Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule Pre-Iowa Press Conference

Opening Statement
“What you want is you want all these young people across the state so they dream of playing in Memorial Stadium whether it’s in a state championship or eventually here with us. One of our jobs is to nurture football, whether it’s clinics that we do, youth camps that we do, hosting high school games - hosting all the smaller schools and colleges in the state, they all come over to us and visit us and watch practice. We want to be a place that supports football."

On high schoolers being part of pre-bowl game practices
“We’ll have to wait and see where we’re going and when we are in terms of when they graduate high school. This is my first time doing this, I haven’t had that job before. I think it’s great in the acclamation process. We want guys to understand the standards that we have in terms of everything from being on time to how we practice. I think that them getting the chance to get here early and be part of it would be great if it turns out right with the timing of graduation and everything like that.” 

On challenges of short week and sickness going around
“We had both flu and strep throat last week, so it was really all hands on deck by our medical staff. We had a couple of guys that tapped out today because of strep throat, but they were mainly non-travel guys. Ceyair Wright, if you could put a camera on me, I kept putting my arm around him the whole game. I was just like, ‘I’ll give you tomorrow off, just get through this game buddy.’ He was playing corner, he was playing gunner, he was playing jammer on punt return. He was just dying. Him and Marques Buford Jr. got back; they just weren’t feeling great. The challenge of a short week obviously is you just lose a day, so today we went out and practiced like it was a Tuesday, and tomorrow we’ll practice like it’s a Wednesday. Typically I don’t do that, but because of the Thanksgiving component of this and some of the things we’ll do later in the week. We treated this morning like Tuesday.”

On the team’s hunger to win another game
“I sure hope they’re hungry. We haven’t even had a team meeting since the game. We walked in today and it was eight o’clock and it was Iowa special teams. There has been no time for telling them ‘great job.’ This is such a condensed week versus a really difficult opponent to prepare for. I think the thing that you saw coming out of the game was that they know they can do it. They know they’re capable of it. Let’s continue to do that, that is now the expectation. What was once possible is now something we can do. It’s an excellent team we’re facing, so we’re going to have to do it at a high level.” 

On the offense’s mindset after scoring 44 points
“I think the lessons of the game are lessons of the season. We fumbled the ball on the 20 yard line. If we do that against Iowa who’s plus 11, we’re not going to win. I think Dana (Holgorsen) has done an amazing job, we’ll start there. If you say it’s the play calling, you hear Dana on the headset the whole time and he’s just talking about execution. The guys who practiced the best on Thursday, played. The guys had some false starts and things on Thursday, he took them out. IGC (Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda) dhad the chance to play and he made a play in the game. There’s a real focus on execution and when the guys execute the play calls. I think that was the message to the guys. If you execute and practice at a high level, you’re going to have an opportunity to play in the game. When you get into the game, make the most of it. When we had penalties, we didn’t score on those drives. When we snapped the ball on third down and we’re on two going on one and all the sudden the ball is in the quarterback’s hands and there’s nothing he could do. When we just settled down and played, then guys made the plays necessary to make. It’s a blend of everything we’ve been trying to say to them coming to life. Go execute. I think the thing Dana has done a great job of is cutting things down to a degree, he’s demanding that they execute if they want to get on the field. That’s how we handle things on defense and now we’ll play it over to offense as well.” 

On Dana Holgorsen cutting down on plays
“Just the amount of plays. When he first got here, he just said to scale back on the amount that we’re doing and we’re still doing a lot. There was a couple times in that game he was trying to find the words because he’s only had one language for 30 years and now all the sudden he has a completely different language. Coach Glenn (Thomas) and Coach (Marcus) Satterfield did a great job of sometimes helping with the words in the middle of the game. He has a picture of what he wants it to look like and it’s interesting for me. It’s very collaborative, they sit in a room together for hours upon hours upon hours and put together a game plan. It’s been really cool for me. It’s good for me to learn from.”

On Iowa’s run offense
“When I first learned how to run outside zone, learning from Rick Kaczenski who I know coached here as well, he was a great D-line coach. Learning from him, learning from Coach (Kirk) Ferentz, that’s how I first learned the way I’ve always taught the run game.  They’ve always been the premier outside zone, counter team in the country. Kaleb Johnson is playing at an unbelievably high level. They’ve got a veteran offensive line. Coach (Tim) Lester has brought in a lot of what you see NFL teams doing. They’re running the ball to the open side, then checking it versus any four weak threat to zap to the front side. A lot of us who have been in the NFL kind of what we know, and they’re doing it really well. This back is fantastic, he makes people miss, and he can burst and go the distance. They’ve kind of done it two different ways with (Brendan) Sullivan out there because he was a running threat they were doing it one way. With (Cade) McNamara, it was a little bit different. That’s the mark of great coaches. Whatever quarterback has been out there they’ve been able to do it to stay in the same scheme but whatever fits that quarterback. Now as we’re not sure who the quarterback is, they’ve kind of had a hybrid model in between. They’re doing a really good job, and they’ve run some people off the field just by running the football down their throat.”

On the attitude coming off of the win
“I don’t think there’s been a game where they weren’t dying to win. This is really hard, this has been hard. It requires really tough people to do the stuff that we’ve been trying to do to get over that hump. When you lose to Indiana the way we did, then you come back against Ohio State, then you lose to Ohio State. Then you come back against UCLA, then you lose to UCLA. Then I make some changes, then you lose to USC. It’s only reasonable that you either lose your confidence or start to question things. ‘Well why are we working so hard if we’re not getting the result we want,’ it’s not like I sit there and say ‘Hey don’t doubt.’ You guys asked me if this was big for me, like yeah this is big for me. I know I believe in what we do, but it was great to have some representation of ‘Hey it’s working here for us right now.’ Even though you see it at practice, you’d like to see it at games. So I’ve never doubted their effort. In fact last week, Dana and I were talking, he told me sometimes we were pressing too much just trying to do too much. I thought you saw a group on Saturday that was pretty relaxed and pretty in the moment offensively. I know how much the Iowa game means to our guys, we sat there last year, I loved that group last year. Walking off the field after losing on the way we lost. We picked the ball off, got a holding call, threw a pick, and they kind of just run the clock out. The guy makes a great run, and then the field goal just gets over the goalpost. That’s a credit to Coach Ferentz and how he does things, but walking off the field waving at our guys ‘Have a good Christmas.’ That was really painful, so I don’t doubt our guys will be ready, but their guys are gonna be ready. It really just comes down to football. If we false start we’re probably not going to win, if we turn the ball over we’re not going to win. If we can win the turnover battle, we’ll have a chance to win, if we can tackle. it all comes down to the preparation, it’s not all these other things. That’s the great thing about finally getting the bowl drought over with because it’s not these other things, it’s just make this play, make this kick. If John Hohl doesn’t do what he’s done the last two months of getting better and better and better as a kicker. We have a different kicker and a different snapper than we did at the start of the year. Those guys have just gotten incrementally better to all of the sudden when you get to a game like that, if he’s not making those field goals, that game is a lot different. This week to me, it’s why we didn’t spend a lot of time talking about it, we just came out and got right back to work. I know Iowa is going to be prepared, and they’re going to work, and we have to make sure we’re in our fits on defense. We’re giving up too many big plays right now, passing right now, way too many. So we just have to make sure the football is right, but I’m sure they’ll prepare right this week.” 

On playing in cold conditions
“I don’t worry about the weather, we go in the mornings here which is great in some ways. But in the spring, there are plenty of days we’re out there, and there’s 30 mph winds, and it’s 18-20 degrees. It was 22 degrees last week, it was cold as could be. You see me wearing a jacket, I wore a jacket out there today, it’s cold today. Where we practice, last week, there were 35 mph gusts, and we were throwing into the gusts. The way Dana does 7 on 7, he goes this way for half, then this way for half. Our guys are tough, Iowa’s guys are tough. I think the game will come down to football, if there was maybe ice on the field or snow, it might be a little bit different. But I feel pretty good about our ability to handle the cold just because we do it in the spring and then we do it again in the fall. We don’t really ever go inside unless I really need the crowd noise from the indoor.” 

On Dylan Raiola getting in a groove against Wisconsin
“I think he had a great week. Coming from the UCLA game he had a significant hit and injury to his back, so even if you go back to the USC Tuesday I didn’t know if he would practice, I didn’t think he would practice Sunday, but I thought he could Tuesday. I think he was ginger that whole game. I think he was better this game in terms of being healthy. Being able to move around, being able to slide in the pocket and they got one pressure on us early. After that I thought we were getting the ball off out of our hands, he was just taking completions. Taking what was there and not trying to do too much. Playing as a freshman in the Big Ten is really hard. It requires tough people. I think Dylan has been tough in that he’s gotten better every week. Sometimes it’s hard to see it because you’re playing tougher people every week. I think Dylan has gotten better every week in a lot of ways. This week it was just really easy to see because I thought he was in complete and total control and command. Again, another week with Dana has helped him as well.” 

On getting past doubt and how the seniors impacted that mindset
“Whether you doubt something is going to work or not, it really comes down to if you go out and do the work or not. So it’s like ‘I don’t know if this is going to work but I’m going to do it anyway,’ or ‘I’m sure this is going to work, so I’m gonna do it anyway.’ It comes down to, at the end of the day, your work output. If you’re going out there everyday and you’re working on the execution of a play, if you’re working on the execution of a special team, if you’re working on your craft. I haven’t had very many great players who have played for me that have had this period where they almost quit football. Everyone’s career isn’t just an uphill thing. You have to go through these ups and downs where you hit a point. Matt Ioannidis and Hasson Reddick, all of them came in my office and said ‘I think I’m going to transfer, coach.’ They all hung through it, they all weathered the storm and came out the other side. It comes down to how you’re going to feel all these different emotions, but do you show up and practice. I think like (Isaac) Gifford and Ty (Robinson) and Nash (Hutmacher) and M.J. (Sherman) and Jimari (Butler), even though he’s decided to come back, and (Jahmal) Banks and (Isiah) Neyor and (Bryce) Benhart and Ben Scott. I think those guys have just continued to show up and continue to work. So whereas they might feel all the doubt and hear all the doubt, they’ve just continued to do the work. The ones who haven’t, haven’t played as much. The ones who have, continue to play. (Brian) Buschini, all those guys, all the sudden wake up and score 44 points, you beat Wisconsin for the first time in however many years. You kick a whole bunch of field goals and now you believe. It’s really hard to believe when it hasn’t worked. It’s blind faith. It worked for a game, but when it finally works it’s good. They did the work anyway. I think that’s the biggest message I have to the guys, no matter if you believe in it or don’t believe in it, just show up and work. You’ll find out in the long run. I’m proud of those guys. They’ve really pushed the thing through.” 

On Nate Boerkircher and Luke Lindenmeyer playing more snaps than Thomas Fidone II
“That was just Dana getting in the game and going with those other guys. That was just the coach's decision.”

On the play of Boerkircher and Lindenmeyer
“Nate is an excellent player, he’s unselfish. He doesn’t complain about his touches. If you ask him to do something, Nate does it. He’s very steady, both times he caught the ball, he had a great run after the catch. Luke Lindenmeyer, talk about a guy since the bye week and since Dana showed up, who put his foot on the gas and accelerated. In practice, he’s trying to put people on their backs, he’s trying to finish blocks. Those guys are just really dependable guys, they execute at a high level. They’ve earned a chance to play. Thomas is the same way, Thomas has all the ability to make every play. He’s made some huge plays down the field, he’s got a ton of talent. He’s had a bunch of injuries. He’s a lot like the guys I’m talking about, it’s his second year playing really. The hardest thing in the world is to come in with a bunch of accolades because everyone is always asking about you. It’s his second year playing and Thomas had a great practice out there today. The thing with Dana is, a lot of people have said to me that they really enjoyed his press conference last week and the bluntness of it. The bluntness is followed up with every position. You have to go out and execute. The guys who practice the best and then get in the game and play. Wood (Janiran Bonner) fumbled that ball and didn’t play quite as much afterwards. Janiran isn’t going to say much, he’s just going to go out there and ‘Okay when you need me again, need me.’ When they needed him, he went in, and he did his job. Dana has brought a standard offensively that I’m not going to say we didn’t have before. He has the experience to follow through on it in some ways that may be good for all of us to learn from. But Thomas I’m sure will have a great role in this game, like I said there’s not many guys who can make plays down the field the way he can. Just continuing to work on him and all of those guys. I’m deferring a lot of this, I don’t tell Terrence (Knighton) to play at nose tackle, and I’m not telling Dana and Satt (Marcus Satterfield) who to play at tight end. I give my two cents, if there’s something I really believe in, I’ll step in, but I think it’s really good that guys can go out and practice for what they want.”

On Malcolm Hartzog’s playing time
“I’m not sure what Malcolm’s rep count was in the second half. Marques (Buford Jr.) was down a bit, so Malcolm was moving to safety and corner. There was nothing in terms of pulling him out or anything like that, I think we just kind of rotated the guys as we went through. Some guys got banged up. Guys weren’t feeling great. Malcolm is out there practicing right now, he’s playing great. He’s ready to go.”

On if any athletes aren’t with the team anymore
“You guys asked me about Malachi (Coleman). I didn’t want to talk about it on Thursday right before the game. Malachi came in and let us know he was going to go in the portal. Obviously, I wish him the best. Great, great young man and local guy. He had some really big moments for us last year while he was redshirting and developing. I think we’ll end up with 30 to 50 guys in the portal with all things with the roster and everything that’s going to have to happen. I can’t say anything but great things about Malachi and obviously he’s not one I wanted to go in the portal, but I don’t want any of them to go in the portal, I want all of them to stay here and develop, it’s just the new world we’re in. It’s going to be different. In terms of anyone else, I mean everyone is practicing with us. Tommi (Hill) is the one that we just shut down. Micah (Mazzccua) is fighting through his shoulder, he’s done a great job of battling through that shoulder that limits it a little bit. Marques (Buford Jr.) was sick this last week. I think everyone else is up and healthy and ready to go.” 

On Turner Corcoran potentially coming back
“Turner is still not practicing yet. Turner is still out there doing the pit and rehab, and then doing some on-field stuff with us. Once we get to bowl practice, I’m assuming Turner would be ready to go, I’m assuming Jake Peters, the young center, would be ready to practice some. The bowl practice is going to be big for us, for some of those guys who have been injured all year, but Turner is still a couple of weeks away.” 

On what he’s learned about Dana Holgorsen
“He’s just methodical. When we played my first year at Baylor, we were probably the worst team in the world. One of our players got hurt on a punt return on their sideline, so I went over to their sideline and he was ripping the ref because they made the call for us. I didn’t know you could say that to the ref. I’m being too gentle with these guys. I’ve always seen Dana different places and just knew him from afar. I once went to a clinic just to listen to him talk when he was the OC at Oklahoma State. I got to spend a day with him a few years ago when Julie and I went to dinner with him and really got to know him as a thoughtful and insightful man. Seeing him here, seeing his process here. It’s like Phil Snow. Watching Tony (White) and him work, they’re very methodical. Dana comes in and he studies the opponent until he understands them and they get together. Just the rhythm that he does things makes total sense to me. A lot of the guys on our staff, we didn’t come up through big organizations. We weren’t some famous coaches' sons. We kind of nickel and dimed our way up to Albright College, a GA here, a GA there. I was never able to be under a great offensive system. I had the chance to go to the Giants and I worked for Kevin Gilbride, who is one of the greats in NFL history. He had some run and shot things, so I had the chance to put it together. Dana doesn’t coach the area anymore from what he came up in. For me just seeing the way that he processes things, it’s so close to what we were doing, it’s just a little bit better. It’s just a little bit more simplified. Whether it’s Satt (Marcus Satterfield) or Glenn (Thomas) or Garrett (McGuire) or EJ (Barthel) or Johnny (John Butler), or any of the coaches on our offense, they’re really benefiting from watching the process play out. From the way they watch tape, to the way that they script, to the way they attach plays to the script, to the way they do their walk through before practice, they way they do routes on air. It’s just all these things I’ve always wanted to do, but it never made complete and total sense to me until I worked for Dana and now it makes sense to me. If I coach with Dana for one more week or if we coach together for the next 10 years, I’ll be a better coach as a result. Bringing in Tony after being with Phil, I had one coordinator for my entire 10 or 11 or however many years that was as head coach. Tony had a completely different process and it was really cool and interesting for me to see and learn from. This has been great. Normally you have ‘this is our way,’ but it’s been interesting. I just think it’s that incremental process. Think about at Purdue and Rutgers when we couldn’t even get a punt off, I think about where we are now. Not that that was ok, but I’m saying to be punting balls out at the four and kickoff returns. Ed (Foley), instead of blowing everything up, Ed has just gotten a little bit better and gotten the guys to get a little bit better. To answer your question, it’s really helped me and taught me a lot.” 

On field position being important to Iowa’s game plan
“I’ve really studied Coach Ferentz and I have so much respect for what he’s done. He’ll take the ball – a lot of guys will defer – he’ll take the ball to have the wind in the fourth quarter. The way that they’ll play field position and the way that they’ll punt the ball down, it’s very much like when you’re in the NFL playing Coach (Bill) Belichick and all of his coaches. When I was there, you played Joe Judge and those guys and it’s really difficult. They have a great punter, they have an elite returner. They’ve got great special teams. It’ll be a real challenge. It’ll be a real challenge. On a game like this, a Friday night in the cold, those things show up. That’s why they win the close games. They’re very comfortable. It’s almost like, for them, the game doesn’t even start until the second half begins. They’re very comfortable playing in a close game. They know who they are, and I’ve really enjoyed watching that from them. Brian (Buschini) has really been punting the ball well. We’ve been more consistent in terms of catching punts and not letting balls roll down and putting us in bad field position. We had two returners out there last week to try to shake Jacory (Barney Jr.) loose. We’ll try to have our best plan possible. My message to the coaches is just ‘do whatever you want, just make sure it’s something we can execute.’ Let’s not try to solve the world with a pencil. Let’s let our guys go out and execute. Whether it’s Carter Nelson running down a kickoff and tackling at the 20, hopefully we can make some plays against what is probably the premier special teams unit in the Big Ten.”

On practicing outside
“If there was a day that I can’t stand the cold, I might say ‘hey, let’s go inside.’ There’s been some times, like the week of Ohio State or UCLA, I put the offense in that week because I wanted them to have blistering crowd noise, because it’s so loud in Hawks (Championship Center). But in general, when the grass fields are workable, we never go inside. They might be inside a little bit for individual drills, so we don’t cut up the grass, but our team periods are all outside. As you guys know, I’m not a huge fan of turf. There’s some turf companies – we had Hellas Turf when I was at Baylor – I liked their turf, so I’d go out there a little more. But we’re outside 95% of the time when we’re doing something.”

On handing the ball off to Ty Robinson when he comes in as a fullback
“Trust me, my phone has been blowing up from Ty talking about running the football. I can promise you this, we’ll do it in practice, but we’re not going to hand the ball off to Ty Robinson anytime soon. Normally you try something like that, and you’re yelling for the defensive guys to run over, but they were standing right next to us. They wanted to go out there – him (Robinson) and (Elijah) Jeudy. Jeudy, you go back this year and look, he’s also been the fullback in our 22 sets. He’s had some great blocks. When we lost Barret (Liebentritt) – Barret was a really good player for us. When we lost him, Jeudy and (Luke) Lindenmeyer, and now Ty have all kind of filled that void.”

On Ty Robinson
“We’re one of the better defenses in the Big Ten, and we’re certainly one of the better run defenses in the Big Ten. Ty’s been dominant. I think he had six sacks – I saw on the board before the game that he had six sacks. I don’t know if he had one last game or not. Ty has been absolutely dominant and he should be up for every accolade. He’s someone that people should draft really high next year. He’s the total package. He’s a good football player, he’s really athletic. He can bulk up, he can slim down. He can play three downs in the NFL, which means he should be First-Team All-Big Ten here. He’s on his way to going to medical school. When he’s done, he’s going to be a doctor. His girlfriend, Bryce, is twice as cool as he is. He’s the real deal. He’s one of the best players I’ve seen in the Big Ten this year and I’ve watched all the tape crossover, and there’s a lot of great ones. We’re getting ready to play against 94 from Iowa, and I’d put him right up there. Ty has been dominant.”

On a post game interaction between Donovan Raiola and a Wisconsin police officer
“I came in this morning and they were showing me the video. I don’t want to speculate without knowing. Donny went to Wisconsin, so I don’t know if there was some history there with somebody or something. When I asked Donny about it, he was like ‘ah, it’s no big deal.’ Things happen after games, everybody is emotional. He seemed to kind of brush it off. It was mayhem out there trying to get off the field. I don’t know much else other than that.”