Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule Pre-Indiana Press Conference

Opening Statement
“I’d expect Tommi (Hill) to have a chance to play this week. He was all set to play last week and actually ruptured the plantar fasciitis as he was running onto the field after the tunnel walk, which is a good thing, because when you rupture it, it’s very painful but it alleviates the problem. Tommi practiced all last week, so I’d assume Tommi has a chance to play. Other than that, nothing special. I think we’re pretty healthy.”

On challenges this week
“They’re leading the Big Ten in passing and they’re close, if not the top, in rushing. They’re top 10 in the country in offense, they’re top 10 in the country in defense. They’re the only team that hasn’t trailed all year and they’ve scored 80 points in the fourth quarter. This is probably a top 10 football team we’re facing. They started the season unranked so they’re maybe not getting the dues that they’re supposed to get. Other people can lose to a bad team and they’ll keep them in the top 10 because they started in the top 10. Coach (Curt) Cignetti has done an amazing job. Their quarterback is absolutely fantastic, they’ve got playmakers. They’re good on special teams. It’s a great team.”

On the transfer portal and Indiana’s transfers
“Everyone has to forget the logos and the names – ‘this team has always been good.’ Vanderbilt backs up a win against Alabama with a win over Kentucky, it was probably the best defense in the SEC because they’ve got a dynamic quarterback. I spent Saturday watching college football, and every day is starting to come down to the end. You’re really starting to feel the impact of the two-minute timeout, especially at the halves. People that play the middle eight have an advantage, and in your roster and how healthy you are. You can have a really good team and all of a sudden, lose them one year. I think in college football now, if you lose a coach to a better job or a different job, it can decimate your program. It can be a quick fix for another program. There’s a lot of things that are just different and I think everyone is going to have to get used to it.”

On his system with the transfer portal
“I just don’t believe in running kids off. They’re still associated with the university. I don’t think that’s what Nebraska wants. If I was coming from another college, it might have been a little different. I just was coming from the NFL. I think we did the portal pretty well this year. Isaiah (Neyor) has been good, Jahmal (Banks) has been good. We’ve done the right things. The teams that I want to be like in terms of their records recruit really well. I think we can recruit really well. I think recruits are figuring out that they can come here. I think our recruiting will get better and better and better. You just have to win. You have to win a little bit. You go back to this year, you ask me what my goals were, they were to be relevant. This is a relevant game. Next game is a relevant game. The game after that is a relevant game. They’re all relevant, based on what we’ve done the first six games. I just am not here to run kids off and get rid of kids. That’s not my deal. There’s a time and a place for that if the kid isn’t doing the right things, but I want to be their coach.”

On the dynamic of the hunter versus the hunted
“I think coming out of that Illinois game, we learned a lot of very valuable lessons. I think we applied those versus Purdue and Rutgers in many ways. I thought we had the right attitude playing in those games. You’re watching college football this week, and every good game comes down to the last possession like it’s an NFL game. Hopefully, the last two weeks have gotten us used to that. I try not to look at the lines and all that, but I’m sure we’re the underdog. This is our guys’ first time doing that. I much prefer that. I love turning on GameDay and seeing them all pick the other team. That’s good for us. It’s just who I am and who a lot of our guys are. We are who we are. I think our guys understand at this point that this is going to come down to football. We have to practice well and play well. It doesn’t matter what music we listen to before the game, it doesn’t matter what we wear. All that’s fine. We’re going to have to block and tackle. We have to make one more play. You watch the end of Ohio State/Oregon, what a great football game with two great teams. Of all the things they did all game, it just came down to a couple of things at the end. Just trying to get ourselves a little better this week to make one more play.”

On the Husker defense
“They’ve played a lot better. I think the biggest thing is, even if you go back to Illinois, it was a couple crucial mistakes in crucial times. We didn’t tackle at the level we wanted to. That’s an outfit that went out there against Purdue this week and scored 55 or 59 points. (Luke) Altmeyer is an excellent quarterback. Globally, it probably wasn’t terrible, but we have a standard for the way we play. If the other team is better than us and they score, that’s fine. But the way the film looks and the way we hit and the way we contact, the way we get off blocks, the way we communicate, should be better. On that night, I thought that was a tense defense that didn’t quite play to the level they were capable of. Had we known Tommi (Hill) was hurt that badly, maybe he doesn’t play that first drive, but Tommi is such a team guy. He went out there and battled. We adjusted well. Ceyair (Wright) has done well since then.”

On Javin Wright getting back on the field and how he’s been
“Javin has done great. I think he played 13 or 14 snaps, you guys will probably know the numbers better than me. The goal was 10-15 snaps in the first game. I think he played 25 or so in the second game, rightfully. This is a great game for him to play in because he’s so athletic. Freaky athletic. He can play the run and the pass. This is a really balanced offense that we’re facing. The run game is well put together and the backs are excellent. Hopefully Javin can give us 30, 35 snaps maybe this game.”

On how unpredictable the Big Ten looks
“I think, though, when they expanded the Big Ten to 18 teams and they brought in a team that played for the national championship last year. Just think about that a little bit. Oregon, where Dan (Lanning) has done a great job, but even before him, Mario (Cristobal) did a great job. They’ve been a two-loss team, in that range, for the last five years. They’ve been a great team for a while. Then you bring in a team like USC who won 11 games two years ago or whatever it was. You put the travel in. I talked a lot about the travel and I think everyone was kind of like ‘I got you, Matt.’ The travel, the weather. It was hard to throw the ball last week against Rutgers. That was 40-50 mile per hour gusts, at least that’s what it said. It was hard. I think you’re going to see a lot of unpredictability, kind of like the NFL. A good team in college, going forward, is going to be like 8-4 or 9-3. It’s just what it is. That’s why there’s a lot of teams doing really well, but they’re not playing who we’re playing. It’s just a different league. The Big Ten and the SEC have just evolved. You look at the statistics on traveling in multiple time zones, what that’s doing to teams. It’s all really interesting, it’s all about how healthy you are. There’s not as many ‘take the game off’ games. You have to be ready to play every week and people are battling. Teams are losing on the last play of the game. Illinois has done a great job. Bret (Bielema) has done a great job. They’ve won two games in overtime. It’s just kind of what the Big Ten is going to be moving forward. It’s going to be like the NFL.”

On if his team responded after the bye
“We worked our tails off last week. We got better. I’m really proud of some of our young guys. Some of the young guys have improved at a high level. I gave them one day where it was just them, then we had two days where it was vets too, and one day it was a mix of the young guys and the last day was purely the travel squad working versus scouts. We really worked. To your point, mentally, emotionally, the competitive stamina of, we face some pretty good teams. No matter what people think, we face some teams with four wins, so we’ve had to battle every week. We’re not just running away with the game and it’s an easy game. The guys have had to show competitive stamina and they’ve had to grind. I think it came at a good time. I was able to get away, the players were able to get away. Even if getaway means that they sat in their dorm room and watched anime, whatever it is they watch nowadays, they got to have some time to themselves. I thought everyone was in a pretty good mood this morning. We just practiced, it was excellent. Hopefully, it benefits us, because we have six ball games left, we’ve got three and then another bye. This is as big of a game as we’ve probably ever played in terms of the stakes and all the things that get people excited – on the road, ranked team, best offense that we’ve faced, one of the best that we’ll see. I’m sure our guys are focused.” 

On road games this season and if the prep has changed for this one
“I hate talking about last year because I’m embarrassed by it. We were a huddle-cadence team. We switched this year to a clap to allow us to be louder on the road. We still have two false starts at Purdue. We’re still not perfect. We’re far from perfect. You get down there on the goal line and you’re trying to run the power play on fourth and one and you’re sitting there like, hopefully no one false starts. I just think we’re more prepared. We used crowd noise the whole camp. I think the noise in and of itself, our preparation for that is better. The team just didn’t really know us or know me. I think when you go on the road, if you have a team that actually, really cares about each other, and if you have a team that really wants to see each other be successful and is there for the team, then you have a chance to win on the road. One thing about college football right now, there’s a lot of guys out there that are playing for their personal brand. They could do something for the team, they could take a knee, they could step out of bounds, they could end the game. Watching college football is really hard now. There’s a lot of trash talk, really excessive trash talk. You beat a team and you’re waving goodbye to them. Iowa did that to us last year. Sometimes with rivalries, I get it, but I don’t want to see our team do that. If you watch me, I shake their hands. The players we game planned for, I shake their hand. I just struggled with that a little bit this weekend watching college football. Every time a guy makes a play, it’s like he has to turn and tell the guy he made a play. Trust me, I’m all for a little trash talk. But there’s a way to do it and a way that doesn’t disrespect the game and disrespect your opponent. Truly, playing against good teams allows you to show what you can do. You can’t show what you can do when you play bad teams, you do that when you play good teams. Indiana gives us a chance to show what we can do, but as much as anything else, I want us to respect the game and I want us to respect what it means to be a Nebraska Cornhusker. I have a lot of respect for Coach (Curt) Cignetti and his staff and their players, so I hope we play a certain way.”

On the jumbo set and if it helps create a mentality that could be extended to other parts of the run game
“I did an extensive, extensive study of the run game and some of the numbers are hurt by the sacks we’ve taken and helped by some of the speed sweeps. I take all of those out. We just haven’t had the explosive, explosive runs. There’s a lot of four to five yard runs, which keep you on track. We haven’t had the big runs. The two back power set is what I was known for at Temple, we were going to run that against you 15 times a game. We ran it in the game against Purdue on the goal line, we ran it against Rutgers. You do it enough and there’s people lined up, there’s ten people around you so you’re not going to have big hits. I think the big thing for us moving forward is to find a way to get some long runs. I like the consistency of the runs more than I thought I did. We have to hit a couple of big ones, we haven’t done that yet. Absolutely, having the fullbacks, having the tight ends, even just practicing against it. We practice against it every week. I think it hardens your team. There’s not many teams that have a top ten offense and a top ten defense, Indiana does. I believe that if your defense just defends the spread all day, every day in practice and you face a tough team, and make no mistake, Rutgers, Greg Schiano, Bret Bielema, those are tough people. We faced three straight teams with defensive coordinators as head coaches. They’re going to run the ball, they’re going to grind you, they’re just going to be physical. If your defense doesn’t see it until game day or with a scout team, it’s going to be really difficult to be a physical defense. I feel bad for some of these defensive coordinators, they go play for an offensive head coach who’s a play caller, and some guys can do it, and he gets fired. You’re not getting hardened. If you play in this program, we might not ever beat the top ten in passing, but we’re going to run power, duo, counter, and you’re going to see those things in practice, so when you get to the game it’s not really a shock. To the point, one of our major emphases moving forward is getting a little better in the run game, fixing some of those things on special teams. We’re making a lot of good plays on special teams, but the catastrophic plays are killing us. Trying to fix one or two of those things and seeing if we can be a better team.” 

On clock management
“The first thing I’m going to say about clock management is that we study it every week, we study every decision that was made. Sometimes the guys on TV, with all due respect to them, have not done that. We were playing the Packers, we were down by 11 and we went down and on second we kicked a field goal before the two minute warning and I’m getting killed by the announcers. The analytics community is like ‘this is brilliant, finally someone did this.’ Now with 2:06 we have the ball back. You have to be careful what is bad clock management. You look at actual good clock management, you look at if the coaches make the right decisions and then do the players make the right decisions. Sometimes it’s like ‘we’re going to run this play, we have six seconds, get down, we have a timeout.’ Sometimes it’s things people don’t even recognize like at the end of the game on third down Dylan (Raiola) rolled left trying to throw the ball to Jacory (Barney Jr.). He wasn’t there, so instead of throwing the ball away, he took the sack. It’s a minus 16-yard sack, you don’t really want that, but that’s us saying ‘if it’s there, throw it, if it’s not, take a knee so the clock runs.’  It’s all these little things that I don’t think always show up. I had a guy at Carolina, Taylor Rajack, that was really excellent and really helped me learn a lot of things as a relation to the two minute warning and that process now, we use two outside services. Sean Padden puts together a tape every week that we show to the guys every Thursday and show them mistakes made throughout the week. I watch it and look at all of the decisions people are making. Sometimes people will say they should’ve used their timeouts there. As the clock is running down to the two minute warning and you’re behind, you can either use your timeouts before the two minute warning or use them after. There’s merit for both. I think if you have a philosophy of, this is why we do this, then it’s fine. Sometimes it’s as simple as ‘we can stop these guys or we’re struggling to stop these guys right now.’ Those are two different things. I go back to the Illinois game and people ask me why did you call timeouts when you had to punt, but then not run a play. I wasn’t going to run a play from the 12. My hope was that the punt return would go into the end zone and we’d get the ball at the 25 yard line with 30 seconds and get Dylan ready to go. It’s all these little things that come into it. I think the best thing you can do is have a philosophy and I like this stuff, this stuff to me is real football. I still think it’s also what your players understand. In that situation, Dylan takes a sack, it looks ugly, but it’s the right thing to do. Against UTEP, he throws a ball in the endzone with eight seconds left, we catch it with one second, so we would’ve had time to call a timeout if it was inbounds. I think you have to prepare them. You can’t rep every situation every week, so hopefully your guys have been schooled and taught. We had a bad play last week against Rutgers where we ran out of bounds on third and 22. That’s not a diss on that player, that is 100% on me in the communication of ‘this is going to be called a certain word, stay inbounds.’ It’s real football. That’s the great thing about the two minute rule coming to college, the extra timeout adds all these layers of decision making that you have to make. It used to be really simple, now it’s way harder in my opinion, which is good. I like reading about it, there’s podcasts I listen to about it, it’s pretty cool stuff.”

On if Dylan Raiola is ahead of the curve
“Dylan dives into everything, Dylan woke me up in my office this morning. He came in and ‘bang’ and I woke up. He’s here first thing in the morning, he’s texting me, he’s going away this week, and he’s on the plane. He’s watching tape on the plane, and goes ‘hey can you watch UCLA play 24.’ He’s just on a whole other level but at the end of the day it still comes down to being in the moment, that’s the hardest thing for all of us. How often are you watching a TV show and you’re on your phone. I do it all the time, it’s a bad habit. Being in the moment, anticipating it, and then making the right decision, that’s the secret sauce. It’s the difference between winning and losing, especially for a ball club like us, everything is going to be close.”

On his morning
“I went home and couldn’t sleep so I came back early. The Garret McGuires, the Corey Campbells, they come in at 4 a.m. and work out. I got there at 4:30 to watch film and just fell asleep. That’s all.” 

On Dylan Raiola’s growth outside of what the public sees
“I think his leadership and the touch points he does in terms of getting around the guys. I think the confidence he has brought to guys, the belief. Something as simple as, Jacory (Barney Jr.) is a young player who we’re asking to play three positions, just him (Raiola) constantly getting with him and talking to him, I think those are really good areas that he’s been excellent at and improved at. I think he’s done a great job. When you’re that talented and you’re having that much success, there’s always going to be a ton of voices saying ‘hey, you should do this, you should do that.’ He’s just focused on what he’s being asked to do here. I’ve been really pleased with all those things and he’s really good about, every week, he tries to find three things to improve on. I always tell him, after every game, write down how it felt when you were playing. Then after you watch tape, write down what you saw. Sometimes those are two different things. Sometimes we see ghosts out there in terms of what they’re doing, then you watch the tape and build off of that journal. He’s so self aware and he’s not afraid – a lot of guys don’t see correction – he wants to get corrected and he wants to be better. It’s a lot of fun coaching guys like that.”

On Tommi Hill and the cornerbacks
“I think you’re going to need every corner you got versus this outfit. They’ve got great wideouts, and they’ve got great run after catch guys. They can go get the fade, this quarterback is playing as well as any Big Ten quarterback when you’re watching him, if not the best. He sees the field, he knows what you’re in, he gets to the right spot. So we’ll probably need all of those guys. Tony (White) has different packages but just even in the rotation, they’ve scored 80 points in the fourth quarter, that’s just fantastic, 80 points in the fourth quarter alone. I think it's 80-17, they haven’t given up a first-quarter point I don’t believe. Excellent defense with tremendous edge rushers and a dynamic offense so we’ll probably need Ceyair (Wright) a lot, we’ll need Tommi (Hill) if he can go. I feel good about it but it’s not a done deal, he’s got to get through the whole week of practice. Last couple weeks I told you I thought he was going to go but for a corner, that’s a tough injury. It’s one thing to be a d-lineman and play three-quarters speed, it’s another thing for a corner.”

On if any new blackshirts were awarded
“We put Ceyair (Wright) in black because he’s a starting corner right now, and the defensive guys came to me and asked for (Brian) Buschini to be in black, so we put Buschini in black.”

On the defense players wanting a Blackshirt for Brian Buschini
“The way he’s impacted the game defensively. I had talked to Jason Peter a couple weeks ago and asked how that worked. He said at the bowl game those guys always get it. They said Coach (Mike) Riley or Coach (Sean) Callahan had done it once with a punter in the middle of the season. So I just wanted to stick with tradition, but when Marques Buford texted me at home and said, ‘coach, we need Buschini in black,’ I thought that was a tremendous message, whether it was the tackles at Purdue on the game-saving tackles during the field goals. The punts he made last week, to get hit like that, some guys get hurt and they come out to finish the game, he accelerated. I did it because it was from the players, they feel like he is part of that unit so let’s roll.”

On the special teams using the bye week
“Coach (George) Darlington was at practice, he had a folder of things for me, he was ready to rip me. I really take a lot of responsibility for some of the things special teams wise just early in the year, trying to get some young kids in, and not enough of the guys that I know can make plays on the special teams. Whereas Ed (Foley) is one of those guys, just kind of reevaluating that and seeing who can go out there and make plays for us and getting some other players on the team. We had never been in this situation before, we’ve never had blocks in the past. So here we are, we have five blocked kicks this year, that’s heartbreaking. Having a chance to go back and study what we’re doing, but to me it’s the same as in the run game. What are we doing well, what are we not doing well that we should just get rid of or fix. Who are the guys that can make a play that we’re not using and just kind of take a deep dive at that. You hope that while we’re in year three, year four, and year five, you have things established. In year two you’re still trying to figure out who can do what, which probably sounds hard for people to hear, but guys grow fast, they get better. So I would expect us to play way better on special teams moving forward. I’m excited for it, had I thrown the fake punt on the first play, that game would’ve been different, we knew it was there. So maybe it was a lesson for me to be a little bit more aggressive early on. We’ll need to steal a possession against Indiana, they’re just too dynamic on offense. Sometimes you run down and knock a ball out, they’re punt returner is excellent. You go back and watch them at James Madison, they block a ton of kicks, so they’re going to come after us. We’re going to need some guys to step up and play well.”