Matt Rhule National Signing Day Press Conference

Opening Statement:
“I had just a couple of people to thank, so if you’ll bear with me, I think it’s very important. Today, for me at least, is always a day of gratitude. It starts with all of the young men who have made the decision to sign with us, both the guys who have signed scholarships and the guys who are coming as walk-ons. Julie and I, as two parents, have a son finishing his senior year in Charlotte, who has decided to come to Nebraska and be a freshman next year. This signing class for us probably means more than it ever has. We understand that when you’re going through this process, knowing that they’re in a safe place with good people, it matters so much. Very grateful to the parents, guardians, highschool coaches, mentors, everyone who have led these young men to these decisions. And I’m grateful for all the players, that they’ve entrusted their future to us. I believe they’ve all come here for the right reasons, and I’m excited to be a part of their future. I’m grateful to our staff. Obviously, you guys see the 10 full-time coaches that go on the road, but we have an army of people who evaluate and help make this process run. Everything from making sure business expenses get done to getting flights on time to identifying the best players. When people come to see us, I think they walk away feeling like there’s a cohesive vision, that there’s sort of a family feel here, and that’s because we all do believe in the same things. So I’m very grateful to our coaches and our staff, and especially their families. This is hard, there’s a lot of time that’s put into this, and our coaches and staff, their families do a lot. Very grateful to Trev (Alberts) and our entire administration. You can’t recruit at this level without an investment and the belief that it’s going to pay off. Very grateful for the way they’ve laid this out for us, where we can be successful. A lot of people in Lincoln, lots of vendors, lots of hotels, they go out of their way to make sure that we have an unbelievable process. I think one of the crown jewels, one of the key recruiters for us is the city of Lincoln. I think when people come here they’re blown away. We could put them at the Kindler Hotel, or show them the Scarlet Hotel, we can take them to eat at J.T.K, or Casa Bovina, or all of the other places we utilize. To me it makes coming to Nebraska that much more real, so I’m grateful. Our fans. As we all know, our fanbase is second to none. It’s something that I think our families feel. It’s hard to send your kid from Florida to Nebraska. It’s hard to send your kid from all across the country. One of the major questions I get is ‘Coach, how is my son going to be treated here?’ When people come on visits and when they get to the airport, or when they walk into a game, they feel so welcome. They feel so welcome for the right reasons. It makes it that much easier to send their kids here, and I’m unbelievably, unbelievably grateful. I want to thank a lot of former players. Too many to name, but just the way that they’ve reached out and sent name in. I’m just really proud of the fact that there’s six players who are legacies. Really proud of the fact that we have one player whose brother is on the team. One player in Eric Ingwerson whose uncle played here, and the fact that Nebraska means that much to them, and that they believe in what we’re doing, that they want to send their sons here. I want to thank Coach Osborne. One of our best recruiters. Put someone in a room with Coach Osborne and give me the credit, I’ll take that all day, but it’s really Coach (Osborne). I want to thank Governor (Jim) Pillen. It’s not very often that the Governor is willing to, not recruit, but build relationships, and tell people what life is really like here, so very grateful to him. Some specific former players that have really gone out of their way; Abdul Mohammad has really laid the groundwork for us as we want to recruit this state. Really proud of the fact that we have eight scholarship kids from Nebraska for the second year in a row. Want to thank Vershan Jackson and Steve Warren, Damon Benning, and others. Without them, I wouldn’t have some of the names that I’ve got, and I’m really grateful for that. I want to thank Tommie Frazier and Eric Crouch. Being willing to come on campus and meet with players. Jay Foreman, Doak Ostergard, those guys have gone way out of their way. Many others have done a lot but I want to make sure I thank them. And then finally, I think having this type of signing class is indicative of what’s happening in our athletic department. When your women’s soccer team is Big Ten champs, you see what the basketball team is doing, it might not seem like a lot, but when you’re trying to find things to talk about with guys, you can say ‘Hey, did you see us beat Michigan State?’, or taking Dylan Raiola and going to watch Jaz (Shelley) score 25 on Sunday. Those things matter. On a personal note, I want to thank Coach Cook and our women's volleyball team. What they did this year was awesome, and for Coach Cook to do that with such a young team, I know it’s brought my family and me closer. I had Baker Mayfield call me from Tampa, and he was like ‘Hey, I’m going to the game on Thursday, bro’. There’s people from all across the country talking about our women’s volleyball team, and to do it so young. I loved what Harper (Murray) said after the game. We took the staff yesterday to see Day By Day. I wasn’t there, Trev (Alberts) can maybe talk about it more than I can, but I don’t know that if ‘94 and ‘95 don’t happen if ‘92 and ‘93 doesn’t. I don’t know that ‘97 doesn’t happen if it’s not for ‘96.I just love being a part of this level of excellence in so many areas of our athletic department. I think it’s part of why you look across the country and people are getting so excited about Nebraska football. Finally, I have to thank 1890. They have backed these athletes, they have backed these players. For us to sit here, I know you’re going to ask me about the transfer portal. We have our own portal. We got Bryce Benhart out of that portal. We got Ben Scott out of that portal. Giff (Isaac Gifford) deciding to come back, even though he’s probably going to get drafted. Ty Robinson, passing on the chance to get drafted to come back. That’s unbelievable. John Bullock coming back. I’m just very grateful for the experience these guys are having, whether it’s Dennis (LeBlanc) or Keith Zimmer in life skills. Also, the way our student athletes have been supported by the Peed family (Tom and Shawn Peed), by Matt Davison, by all the people who have donated. Thank you so much, because this is the modern world of athletics. We are being supported by an organization that’s run the right way and doing things the right way. That comes across to us each and every time we talk to a student-athlete. And finally, our players. Our players are our best recruiters. When they tell recruits what it’s like here, recruits listen. The feedback has been excellent. I think you guys have seen that by the lack of guys going into the transfer portal. People are excited about being part of this program, and that’s why we’ve been able to sign so many guys. I know that was long, but I am extremely grateful for them. I know you guys have a lot of questions, so I’m happy to answer them.”

On the path of Dylan Raiola and possible transfer QBs: 
“I’m always going to explore everything, but at the end of the day, as I said to you guys, I was never really interested in one-year quarterbacks. I believe in doing due diligence. I don’t believe in just making statements. I always look at those, but it’s really important to me that Chubba (Purdy) and Heinrich (Haarberg) have earned the chance to go compete in the spring without someone coming in that’s a year ahead of them. That was first and foremost. We looked at some things, but didn’t make any offers to anybody. I just wanted to stay true to that message that we had from the end of the year. Daniel Kaelin has been loyal to us from the very beginning. We believe in Daniel, we believe in his skill set, his processing, how quickly he sees it. I love the fact that even this past weekend, he had an opportunity. He just wants to compete and be a Husker. As I sat there and watched that show yesterday and they talked about Tommie Frazier and Brook Berringer, just ‘hey, I want to be here and I want to compete.’ I appreciate that about him. Dylan called last Sunday and said, ‘hey, Coach, my heart is telling me to come to Nebraska. Can I come take another look?’ I challenged him, like ‘hey, make sure you’re serious about this. I don’t want this to be something that isn’t right for you,’ and he said ‘my life has greater purpose than just being the top recruit. I know what Nebraska means to my family, I know what it’s meant to me and I’d like to come there.’ I think in the end, to have a player of Dylan’s caliber, not of his recruiting, but of his caliber. His arm talent, his ability to see the field, but probably more than anything, his work ethic and how much he cares about the game. We obviously took that. I feel great about our quarterback room, we have four players that we believe in. With the young players, with the two freshmen, I think it’s really important that they follow the right trajectory. It’s not about coming in and scripting success. It’s about teaching them to play quarterback the way we want our quarterbacks to play. That’s why I didn’t want a quick fix. I want to build this thing with guys who have been in the program, who learn our way of thinking, our way of seeing the field, our way of viewing defenses, our way of calling protections, our way of training. I think as we move forward, everything will be earned and nothing will be given. It will be great competition. It’ll be great learning and great development. We have some pretty special players in that room.”

On the QB coaching staff:
“Yeah, I'm not talking about that today. With all that diversity, today is all about the recruits. When I'm back, if there's anything to talk about it I will but today is about them.” 

On how Dylan Raiola changes what the offense is able to do: 
“You know I think that’s a great question because we would love to be a very diverse offense like the 49ers but somewhat translated to college. When you get players like Carter (Nelson), the ability to stretch the field and throw the ball, we want accuracy, we want guys who are going to protect the football. We love guys who can move, but also the ability to push the ball down the field and throw the ball 55-60 yards down the field at times and be accurate is something that helps those types of offenses. I think after spending a year in the Big Ten and in the weather that we play in, having big quarterbacks with big hands who can spin the ball is vital, and so I think Dylan certainly gives us that. Seeing the throws he was throwing this year in high school, a lot of the same throws that were gonna ask him to throw, he was able to throw them at a really high level. I had the chance to see him throw live last year. He’s got so much arm talent and not many people have that, but again this game comes down to way more than just arm talent. To us, it’s just about how you teach things with process so that he can play fast and free. It’s the same thing we’ll do with Daniel (Kaelin) and continue to do with Heinrich (Haarberg) and Chubba (Purdy).”

On Dylan Raiola ‘tangible wise’:
“Well, you know it’s hard for me to sit here and talk very much about a lot of these guys when I’ve met them three or four times. So a lot of it is second hand, what I will say is anytime in my past that I’ve had a chance to take a quarterback or a player whose dad played, usually they’ve grown up in a house where dad’s been harder on them than they have. When I was in the NFL we drafted Jaycee Horn. Talking about a first round pick, his dad Joe Horn was one of the great players to play the game. He probably grew up after every game being told, ‘yeah you did that great, but.’ So, I think that Dylan probably has a lot of intangibles that I haven’t met yet. What I’ve loved about Dylan is he loves football, he loves to talk football, he’s unbelievably kind. You watch him at the basketball game the other day, he’s taking pictures with kids, and not in a selfish way, but in a caring way. It’s the same intangibles I see with a lot of the guys we have. We want to recruit really good people who love football. This is not a ‘what’s in it for me’ type place. You’ve got to come here wanting to be great at football, wanting to be great in the community and wanting to be great in school. Your parents have to want that, you have to want that. I see all that from Dylan. To me it’s the beginning of a journey, this is not the end, this is the very very beginning and that’s my message to all the players. This is not a culmination, this is the start of something, so just take it day by day.”

On managing the quarterback position last week:
“Yeah, I think we tried to be as honest as possible. As things come you’re talking in real time. I’m never going to apologize for bringing in good players. I’m never going to apologize for bringing in good competition. We live in a day in age where everyone is trying to find the best situation. I think you should try to find the place where you can get developed the best because no one knows how things are going to work out. So, as long as I’m not taking away your scholarship, I’m not going to apologize to you if I’m bringing someone else in. And I want players who want that, like, ‘I want to be the best, so I have to probably play with the best and compete against the best.’ That’s why I respect Daniel (Kaelin) so much for the decision he made. Obviously the thing with Dylan happened, and it was really honest and transparent. In terms of transfer players and things like that, sometimes you have to have difficult conversations. Sometimes the narrative out there is different than what is actually happening, and that can be difficult. None of these young men ran from competition, no one said, ‘I don’t want to go there.’ Some people were asking me that, and I felt bad about it. Really, at the end of the day, we made a decision, we’re going to go young, we’re going to go with the guys we have and the two freshmen, and build. I don’t mind disappointing people, I hate it, but I don’t want anyone ever to say I lied to you. I try to be honest and say ‘here’s how we see it.’ Sometimes people disagree with it. It’s hard at Quarterback because only one can play. There’s going to be a lot of quarterbacks that went in the portal that don’t find places to go. I always say, ‘go somewhere where you’re being developed. Go somewhere where you’re growing as a quarterback, growing as a person.’ Eventually, things happen, you’ll have your chance to get on the field, and when you get on the field, crush it. We played three quarterbacks this year. Odds would say that most teams would probably play one or two moving forward.”

On if he stayed connected with Dylan Raiola:
“Once Dylan committed to Georgia, I didn’t recruit him anymore. I still talked to him, they came to the Michigan game, hugged him, ‘good to see you, how’s things going?’ I don’t really recruit guys after they commit somewhere very often. I won’t say not always, but I think in that decision, it was like go ahead, I appreciate it. Obviously he has a unique perspective in that his uncle is on staff. So, in recruiting everyone is the same way everyday. This year we started off 0-2, you got to see us what we were like at 0-2, then we won three in a row – ‘what are they like after they won three in a row.’ Kind of yoyo the season. Probably found out a little bit more about us from his uncle, ‘what are they like when things are going good, when things aren’t going well.’ Again that’s why I point to the guys that want to come back and play their sixth year, doesn’t happen everywhere. But yeah, in terms of the relationship, he’d shoot me a text, ‘hey, good win coach,’ or something like that. But I’m really respectful of Georgia and Coach Smart’s program. To me, this wasn’t about Georgia, this was about a kid who grew up a Husker fan that his heart wanted to come back and be a Husker.”
 
On Grant Brix:
“When I first got here, Donovan (Raiola) told me ‘hey, there’s this guy that came to our camp last year, he’s really special.’ I love, besides the person and the person that he is and the family, I love his versatility. I’ve seen him wrestle, I’ve seen him play in the band, I’ve seen him play football. He can do a little bit of everything. I love his hat speed. There’s a lot of big offensive lineman, there’s not many that are as explosive and athletic as Grant is. I’ve really enjoyed my relationship with him and his family. Again, it’s about an hour and fifteen, an hour and twenty from his house to here. There’s a lot of really great players in this area. The ability to have him want to come here and join us, despite all the offers that he had, was big for us. Again, we want to grow the offensive line the same way. We want to grow it the hard way – through recruiting, through development. He has a lot of talent that, if developed properly, we think could be an awesome player.”

On competing for the quarterback starting spot:
“Everybody does, yeah. We’re a team that started multiple non-scholarship players last year. Competition is king. Nothing is handed to anybody. Nothing is handed to anybody.”

On his approach with the transfer portal:
“I think because as we retained our guys and guys came back, that affected that. If Bryce Benhart and Ben Scott, two honorable-mention All-Big Ten players, went in the portal right now, they would be getting top everything. People would be fighting for them. So, when they wanted to come back, it alleviated some of the ‘hey, let’s go find an older player.’ Obviously, we visited one or two guys. The portal is still open so things could change, but Blye (Hill) was a unique deal to us. We really saw that 6’3” corner that can run. His dad is an NFL player, mom is a great athlete. We think he has years to develop in our system and can be a really good player. We’ll recruit a couple more guys for sure, but a lot of it is just our numbers. We’ve recruited a lot of high school kids the last two years. That was important to me, to have a strong base of high school players, not knowing how many we would lose. Well, we really haven’t lost many guys. This will be a smaller class this year, this next high school recruiting class. Again, I’m not against the portal at all. When everyone comes here, I want them coming here for the right reasons and to fill a role and have a vision. We have a vision for Blye. We might have one for one or two other ones as we move forward.”

On recruiting in Miami:
“I think, obviously, Coop (Evan Cooper) is the one that goes down. Evan is an excellent recruiter and he’s from Miami. People know him. Phil Simpson – Phil played for me 100 years ago and was a really successful high school coach in Miami, so as we go down into Dade county, their experience here speaks volumes to people. When they speak, people listen and the guys on our team, when they come up and see Dwight Bootle or are talking to those guys and they’re having a good experience – those guys that flipped today, they came in last weekend and it was 26 degrees. There’s no tricks, there’s no gimmicks. I said ‘hey, walk around. This is what it feels like.’ They recognize real and they recognize what’s transparent and they’re coming for the right reasons. That was a big day for us today, to get a player of Willis McGahee’s talent and ability level and the way his brain works and an unbelievable family. To get Amare (Sanders), to get Larry (Tarver), to have Vincent (Shavers) just kind of flip over now, those things are all really big things for us.” 

On recruiting in-state:
“People have been unbelievable since the day we got here. We go to a clinic, people are there. I think the high school football here is really, really strong. You think about it, we go on national shows and they’re like ‘well, you signed eight guys.’ Notre Dame signed a player out of here, Illinois signed a player out of here, so it’s not like we got every one. There’s 10, 11, 12 Division I players here. What I would say was really special about us this year was, because of our camps, we have a lot of guys that we think are scholarship-worthy players that came in as non-scholarship players. They turned down Division I offers to come here. I think the high school coaches have been great. Hopefully our camps will continue to catch on. A lot of players thought you had to be invited to camp. No, we want everybody. I want, by the time you’re a senior, for you to come to my camps since you were in sixth grade. You know me and I know you. This has been your dream. That’s kind of my goal. As we go around the state, you brought up Ainsworth. I’ve been there three times. We had the time of our lives on Saturday in Ainsworth, just unbelievable people. We went to the high school football game, the playoff game a month ago. Unbelievable people. It’s when you go to those towns and you meet those people and those little kids come up to you and you’re not sure what they’re going to say to you – a kid walks up and says ‘I’m glad you ran a fake punt for once.’ I say ‘thanks, bro.’ You just realize – I say this a lot – we have such a responsibility to produce a winner because people are really counting on it. Going back into those towns and those people reciprocating the feelling and welcoming us, is awesome and it makes recruiting in Nebraska a lot of fun.”

On Carter Nelson: 
“When I talk about that, kind of that model that San Francisco type model, the college version of that. Guys like Carter (Nelson) are imperative, unique, position-less players. You go watch him play, he’s playing quarterback. He’s playing tailback. He’s a wideout, He’s playing tight end. I told him we’re going to hand him the ball like Walter Peyton on fourth and one and let him dive over the top. I said that’s our goal for him, a position-less player and we signed Jacory Barney Jr.. Jacory plays wideout and then all of a sudden he’s playing quarterback for his team. You have a bunch of guys that can do things with the ball and watch how the offense comes alive. We’re kind of a position-less defense, we’d like to be a position-less offense. I think Carter has all the talent in the world and I think it’s really cool that someone from Nebraska can go anywhere in the country. He could’ve flipped anywhere and they would’ve taken him, and he wants to come here. I think it sends a great message.” 

On Bryant Rhule coming to Nebraska:
“My son? The best part is, I can’t even say it, my wife I’ll get in trouble. I’m very fired up the have Bryant on board. We tried to get him into South Dakota State, Lawrence, some great schools, Wayne State. I wanted him to go live his own journey, but that summer in Selleck dorm, that month in Selleck, pranking coaches with Malachi (Coleman) and those guys he was locked, he was in.” 

On former football players sending their sons here:
“What’s really interesting is that none of them were overly involved. You’re talking to Dom Raiola, you’re talking to Damon Benning, you’re talking to Neil Smith, guys you did a ton of stuff here. They’re not overbearing, it’s about their kids and I think it’s why their kids are happy and successful and going to have a lot of success and so they all earned it, some of them came to camp. Kamdyn (Koch) came to camp and punted in front of us. I didn’t put the connection together at the time, Ed (Foley) had. We said, ‘Hey we’d love to have him here.’ Quinn (Clark) is a unique story. His father has passed. I had been sent this tape. I want to say Vershan Jackson sent it to me and Damon Benning sent it to me and I get sent a lot of tapes and I was like, ‘Who is this big kid?’ and I was like ‘Man he’s a good player. He’ll have to come to camp though because I don’t really know what football’s like in Bozeman.’ So he comes to camp and he runs the 40 and he’s out there playing this and playing that and camp’s over and I say ‘Is your mom here?’ and his mom’s there and we offer him on the field. If there was any way to incorporate his father into it, maybe doing it in Memorial Stadium or on the field would have been some way to honor him so a lot of really cool things. The fact that they had such a good experience here and this place means so much to them and that they want their sons to be here, I think is important and also they see some good things in us as a coaching staff that we’re doing it the right way. Damon (Benning) has had a lot of a look into who we are and what we do. Obviously Caleb (Benning)’s mom Tanya played soccer here so when Mario Buford, when his parents say, ‘Yes we’re going to let him come here’ and here’s Marques (Buford Jr.) and he’s been through the adversity of a torn ACL and they want him to come play for us. That’s important to me because I think that speaks louder than anything else you can do in recruiting is how people who have been through the program feel.”

On recruiting in Texas:
“We went down and did the summer camps in Texas. We found some players, I think a lot of people go to Texas and they think like, ‘airport recruit.’ They’ll fly to DFW and they’ll drive within 40 minutes and then they’ll go back to the airport, and they fly out. As much as we love Hudl here. Hudl hurts teams like us that want to outwork everybody, because now you can watch everyone’s film. Shoutout to them for changing the industry, but we still can go places people don’t want to go. We get to Houston and people stay, our coaches work in a different way. Coop (Evan Cooper), Omar (Hales) and those guys find Roger Gradney and we drive out to Rice Consolidated. Unbelievable program, great high school coach, great talent, here’s this young man that I believe will be a great player here. You go to camps and you see Braylen Prude is 6’ 4, gets up and on my watch he runs a 4.42 and you’re like ‘run that again,’ he runs it again. Part of it is finding the big name recruits that everyone knows. Part of it is working the camps and finding the guys that fit us, we’ll be there every year. We’re going to keep recruiting Florida. We’re going to keep recruiting Texas. We’re going to keep recruiting this area and try to be really consistent with it. If we can get five to six players a year from Texas, then all of a sudden you have 30 players from Texas on your team. We’ve all had a good experience.” 

On NIL playing a role in recruiting:
“I don’t know, I really don’t. I don’t have any NIL conversations with anybody, that’s other people. I legitimately don’t have those. I don’t want to be talking to you about that. If there’s ever a day where it’s done differently then I will, but it’s done the right way. Is it changing the landscape in recruiting? I've read some of the things people say, ‘more guys going different places,’ so maybe there’s some merit to that, but I don’t know that. A player can walk into my office that’s on our team and say, ‘hey coach I just got offered this amount of money,’ and trust me players have. Players have said on the first day, ‘coach this quarterback from this school called me and offered me this amount.’ And that player doesn’t even know if that’s real. In the NFL there were contracts and there were agents, no one knows what’s real and what’s not real. Thankfully our players are so loyal they all came and let us know and they’re all here. They all stayed, but I don't even know what’s real. People have called me and said it’s going to take this for this guy, some of those numbers are out there. The one thing in the NFL was if an agent told you, Sam McKewon, the Dolphins just offered me three years, $4.2 (million), and then you found out later he signed for less and he lied to you, you’d never deal with that agent again. So everyone is very very very straight up. Seems like a good deal, Sam. As I’ve said there’s just no system, so. With all that being said, I can’t really comment too much, I don’t have a great feel, I just know some of the high end guys are getting some big numbers. Some things aren’t as inflated as they say. I’m looking forward to the day this is all streamlined, so it’s got a bit more of a system to it.” 

On describing the recruiting class:
“I think that concept of a position-less player is really something that we tried to focus on. We took a lot of guys from our camps and we will continue to take guys from our camps that maybe might seem unrecruited, but we believe in our coaching ability. We believe in height, weight, speed, traits. When we look at a player, it might list him as a safety, but we think some day they might rush the passer. Or it might be him as a wideout, but we think someday they are going to do this. As long as we have players that believe in that process and get here and get with Corey (Campbell) and Kristin (Coggin), our development and staff here I think can do wonders with players. I don’t sign a player unless I believe they have a chance of playing in the NFL. I look at them and ask if they have the height, weight and speed. So I think that leads some people to ask, ‘hey you signed seven DBs.’ I’m like, ‘yeah.’ I think he’ll play here and he’ll play here. Last year, we signed Jeremiah Charles as a wideout and we think he’d be an unbelievable corner. Sometimes they need to get here. I think a reemergence on the offensive line. We signed a couple guys that came to our camp that to me remind you of what a Nebraska offensive line should be, explosive, powerful, and as they get bigger, going to be really tough, hard-nosed players. And we just signed a couple tackles that we are excited about. It’s hard to find tackles nowadays.”          

On addressing the running back position: 
“Yeah, we have four scholarship ones, and we have a couple who’ve walked on that we feel good about so we weren't gonna reach. We could always look in the portal if our numbers allowed us to, but we feel so good about Kwinten Ives. I loved what Emmett Johnson did this year. I think Emmett has a bright future ahead, three more years for us. We get Gabe (Ervin Jr.) back, we get Rahmir (Johnson) back, again we talk a lot about Kwinten, but we like the room. We always look and talk to some other guys but the big thing is with next year's class is that you talk about ‘hey what positions are you gonna target as a staff’ and ya know, running backs should want to come here and play. We kind of revamped the way we play and we ran the ball well this year, so we'll go and try to find a tailback that will really help us in next year's class but if one comes along before then, let's do it.”

On injuries or departures:
“We had the young men go in the portal. We had the three scholarship players go in the portal. Nick walked on senior day, right? In terms of scholarship players, Ethan Piper, Garrett Snodgrass, he’s not gonna play anymore, he’s gonna go do his Ag (Agriculture) masters. I think Ethan is just kind of taking it slow and waiting to see. I told him, he’s finishing his degree. He’s either gonna coach for us or play for us but he can’t do anything in the spring. He’s just gonna take his time on it, so i’m not sure where we’ll end up on it, but he’s kinda taking his time.” 

On if there’s anyone outside of Ethan Piper and Garrett Snodgrass:
“Eric Fields is no longer with us. Eric Fields went home. He’s just home.”

On talking to recruits right before they sign:
“As the players sign or sometimes right before, those guys hop on a Facetime and just welcome them to the family. Some guys were laying in bed, some guys were at school and then we also do a lot of 2025s today too. Let them know that, ‘Hey a year from now, this will be your day.’ I hope that today is a wonderful, wonderful moment in their lives and a day that they will remember, a day that their lives change. Where they had a chance to come to the University of Nebraska and earn an amazing degree and meet wonderful people, have great experiences and eventually win a championship and hopefully go get drafted someday. I always remind them that this is just the beginning. There is no linear path to greatness. There’s ups and downs and ups and downs. The key I've learned in life is that you want your highs to be higher than your previous highs and your lows to be higher than your previous lows. When young people understand that life kind of goes like this, you have a chance and they have a chance so I’m really grateful for this group. I think it’s a great group. I think the group we signed last year was awesome. A lot of them played and if this group is as good as last year’s group plus the guys we have coming back, I expect us to have a good team.”