NEWS AND NOTES FROM BO PELINI'S PRESSER AT B1G FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

The newest addition to the Big Ten head coaches, Bo Pelini, took part in his first Big Ten media days press conference today.  Here are the highlights:

ON THE STATE OF HIS TEAM:

“We had a great offseason, and we needed it.”

“We required a lot of work with this being our first year in the Big Ten.”

“It’s going to be an honor to be a part of this conference, a part of this tradition.”

ON TAYLOR MARTINEZ:

“He’s more engaged as a leader, he’s really taken it upon himself to grow in that area. Holding his teammates accountable, holding himself accountable, I think he’s going to have a great year.”

ON PREPARING FOR ALL NEW OPPONENTS:

“It required a lot more time. It creates a greater challenge for us, but at the end of the day I feel great about the preparation we have.”

ON THE MOVE TO THE BIG TEN:

“I don’t know if it’s about style of play. We feel like we can lineup and play against anybody in the country.”

“Football is football, you’re going to win by the basics and the fundamentals.”

“We’re going to do what we do, and we’re going to do it well. We aren’t going to adapt to what the conference does, we’re hopefully going to make the conference adapt to what we do.”

"I think the leadership in this conference is tremendous.”

ON HIS TEAM'S DEFENSE:

“We have potentially a good group coming back.”

“I think we have some depth that we haven’t quite had until now.”

ON THE DIFFICULT START TO NEBRASKA'S BIG TEN SCHEDULE:

“You just take care of yourself. The schedule makers didn’t do us any favors in our first year, did they?”

ON SCANDAL IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL:

“You don’t like those things to happen, because if a couple things happen here and there, the media, you all pick it up and you run with it. Sometimes you tend to exaggerate the difficulties that come up, and that’s the minority.”

“That becomes glorified instead of glorifying all of the positive things that are happening in college athletics”

ON WHAT IT MEANS FOR NEBRASKA TO JOIN THE BIG TEN:

“When I think of the Big Ten I think of class, tremendous tradition, and I think of integrity.”