Troy Players Postgame Quotes
Nebraska vs. Troy Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018
Cedarius Rookard
Senior, Safety/Punt Returner
On his punt return for a touchdown
“Well, first off I was kind of nervous being back there, like just because it’s Nebraska I’m not saying they like scare me or anything, it was just nervous me being back there by myself. It’s just really like trusting the process cause in practice every day, the corners they work blocking the gunners and everything to make sure they don’t beat them inside and they had beat them outside. Well they released outside. I just knew I could step and catch the punt return, and like every day, well not every day but every other day I think, Coach Pouge like teach them to box out the gunners if they’re closer to the returner, so I trusted that they would do their job, so I just had to do mine”
On when he realized he could take it back all the way
“Once I had caught the ball a dude missed a tackle, so I run around to the left side towards their sideline, then I cut it back towards our sideline, it’s like a middle return, so I just try and get back to the middle and then do the rest of it.”
On Nebraska’s offense
“Offensively they made some adjustments like around the second quarter. Coach Vic came in and made his own adjustment, so I just thank coach Vic for just doing his job and putting us in the right places at the right time.”
B.J. Smith
Junior, Running Back
On his touchdown runs
“So I’m getting my pre-snap reads but at the same time I’m following my blocks. They did a good job the whole week and the whole night getting us to so at the second level real quick, and I noticed their safeties were coming down fast so we noticed if they get in the wrong gaps it’ll be straight daylight.”
On his second touchdown run
“ We knew like what coach said ,try to put the game out of reach and give ourselves a chance so the O-line was determined to get a good push and open up holes, and once they get us to the second level, it’s our job to find the end zone.”
Tyler Murray Sophomore, Spear On the play of the defense play and the team's attitude
"The game scheme that Coach Vic (Koenning), our defensive coordinator, put in worked, so all we had to do was to just have discipline and be humble. That's how it worked out."
On playing for the third weekend and the atmosphere at Memorial Stadium
"We (have had) some experiences since this third weekend, so we were still a little nervous playing in this big atmosphere, but we still had to execute a lot. We had to just stay focused."
On noise and atmosphere
"It made it difficult to hear the call. You had to (look at) the sideline, get the signal and get lined up on time. The noise made it very difficult."