Nebraska players addressed the media on Saturday following the Huskers' loss to the Michigan Wolverines, 56-10.
Quarterback Adrian Martinez, running back Wyatt Mazour and quarterback Andrew Bunch all spoke with media following the opening game of Big Ten play.
Quarterback Adrian Martinez
On when he knew he would start:
“I pretty much had a good idea midway through the week of where I was physically and I felt I was in good enough shape to start and Coach Frost and Mark, our head trainer, we made the decision together and went from there.”
On feeling full strength in the game:
“I felt like I was there today. I wouldn’t have stepped out there against Michigan if I felt that I couldn’t perform.”
On the chronic slow starts:
“That’s kind of a big part of it, we need to start games better. It’s hard to get things going when we dig ourselves deep. Colorado, down. Troy, down. This game, down as well. It limits us. We need to do a better job of that going forward and just little details, little things, missed opportunities. On that tipped interception, if it would have gone a different way it would have been different for us there at the beginning.”
On the called safety:
“I think they said I had possession of the ball on that second one. I think either way if I had caught it it would have been a safety. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do in that situation when it got batted up. I tried patting it forward. It is what it is.”
On how he feels:
“My knee feels fine. I don’t feel half-bad right now. Obviously losing the way we did in that fashion doesn’t feel good, but my body, I’ll recover. I don’t feel too bad.”
On his performance:
“I didn’t do too many things well today to reckon(?) anything good from it. I’m going to watch the film learn as much as I can from it and move on. We have a new opportunity next week.”
On moving on past this loss:
“Coach always says we have 24 hours to mourn or be happy, whatever it is depending on the result of the game, and then we have to move on. I’m going to go in tomorrow, get treatment, watch film on our next game. Nothing else to do. The biggest thing right now is to stick together as a team, stay positive, know what we need to fix and correct it going forward.”
Running back Wyatt Mazour
On how excited he was to get on the field:
“It’s tough to be individually happy with the team’s outcome in the game, coming in and leaving with a loss. But it was fun to be out there, just trying my hardest and trying to get this thing turned around.”
On if he agrees with Frost that they have to move onto next week:
“We have to move past this one. We can’t let this loss define us because if you do that, it spirals down. We came in with a good game plan, we just didn’t execute. Michigan, they played a hell of a game today. We’re going to continue to work on the little things and try to get this thing turned around.”
On things they need to work on:
“It was pretty obvious that starting field position was an issue. They had a great kickoff unit and we knew that coming in. It was a game plan deal. In Punt return we had that one turnover but like I said, we have to work on the little things."
Quarterback Andrew Bunch
On how he handled the Michigan front:
“They are a talented defensive line for sure. So that’s always going to make things a little more difficult when pressure is being brought on you. Either way, that’s something we will have to deal with against plenty of teams.”
On Frost’s message of moving on:
“There’s no reason to look back. Once Monday hits we have another team to get ready for. We are going to flush it and get ready for our next opponent.”
On how he feels physically:
“Yeah I’m good. I just had a little hyperextension of my knee of something. I feel fine though. It was a little knee issue but I’m good.”
On Wyatt at the end of the game and late TD:
“Wyatt is a great player so I was happy to see him get in the endzone like that. He’s a guy that works hard and can really play at any point in the game. He is so dangerous. It was good to see him in the endzone.”
On building off ending the game with a score:
“Yeah, we will build off what we learned from the film. Nobody wants to go out and have a game like that. It’s a learning experience and we are going to learn from it and attack Monday.”
