Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Oct. 28, 2019
Purdue
Matt Farniok
Junior, Offensive Lineman
On offensive executive
“For the most part, yeah. This offense really just comes down to executing what we need to do. We did what we were supposed to do. We scored. Now, we need to make sure that we maintain that level of focus. That level of execution and that’s just a personal thing that we need to just drive home in everyone.”
On practice
“We moved in the right direction but we didn’t move far enough. We still had mistakes that never really should happen in a game. It’s turned to a point where you yourself need to find a way that you’re going to do your job and you’re going to do your job as perfect as you can. There’s no excuses. You just got to find a way to get it done.”
On the mistakes
“A lineman error is false starts. Those are things that really shouldn’t happen. We know what we’re supposed to do and it’s just a lack of focus. We’ve just got to correct it, and I know we will.”
On the last offensive play against Indiana
“Just a missed assignment. Just trying to think of what exactly the protection is. He got flushed out of the pocket by pressure and that pressure really shouldn’t have happened. In doing so, it threw him off his rhythm, it threw everything off his game. That’s a [missed assignment] on knowing who you have, knowing what you’ve got to do and those are things you have to take personal and you have to just get it done. It doesn’t matter what’s going on. Doesn’t matter how you feel in the game. Doesn’t matter if you feel a little banged up. Everyone’s kind of banged up. You just have to have an intent and a drive to make sure that your job is going to be completed and it’s going to be completed as perfect as you can make it.”
On Nebraska quarterbacks Noah Vedral and Luke McCaffrey
“They both did a great job. I don’t really know how they could have done it better themselves. They sold out and did everything that was asked for them. We’ve got to make sure that we continually give him as much time as possible. Give him a clean pocket and then on top of that we need to make sure that our run game is as good as it can be because honestly all of our quarterbacks are great players and they’re really good at what they do. We need to make sure that we can allow them to do what they do.”
On gaining more than 500 yards in total offense against Indiana
“We did alright. Our grades really just come down to technique. We did a better job of getting our jobs done. Staying on our man. Just cleaning up techniques still. [Offensive line coach Greg Austin] is also pretty picky on that. Which is a great thing. If it’s not perfect, you’re not getting a check mark on it. That’s one thing I really respect. If it’s not perfect, it doesn’t matter. He’ll say you got the job done, but it can be better.”
On a good game
“We did a much better job finishing our blocks. Technique was still a little bit off. For the most part we did a much much better job of just staying on our guys and driving guys off the ball.”
On Frost’s comments
“It comes down to just being personal. Take every rep personal. In practice you can’t ever relax. You can’t ever take a play off. [Like] I’m kind of tired, I’ll go 75 percent. It needs to be 100 percent every time because those little things, they add up and they will show. Those little things, like easing off the gas, those show up in the game. Those lead to the lack of focus. That’s what leads to us making mistakes. I think everyone kind of took it personal. We know he’s right because we’ve hurt ourselves now. We’ve hurt ourselves to losing two games for sure. We just shot ourselves in the foot when we needed it most. We lacked the focus to get it done. We’re finally kind of understanding how and why we need to be so intent and so focused on what we do.”
On the focus
“I’d say it’s getting a lot better. We’ve learned that everything you do needs to be intentional. Everything has to be driven. Even today it was much better. Everyone made sure that their job was getting done. They didn’t care how, what they had to so, but they made sure they won and they did their job correctly.”
On bowl importance
“It is as important as always. We don’t want to stop playing football. We want to try and play football as long as we can. With this team you only get one shot. This team is the only team that’s going to be like it. When the seniors are gone, the team’s going to be different. We love those guys all across the board and we want to make sure we can spend as much time, play together as long as we can because there are some great guys there. They’ve been working their tail off. They’ve been working as hard as they can, and they’ve been trying to set the example. I personally want to make sure they get that right.”
On the extra practices bowl games allow
“Those always help. The longer you get to play football, the more you get to execute and you get to work on the craft of the game. Those extra practices are as vital as anything.”
On Wan’Dale Robinson
“He’s a special character. It’s been pretty evident ever since he even got here. He’s a great worker. He’s a hard worker. He doesn’t really have the freshman mentality of waiting. He wants to just attack and he’s going to find a way to make a play happen. It’s pretty awesome and when we do our job right and we get him out in the open field or we get him off the edge, there’s not too many people who can catch him. He’s one of the fastest people I think I’ve ever seen. When we get him to the right spot and use him properly, get him through the holes, good things happen.”
On freshman speaking out
“He’s right. If it’s not good enough, it’s not good enough. It doesn’t matter. If you feel that it’s not good enough, it’s not good enough. In my opinion, there should never really be a doubt. If there’s a doubt, it’s not good enough. He voices his thoughts and how he felt and he’s not wrong. If that’s how he felt, that’s how he feels and that means we’re not doing a good enough job of really keeping the culture. It is what it is. How he says it and I know how we’re moving and how it’s going. We’re just going to keep working on it.”
