Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule Pre-Michigan State Press Conference
Opening Statement
“I’m obviously excited for this week. I’m proud of the guys with the win last week. There are things we want to be going through this week to improve. I’m excited for the game, excited to have the chance to play in Michigan State. On a personal note, I’m excited to coach against Coach (Harlon) Barnett. He’s one of the great men in football for many, many years, that young guys like me look up to. I spent several years there at Florida State. I think what he’s done for his alma mater – he was an All-American there, he was a great player there – what he’s done for his alma mater, stepping in and filling the void, I have a lot of respect for. I have a lot of respect for this football team. Coach (Mark) Dantonio is back with them. They’re really, really, really physical up front, in the upper half of the Big Ten in rush defense. It’s a challenging matchup for us in the way that we play, so it should be a heck of a game.”
On how he thought the offensive line played
“I thought they played well. We had three sacks, but two of those are on the quarterback. I said the quarterback, I’m not mad at him about it. We play, right? They’re not getting run by and even the one on the first drive was just delayed, they took the end off, they delayed. None of those were really a guy getting beat. I thought the offensive line hung in there and played well. I love the way Justin (Evans-Jenkins) plays, the energy he plays with. I love the way Henry (Lutovsky) came in the game ready to go. I thought the offensive line – I thought Teddy (Prochazka) played well. I thought the offensive line battled and was a bright spot for us in that game.”
On Omar Brown
“Omar is in protocol, so we’ll wait and see what happens.”
On how he keeps the team level-headed
“I think our guys watch the tape and I think defensively, they knew it wasn’t nearly as good as we thought it was. A lot of things that could have happened didn’t happen. We weren’t at our depths in the secondary. Even the touchdown – they gave up a touchdown on 3rd and 15. The scrambles have really hurt us this year. If there’s one thing on defense that we have to improve upon, it’s our scramble defense. Quarterbacks that scramble have really hurt us, and hurt us again in that game. We got some takeaways, which is great. I’m proud of the guys. We didn’t tackle at the level we’ve tackled before. With the back we’re going to face this week – EJ (Barthel) had him last year at UConn, (Nate) Carter – you better tackle. This guy is big and physical and downhill. We didn’t play nearly as well on defense as the stats denoted. In fairness to me, when we’ve lost, I’ve said ‘hey, we’ve done this better than I thought. This was better than I thought.’ We came in and the guys and all of us thought that it wasn’t the level of defense we thought we were playing. I think there’s that. I want them to have positivity, right? You come to a place like Nebraska and Nebraska has won so much in history that if it doesn’t look like the ‘97 team, all I hear people tell me is that it was ugly. 31-14 wasn’t too ugly to me. I understand it, I’m not complaining about it. When I say these things, I say them for the players. Everyone has to have a take. I don’t know how many people follow you, if all the things you say on your things are super positive. You have to find something to talk about. I thought we did a lot of positive things in the game. I thought we did a lot of negative things in the game. The truth is always there, let the tape be the truth. We have the same process on Sundays – come in and watch the tape. It’s almost vice versa on offense. I went after the offensive staff last week because I want 24 points and I want 40% on third down and I want to win the turnover battle. We scored 24 points on offense, we were 43% on third down, we lost the turnover battle. We’re last in the nation right now in fumbles. We’re last in the nation in fumbles lost. That falls squarely on my head. A lot of the other things, with the amount of guys down, to go out there and score 24 points against Purdue? That’s not easy to do. Purdue can play defense. That #5? Man, something else. #4? But we knew it going in. To have young receivers go out there and make those plays – Jaylen Lloyd came to our house on Thursday night. I think he told Julie (Rhule) he was going to score two touchdowns. He was a confident little guy – I say little guy in a fun way, he’s a grown man. He went out there and he made plays. It’s just that the truth is somewhere in the middle, right? The special teams, did they play well or did they not play well? We put the ball on the ground twice but we also scored a touchdown and nailed down a 55-yarder. It’s not good or bad, it’s just somewhere down the middle. We have to improve. We have to improve. We have to improve. Because these games are going to come down to the fourth quarter and there’s things that we can do better.”
On being 5-3 but -9 on turnovers
“On offense, because no one says much good about the offense right now, we’re still first in the Big Ten in rushing. We’re still first in the Big Ten in rushing yards per game. We’re still first in the Big Ten in 10+ yards rushing, 10-yard rushes, which I think is a pretty cool little stat I try to keep. If you’re normally doing that, people don’t say ‘how’d the o-line play?’ They know, if you’re first in rushing and you run the ball and people know you’re running it and you’re still first in rushing, you’re probably pretty decent at something. I asked the offense to get in the 40s on third down and they did it. I think there’s those things. Anytime you’re first in rush offense and you’re first in rush defense. What people say is ugly, I think is tough. Does that make sense? People might say ‘you guys are winning ugly,’ and trust me, I do know it’s ugly. I’m not saying that. I’m as upset as anything. The flip side of it is, I think we’re just a tough team. I kind of like our guys, I think we’re a gritty, tough team. I kind of like running the ball and stopping the run. I kind of think that’s pretty cool. I think it’s a testament to that, I think it’s a testament to winning the time of possession. I think it’s a testament to playing well on special teams. You block a punt one week, you block a field goal one week, you score on special teams one week. I think it’s kind of a testament to that. What’s unique, too, is that we’re third – and this could be wrong, if it’s wrong, don’t say I lied, just say I was wrong – I believe we’re third in yards per completion in the Big Ten at 12.6. Which would usually say, you should throw it a little bit more. You’re up 21-0 in that game and you’re controlling the game, you’re like ‘hey, let’s just put these guys away.’ Too late, we got to some of the inside zone slices that won the game at the end. Great job by Donnie (Donovan Raiola) saying ‘hey, I got the play.’ It flipped it to the field, Sat (Marcus Satterfield) called it and Emmett (Johnson) split it. If I could go back, we could have gotten to that earlier. I think it’s a testament to ‘hey, we’re a physical, tough team.’ We will always have trouble with other tough teams. Michigan State is a tough team. That’s why I think this will be a battle. I think it’ll be a real battle.”
On how Heinrich Haarberg felt post-game
“I don’t think he felt real good. I love the guy. Love the competitor, right? I kind of said to him what I said to you guys. I wouldn’t say anything in here that I wouldn’t say to them. I said the one was your own dang fault. He said, ‘Coach, that guy could have come off the sidelines. I didn’t see him.’ I love the competitor. I think he is caught in the middle right now and I have to do a better job as a head coach sometimes of ‘hey I don’t want to slide’. But he kind of slows down right before contact. The week before I thought he was hesitant. This week, I think he was just not quite sure what to do and he hasn’t played a super ton. So we are going to work on that this week because both fumbles, the play was dead. He knew he was done. Probably needs to get down on those plays and not because he is a sheep but he just probably needs to skip a rock and get a yard. We will just play second and nine. We are trying to make sure as a staff like we spent time this morning going back through ourselves and ‘hey what are the things that are happening? And how can we fix those?’ He is a little bit beat up but you know what, he is the quarterback at Nebraska.”
On what the defense overall in the Big Ten is better than the offense
“I don’t think people understand or value maybe here, but across the country, the impact of the weather in some of these games and the wind. Those winds – like the ball Tommi (Hill) picked off – people might fight me, but he threw that into the wind. They got behind us a couple times. They threw that other ball and got behind Giff (Isaac Gifford) in cover two. Giff’s middle run through, the two cover safeties jumped 12-yard routes. Same thing happened against Michigan on a nice clear 98-degree day. It was a touchdown catch on our helmet. Same thing happened. Giff made a heck of a play to bat the ball. Those winds are severe. There are times where we are out there and the option-pass, we would have preferred to call that in the first quarter. Just the wind kind of felt swirling and all those things, so we ended up throwing that ball with the wind and it almost looked like it was going to be overthrown but Jaylen (Lloyd) is so fast. So the wind and the elements is a real factor. I think I heard (Tristan) Alvano say it. He hit a 55-yarder in those elements. It wasn’t 80 degrees in Jacksonville, Florida. I think those are some of the things that are there. Other than that, I don’t know. You see a change in the league now going to some teams that are more spread. You know Purdue was obviously a spread offense. Wisconsin runs the ball a ton but they have some more personnel. Other than that I don’t know but I do think the weather is a factor.”
On the difference in the Big 12
“There was never a game where the elements affected us other than the heat. You’d be crazy to be in the Big 12 and not be a tempo team. We played a game at Baylor, it was an 11 o’clock game where they had to remove the cheerleaders from the field because it was unsafe. Our d-line coach’s shoes melted into the turf so we went tempo, run 100 plays and played against the other team’s threes but is that going to work here? It’s completely different. I used to beg Mack Rhoades, I would say, ‘Hey do me a favor. These non-conference games, you need another FBS opponent? Go get someone from the north. Make them come down and play in Texas.’ It’s just that. When we start playing teams from warmer climates, I’m hoping they come here in November. There’s just different things in different places and that’s why NFL teams I think love Big Ten o-linemen. They know they can handle these elements, they can play in the cold. We’ve played in 43 degrees, we’ve played in 32 degrees already. It’s a challenge.”
On players that could use redshirts
“(Sam) Sledge and (Gunnar) Gottula will be up these next four games if needed. Depending on the PAT, field goal team or if we have injuries, they’re ready to go. That was the plan all along. Marques (Buford Jr.) tried to practice a little bit last week and he was sore each day afterward so I don’t know if he’ll be ready to go or not next week, we’ll have to wait and see. Probably a game time decision in terms of, he wants to go but is he ready to go? We’ll practice him and we really won't know anything until, we’ll have Tuesday practice, can he practice on Wednesday? If he goes Tuesday, Wednesday, how does he feel on Thursday? The last thing I want to do in any way is do anything to hurt Marques Buford Jr. He’s not only a talented player but a great, great teammate and it’s really interesting to see him because he’s been kind of in the mix but off to the side, so his perspective on football I think is really cool right now. He kind of sees it sometimes as a coach and sometimes as a player so I’d love to get him back out there. I don’t know that he’ll be ready this week, I’m not sure.”
On Quinton Newsome
“Very fired up for Quinton. I should have said that in my opening remarks. They told me that earlier. If he doesn’t adjust on that fumble, the game might be different in that punt return. The fact that you have a senior who’s out there playing on the punt return team, that speaks a lot to him. He’s an NFL player and he’s out there playing on the punt return team. We can make you do that but we’re not making him do that. He’s helping the team so I appreciate that. I appreciate what he did on the field goal block. He’s exactly where he’s supposed to be, but he also brings his own unique talent. I’m really amazed he caught that ball right over the top of his head, so excellent play. He’s a great competitor, fiery, I respect him. We can’t play defense like we’re playing without guys that can play man. Him and Tommi (Hill) and Malcolm (Hartzog) and (Isaac) Gifford and Omar (Brown) and Phalen (Sanford), they are doing a great job.”
On Jeff Sims
“I wouldn’t want to speak for him. I just know that Jeff puts in as much time as anybody else. Tough scenario to get put in there and all of a sudden you go in and play and it’s not like you’re going there to toss the ball around, which is usually as a quarterback what you’re going in to do. We put him in there and ran him. I have a lot of confidence in Jeff Sims. I think Jeff is a competitor. You’re the starting quarterback, you get banged up, someone else goes in, they become the quarterback. You watch when we do the videos. It’s one thing to see a guy celebrate – Heinrich (Haarberg) scores and you see him celebrating like, oh what a good teammate. I watched and saw when he threw to Malachi (Coleman) on the sidelines, they showed the cinematic view and as he dropped back, you could see Jeff putting his hands up like ‘touchdown’ as it happened because Jeff cares about the team. I have nothing but admiration and respect for Jeff. He’s ready when his number is called, he’s ready. Chubba (Purdy) is back to form and I’d have no problem putting Chubba in a game. We have three really good quarterbacks. To me, the fumbles are something that falls on me.”
On Emmett Johnson
“I think Emmett’s the guy that can do the most things. I don’t want to say anything bad about anyone else but I just think he’s really versatile, can catch the ball out of the backfield, he can run between the tackles, he can run outside the tackles, he can run in four-minute because you know he’s going to have excellent ball security. He also picks up the blitzes. On the one drive, we knew we would have 14 plays, 12 plays, whatever it was, that was a couple different third-down conversions. That’s a third-down conversion by Jaidyn Doss, where they blitz the linebacker and Emmett steps up and strikes them and blocks them. I think Emmett does whatever’s needed. I was happy that he had the long run because it’s one thing to be like ‘Hey I can do everything, I’m sturdy,’ but when you realize, ‘Hey I can make people miss and go two then it changes everything.’ So that’s a talented running back room we have. We need to get more out of the room and that’s not them, that’s us as coaches utilizing those guys – (Josh) Fleeks came in and it was like a shot in the arm and then we didn’t get back to it enough. If you punch a guy and it costs us 15 yards, that’s a problem and Josh knows that but I think we just have a lot of good players in that room. Emmett, just being really versatile, helps us in a lot of different ways.”
On similarities between his second years at Temple and Baylor versus this year
“I think the difference there with those years is those were very up and down every week. At Baylor the second year we would win a game and lose a game. We lost 66-33 at Oklahoma and Lincoln Riley, the good man that he is, basically took a knee to not make it 70. Kyler Murray is the greatest player I’ve ever seen on the football field. We hung in there for a long time and then they just took off. And then we came out the next week and upset Kansas State and then we got to West Virginia and get our brains beat in on a Thursday night. Come back the next week and we upset Oklahoma State. We were very much like this. We needed to learn how to win whereas these guys. At Temple I can’t remember the second year. I think we got off to a really good start. I think we won two and then we just fought to get wins down the stretch. I think the difference with these guys is that they understand the process and are much more process-oriented. These guys do exactly what we ask. They are bought into what we are asking them to do. My challenge to them has been for the older guys. It usually takes longer for the older guys like we used to do this and now we do this. They don’t even want to do it it’s just hard for them. Jaylen Lloyd and Emmett Johnson when they score we do this little x factor across the goal line we believe in. I look at it like Christian McCaffrey does it so you should do it. You see when Heinrich (Haarberg) scores he does it. You see when Jaylen (Lloyd) scores he does it. You see when Emmett scores so for the younger players it’s just kind of all they know and this is the process. The older guys have to kind of learn a new process. My challenge to them has been to double down on it one more time here and see what you can do. See if you can go get another win this week and see if you can go 1-0. See if you can truly be 1-0 mindset. Don’t say, ‘Yeah we would love to get x, y and z done but we are going to try and go 1-0 this week’. Truly buy into that process of ‘man what do we have to do this week to play well’. They are far ahead of where they were in our second years at Temple and Baylor.”
On the x-factor
“Yeah we hold the ball. They say four points of ball security. We talk about a fifth point. Anytime you are in traffic or four-minute you know the Minnesota fumble and the Illinois fumble. The ball should have been a fifth-point of ball security. We call it the x-factor because you are making an x. Like anytime you’re hitting me like I was always with the ball in the opposite arm I protected myself. Anytime the ball was here I went to x-factor. Like Heinrich (Haarberg) the guy was to his arm. If he would have just gone to x-factor that wouldn’t have happened. It’s all technical. It’s not that the guys don’t care. It’s all technical. A lot of our fumbles have come from snaps. It’s all technical. Seeing the ball in and making a good snap. What we do is that we always say that when you break a long run if there is any chance of them knocking the ball from behind it is always the guy you don’t see. We just x-factor going across the goal line. It’s just a statement that ‘hey anytime we are inside the five we are going to do that.’ We still have some of the older guys that want to reach the ball across the goal line. They still want to do those things. Our young guys know that is not what we do. My wife told me I’m a jerk because I yelled at Quinton (Newsome) and Tommi (Hill) for high fiving. She’s like ‘They’re having fun.’ It was not too long ago that you guys were asking about close losses. Close losses come from reacting instead of having a process. This is what we do. We do this. And just do it even when you think it’s stupid. So when I see Emmett and Jaylen do that I’m proud because they are just doing what we do. And not making a decision if I should do it now or then. To me we have gone from talking about close losses to ugly 31-14 wins. This could be a close loss this week so we have to fight the fight of the process. Process sounds so stupid but it’s really just doing what we are supposed to do.”
On the new facility
“I’m still in my old office and all those things. I’m excited to get into those new things. I love the commitment to recovery for those guys. You can probably tell I haven’t slept much since the game so I love on Friday I can go in when the players aren’t there and go in and use a float tank and reset my whatever it is, sympathetic or parasympathetic, I can get four hours of sleep in 60 minutes. I love the fact that our players can go in and reduce inflammation and traction tables. I love the fact that there’s resistance pools and cold tubs and hot tubs and dry saunas and dry float tanks and wet float tanks and all those things I think makes their bodies better. A lot of places have them but they don’t have the commitment from the players. Our players are amazing and Mitch Cholewinski and his staff do a great job of not enforcing, but teaching, and I think it helps our guys' brains, it helps them handle the stress of the season, having these recovery modalities. Whereas when I got here, all people wanted to talk about how the building was the recruiting path and recruiting this and recruiting that. Nothing recruits better than players who are happy and so I love the fact that our players are in there. I only go in the locker room on game day. The locker room’s pretty cool. I just love the other stuff.”
On when his office will switch to the new building
“Whenever they get the building done. I think we made a change, it was just philosophically as we were going in the spring. I was just like ‘get the players in, to me the program’s all about the players.’ I don’t care what office, I could work out of the Starbucks. To me, it’s like just ‘get the players in so all five people that worked on it did all that to get it ready.’ I think later this semester and I wouldn’t really, even if it was ready right now, I wouldn’t move my office in the middle of the season. Our guys, they practice over there, they kind of come up the tunnel walk and they come over here and do the meetings where they used to. Kristin (Coggin) does a great job of feeding them all these places so it’s worked really well.”
On Michigan State’s team overall
“It’s like if you don’t do the process. Process over expectation. If you saw me and I gave you 100 bucks you’d be like, ‘Thanks Matt.’ And then you saw me again and I gave you a 100 bucks again you’d be like ‘gee.’ The third day you’d come looking for me and I’d give you 100 bucks. All of a sudden, a week later, I come by and didn’t give you 100 bucks, you’d be like ‘What’s the deal?’ If I didn’t give you a 100 bucks the next day you’d probably be upset with me because you start to expect things. So if we expect that the game is going to go one way and it doesn’t then sometimes we are caught. We expect every game to come down to the very last play when we have to throw a hail mary, kick the game winning field goal or make a fourth and one stop to win the game. That way nothing ever bothers you. We expect to be down 21-0 going into the fourth quarter and we will rally and we are going to win 22-21. It’s just what you expect. When you look at people’s records if they have a great record sometimes you think this is going to be really hard and you expect it and then all of the sudden sometimes you miss an opportunity to go and play well. Sometimes you look at a record and go ‘oh they haven’t won.’ It’s the opposite. I knew Northwestern was a good team just look at the football. That’s the danger but also think about the men in the Michigan State locker room and what they have accomplished over the years. Think about the last time we went there. We had it almost won and we lost it in the fourth quarter on a special teams play. Like I said think about Coach (Harlon) Barnett. All-American there and spends 15 years of service, steps in as the interim head coach maybe will get the head coaching job I don’t know but this is his last game as head coach at home. How would you coach? You know what I’m saying? How would you play if you were those seniors and you didn’t go in the portal and decided to stay and fight for your team. I said the same thing about Northwestern. I said look at Northwestern and how they band together with an interim coach. They battled us to the very end. They went out the very next week after that kind of tough loss against us and then they went out and beat Maryland. It’s expectations. I know those men on that staff. I know Coach (Mark) Dantonio. I know the guys that are there. I watch the way they play and we would be nuts to not expect to have to win the game on the last play.”
On if 25-30 is a good target size for his recruiting classes
“I think every year is different. I think, like I said, this is a unique time still, with the COVID years still out there and different challenges. I personally have always believed that your first two classes are so important to set the foundation for what you’re going to do. I think when you look at the guys that came in last year, as I said after the game, when I called the freshman up to eat, I was like ‘jeez, we’ve got some good players.’ Now we’ve got a bunch of other guys, people I haven’t even seen yet. I just didn’t want to pass up on some of these guys that I think are good players. We have a good staff led by Sean Padden and Vince Guinta and those guys. They manage it. I just think it’s different each year and we’ll have to do our best to manage what the following classes look like.”
On if the offensive line needs a good finish or if it’s confident enough
“It’s confident enough. I think the Illinois week was the week where they just decided to block out the noise and just go play. Some of the things we’ve talked about in here – don’t worry about how someone else graded them, don’t worry about what other people are saying. You’re facing a d-line with #4 and #88 and some of the guys from Illinois. We got up in that game. I think we needed that. In that game against Illinois, twice we had the ball down there inside the red zone. We could have scored that touchdown to put the game away. We had the fumbling issues there, and penalties. To have that happen again this game. I literally showed them the Illinois fourth quarter and I showed them our fourth quarter. We hadn’t improved it until we hit that play. So, to hit that long run – we talk about a fourth-quarter shutout a lot. That’s one of the goals of our program and that includes 75 yards rushing in the fourth quarter. I don’t have it in front of me, I think Sean said that at the time, it was 76 yards rushing in the fourth quarter that we had. That’s a big deal. That’s a really big deal. That’s kind of, to me, running the football, you just stick with it, stick with it, stick with it. We’ve been lucky and had some explosive runs. But you stick with it and then hope in the fourth quarter that you’re in better shape. Or the work that you put in and the way we practice – the way we practice kicks in in the fourth quarter and the way we practice kicks in in November. That’s kind of the mindset. I was happy with those o-linemen. Ben Scott battled through last week with that knee. He was like ‘hey, I’m playing’ and we went full pads on Tuesday, went full pads on Wednesday. He went out there and played well in the ball game. Happy about that.”
On the improvement on special teams
“Ed (Foley) does a phenomenal job. For many years, I didn’t have just a special teams coordinator. I had a guy who did that and coached something else. Ed did it for me. I think his ability all day long to talk to players one-on-one and to make sure guys understand what to do – even last week, the impact of the offensive line injuries, now Dylan Parrott goes out to be on the field goal team for the first time ever. It’s his first reps playing and to know that, ‘hey, I’m going to get live reps on Tuesday’ helped him. I think Ed does a phenomenal job of doing those different things and managing those players. The one area that has to improve for us is our punt returns. Coach (George) Darlington came yesterday and said it was a disgrace, and he was right. He said it in a respectful way. ‘Hey, Matt, let’s talk about this.’ Obviously, losing Billy (Kemp IV) and AB (Alex Bullock) had the fumble. We’re letting the ball hit a lot and a lot of balls go down to the one. There’s areas to improve, but I think Ed does such a great job of letting the guys play fast while still trying to find wrinkles. We come up with a punt block, we put Elijah Jeudy in on a field goal block, we create this. He doesn’t overdo it. While so many special teams coordinators control so much scheme that the guys can’t play fast. They still have to be able to do offense and defense. I think Ed is special in that regard. I’m very lucky that he’s stuck with me this long.”