Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Oct. 28, 2019
Purdue
Scott Frost
Nebraska Head Coach
On Indiana Athletic Director Fred Glass’ comment about the Nebraska football staff
“We’ve been scratching our heads wondering what that is about. We don’t have any ideas with it, but I’d be curious to know. I couldn’t have been nicer or more complimentary towards coach before and after the game. We had a ton of respect for their team and where they’ve gotten their team to. I told them that before the game and told them how good of a job they must be doing because of where their team had been playing. I told them that their offensive coordinator was doing a really good job and I told them after the game that I was really happy for them. I have no idea where it came from. If there’s something that we did, I’d like to know, but that’s a dead issue to me. We’re going to treat every opponent we play with respect. They’re certainly having a good year, so they deserve the success.”
On moving forward after Saturday’s loss
“I thought the togetherness got better today. Sometimes you have to go through some things to get it there. We still have things to fix, we’re still improving, but the guys that want to compete and want to be good handle everything the right way and learn from everything. That’s what our team did today.”
On outscoring opponents except in the third quarter
“We’re scratching our heads with that a little, too. I’ve tried a bunch of different tactics and this week I ripped their butts at halftime to try and get a response. Our defense came out and played well on the first drive. Then we got pinned back and missed a couple things and had a short punt to them where they went out and scored. Even though we started out good in the third quarter, it didn’t go very well immediately after that. We have to play with the same kind of intensity in the third quarter that we do in the first quarter and figure out where it goes from there. That’s something we definitely have to address. I wasn’t aware of that stat specifically with the first, second and fourth quarter, but it’s something we need to continue to look at.”
On today’s team meeting
“We always want to be coaches who love on our players and try to help them improve. I really felt during that game that we made some of the same mistakes that we made last year when we were just trying to get the culture improved. The dumb alignments, the dumb penalties, the turnovers, false-starting on first down, making bad plays right when it counted. We made plenty of plays to win that game and some of the same mistakes that got us beat in a few close games last year got us beat again Saturday. There comes a time and a place when you have to rip some tails, honestly. That’s what we did. But I wanted our players to understand the reason we did that, why we did that and wanted them to know that it is never personal. The guys get it. Talking to the captains, they want some of that to make sure guys are conscientious to do their jobs better and more precisely. I still feel like that is what we are missing a little bit is just the guys caring enough to do their job perfect on Saturdays and practice all the time. Because it is close, but, we can’t do those little things and shoot ourselves in the foot. We are not a good enough team right now.”
On the depth at quarterback
“I think quarterback is one example of a position where there is no question, we have improved, gotten more talent in here, [and] increased our depth. All three of those kids are good players and we are in a good spot to have all three of them. I don’t know if I have ever had three on a team that have the talent of the three that we have right now. So, that spells good things for the future and right now they are all three nicked up, so we are going to have to do the best we can in the short term.”
On making sure all three quarterbacks don’t get injured
“I think it is just bad breaks to some degree. To some other degree, we had to put our team in the best position to try to win Saturday and that meant some quarterback runs. I think we just kind of got unlucky that both of them got nicked up. Noah (Vedral) was a little hurt going in and that can happen. It is a little bit unlucky. Eventually, we will be good enough that we won’t have to rely as much on that but, those plays were there Saturday. Obviously, they looked good when we executed them and they will all three be fine.”
On if the plan is for Luke McCaffery to redshirt
“Our plan is still to redshirt Luke. He is running out of games but if we need him, we are going to use him.”
On Adrian Martinez
“Our player best interest is always one of my top two priorities. Mission accomplishment and our players-taking care of our guys are my two primary responsibilities. In that game, obviously Noah (Vedral) had to leave the game hurt and Adrian (Martinez) was emergency-only and hurt. We kind of huddled up and I talked to him and (Athletic Trainer) Mark (Mayer) about which guy was most capable going in. Noah gutted it out and went in there and did a good job. I think both of them could have gone into the game if we needed them at that point.”
On the attitudes of the freshmen
“I was around here for a long time. Greatness was expected, demanded, the standard. That is what we need to get back to and part of that is expecting that out of everyone on your team, expecting to win and going out and making it happen. Those kinds of things. I think there are a lot of people old and young on our team that gets that. The more we can continue to build on those kids and the culture we have, the better we will be. I think there are a lot of young kids who want it to be that way and expect it to get that way and get that way soon. We need everybody on board and pulling the same direction.”
On how he balances not being a coach that cusses a lot and when he rips his team like at halftime of Indiana
“That’s really what the team meeting was without going into too much detail. I kind of made a conscious decision that it was time to do that. Again, we got beat last year because we made some dumb personal foul penalties. Then the same thing happens on Saturday. We get beat a couple times last year when we jump offsides at the wrong time. Right when we need a good punt or kick, we don’t get it. I want the guys to understand how important it is to do their job. I learned a long time ago. I played for Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. One of your first rules is learn to take a butt-chewing. As their coach, mission accomplishment number one job is taking care of my players personally and on the field. There is a time when they need their butt chewed. That’s what the meeting was about. That’s not what we’re about. That’s not our character. I don’t want a team where I have to do that. If that’s what I have to do to get some of these things stopped, then we are going to have to yell a little bit in the short term. Most of the kids on the team care and want to be great. If there comes a time where things aren’t changing, then they need to get an ear-full.”
On the coaching challenges in the Big Ten
“I think there’s really good coaching in the Big Ten across the board. I mentioned the Indiana guys. They’ve done a great job with that team. I think their offensive coordinator does some smart things. Defensively, everybody in this league is sound and knows what they’re doing. That’s no different. The Pac-12 is the same way. There’re really good coaches in the American, that’s why coaches win there and are leaving for some of these other jobs. There’re good coaches in every league. The Big Ten is certainly no exception. I think there’s good coaches in this league.”
On how he’s felt his coaching staff has adjusted this season
“We are all in this fight together. We are not a good enough team yet. Nobody is happy with it. The coaches are working their tails off. I think there’s still some details that need to get ironed out, whether that is a coach’s issue, a player issue not doing what we tell them, but again, if the players aren’t doing what we’re telling them, that’s the coaches’ responsibility at the end of the day to get it done. I believe in my guys. Anytime you lose a game or two like we have, people start to question everything. I don’t question my coaches. They know what they’re doing. If there’s issues, we are going to address them. I’m going to talk to them about. We are going to get it fixed. These are the right guys to do it. I need to be better. They need to be better, and the team needs to be better. We’re all in this together.”
On the importance of continuity
“Continuity was key here for a long time and it hadn’t been here until we got here. Continuity is certainly going to help. Listen, what it boiled down to Saturday and what it boiled down to a bunch last year was to me guys caring enough and being conscientious and focused enough to not kind of do their job, but get their job done. We gave up three of four. We were terrible on third down on defense. Absolutely terrible. If we would have been even decent on third down we would have gotten stops and won the game. I don’t have any doubt of that. They did a great job. I give them credit. In those third and fourth downs we were bad on, there was one guy kind of doing his job but getting beat to his leverage or one guy taking his eyes off his man in man coverage and not being disciplined with his eyes. Again, the coaches need to coach that better but at the end of the day when the players get on the field they need to not just kind of do it. Not just be OK at it. They need to get it done. And that falls on me. It falls on the coaches. Same on offense. We missed a couple blocks. A couple of assignments that would have kept a couple of drives going. Those are things that need to be fixed. Now there is a lot of really good things happening on offense. I think the bye week really helped us get better on some things on offense that made us more successful. I thought guys played more aggressive. We worked on tackling a lot on defense. Over the bye week I thought we tackled pretty well. Stopped the run well enough to win the game. We just have to be conscientious enough as coaches and players to make sure that whoever is on the field and has an assignment doesn’t kind of do it. They get it done. That’s a little bit of what’s keeping us from getting over the hump right now.”
On Purdue’s Rondale Moore
“We think Rondale is one of the best players in the country, and I don’t think we are alone in thinking that. He’s a special guy. But I’ll tell you they have some other special guys on that team too. They recruited well. I think he is really smart with the scheme offensively. He’s going to give you some stuff you haven’t seen. We’ve got to prepare for their team. If they have one of the best players in the country available. It’s not really looking at the plays they run with him because they run about everything with him. We have to prepare for Purdue and see if he is healthy or not. I hope for his sake he gets healthy soon.”
On Purdue’s David Bell
“Again, it isn’t just Rondale. Bell’s good. I think they’ve got good backs. They played a couple quarterbacks. Both of them are really good players. This is a team that came in here and beat us at home last year. We’ve got to go there and play the best we can.”
On subbing in defensive backs for linebackers for match-ups
“You know in some of those cases we were double-teaming a guy and gave up our letters on double team. There was one when there was a miscommunication. We were supposed to have their best receiver double-teamed and it looked like we had the wrong guy on their best receiver. Chinander’s on defense, us on offense, we are putting the guys out there that we think will give us the best chance. Like JoJo (Domann) when he is good with his eyes and disciplined he is one of our best guys. So, I’m not sure if it makes sense to sub in for him. There are some other situations where maybe we do need to make one of those adjustments and personnel changes. A couple injuries here and there keep us from doing that a little more. Losing Deontai [Williams] at the beginning of the year has hurt us a little bit. We have had to move Cam Taylor around a little bit. He has been beat up. A little bit of personnel and who you trust to be out there in those situations, but we take a look at all that.”
On if Tyrin Ferguson is available on defense
“Ferguson will be available this week. He wasn’t available last week.”
On Coach Chinander
“Chins is one of the smartest coaches I’ve been around. Looking at what we’re doing right now, to me we’re not good enough at the little details on either side of the ball right now and the little details have to get better. That led to some of the third-down stuff. Every kid in our program adores Coach Chinander, they all play hard for him. I don’t think there’s any doubt our players are playing harder than they did or however far you want to look back. I see more hats to ball, I see us tackling well, I see more effort. Guys are playing for him. What’s missing, like I said, is attention to detail to do their job and get it done. Nobody had to tell Jason Peter that, nobody had to tell Grant Winstrom that, or Joel Makovicka that if they had a job if they had a job they were going to get it done. Again, it falls on us as coaches to make sure that happens and some of the responsibility on the players when they have an opportunity to make a play, they have to get it done. Chins is the right guy to make sure that happens.”
On why Dedrick Mills saw reduced snaps in the second half
“I trust Dedrick Mills to go out and make plays. He plays hard. He made one mistake and missed a block. Unfortunately, it led to a fumble and probably a 14-point swing in that game. He’s one of the guys that cares. He’s one of the guys that’s going to give us full effort at practice and in a game. I trust him going forward. To be honest it was more in the second half of it was more of a situation that Wan’Dale was making plays. We needed to make some big plays to try to get back in the game once we got behind. Wan’Dale had missed some practice, it was easier for him to go in at running back than it was at receiver with some of the new schemes we had. So, it had more to do with that than us not trusting Mills. Everybody is going to make mistakes. Mills cares and he’s going to give us everything he has.”
On the red zone struggles on both sides of the ball
“Offensive, I didn’t think we struggled in the red zone. We just turned it over a couple of times and didn’t line up in a formation once. Defensively, there was a couple of assignment busts down there. We need to start turning and playing the ball on fade routes. I can’t tell you how much we work on that. I can’t tell you how much we’re coaching them to do it. We’re not turning around, finding the ball and making a play and we’re getting too many pass interference penalties. It is what it is. We’re going to continue to work on it, coach it, but a couple of assignments on defense, and those things lead to points. Again, a ton of credit to Indiana, they did some unique things and caught us on our heels on a couple and others were self-inflicted.”
