Mick Stoltenberg Quotes - 9/10

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Sept. 10, 2018
Pre-Troy

Mick Stoltenberg
Senior, Defensive Lineman 
On reactions by some defensive teammates upon receiving Blackshirts
“For me it was the first time I hadn’t earned it before the season opener that I’d been a starter. But it was awesome, the guys that got it I think earned it, definitely. For the rest of the guys to get it I think we just need to continue to keep putting a good product on the field and obviously come out with some wins. (The) game didn’t end the way it should have. We made a lot of little mistakes here and there that kind of cost us defensively. We could talk about other things all we want, but we could have won that game with the defense, with some of the things we did, we had the opportunity to close this one out but we didn’t. Hopefully some more guys will earn those as the weeks come.”

On whether the vibe was different after the game compared to games in the past
“I would say so. Obviously guys were still really upset from the game because it was a close one. It got away from us. A lot of us felt we definitely could have won that game, for sure. Obviously guys were down that night and everything. As far as today, I think guys had fire in their eyes, ready to work. I think we had a good practice, speaking defensively. I thought guys were getting around, getting after the ball, and guys were fighting through things a little bit. I think we’re going to respond well and obviously we have a lot to build on as far as some of the plays we made, defensively. A loss will highlight a lot of the mistakes we made defensively, as well, which we can’t gloss over. Communication-wise, scheme-wise, stuff like that. We did some corrections and stuff today from Saturday’s game and we’ll obviously get started with the scouting report for next game, probably tomorrow. A lot to work on still but I think guys reacted well.”

On how he thought redshirt freshman defensive lineman Damian Daniels and senior defensive lineman Peyton Newell played
“I thought they played well, definitely for big Damian getting his feet wet in his first college game. I was super-excited for him. They came in and played well and that’s the good thing about what we’re doing right now. I think someone mentioned after the game we had 10 defensive linemen play throughout the game, which is great. We’re going to need to continue that. It was good they were getting snaps early so we can continue to develop them throughout the season, get them game experience that they haven’t really had as much of in the past so that will be huge for sure.”

On how the team found out about earning the Blackshirts
“Before meetings they weren’t in there, I kind of figured that we didn’t earn them. After we came back down after meetings they were sitting in the locker.  It was a cool deal they gave some of them out.”

On what sophomore quarterback Andrew Bunch brings to the table
“Bunch is a really smart kid. He knows that offense inside and out. He’s also athletic as well. He can run the football, he can do all sorts of things. Just excited for the kid, that he got an opportunity out there. Didn’t go probably the way he wanted it to obviously, but it was good to see him out there. He’s a hard worker. He’ll play harder than anyone, so I always give him props for sure.”

On senior outside linebacker Luke Gifford’s comment about defensive coordinator Eric Chinander being a wizard
“I’m not going to share too much, but he knows what he’s doing. He knows how to attack protections, he knows how to go after teams as far as blitzing and stuff like that goes. He’s a great play caller, as you guys saw, obviously we ran a lot of aggressive plays which is what we want to do. Definitely going to give a lot of credit to him as a coordinator. He communicates with us too, he doesn’t just do things and then not tell us about it or explain why. If he’s drawing up something or writing up a new play we’re going to go over it and we’re going to go over it a lot, and we’re going to understand why we’re doing it. That’s one thing that’s great about him as a coach and kind of as a communicator to us.”

On what he knows about Troy and its run game
“They had a big win this last week, they won by a lot, they played well and everything. We haven’t got a chance to watch too much of their film yet, but we know they've got some good players. Their offensive line is big, across the board they have some big boys, their guards are like 320, 330 I think. It’s going to be another challenge for us coming out. We just have to turn the crank up even more this week for sure.”

On how the defensive communication will improve in game two
“I think it will improve a lot. We got those corrections down today, that we talked about in the film when we watched the previous game. It’s just something as simple as it being loud and having to relay the call throughout the whole defense. It is what it is, obviously we wish we could have had another game before that last one to get those things out, but we didn’t. We should have prepared harder and everything to kind of get through those. It does help having that on film and kind of knowing where we went wrong a little bit so we can kind of go after that and correct it.”

On junior inside linebacker Mohamed Barry’s performance on Saturday
“That didn’t happen by accident. Mo worked his butt off all offseason. He was a fire starter in the weight room. In any conditioning drill or anything like that, he was the first person up competing. Big props to him, he made a lot of plays and he was all over the field. We’re going to see a lot of that this season, that wasn’t just a fluke from him. I’m excited for the kid.”