Senior Defensive Lineman Freedom Akinmoladun

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

Senior Defensive Lineman Freedom Akinmoladun
On gains made in the weight room:
“Everybody’s been lifting really heavy. Like heavier than I ever thought of. I’ve lifted more weight than I probably have ever imagined. All getting stronger and bigger and we’re all toning up, looking good. It’s definitely been a change.”

On the heaviest he’s been able to lift:
“Recently, I probably squatted, I don’t know the math, but seven plates. So, that’s a number I thought I was never going to see, I never thought I was going to be able to put that on my back, but it’s one of those things that having the teammates that I have now always pushing me to get better every single day and driving me to be the best I can. I was able to do that.”

On how it feels to squat seven plates:
“It’s a really good feelings. You get done, put it on the rack, you got your teammates all yelling at you saying good job and pretty much you look at yourself and say ‘hey, I got better today.’”

On Zach Duval:
“In the beginning, he taught us everything that we need to know in the weight room, and from that point I was like, this dude knows what he’s talking about, he’s smart about everything. He told us, the reason we were doing this stuff, was because of this and if you don’t understand that come talk to me and I can explain why we’re doing this stuff and how that’s going to help us on the field.”

On if knowing why a certain workout helps:
“Definitely, because if I know why I’m doing a certain lift and it will help me, for example, my get off, then I’m going to be more motivated to do that lift than try to lift as heavy as I can to help me in the future and on the field.”

On how lifting will transfer onto the field:
“Oh it’s going to be fun for both the offense and defense. Hopefully we’re going to see high intensity, fast moving, everybody is just running around and having fun.”

On if he’s had coaches that have explained themselves so much:
“We have, but coach Duval has taken it from a different perspective. You can ask any player. We really appreciate him doing that for us.”

On what Duval does differently:
“I can’t tell you all of that information because then that would be leakage, but he explains things for us from a player stand point. He can tell me certain things from a lifting stand point, but as a player if I don’t understand then I won’t get anything out of it and that’s what he does really well.”

On how eager he is to get into spring practice:
“Every time I go on the field I kind of get the jitters, it’s one of those things. It’s my last spring ball so it’s going to be one of those bittersweet moments. Yeah I’m ready to be on the field but man, at the end of spring ball it’s going to be crazy emotional.”

On if he watched UCF’s defense to anticipate what is coming:
“Oh definitely. I’m pretty sure every player was doing that. Trying to see how they’re going to fit into that system. What the coach is going to do for them. How am I going to fit into this, what’s going to happen in certain situations. So of course most of the players, we still watch film of them (UCF) so we can understand how we’re supposed to this and certain things.”

On what stands out in UCF’s defense:
“You can see a lot of coaching that was taught. The coaching from the staff and the weight room to the staff on the field they all combined have the same type of mind. To understand what I do in the weight room has to effect what’s on the field.”

On if seeing UCF’s five sacks against Auburn opened his eyes to the defensive scheme:
“Oh yeah, sacks are nice and if you can have more than five in a game then that’s going to be a real eye opener.

On if they’ll have to blitz to sack:
“Oh no, that’s the interesting thing. You’ll  find out soon about that.”