Nebraska Cornhuskers College Football Pregame Quote, 10/11/2021

On offensive lineman Teddy Prochazka’s injury against Michigan::

Teddy had a knee injury. He is going to have surgery next week, and we will not have him back until spring ball.

On Teddy Prochazka’s eligibility:

We will see. I am more worried about him and his health and everything right now and we will work on eligibility issues later.

On offensive lineman Bryce Benhart:

I said going into that week I had a long talk with the team about doing what is best for the team until you get better. We have had several guys that have been taken out for a little while, and then have gotten their chance again and just need to make the most of it. Bryce has played a lot of football. I thought he came in and did well. At least they had a pretty good second half offensively, and we need him to play well.

On offensive line improvement:

We just have to keep getting better protection and keep getting moves in the run game. It has been baby steps and we will get better. If we can establish the run game, everything works and we have a quarterback that can make throws and people get open, if we have time so that is not a big secret that is offensive line.

On the timing of Teddy Prochazka’s injury:

I feel bad for him you know. I feel terrible for anybody when they get hurt. We are playing a team that has a couple key guys that have gotten hurt and it is just tough. These kids put so much time and effort and energy into this, and Teddy has been just improving by leaps and bounds since he got here, and he was getting to reap the benefit of that. It is a tough setback, but guys come back to these things and it will be fine.

On the first half of Michigan game affecting the second half:

Realistically, we could have scored a couple times in the first half and that would have put us in a better situation, but doing some of the things we did in the first half set up some things for the second half for sure. I think Coach Lubick and the rest of the offense did a good job making a couple tweaks and pointing us in a couple other directions at halftime. We certainly had to run a lot of good plays in the second half. We didn’t do enough to win. We needed to do a little more.

On Coach Ryan Held in the press box:

Of all the coaches on my staff the one that understands option football probably the best is Coach Held, so it has been a benefit for us to have him up there to watch the specifics and help people plan in that to make sure we are getting the right scheme. Coach Lubick is pretty dialed in to calling the game with me, too, so Held is able to watch the whole field to see some other things. He did a great job of catching that and that would have been another unfortunate touchdown that probably should not have counted, and I am glad he saw it.

On whether he is surprised Rahmir Johnson is at the top of the running back depth chart:

I think it would have surprised me. He was probably fifth on the depth chart to start fall camp. I have been saying all along, I am waiting for someone to step up and kind of take it and he has taken advantage of chances. He is running hard, making plays in the pass game. We certainly need other guys to keep improving and give him some breaks, but really happy for Rahmir and how far he has come. When you are patient with some people sometimes they continue to improve and end up being good players.

On seeing progress in Rahmir Johnson’s game:

It has been gradual, but he really started this fall camp. I used to get frustrated with him for not running full speed. He is such a fast kid and everything was not 100 percent all the time. There is only one way to play this game and that is with everything you’ve got. Sometimes when you come in young, you dip your toe in the water a little bit instead of just letting it rip, and he has really learned how to play as hard as he can.

On maximizing the team’s potential:

We still have a lot of ways to get better. We continue to get better upfront and block downfield better. There has been a couple of little details right when you need them the most that have hurt us. Defense has played so well, but one more stop here and there. We had one miscommunication on the coverage on one of their touchdowns, so those things happen during the game when your margin of error is so slim, they can really hurt you when you do not even notice those things. When we are playing with a lot of good teams, the margin of error in those things is small and we have to avoid those things. but the guys are playing well we can still get a lot done.

On the role of Director of Player Development Marcus Castro-Walker:

Apparently Marcus’s role is to get on social media first thing going into games. I’ve always been dehydrated at games from not drinking anything and he’s always handing me a water bottle, which has been nice. Marcus is great with our kids and our kids trust him. He’s able to help them with a lot of things on and off the field. You need a guy when kids come from a long ways away to go to school, you need people in their corner that help them navigate football and life, and Marcus is a big part of that.

On aggressiveness of the offensive line, specifically Bryce Benhart:

Well he’s got a chance to show us this week. He’s from Minnesota and he has a chance to play against them this year. I don’t think that he played his best against them last year, but this will be a big opportunity for him and we have a lot of faith in him. We have to have a good week of practice so we’re counting on him and the rest of the guys to play.

On past games against Minnesota:

We played really uninspired football. I had that feeling as head coach and I think that we had some kids that didn’t really want to be there because it was really cold and some rain. We didn’t play tough that night. I give them credit, they had a really good team two years ago and a good team last year. But we haven’t played our best in some games. They’ve had two weeks to prepare so they’re going to play their best game that they’ve played this year.

On thoughts on turning the game around and getting ahead:

You have to get ahead and we have to start fast. In a lot of these games, you can run time off the clock but that changes when you’re not ahead. I’m looking forward to starting to start fast, and I’m sure that they are too. We have to take advantage of whatever reps we get on offense because sometimes there’s more or less.

On playing consecutive games with no breaks:

We took the pads off them today at practice. We usually have a different part that we focus on during practice but we didn’t do that today. I thought we should give them a break after the game on Saturday, and they responded really well. We had a really clean practice and the guys were down there today and they’re excited to play. I told them that if anybody wants to play in the NFL, whether you play or not, you play pre-season games and 16 regular-season games and sometimes after playoffs you get one week off. That is a grind. So eight weeks is a lot of football, but I think that the guys have plenty of gas in them.

On offensive lineman Nouredin Nouili:

I feel good about him. I think that the whole process would have happened faster if he was consistent and that’s what I want to continue to see from him is consistency. He probably exceeded my expectations during games. We just need to see that in practice and it probably would have happened faster. He’s doing a good job and he’s doing a lot better. I just want to be able to count on him all the time.

On the ways that the personality of the team has changed over the years:

I think that we’re just more of a grown up team. We’ve got more kids that love each other and love the team and just love football.

On meeting with Director of Athletics Trev Alberts on Sundays:

Trev has been great. Sometimes I go up there. Sometimes he comes down. He felt like all of us Saturday. He felt like, here we go, this is the one. We are going to get this. We can get this big win against a top 10 team. Gosh, and the kids did so many things right, and heartbreaking for them. But he felt the same way the coaching staff did. I really appreciated him yesterday. He went around to all of the assistant coaches too and told them how proud he was of what the team did on Saturday. It has been nice to have him show his support like that.

On playing eight weeks in a row:

I am not really worried about this game from an energy and an enthusiasm standpoint. When you are running sprints and you have to do 20 of them, it is not the 20th one that gets you. It is the 16th, 17th, 18th one. The guys know we have a little bit of a break coming up after this game. We have been trying to take care of them. Minnesota has a good team. They are well coached. It is on the road. It is going to be tough, but I do not think our guys will fail to prepare and be ready for it.

On the strength of the Big Ten:

I think the Big Ten is really good. I have said this a lot. Top to bottom, everyone is good. Anyone can beat you any week. On top of that, we play the top. Might as well schedule a scrimmage with Penn State on a Wednesday if we are going to play everyone good in the league every year. We knew that the schedule was going to be a challenge going into the year and the kids were excited about it. We have battled with all these good teams this year, and I think we are a good team this year. We have to win our share.

On the punting position:

That spot is like a couple of other spots. We have kids with talent that need to do their job when they are called upon to do it. And the last two weeks Will (Przystup) has done that. The team is counting on guys to do their job and hope all of them continue to do it when they are asked to.

On Sundays after a late game:

It is probably tougher on coaches than players. I remember being a player, and I would just sleep in, skip church, which I should not have done, but sometimes you skip church. As a coach you have to get up early and get your game plan in again. I told the players after practice today that the big thing this week is that we have to recover. It has been a grind and we have to recover. Sleeping and eating right and hydrating and everything and getting physically right for the game. I know they will be emotionally and mentally right.

On kick and punt return:

Normally, I would weigh it quite a bit but right now I want someone back there that will catch it and give us a chance to return it. We are fielding it right now. We need to make a play in the return game at some point and that would really help us. Normally you would make sure everyone is healthy. Right now, it is all hands on deck.

On return coverage against Michigan:

They were really good on return units and I thought our kick coverage did an exceptional job. I have been saying that for a while. Specialty coverage has not been our issue, it has mainly been specialty jobs here and there. And those guys are doing better. Hit reset and it is not a problem.