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Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Sept. 28, 2015
Pre-Illinois
Jordan Westerkamp
Junior, Wide Receiver
On playing against his dad’s alma mater and in his home state
“I’m looking forward to it. I’m familiar with it, obviously the whole university. I’ve played on their field, all my state championship games [were] there. It will be nice to go back home, get a bunch of family to go. It will be a good deal. It will be nice. I’m really looking forward to it. ”
On how many games he played on the Illinois field
“Three.”
On if he won all three of them
“Yup, great memories.”
On his favorite moment from playing on the Illinois field
“Probably a tie between my sophomore year [when] my brother also played on the football team in high school and we went there and won the state championship when people were picking us to lose, and then my senior year I had a pretty monster game so that was a big memory.”
On if he ever thought he’d get to play Illinois in Illinois
“I didn’t understand why that was [that Illinois always came here to play us], but it’ll be nice to go there. Like I said, familiar, it’s a nice short flight, too. It’s basically like going back home for me so I’m looking forward to it.”
On how many family members he’s expecting at the game
“A ton. I can’t put a number, but probably definitely over 30 easily, family and friends.”
On if he’s met his expectations this season so far
“I’m happy with it, but I can get better. I’m still making mistakes that can be cleaned up. I’m going to continue to work day in and day out to keep working at my game and get better and that’s all I can do.”
On what mistakes he made
“Just sometimes decisions I make, whether I go this way or that way. Shortening routes up a little bit and running up too quick. Just football mistakes that can be cleaned up, so I just have to continue to work on that.”
On De’Mornay Pierson-El’s possible return
“It will be great. He’s a fantastic football player. We know how big of a threat he is as a receiver and a punt returner. I’m not going to be too happy to give up those punt-return duties, but I think it’ll be OK. We’ve been looking forward to getting him back, and he’s been working hard doing his rehab. We just hope he has a great rest of his season, comes back 100 percent healthy and just gets after it.”
On starting conference play
“Getting into conference play, it’s great. Finally we see some familiar faces. The Big Ten conference is a really, really physical conference and we’re looking forward to that, especially as a wide-out crew. We love hitting people and blocking and stuff like that. [It’s a] new season [with] conference play, we’re 0-0 going into it now. We’ve had some great tests up to Big Ten play now and it’s revealed a lot about us and about our team. I’m very optimistic about going into Big Ten play. I think we’ve got a great team and great coaches and we’ll be ready to go for Illinois and the rest of the Big Ten.”
On Brandon Reilly
“Practicing with the guy, day in and day out, I know what he’s capable of and he goes out there with a great mindset and he goes out there to play. It’s huge being able to have a guy like Brandon out there with his speed who can just blow the top off of the defenses, it just adds another aspect to the whole offense.”
On going back to Memorial Stadium in Illinois
“Definitely it was always in the back of my head. I’m always looking forward to going there and player there again. It’ll be exciting. Sometimes you go to these stadiums at away games and you’re not really familiar with it and it’s uncomfortable, but like I said, I’ve played there a bunch already. I’m going to be real comfortable and I’m just really looking forward to it.”
On how the first four games helped them get ready for conference play
“Like I said we had four really, really good tests. For the most part, we did real well. We’re a Hail Mary and an overtime away from being 4-0 right now. It is what it is. What’s happened, happened. I think we’ve done a great job at being able to take things from the games and learn from these games and continue to build. We’re going to take that and all that knowledge and all that learning and run with it in Big Ten play.”
On the team’s confidence level
“We’re pretty confident. We’re excited. For the most part, we thought we did pretty well the first four games. Obviously there’s things we need to clean up and we didn’t get all four wins, but we’re optimistic and we’re really excited to start this Big Ten play.”
On if there’s been more penalties called this year
“I think so. I don’t like to look back, but at Miami we had a call where the lineman had his foot in the backfield or wasn’t lined up. Normally they warn you about that stuff first before they start calling it, but it is what it is. The refs are human as well and that’s just the way the game goes. Those things are going to happen and like I said before we’re just going to continue to work on that procedure stuff and we’ll get it right.”
On if he was recruited by Illinois
“I did [consider going there]. It was one of my first offers when I was a sophomore in high school. As an in-state guy I got an offer from them. I definitely considered it. I visited there. I liked it but when I came here, obviously I liked it better.”
On the state championship his senior year
“It was a crazy game. We had some video-game numbers that day. We ended up having five touchdowns and over 350 receiving yards. It was a pretty big game and pretty memorable one as well.”
On their success with third and longs
“Third down is pretty important. We’ve definitely put a focus on it, on emphasis that being able to convert those third and longs, third and whatever. We take that to heart and I think guys have been extremely focused on third down, understanding how important it is and it’s been great. Like you said we’ve converted a lot of third downs in the first four games and hopefully we continue to do so. We generally have one to two periods [in practice and fall camp] strictly dedicated to third downs, where to convert, understanding where the sticks are, things like that.”
On if he expected Nebraska to be leading the Big Ten in passing
“I knew it was going to be a pro-style type offense. I’m happy with all of the throwing we’re doing. I don’t think I expected it to be this much, but I’m glad it is. We’re doing well as an offense. We’re putting up points and we’re moving the ball and hopefully this trend continues.”