Jordan Westerkamp Press Conference Quotes

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Nov. 23, 2015
Pre-Iowa

Jordan Westerkamp
Junior, Wide Receiver

On how the seniors helped this year with the coaching change
“They were huge in the process. Looking at our room, a guy like Jamal Turner and Taariq Allen, older guys. When this whole situation went down with the coaching changes, a lot of people were upset and sad. Those guys kind of kept together, all the seniors did. I remember Alex Lewis standing up in our meeting, before we even met Coach Riley, being like, ‘Hey, we’re going to trust these guys no matter what, we’re going to give them our all this season.’ They were really huge in being able to stay together, going through this coaching change.”

On Jamal Turner and Taariq Allen’s leadership
“Even throughout the year, they’ve both made good plays and played and had good years, but they’re the older guys in the room. Guys respect them, guys listen to them. Taariq speaks his mind at the end of every practice giving us a little motivation, you know, stay focused, it’s another big week, let’s go out there and do this. They both practice hard. They’re guys I look up to, they’ve been here a long time, they paid the price. They only had one year with these coaches, but I think they enjoyed it and I think they’ve been able to contribute pretty big this season as well.”

On Iowa
“It’s been kind of a real close game between us the past couple years and there’s some recent history with these two programs, ours and theirs. It’s a huge game for us. The state looks forward to it, all the players look forward to it. It’s kind of one of those games you kind of can’t wait to get to, you’re not looking over any opponents to get to it, but Iowa is always a tough physical game and we always look forward to it.”

On Iowa’s defense
“They kind of have these old school linebackers that just turn and sprint at the slot backs and try to just knock them out, so that’s something we’re preparing for all week, personally as well. They’re real physical, real disciplined defense. They’re real good at playing zone, so we've just got to be sharp and running our routes exactly how they’re supposed to be, exact yardage and stuff like that. We’ll be OK, but watching film, they do like to knock receivers off their routes, so it’s something we’ll be dealing with this week.”

On last year’s game against Iowa
“Yeah that was crazy. One of the best games I’ve ever been a part of. It was great being able to go in there, into a kind of hostile environment and get an overtime win there. That was awesome. They’ll definitely remember that from last year and take that into this week. Whenever you have a tough loss like that, especially to end your season, in an overtime game, that’s something you take to the offseason and you prepare like crazy in the offseason and just remember, ‘hey, that happened, we don’t want that to happen again.’ So I’m sure that’s what they’ve been doing, but even us with our losses, we do the same thing. Any sort of close loss, it’s tough for us so we’re going to do whatever we can to try to prevent that. That’s motivating for us and I’m sure they’re feeling the same way about that.”

On the home-crowd advantage
“[It’s] huge. Huge. You saw it at the Michigan State game. The fans were so into the game. Even them being as loud as they were, I’m sure that caused kind of a confusion with the offense and the quarterback trying to make reads and signal out stuff. That home-field advantage is huge. It’s comfortable for us. They’re coming here and this isn’t a hostile environment, but it’s a crazy one and it’s loud and it’s a good one to be on.”

On playing on Black Friday
“It’s awesome. The only show on TV, so you've got everybody watching. Puts a little pressure on you, but it’s good pressure. You want that kind of pressure. It’s just another opportunity to go out there and perform and show people what you’re made of.”