Josh Banderas Press Conference Quotes

Nebraska Football
Player Quotes
Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016
Memorial Stadium

Josh Banderas
Senior, Linebacker

On being a senior already
“It’s nuts and I don’t even think about it every day. Once in a while it’ll hit me that im done in December. Then I gotta get a job and I’m in the real world now. It’s nuts, but it’s been fun and have had a lot of fun with you guys, the teammates, fans, playing, it’s been good and I want to finish it out right, but it’s definitely a weird feeling.”

On starting the fall without Sam Foltz
“I don’t know that it’s going to be that much different, obviously we want to honor him and play for him, but throughout the summer and throughout his time with us, he’s been part of the culture that we live now, working hard, truly playing for each other and for this place, and that’s what he helped instill in the team and as a leader of the team. That’s what he would have wanted us to do throughout the whole season, so that’s always going to be our mindset and the culture that we’re going to live by.”

On the competition at linebacker
“It’s always going to be competitive. We’re fighting for reps, but at the same time, we’re helping each other grow and individual drills, if we see something on the field, we see a different way or could be doing better, or maybe we’re doing it wrong, so it’s just going to help the overall linebacker corps and the whole defense as a unit because we’ve all been in those situations and we’ve all got that game experience.”

On the possibility of him being used differently in games at the linebacker position
“I’m sure it’s a possibility. We’ve got the athletes to do it. Towards the end of the year, our real base started working, so if it ain’t [broke don’t fix it]. I’m sure [Defensive Coordinator Mark] Banker and [Linebackers Coach Trent] Brey might have something up their sleeve, but I don’t know about it personally.”

On what area he wants to improve at
“Me as an individual, I still gotta work on my tackling. If you watch my freshman year it’s head and tails different than last year cuz I was terrible at it. So I've still got to continue to get better if I want a chance to go onto my career and really help out the team this year. As a unit, I think knowledge. We've got young guys on the front line that got to pick up and learn fast or they’ll be thrown to the fire. Some of the old heads behind them…if they have a question they can turn around and ask real quick, but they kind of need to kick that knowledge of the game up more as fall camp goes.”

On sophomore Sedrick King
“He’s got the potential to be who knows what. As a freshman, what did he get in tackles? Record for a freshman or something. As for quiet, he’s not a quiet guy. When you get to know him, then you wish he would be quiet. The sky is the limit for him, and he’s going to turn into quite the player and he’s going to be fun to watch for you guys for the next three years.”

On the team’s motto or theme this year
“This is the last run. It’s kind of Big Ten or bust. We know we have the talent. We know we’ve got the experience to get there. Just to get there and get the chance. All we need is a chance. That’s kind of been our motto throughout my whole career here. Why you here, why you doing it? Work hard because we want it. It can’t just be one guy, two guys, we all want it, we know we can do it, so just kind of go out there and do it. Get to Indy [Indianapolis] and give ourselves a chance.”

On losing a lot of guys on the defensive line
“I think [we can replace them]. Obviously it hurts losing guys that are very valued in the NFL. They were pretty good here and it was nice playing behind them because they took up a lot of lineman, but we’ve the young guys. We’ve got the talent. There’s no doubt in my mind. When you can do standing backflips like the Davis twins -- I wish I could do that. They can do it, they just have to be pointed in the right direction. You've got to point the gun in the right direction. ”