Mohamed Barry Quotes - 9/9

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Sept. 9, 2019
Pre-Northern Illinois

On what led to the loss after a halftime lead
“Just finishing. Simple as that. 17-0 with a minute or so to go in the third quarter and we have to finish. There’s nothing magical about that, you just have to do it. Honestly, there’s so many factors that go into that and it wouldn’t be right for me as a player to point out one particular factor, but our coaches do a good job in correcting those problems and telling us what we can fix individually to prevent that from happening and actually finishing.”

On the first three quarters defensively
“There’s a lot of good from the game. They had about zero rushing yards in the first half. Under 100 yards passing in the first half. They had the ball a lot and we stopped them. After the game I said, ‘Who was the better team?’ and that’s what I was talking about. I knew our defense was elite when we did that in the first half and when we were doing it in the third quarter. We just have to finish. That first half is the defense you all want, and the defense we know we can be. We have to show it for four quarters.”

On the fourth-quarter breakdown
“There’s no excuse. No matter the weather, no matter where we are playing, no matter how many reps you’re taking, it doesn’t matter. You play defense. Everyone on that defense aspires to be elite players and play on Sunday’s. They want to be championship players. As championship players, we have to rise to the occasion no matter how many reps we take and no matter what. There’s no excuse and we’re going to get that fixed.”

On junior inside linebackers Collin Miller and Will Honas
“As a linebacker group I’ve been so pleased even on the inside. I feel like these guys have developed. Everything we did in the summer they actually apply to the field. They’re playing with heart, they’re playing with passion and they’re playing with fire. A game that wasn’t my best game, they stepped up and I thank them for that.”

On personal performance against Colorado
“I don’t feel like it was the worst game [I ever played], I just feel like I didn’t make the plays I usually make for factors. I didn’t feel like myself. Again, there’s no excuse for that, I don’t care if I’m sick or what, it doesn’t matter. I’m the captain of the defense and they expect me to play my best football every time I walk on that field. They expect me to lead them and give them energy and boost them up and make sure that fourth quarter doesn’t happen. Like I said before, everything we achieve is because of the team and everything we don’t achieve is because of the captains. That’s on me and that’s on Darrion [Daniels] and we’re going to fix that. We’re going to have our team ready to finish.”

On the loss to Northern Illinois in 2017
“When I look back on that loss, I think about how we didn’t give them the respect that they deserved. I feel like practice was very loose that week and that people were like ‘Oh it’s the Sun-Belt Conference or whatever, we’re going to beat them, we’re going to dust them, we can play relaxed football, we should beat them by 40.’ Again, every team we’re facing this year, we’re going to give them the respect that they deserve like they’re the best team. That’s how we’re preparing for NIU.”

On the loss to Colorado versus other losses
“Like I said on Saturday, we can’t cry about it, we can’t sap about it. It’s onto the next one. There’s a lot we have in front of us, our goal is to be in Indianapolis. That was the goal from the set. No one’s going to care about Colorado when we’re in the Big Ten Championship, and that’s a fact. There’s a lot to achieve and that’s what we’re looking forward to. We have NIU, we have to play our best football."

On moving on from the loss against Colorado
“I need to get my guys right. After being confident in myself. At practice, I have to dial in on the stuff that I messed up on. I have to improve as a leader and as a player. When they see me improve and just talking to them and hyping them up and making sure we just hone in on the details. Today I said, ‘Enough with the talk, let’s work. Let’s hone in on the details and let’s get better.’ That’s all that matters, is what we put on that field and what we put on that tape.”

On making adjustments for the rest of the season
“I’d rather lose this early in the season than late. There’s no excuse for the loss and again, that loss is what hurt for a long time because I know how bad Husker Nation wanted that win. I know how much Coach Frost wanted that win. I know how bad Adrian [Martinez] wanted that win. I know how bad our players wanted to win. We didn’t achieve that. But to answer your question, that’s the goal. We want to be in Indianapolis, so whatever it takes to be there, whatever we have to fix this week, then we need to build and build and need to be that team that we want to be.”

NU Athletic Communications