Dicaprio Bootle Quotes - 10/7

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Oct. 7, 2019
Minnesota

Dicaprio Bootle
Junior, Cornerback
On Minnesota’s wide receivers 
“They’re up there. Right with them. Those are great guys. That’s a really strong receiving group. You’ve got to be really serious and really dialed in this week because if you’re not on point, they’ll make you pay for it.” 
 
On Minnesota’s size 
“That’s about accurate. Especially from what I remember lining up on them last year. They’re pretty stout guys.” 
 
On the advantages and disadvantages of larger opponents 
“There’s definitely a little bit of both. Good thing is I move really well with speed and laterally, too. Some big guys love when you touch them because they want you to touch them and they want to be able to use their body. Other big guys, they don’t love when you touch them, so it’s not even so much about them just being a big guy. It’s about the way you play being a big guy. I just try to feed off that.” 
 
On Minnesota senior wide receiver Tyler Johnson
“He’s tops. That’s not even just going back to last year. Even I remember him the year before that. He’s doing big things. He’s definitely a top guy.”
 
On lining up against different teams 
“It’s out on the edge. A lot of things can be eliminated by just where a receiver lines up. When you line up in the slot it’s more of a wild card. Speaking in man coverage, it’s more of a wild card. You’ve got to rely more on your help a little bit more in the slot and just knowing based on where he’s lined up where he could go, where in reality they could go anywhere they want to go. You just have to be more mindful of them eliminating routes. The more the route progresses on the field.”
 
On the progress of Nebraska redshirt freshman cornerback Braxton Clark
“Braxton’s on the upward trend. He’s been playing really well. He’ll continue to play well if he keeps doing what he’s doing. He’s been very attentive to detail. Putting forth his best effort out there. Braxton’s going to become a staple fore us.”
 
On scouting out a young team 
“A lot of young offenses they find ways to work around what you’re doing. It’s not just necessarily a set amount of plays that they’ll run that we know for sure are coming. They have the ability to change on the fly and they’ll really need to attack based off of what we’re doing. At the end of the day, we've just got to go out there and play football. If they make a couple of plays, we've got to find a way to make more plays than they make.” 
 
On guys being injured 
“We’ve just kind of got to push through at this point. One more game before the bye week. This is a game that we need. We need this game to be in control of our own destiny. Still be able to reach our goals, do the things we still want to do. Right now you've kind of got guys banged up, bruised up, but just about everybody is trying to put their head down. Just keep working, keep on pushing. Keep fighting.”
 
On playing a ranked team 
“Kudos on them handling what they need to handle before getting to this point. I’m pretty sure that they have a mindset that each week is a new week and they’re just trying to go 1-0 every week. That’s our goal, too. We’re trying to go 1-0 every week. We haven’t been perfect. We’ve lost two games. The good thing about it is everything [about] the two games we lost are in the past. We’re coming off a win and honestly, it doesn’t matter because this is a new week, new opportunity and we have a new goal. We have to beat Minnesota regardless of where we play. We could play them in the middle of the ocean and we just [have] to make it happen. Win another this week.”
 
On quarterbacks Noah Vedral and Luke McCaffrey 
“They’re the guys who get called on. We know they can play. We play against them in practice. They can do just about anything. Those are guys, they [have] the skill sets that our offensive coordinator wants at quarterback otherwise they wouldn’t be here. If any of those two are in the game, I’m cool with it because I know our coaches are going to put them in the position to succeed. And I know they can make plays, too. I’ve seen them make plays in practice. You do practice before the game.”
NU Athletic Communications