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Nebraska Football
Pre-Minnesota
Monday, Dec. 7, 2020
Press Conference Video
On how he suffered his injury and the process to getting back to playing
“I just know that first drive against Penn State, one person stood me up and another person came and hit me on the side of my leg. I just feel a little pop in my knee. I knew I could finish the drive and make a few more plays. But I just knew if I would have kept going the rest of that game, I probably wouldn’t have been able to play the rest of the season. So, me being smart, took a chance and just told Coach, ‘I feel confident in the younger guys. You can put either one, Marvin (Scott III), Rahmir (Johnson) and I feel like the game would still be the same.’ So that's what happened and the young guys got in and did what they were supposed to do.”
On the affect that missing a few games had on him mentally
“It was hard in the beginning to miss a few games, but at the same time, like Adrian (Martinez) said, you have to have that faith and that confidence in your team that everybody still believes in you. Everybody still loves you. Everybody is still family to you. Just knowing you got people cheering you on, supporting you, that they got your back through the whole situation. It just motivated me to hurry up to go get treatment, go to the training room everyday to get my knee taken care of so I could hurry up and get back on the field. I knew they missed me. I missed them, too. They are my boys, like my brothers. When one’s missing, everybody feels for that person.”
On what it takes to be good in pass pro or good as a lead blocker from the running back spot?
“Pretty much perfecting your technique every day at practice. We do pass protection like at least every day of the week. Either when we got pads or don't have pads. We are hitting the bag or hitting on a few of the linebackers. Working on that so much at least three, four times a week just helps us in the game. It’s all about how you do it. Don’t launch too much. Don't lean too much. Just have that perfect squat position so you can be ready to power clean the guy when he comes through the hole.”
On if it’s more important to be physically able or mentally willing to take on a Big Ten linebacker
“It’s more mental. Some people can look the part. I look good compared to a lot of linebackers when I match up with them. It’s just all about that mental thing, like your heart. Do you got enough heart to go in and lay a hat to this guy to help your teammates out? That's just me. I’m wanting to do anything and lay it on the line for my teammates every play.”
On learning how to respond to a win
“It’s just all about that mental preparedness. That awareness of that we just won but we still got more games left. We just can’t get the hot head off this one game and then think the rest of the season is over because it's not. We got more games ahead. Saturday everybody had fun but everybody was back serious yesterday morning. By the time we woke back up everybody was ready. It was more people here to train and getting more treatment, people getting lifts in and stuff like that which you don't really see too much people are sore the next day. But it's just all about that preparation of how bad do you want it. How bad do you want your team to be successful? To me, it shouldn't be that hard. But, some people just ride off a win and we can't do that. We just got to stay humble.”
On how the feeling after the Penn State win was different than this week
“It was different. But now, after this win, everybody is still humble. Everybody is ready to go play Minnesota this week. We are ready to go cap off what we did this past weekend and come back this weekend do the same thing.”
On if he has thought about what his emotions will be stepping off the field on Saturday
“No, not necessary because I'm not really focused on that right now. I’m really just focused on this Minnesota game, this other game that we got after the Minnesota game and then potentially the bowl game. I'm not even worried about that right now.”
On what the team does to avoid something similar to the week before the Illinois game
“I don’t feel like I have to worry about that this week. I feel like all the guys know what we got going ahead, what they got to deal with, who we got to put on the field, and what we got to do everyday at practice. That’s come out every day in practice. I can honestly say, probably the Illinois week, everybody didn't prepare it right that week. Everybody was still riding off that win. With me being back, I’ll never let that happen again as far as being a senior. I know the rest of the seniors like Dicaprio (Bootle), (Matt) Farniok, (Brenden) Jaimes and all of us are on players now. These past few weeks, it's been different. It’s been different practice. Everybody's been catching every ball, grinding every play. People have been in the right positions and been in the right place that they are supposed to be at the right time and it just it just showed up in the game Saturday.”
On who spoke out to set the team straight following the Illinois game
“It wasn’t a specific player. Just everybody understanding everybody was upset after that game. I mean everybody knew we shouldn't have lost to Illinois. It’s just everybody was upset from even having the fact that they come here and beat us in our house and then enjoy the ride back home. They don’t want to feel that again, so everybody made it up their own minds. Everybody made up their own minds, came back and went through ready for the Iowa game. It started that week. Practice with great that Iowa week. Unfortunately it didn't turn out the way we wanted it to, but it just had to keep building which is why we had the success this past weekend.”
On how Adrian Martinez’s improved play has helped everyone improve
“I'm very proud of Adrian. Adrian has been through a couple of tough situations with the quarterback situation. But like he said, he's a team player. I'm a team player. Whether we both on the field or not, we are just mentally there. We are there to support our teammates, cheer our boys on, whether we are in the game or not. You just got to be that type of teammate. I'm very proud of him and I'm very proud of the way he stood up to that that challenge or that that situation that he was going through.”
On why Nebraska is so hungry right now
“We are really hungry right now because we're trying to get the program back to where it's been. Everybody knows Nebraska used to be one of the hardest team to beat in America. Now, we're trying to get it back to that program. Everybody is just hungry and humble to become a Big Ten Champion team and also a national champion. We are just working hard trying to prove everybody wrong. These past few weeks, we've been coming just going strong.”
NU Athletic Communications