Matt Rhule
Nebraska Head Coach
Postgame Quotes vs. Purdue (Oct. 28, 2023)
Nebraska 31, Purdue 14
On the defense’s good performance for the second-straight week
“I think it shows that they’re excited to play. They’re excited to get out there and we can’t keep starting games like this. With us we think through everything like why are we starting games like this? Obviously we had great field position and unfortunately (Garrett) Snodgrass got hit. Things happen but our defense just loves to take the field and even at the end they wanted to play till the very end. Holding them to a field goal, holding them to a two-point conversion didn’t allow it to be a three-score game. So, I just thought they completed all the plays.”
On going for it on 4th and 1 to end the game
“To be in 4th and 1 and get tackled for a loss. Not just tackled for a loss but fumble. Not just fumble but miss the tackle. And then, had it run in for a touchdown. You’re not gonna win a lot of games doing that, so there’s a lot to improve on. A lot that has to get better. That’s a chance in my mind to end the game, and if we want to be the type of team that we want to be, we’re gonna have to get 4th and 1’s.”
On the amount of hits Heinrich (Haarberg) has been taking
“I mean we’re playing to win right? It’s an option pass. He has some pressure, he throws the ball away and snaps the next snap. Like that’s not that hard, he can do it. He shouldn’t stand there and take that hit. Their kid didn’t, he ran out and threw the ball out of bounds. So, you know we’re working through with Heinrich all the time to get him to where we want him to get. He has to execute those plays and get those balls inbounds. Right I’m standing there saying throw the ball out of bounds, don’t take a sack for seven yards. I’m not criticizing him. I just can’t live in a world where it’s what if this happens and what if that happens? Like we have to go out there and play. Good teams play and bad things happen. We gotta go play so if I don’t want the players to live in that whole what if world, then we have to be that. I’m not saying that we have to run the option. I didn’t come here to have people say why you didn’t run the option on the last drive? Like that’s what we’re going to do. Eric Crouch told me hey we had 49 fumbles in 1999, so keep coaching and playing. Everything can’t be negative. I’m saying that for me. I got to go out there and be like hey guys. Part of it is throwing the ball away. There’s no reason to come off the field with your nose bloody. Run the option, go to pitch it, don’t stop and take a huge hit. We’re coaching them all the way through it, Heinrich was kind of bloody so I put Jeff (Sims) in. The ball came to the ground twice with Jeff so we have to hold the ball. They cleared Heinrich to go. Heinrich went back out there. It was good to go down hill one game, pop for a big play. That was kind of what we were looking for.”
On coaching throughout the game
“I have to continue as best I can to teach these guys the process of just because we won 31-14, what could that game have been if we don’t punch somebody? What could that game be if we don't have those fumbles, if we don’t throw that ball away, if we just play the play and take what’s there? When you have that many young kids on offense, you understand that you’re gonna have to coach your way through the games. The challenge I said to them in the third and fourth quarter was you have the 21-0 lead. I was like, ‘do you guys just want to try to win the game or do you guys want to play?’ Good teams play. They want to continue to make plays. They want to continue to go. The option-pass game helped us. The pass to Jaylen Lloyd was an amazing design by (Coach Marcus) Satterfield. The young guy made the play, then Malachi (Coleman) or somebody he got the pass interference. We just got to keep attacking and play our way through the mistakes.”