Nebraska Cornhuskers College Football Pregame Quote, 08/30/2021

On the game against Illinois:

It was pretty much what we thought. I thought the effort was outstanding. You can’t find anyone that wasn’t playing hard. We’ve got to do a few things better and we had a few kind of catastrophic plays that changed the whole game.

On Illinois’ sacks:

Yeah it was a little bit of a lot of things. I didn’t think we protected well enough. That’s one of the things that we really drilled down on today and talked to the guys about. They did a good job. I give it to them. There’s some twists in games that are tough to pick up that we didn’t but in general we’ve got to have more time for our quarterback to throw.

On the punters:

Our punters have been doing exceptionally well in practice. (Daniel Cerni) first effort I expected to go a lot better. Probably some nerves and things there but there’s a lot of hidden yardage and I know they got a couple punts and pinned us and we had chances to do it and didn’t. We put a lot of emphasis on special teams. I thought the coverage units did a really good job. Made the one critical error on the punt return and didn’t do what we’re trained to do and what we’re supposed to do. Got to punt it a little better and then obviously missed to extra points. Those are some of the mistakes we can’t have happen.

On the offensive line in the game versus in camp:

You know I give them credit. We watched a lot of tape on them. Tried to give our best guess as to what they were going to do. They played an entire spring game and came out and played even with wide nines and we just didn’t have as many reps with that. But hey we’ve got to be better. We’ve got to establish the run. We’ve got to be ahead in the game, so we can commit to the run. When you get behind in a game then you’re forced to do more things. There are a lot of factors that led to that.

On Illinois’ defense:

Not rare we just weren’t expecting it. Some people play wide fives wide nines. We just had prepared some for that look and for the contingency that they might do that but certainly not what we were expecting.

On Caleb Tannor:

You know all I saw during the game was the bang bang play of him hitting the quarterback right as he was throwing it. He’s got to be smart and not bury him into the turf. I assume that’s what they called. That play right there was probably the biggest play in the game. Caleb’s been playing wonderful all fall. I thought his level of play during that game was good but there’s critical moments that you have to make a snap decision and a smart decision that’s best for your team. There was a few times in that game where we didn’t and those mistakes really cost us.

On the run game against Illinois:

Yeah certainly. There backup quarterback came in and did a tremendous job. That’s the situation you want for a guy like that to come in up seven or up fourteen. Be able to run the ball and throw it when you need to. That’s a little different situation than being behind and throwing. We had every opportunity to be in command of the game at halftime and made some critical errors that turned it into a deficit at halftime and that changed the style of play for both teams.

On play calling:

No I hadn’t talked about Matt (Lubick) doing it. We collaborate. The whole staff collaborates and it was just an interesting game because about half of our game plan was kind of out the window when they came up and lined up the way they did so we really had to scramble and go with an alternative plan and tried to adjust and did some good things but not enough of them.

On the game plan changing effecting the young players:

Not really. I want our team to understand and I think they do that if they’re going to play a lot of snaps and as many reps as they want to they need to practice well all week and show us that they’re prepared. They’re certain guys that I think could have ended up playing more and I wish we would have played more and some others that need to step it up and practice well during the week to earn the playing time.

On how often the game plan changes in game:

Not very often and I told you we kind of turned our attention to these guys a little earlier than normal to really get dialed in on a game plan. We took a day in the middle of that to practice contingencies and other things they might do. So the guys knew what they were doing and were prepared but certainly some of the schematic things we hadn’t prepared for them and weren’t there because of what we got.

On competition at running back:

(Gabe Ervin Jr.)’s come in and done a great job being a veteran and acting like a veteran. He and (Markese) Stepp had the best week and a half of preparation leading into the game and they deserved to play. Rahmir Johnson has done a really good job. When we got into kind of two-minute throwing mode, we wanted someone in there who was a little bit of threat in the pass game. Every week at certain positions there’s going to be competition and guys that practice the best are going to get more time.

On Fordham:

We’ve just got to play well. In a lot of ways we did play well. I said it after the game but I really like this team. Our team has a chance to win a lot of games if we play well. The self-inflicted wounds can’t happen. Every time we get a chance to get on the field and execute at a higher level and get a little better it’s going to make us a better team down the stretch.

On the home opener :

Yeah there’s a different feeling for me. We’ve missed the fans so bad. Being in Memorial Stadium last year with an empty house was almost depressing and there’s so much passion here, so many good fans that we can’t wait to see them on Saturday.

On Adrian’s trust factoring into receiver playing time:

Well you have to earn trust in anything you do. I think there is a lot of guys Adrian trusts right now. Some have been at every practice and some have missed a little time and certainly consistency helps but we have enough guys out there to keep fresh guys on the field and everybody has got to know what they are doing and we should be able to have some receivers with juice out there all the time.

On Zavier Betts:

Yeah I think the plan for Zavier was for him to play a little more and I expect his reps will go up as we go on here. Zavier is a super talented kid and improving every day since he has been here. Like I said consistency has to matter to some degree. Him and everybody else. You have to do it all week and give teammates and coaches and everybody else confidence that you are going to be in the right place and do the right thing all the time.

On sellout streak:

Well I hope nobody lost excitement after Saturday. This team has a chance to be really good. I think this team is going to prove a lot to a lot of people. If there is still some tickets out there buy them up and come watch this team this is a special group of kids with a lot of character a lot of talent. We cannot wait to play in front of the fans so we need you there.

On specific quarterback throws in game:

No I do not think so when you watch the tape there are some unbelievable throws Adrian made sometimes with too much pressure standing right on top of him so we have to make sure he is cleaner to make the throws that we have been seeing him make all spring all fall. He missed two but when we get layups we cannot miss them.

On offensive line grade:

I would let Coach (Greg) Austin answer that. I have watched the tape five times but I certainly did not go play by play and grade it.

On coach locations during game:

I think just better communication having him down there. Also some of the things we are doing having Coach (Ryan) Held in the box gives us some eyes that see things a little differently. We decided to go that route this year and that part worked pretty well.

On punt returns:

No. Cam Taylor is one of our best players I love him like a son he is a blackshirt. He is a captain. You cannot make a play when you have been trained to do something else and he will learn from it.