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Nebraska Football
Postgame Quotes vs. UTEP
Aug. 31, 2024 (Lincoln, Neb.)
Nebraska 40, UTEP 7
Opening Statement
“I think I am probably most proud of how the team came out in the second half with vigor because they got a chance to play. That was awesome. There’s a lot of good things in the game, obviously, there are a lot of things we have to clean up. One drive exposed us a little bit, with their tempo and they’re aggressiveness. I really like their team. We wanted to give all of our guys a chance to play, but didn’t want to embarrass them. You know Jalyn Gramstad had a chance to throw some. They competed to the end. I really like their team but I’m happy for our guys to come away with the win and get all those guys a chance to play.”
On the safety
“We’ve worked so hard on not fumbling the ball. We talked all week about the fact that they were going to tackle us low. For us to put the ball on the ground on the four-yard line…I went out to the defensive huddle and I tried to say something to Marques (Buford Jr.) like ‘hey, we know what we’re doing. We’ve been here before.’ They were excited to play. You saw them. I don’t even know how that all happened. I didn’t see exactly what happened, but I just saw guys playing really hard and fast on defense. That was great because it was such complimentary football. When they kicked the ball to us, Jacory (Barney Jr.) had a decent return and then we went down and scored. That was a nine-point swing. We want to go on runs. We want to score, stop somebody, get the ball back with good field position and score, and that happened there.”
On the running back room
“They all made plays. It was a shame that Dante (Dowdell) had that fumble, but he was really running well. Dante has done such a good job. At the end of the spring, I probably would have put him fourth. He was the second back in the game today. Dante, I thought he was really playing well, running the ball well, and then had that fumble. I’m happy to see him come back. Gabe (Ervin Jr.) had some plays, Emmett (Johnson) with the long run, Rahmir (Johnson), I thought he ran hard. I was pleased with the whole group, and Maurice (Mazzccua Jr.) came in and did really well too.”
On the home opener and atmosphere
“There’s not many places in the country where people stay for the whole game. The way that our fans do that is unbelievable, right? Usually, by the end of the game, you can yell out like ‘Hey. Give it to so and so run it.’ We were still having to use the headset. If you noticed in the game, I started off with a single and had to go to a double earphone because it was so loud on the field. It was loud on offense when Heinrich (Haarberg) and everyone got really loud. I’m kinda like, ‘Hey, be quiet.’ It was great to have that atmosphere, have that crowd. When you’re at home you have all those kids that can get into the games. Last year was really tough, but that’s last year now it’s kind of over, so we got a chance to get off to a good start at home. Some of the older guys were really happy. They said they had never really experienced a game that was over at halftime really and they’re watching all the young guys get in and maybe they have I don’t know but they said that we certainly didn’t have that last year against Louisiana Tech it was 28-14 so it’s good for them to see that.”
On winning the turnover margin
“Did they count the safety as a turnover? They should. I might do it right now. That seems like a turnover, does it not? I was sitting there because we were -1 and we did that, and I was like ‘okay, we’re even now.’ I was happy for Rahmir (Stewart). You’re talking about a kid that I didn’t bring to camp, really over his body weight. In the pregame, he said to me ‘I’m 205’, which is what I told him – ‘if you’re 205, you can play. 206, you can’t play.’ It’s funny, me fighting with the guys about their body weight. That’s the pot calling the kettle black, but he made a play. He’s a really good football player, so I was happy to see that. Who else had one? Malcolm (Hartzog) had one. That was good, to be +1. Sometimes, you guys have heard me say +7. What I really want to do is be +1, +2 every game. I don’t want us to have seven in one game and that skews the numbers. I just want to come out every game positive, because a lot of these games are going to come down to the last possession. If you can steal the possession, you have a chance. I think the safety is a way of stealing the possession.”