverage and the problems that might present themselves when you’re in coverage.”

On how much game experience helps
“It helps going forward to have that game experience. It’s just something you always have to be on the lookout for to where problems can happen when you’re in coverage – where you might get picked or where you might get rubbed -- especially if you’re covering a back out of the backfield. That’s probably what we’re going to see a lot of from here on out.”

On if the Big Ten Conference could be a new beginning for the team
“I think so.  I think a lot of people might have written us off as a defense.  We have a chance to prove ourselves and show what we can do.”

On how to keep things in check when things don’t go well
“You just have to stick to your preparation and what you’ve seen on film and what your job is. I think that’s the biggest thing. If we have all 11 guys executing their job, we’ll be fine, but all it takes is for one guy to not execute his job and it’s a big gain.”

On doing more than what you’re supposed to when things aren’t going so well
“It’s probably human nature. You try to fix it; make a hero play but it’s really not about that. It’s just we need everybody doing what they’re supposed to be doing and on the same page and we’ll be good.”