Nebraska Football
vs. Northwestern
Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021
On when he found out he was playing
“I found out on Monday, Monday morning. Playing in front of 90,000 people is very different compared to my old school. So, I was definitely a little nervous, but I knew to step up and do my thing.”
On stepping onto the field for the first time and his first snaps
“It's an amazing experience. I'm just running out to the field and seeing all the fans going insane with the lights and everything and just being out on the field. The first play doesn't really shut everything out, but then once you get into the rhythm basically you get that tunnel vision. You don’t see anything but the field. That first play was a little exciting, because hearing everybody screaming and going crazy about us is something I've never seen before.”
On him and Teddy Prochazka making their first starts together
“There's a couple of scenes, I would assume that the cameras caught, of us celebrating together, because we've been practicing together for a while, because we were the twos together for a while too. We had our connection already so coming to this game, we just kept doing our thing.”
On people watching back home
“I know there's a couple. The problem was it was like 2 a.m. there. Games like these are kind of hard to watch over there, especially in college. NFL games are more common, but I think two years ago or three years ago was the first college game that was live without paying. So, it's kind of hard to try to find the time to watch games like these.”
On reactions from people he knows
“I have not looked at my phone yet. I’m a little scared, I'm not going to lie, it is going to be a lot.”
On the differences being a starter
“A big thing is my teammates around me. We have been pushing each other for so long now, especially last year with corona. We had a lot of time to bond and be a great group together and like I said with me and Teddy, we've been pushing each other, to a point that today has been successful. The entire O-line group is like that too: everybody feeds off each other and we try to hype each other up whenever it's possible, and it doesn't just happen with the ones, it happens all the way through to the threes and scout players and whatsoever.”
On the 400 yards rushing
“It's tiring, but as an offensive lineman, that's the best thing to be able to say that you pushed somebody from point A to B and the guy behind you had success. Like you said, having 400 yards rushing, to be able to say that as an offensive line unit is amazing.”
On the O-line’s practice
“From last week, we knew we had to click better together. And we knew that we had to step up and be better. And I think this week of practice has been the best week and obviously we set the bar high, but now it's time to jump over the bar.”
On fixing the issues from the last couple games
“I assume you're talking about the false starts and yep, we've definitely had our fair share of those, but during practice has been a lot better to say that. Everybody makes mistakes here and there, but we haven't had any problems with that anymore, and we're not going to anymore.”
On the goal to get a scholarship
“There definitely were some doubts every now and then, but like I said, with the group around me, it doesn’t matter if you're a scholarship or a walk-on, you know, everybody hypes each other up to the point where it feels like you're a scholarship player, and you're running around with players around you that don't care if you are a walk-on or not. And like I said, it's amazing to be able to say that I've made it from a point where I came in starting off as a lineman from my old school, but like yes you know going from a scouting player to now starting is an amazing long journey with ups and downs.”
On Prochazka getting to the point of playing in a Big Ten game
“Like you said, with that experience, I had the same kind of scaredness and nerves. But I think the good thing for him, that helped him a lot, was that it was not like it was not the first game of the season. He had the chance to play a little bit during other games and had the chance to experience how the stadium feels and how to be around people that love the sport as much as you do. And, you know, I didn't have that. I'm old school, I was kind of just kind of thrown into the cold water there. And I think with Teddy it's kind of a steady way up to where I don't think he was nervous, like he knew he had to step up and do something.”
How they “jump over the bar” next week
“Well, 500 rushing yards and whatsoever more passing yards. I think we had like 650 total yards; 700 yards are just right there. Might as well.”
On Adrian Martinez having more time in the pocket and what they fixed
“Like I said earlier to the question, we had to step up and try to do better and show him that we can protect him. And I think today we proved that is possible. And I don't think he got hit once: Maybe during the sneak but other than that, he had a clean jersey and I'd like to pride myself on that.”
NU Athletic Communications