Nebraska Football
Postgame Quotes vs. Wisconsin
Nov. 23, 2024 (Lincoln, Neb.)
Nebraska 44, Wisconsin 25

Opening Statement

“Special teams, offense, defense, kicking field goals, thought it was as well-rounded as we can be. Credit to the guys, as I told them, it’s not like we’re doing something different, we’re doing the same things, we’ve just worked and worked and gotten better. Especially proud of those seniors, 30 of them, all different journeys to get here, but especially the guys who have been here a long time. They’ve been through three coaches, different ADs, they’ve stood in the gap, and it’s not easy to do in a place like this with expectations. They’ve done it. Really happy for them to be able to grab that trophy, they’ve never seen it before, and hold it and bring it in the locker room. Happy for last year’s seniors, it was great to see the Ethan Pipers, the (Grant) Tagge’s, we weren’t able to get them there last year, I promised them last year that I’d fly them to the bowl game, so I’m happy that we can guarantee a couple more weeks and bring those guys from last year hopefully to the bowl game this year.”

 

On the offensive game from start to finish

“We turn the ball over at the 20-yard line. We missnapped it on first down again. We had a penalty on a touchdown that led to a good kickoff return. We dropped a couple touchdowns. There were a couple plays left out there. I just think Dylan (Raiola) was really on. We ran the football really well. Jacory (Barney Jr.) worked the middle of the field. Emmett was the first 100-yard rusher of the season. He was also catching the ball in the backfield. The tight ends showed up. The ball went to where it was supposed to be. We were able to protect the quarterback. I just think they went out and they executed. When we executed, we scored. When we didn’t execute, we didn’t score. There were no new plays. I had to call timeout a couple of times, Dana (Holgorsen) was tripped up trying to get the words out. He knew what he wanted. On a lot of plays, some of the other coaches helped him with it. I thought that was great collaboration by those guys on the sideline.”

 

On offensive rhythm and play-calling

“I think if you go back to the course of the year, we had a lot of drives killed by penalties. There were no negative plays. Today we were able to make some explosive plays. But, the players made the explosive plays. The players made people miss, they were untackleable sometimes today. I thought that was another component to it. We were probably more aggressive in the fourth quarter. We threw the ball more in the fourth quarter than I normally would and Dylan (Raiola) made those plays. He made great decisions, he put the ball where it needed to be. We probably could have scored 55 with how a couple balls hit our hands and we had to kick field goals. Credit to those guys for coming out and making those plays.”

 

On how this hurdle advances the program forward

“Well I think there’s a psychological component to it but there’s also a physical component. The last seven years Wisconsin’s been in a bowl game. That’s roughly 105 practices that their players have had of development that we haven’t had. This is a great way to send off our seniors, it’s also an opportunity for us to continue to develop our players. Also kind of the cloud that hangs over, it’s gone, this is the last time we’ll celebrate six wins. As I’ve told our players, it’s always hard to be the first to do it, once you do it, you trust it. I can’t thank Ty (Robinson) and Nash (Hutmacher) and (Isaac Gifford) Giff and all those guys enough, they’ve trusted it. Whether it was (Brian) Buschini putting the ball out at the two, it just comes down to players making plays. I hope as we come in tomorrow, our players have a much better picture of what’s possible when they do things at the level that they’re capable of. We’ve gotten to a bowl game, we have another opportunity on Friday to go play another game, a rivalry game, and it should mean a lot to us.”