What was it like getting hurt in the first football game of the season?

“I was mad –really mad. I know how I am a leader on the team and I knew the moral of the team would go down. It was devastating I felt like I let the team down even though it wasn’t my fault.”

What was the actual injury you received and how did you do it?

“A guy was going for the tackle, but Brody (Kooser) juked him out. And when he missed, he swung around and hit me on the side of my left knee right on the joint. I partially tore my MCL, but it could have been a lot worse if I wasn’t wearing my knee brace.”

How did your injuries impact the team in the second game of the season?

“We won’t really know for sure, but I know me and Alex (McGill) getting hurt took the moral of the team down. They just weren’t playing their best.”

Will your injury change anything going forward?

“No, it is almost healed already, so I doubt it.”

How do you think this week’s game against Maize will go?

“I feel like we needed that loss even though we didn’t want to lose. We played a bad first game against a pretty bad team and won. The second game we played the same way. But now, since we lost last week, we had our eyes opened and we now know that we can’t take anything for granted.

“Just because we’re Derby doesn’t mean we’re gonna win, we still have to execute to dominate. This week we are playing a really good team and I’m still out so we will see what happens.”