Eric Crouch refers to it as "armor."
Others may call it thick skin.
Call it what you want. But it's something a quarterback develops over time as he weathers the various forms of adversity that routinely beset the position, including an important detail that tends to get lost in the discussion.
"I think it's every defense's mentality to knock you out of the game," says Crouch, a former Nebraska quarterback who was awarded the Heisman Trophy in 2001. "You get the second-team guy in there, and your chances of winning go shooting through the roof."
We'll see about that this year at Nebraska.