Casey Thompson
Nebraska Quarterback
Pre-Georgia Southern
Press Conference
On wide receiver Trey Palmer
“More catches and more effort. If we call 21 pathways we want to be open on 21 pathways. We’re trying to push everybody to just to try to be perfect on every rep at practice because we know in the game mistakes are gonna happen and the defense is gonna make some plays. Those guys want scholarships too across the ball and those guys also gonna make plays, but we’re just trying to chase perfection at practice. Whether that’s run by somebody on a go ball or if it’s going up in the air and making the catch. We’re pushing Trey and all these guys to run perfect routes and get to the exact route depth and read the coverages and convert the routes the way they’re supposed to be ran. Trey is doing a great job but we’re trying to push everybody to be better including me. I appreciate Coach Whipple. He pushes me hard every day. No matter if it’s a walkthrough or scout team period or whatever the case may be. We’re still pushing everybody across the board to try and have perfect practice and perfect reps.”
On running back Anthony Grant
“A lot of times we don’t take a step back to look at the big picture. Anthony’s just very blessed and thankful to be in this position that he’s in. I heard he broke the record for the first Nebraska running back to have that many rushing yards in the first two games. A year ago, he was at a junior college. Right now we’re just trying to focus on the game plan and focus on winning the game each week at a time, but there’s probably a lot of players in our locker room including me that don’t know how good we can be yet because you’re not looking at the big picture.”
On how Thompson played against North Dakota
“We had half the attempts to pass it, so we only had 42 pass attempts. Just the way the game went. This week we only had 21 pass attempts. I ended up being 14-21 which is 67 percent. Two drops, so could have been 16 and 21. Also had two throw aways. So we’re looking at 18 out of 21 I could have had one interception, two touchdowns. I think I played good, but I mean, I don’t think it was great. But I mean, played good enough to win the game. We had a lot of success running the ball. The first half only had four drives and 22 plays, so it was kind of a slow game for us on offense but I thought I played good enough to win the game but I think the player the game for sure it was Anthony Grant.
On looking at stats
“No. I really like to watch the clock. Just because clock management is important for a quarterback. And then sometimes if I have time I’ll ask you know the offensive staff like how many pass attempts, if you know how many rushing attempts, and they usually tell me but right after the game. They usually tell us a stat line. I just used to have it memorized. Like I said we only had 62 plays of total offense in the first half when we ran 23, so I knew those for sure just coming off the field after the game, but I usually don’t look at the stats. I think how you play is more important than stat lines.”
On schemes with Trey Palmer
“We can scheme him open. But Trey is just a really good player. He’s very fast. He’s explosive. He’s had a lot of big plays for us down the field, even just throwing him a short bubble pass and he can go 10 to 15 yards so he does a good job with his skill set and his speed. And we’re still continuing to push Trey on and off the field. We’re pushing them every day at practice as we’re pushing all these guys so I think the biggest positive that we had for Trey and for the rest of the receivers was that we came out of the game withs zero drops at receiver. So that was a big time for us.”
On Trey Palmer’s potential
“He’s still getting better every week. He’s going to continue to get better this year and throughout his career as the rest of us will. Trey’s a guy that I don’t think he knows how good he can be. But he’s still working to get better. And he has a lot of work to do, like I said, the rest of us as well. We’re still 18 to 22 and 23 year olds. And you know, we haven’t reached our full potential yet. So Trey is getting better and and I’ve seen a lot of growth and progress from him. And he’ll continue to get better but the third down that we had third and 15 he went up and caught that pass for a big gain. That was a really big play for sure.”
On Coach Mark Whipple
“During the game he is really good. He is good at communicating and asking me what I saw. If I come off and he saw something different he will say ‘hey did you see this guy? Did you see this receiver? Did you see that defender?’ Usually he does a good job at communicating in a very good tone and then after the game he will talk to me briefly. And then when I come in on Sundays we watch the film together one on one and then we also watch the film as an offense. I go into his office a lot and we talk. He is a really good communicator. I think it is good for the quarterback and play caller to have good communication. Frost has great communication as well. He will ask me during the game and after the game what I see. The day after the game Coach Whipple has been very positive. Nothing is personal so on Sundays we just try and watch the film and get better. If I miss a read or I miss a throw it is all in the film. We are all in the meeting room so the whole offense knows I missed that throw or I missed that read. Or if a guy misses a block or a guy drops a pass there is no hiding. There are no secrets. We are not trying to attack anyone or take it personal. Again the coaches do a good job. They are just making it known that it is not personal. We are just trying to get better.”
On encouraging the team after errors
“I usually do not have to say anything. If I feel like we have multiple plays where we have missed assignments or missed blocks then I will go talk to the offensive line on the sideline and be encouraging give them a pep talk. Or sometimes before a play I will say ‘if you guys can give me two to three seconds’ or ‘we will have a big play if guys lock in and block this is going to be a touchown or a big gain’. I sometimes alert them before a big play but if they are on the sideline like I said I just try to be poised and be positive. I have learned that that is probably my best asset to this offense and this team. Be encouraging. Stay even-keeled. Being calm and providing a lot of poise. Unfortunately when you play quarterback and you make a mistake everybody sees it in the stadium because you are touching the ball every play. If you play offensive line or you are blocking for a run or a pass play if you make a mistake either the running back is getting killed or the quarterback is getting killed. There may be 75 plays in a game and you get beat once or twice or have a couple of mistakes but it is just shows up. It is more obvious because the quarterback ends up on the ground or the running back ends up on the ground. I just try to stay positive. I understand there is going to be mistakes. We just have to move on and make the next play.”
On his targets the first few games
“I’m usually just going through my reads and progressions. There is very few plays in a game where you have multiple guys open. Sometimes depending on what coverage they roll to there is multiple guys that can get the ball. I usually go to the first read and my first instinct. If it’s a man coverage or a one-on-one battle I may determine pre-snap. I usually just base it on the coverage. Trey (Palmer), Marcus (Washington), Isaiah (Garcia-Castaneda), Alante (Brown), Brody Belt have all done a good job. Omar (Manning) did a good job coming in this past week. Usually after the play I’ll come back and two or three guys will come to me and say they were wide-open but at the end of the day completions and moving the ball is all that matters. They don’t always understand the coverages and how to see five defenders.”
On starting fast
“That was a big emphasis for us in the off-season. The defense got the best of us sometimes in training camp. We wouldn’t always finish the drive with a touchdown or points. Northwestern and this last game had very positive notes with us being able to start the game with a touchdown drive and doing the same thing coming out of halftime. I think any offense wants to score to start the game. In this last game the most positive thing was that we finished the game on offense.”
On practicing first team vs. first team
“That will help us a lot because it will give us some more game speed live reps. Going against the first-team defense good-on-good is the best that you are going to get. Best on offense versus best on defense and guys are playing full speed. It really helps me as a quarterback to see coverages and see receivers and DBs running full speed. They are running over 20 miles-per-hour usually so that is big for me and that will help our offensive line and running backs get live looks at the box and execute inside the box so I think it will be good for the whole team but it helps me as a quarterback be able to make throws and gain reps where the receivers and running backs and DBs are coming out of their brakes and stuff like that. Everything is just a little bit faster when it is good-on-good as opposed to going against scouts or maybe doing a seven-on-seven period where it is not as fast and you know you are not going to get hit.”
