Junior Linebacker Mohamed Barry

Nebraska Football
Pre-Spring Press Conference
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)

Junior Linebacker Mohamed Barry

On his ‘Hate Will Never Win’ shirt and what the message means to him: “For me, it’s the same message. Hate will never win. Anyone who preaches hatred on our campus has no place on this campus. Knowing that, I’m not affected by it. If you preach hatred, I just brush it off and continue moving. Just like a lot of people on this campus did during this moment. Knowing that you [hate] will not win. You can keep pushing, but you will not win.”

On spring practice:
“What I hope to get out of this spring is developed my game and to be extremely aggressive. Getting to the ball, knowing my assignment to the point to when I see it, I go full speed without thinking. I want a lot of tackles and a lot of explosive plays. I want to be a player that changes the game for my team and helps us get to the Big Ten Championship game. But collectively, a defense that has aggressive turnovers during games. [A defense] that is just hungry, tenacious. All that. I want that type of defense and I think we can be that if we put our minds to it. It’s the approach to the work that is going to get us there.”

On winter conditioning: “It was great. I love working hard and (Zach) Duval gave us all of the workouts that pushed us to the edge. To really just push people to the point of almost breaking. That’s what I liked about it. Just seeing people be pushed to that point, it’s exciting. It’s a nice feeling when you love football and you love everything about football and lifting. It’s hard but I enjoy it.”

On the difficulty of winter conditioning:
“It was challenging, but people assimilated and kept on challenging themselves. One thing I’ve said was ‘if it’s easy, you’re not trying hard’. If I felt like it wasn’t hard enough or wasn’t as hard as the day before, I didn’t challenge myself. I felt like I didn’t challenge myself, go hard enough, or put more weight on the bar, the next time I workout I make sure that it was as hard as the first day.”

On this season:
“Getting comfortable. We were excited as a collective team. I think it’s because of the excitement around our head coach and his return back to his native land. Just everything about the Blackshirt tradition, the past and what we can do now to make our own history and legacy. When you talk about excitement, we are trying to do something now to change the program forever.”

On Coach Barrett Ruud:
“I’ve been blessed to have a good coach for my role since I’ve been here. Coach Barrett Ruud just leading in all-time tackles and being in the NFL for eight years. He has accomplished many things that I want to accomplish. I can’t say that I won’t go against his teachings at all because I’m stubborn at times, but I know that I have to listen to him and that he knows that he is doing. He’s been there and he can give me the players perspective. He’s not so detached from the game as a player so he can give me the players perspective as a player right now. So I understand it and he shows us a lot of clips from the league and then give us a players insight rather than a coaches.”

On Friday’s practice:
“You have to attack it. You have to attack Friday with the mentality that you are the best in your position and every individual. That’s how we are going to become a better team. If you are striving to become the best player not only on the team but in the nation, then it creates competition. Competition brings the best out in us. Then you are going to see a team with the type of defense I was talking about [earlier]. You’re going to see us produce players year-in-and-year-out that go to the league and are successful. Day one, attack day one. Day two, attack day two. Strive to be the best you can b”

On improvements:
“Lateral movement and the explosiveness. We did a lot of jumping this off-season than ever before. I think that and how explosive we are, our transition from linear type movement to lateral movement and being able to be explosive in and out of those two. That’s it. And a tough mentality. Not only did we train our bodies, we trained our minds. Stepping up and being vocal. Developing a collect tough mentality.”

On the new scheme:
“I think you just have to separate somethings and group others together. Particular concepts, schemes, from your running fits. Your run fits, your pass conflicts, you have to group them together. Every day like you do in school, you have to memorize it and put it into play by watching film. In your head, say ‘two by two this or three by one that, three by one tight end unattached’. Just go through it. From day one to day two, you’re going to memorize more. Day three, you’re going to memorize more and when practice comes you’re going to get it down."

On the coaches teaching ability:
“Barrett Ruud, he gives a player perspective when he’s teaching. It’s more like he understands that it’s a lot and he simplifies it as much as he can. Or just know that ‘okay you might make a mistake but just know what you should do if you have a conflict on the field’. Or ‘if you memorize this one technique, you’ll be right all the time.’ That allows us to play fast and be fearless when we are plying.”

On 6 a.m. practices:
“You know, I have to be a morning person. That’s it. I’m here to play football. Any chance I get at it, I just have to be ready.”