On the simulated game last night and takeaways: 

“I think really two things. Just making sure we were under the lights again, making sure that our substitutions and all those things that can show up on the first game were as clean as possible. Get some really good work. The guys were really physical. We worked on our football as well. I think the biggest thing I told the team is Coach (Joe) Paterno, always tells us you make your biggest jump from game one to game two. I think a lot of old coaches say that. We don't want to try to do that after next week. We treated last night like a game so we can see, ‘hey,  where are we deficient?’ What do we need to improve upon? You can sometimes get to this last week and want to hurry up and get to the game, but we have to maximize every minute to improve.”

On Alex Bullock and Isaiah Garcia-Castenda during camp and the depth chart:

“We're gonna play a lot of receivers. I mean, with Isaiah you saw the explosive nature that he has last year early on in the season when he played. To me Isaiah has always been a starter for us. He had some soft tissue stuff at the end of the spring so they kind of held him back, but he's had a really good camp with great hands. Smart, tough, fast and I’m so excited about Isaiah and with Alex usually when I have a scholarship it is not my intention to give it to a senior who's put their time in but you just can't deny what he's done. He's made one hand catches and acrobatic catches. He’s been dynamic all camp and so he's a starter for us. I think he will play really well. 

On Marcus Washington returning to play:

“I am taking it one day at a time. Marcus will be healthy. The great thing about Marcus is he has played so much football. If anything he probably knows the offense better now than he did before because he has not been practicing. His only focus has been on coaching the other guys. He has done a great job coaching the young players so I am sure Marcus will be ready.”

On Alex Bullock getting put on scholarship:

“I hope Mr. and Mrs. Bullock bought a car or went on vacation or something. That has got to be a nice penny. Great family. We want to be a program where everything is earned. I tell the guys, ‘You want this, you want that, go earn it.’ They have certainly earned it. The hardest thing about being the head coach is sometimes you see players who are not on scholarship who deserve them. Unfortunately, not very often but you see players who are on scholarship who do not value them like they should. They maybe take things for granted. We do not have very much of that at all but we do have guys that deserve to be on scholarship. Both those guys are valuable contributors. They are going to play a lot of football and it is not like we gave them one. It is that we got them one that they were owed to them. They just got it a little later than they should have.”

On knowing the identity of the team:

“We will not know truly who we are until we play a game and probably a couple games. My challenge to them has been do not get to game four or game five and all of a sudden things slow down and have the light come on. Try to do it now. The ‘All N’ shows and some things have gotten out that I have said and I talk a little bit about getting to that first game and having a messy front end. There is also a messy front end to a new season and a messy front end to a new coach. Next year will be so much easier and the guys will know what to expect. Every day they walk in they are kind of like, ‘Okay what are we doing today Coach?’ They are such good kids. I had some kids at Temple that were like ‘whatever.’ These guys want to do everything right and so I want them to prepare up until the game. What I need to find out is are they going to be the type of team that just goes out and plays and does not worry about what happens. That is only way you can play this game is to not worry about the score and just go play. So we talk about that all the time. I see them do it in practice. Will they do it in the game? That is the challenge for me. That is the challenge for them.”

On game week prep at the college level:

“I think my time in the NFL really prepared me to do this better. I think if we are playing for our staff or if they are being recruited by our staff, they are probably better prepared for things at the next level than maybe before. I have adopted more walk throughs and things like that than meetings after my time there because I just see the value of getting out there and feeling it and doing it. The football is so different. At the level you are preparing for outside zone and duo it is like how are we going to handle this RPO, that RPO. The ball is way more complex and different. We are kind of going with the same schedule we used at Baylor. It is a unique practice schedule but it is something we believe in and I am excited to do it with the guys.”

On how he found the state of the program when her started versus now:

“I think anytime you have a new coach coming in there is a lot of anxiousness and anxiety. They just went from Head Coach Scott Frost to Mickey. They kind of got comfortable with Mickey then I show up, ‘does this guy really want us here? What's he going to do?’ So there was probably a lot of hesitation. I don't know if that’s the right word: hesitation. Probably a lot of anxiety of what the future is going to hold and where I fit. I think everything is pretty transparent. We want to have a very positive, stable, transparent environment; a very challenging environment. You’ve heard me say before that we’re a caring, not coddling place, but I think that they kind of know where we stand. Everyone knows where they stand. They know what’s expected so we’ve come a long way in that regard. I don’t want to say anything negative about the people that were here before me. I think Mickey did a great job. I think they just haven’t won. When you haven’t won you just start wondering, ‘man are we ever going to win?’ And what we’ve asked our guys to do is take ownership of that. I will answer this though. I think this is one of the most resilient groups of young people I’ve ever been around. I've said it a couple times, but I really feel like it’s my obligation to watch. I remember Garrett Nelson sitting in my office, and Garrett Nelson needed to go to the NFL. He was getting older, while I would’ve loved to have coached him, I was like ‘bro it’s your time, go make it happen.’ I remember Garrett, and I hope he’s okay with me sharing this, but he was talking about his father’s legacy here and how he wanted to be part of the group that turned it around, and I remember visiting with Nick (Heinrich) and Luke (Reimer), and they were trying to figure out if they should transfer or stick around. Their care for the program was so strong that I feel a tremendous obligation. We have to find a way to help these guys win. I don’t know if they’re beaten down as much as I would say they just want this so badly and they are kind of looking everywhere. I think we’ve just tried to be very focused, so I think we’re in a good place right now."

On coaching both offense and defense:

“Yeah you know I just think the play-callers have to be comfortable. I would never want to call the game from the field. I’d always want to be up top where it’s a little more sterile and less emotional, but Sat (Coach Satterfield) likes to call it from the field. Tony (Coach White) likes to call it from the field. Sometimes the coordinators like to go up to the box just to get away from me after a couple games. I don’t spend too much time worrying about it. We’ve done so much preparation. There’s not a thing that’ll be called that we haven’t prepared for and talked about. We literally will talk like, ‘it’s third and seven on the 32 yard line I say ‘you got two downs. We’re going for a fourth and two. What are you calling?’ And they better be able to say it to me like that. Sat’s (Coach Satterfield) elite at that. He’s worked for me before. Tony (White) is really smart in that way and so is Ed (Coach Scott). I would think all three coordinators will be down on the field and probably Garret (McGuire) will go up top because he really sees the passing game well. Aaron Coeling who is one of the finest young coaches I’ve ever been around is a graduate assistant for us and that allows him to be on the headset. He works hand in hand with Donny (Coach Raiola) so he’ll be up as well seeing the run game and one other coach. On defense I would anticipate Rob (Coach Dvoracek) going up and I’m not sure what they’re going to do with Coop (Coach Cooper), but I see the coordinators being down on the field.”

On how it’s been for Rhule to go through this process and what he’s feeling as he gets ready for Game One here at Nebraska:

“I’m having the time of my life. I really am. this is as happy as I’ve been in a really really long time. My family is here. Now my girls are happy at school and my family’s happy, my wife’s happy, my son’s doing well. I really enjoy this team. I told the team the other day ‘I bring Leona. She’s eight. I bring her around. She’s around all day. Saturday she’ll be here all day. Sunday she’s at the practice.’ She thinks Chief (Borders) is her older brother. She plays catch with Chief. She sits in the team meeting. She gets on me about my language but I told the team, ‘it’s one thing to bring your son, but when I bring my daughter that’s a statement of what I think about the men on the team. I would not bring my daughters around men I would not want her to look up to.’ Because of the collective group of people that are here, because of Trev (Alberts), because of Dennis Leblanc and Jamie Vaughn, Marquita Armstead and Doug Ewald and all the people at that level. Because of Sean (Padden) and Susan (Elza) and Keith (Mann) and all the people. There’s just an elite group of people here so I really am having the time of my life. I haven’t been this happy in a long time. You can probably tell by the look on my face.”

On the growth from the start of the camp until now:

“Football IQ and intelligence. Situational football. When I first got here it was kind of like, ‘Coach just let me ball, let me play, let me do my thing.’ There’s really no ‘doing your thing’ when you play against good teams, executing in the moments and in the situations, and matching each moment with excellence. Now I feel like we’re at a moment where I feel like I can put the ball down. I don’t know if you noticed in the one tv show that we did, I'll give a situation to two players and they run off and tell everybody, and I couldn't have done that in spring as well as right now. I say it to the guys, they are locked into the situation, so situational awareness. Now, will that carry into the game? I don’t know. I've shown them 2018 Colorado, I've shown them - what's the game where Eric Crouch hits the guy down the sideline. They kick a field goal, Colorado scores with like - 2000, thank you. I've shown them the A&M game. I've shown them all these old games. Both with us. Today we watched Syracuse and Purdue, so all these end of games situations, and I’d say when I first started I’d say ‘what did you guys hear and I’d have like three guys (raise their hand) and now there’s a chorus of guys that understand whats happening, understand the situation and what should happen. I’d say our situational awareness has really jumped up and in a day of age where a lot of guys don't really watch football - like I watched the ESPN game and was like ‘did anybody watch it?’ and they all kind of look at me like. I mean they're watching the highlights on YouTube or they're watching it on Tik Tok, which hey, it is what it is man, but watching that together I think is really good because we have a common language situationally.” 

On if he thinks about the past here and what has happened:

“No. Sometimes I get upset when you guys and our guys will talk about last year. I don’t think there’s any value in us talking about the past. Other than learning from it and the football because it has nothing to do with me. I wasn’t here last year so why would I talk about it? That’s like asking me, ‘hey Matt let’s talk about what happened at Baylor, or Carolina, or Temple.’ I think what’s happened in the past was just a different entity. We have to answer for the things that we do. I’m more worried about just being on the front end of what we do than the previous things that have happened if that makes any sense. If we go out to kick the game winning field goal, I don’t want Tristian (Alvano) thinking about ‘this guy missed this kick or made this kick’. I want him thinking about just right now. I came into the job to answer it, ‘hey this team is close we have certain things we have to do’. That’s why we’ve put such an emphasis on the details. The guys don’t love it that I make them eat three times a day at the training table. Sometimes they just want to go out and eat Subway, but we do it because we want them to get as big and as strong as possible so we can win games in the fourth quarter. The way that we lift, the way we do everything. I try not to talk about hey guys we’ve lost this many games, because I think that puts that in the universe. For me it’s like we’re going to win close games, because we’re doing X, Y, and Z. I want them to draw on the matches that we did were really hard. This training camp was really really hard, I want them to take pride. We’re playing Minnesota and I have the utmost respect for PJ Fleck, he’s a friend of mine. I love the way he runs his program. It’s different than me, I love the fact that when I’m in Texas and I walk into a high school. Hyper and Skeemoth wrote the book on Alan, oh PJ was here. That’s it he believes in that and that’s what I love about them and that’s why they’ve been so successful in how they play the game. How they play the game is how I like to play the game. They run the ball. They play defense. They execute on third downs. We have to understand for us to go and play in that game on the road as a first game as an entity together we have to have gone through a really hard training camp. We have to take in our confidence from that. This Tuesday’s practice Sat (Coach Satterfield) said it was lethargic which drove me nuts when he said that. It was 110 degrees and we were practicing like we were in a junction. The guys they all battled right, It wasn’t good enough. So we told them that we have a group that’s really worked hard and I want them to take confidence from that and that confidence only means you’ve earned the right to go play against another really good team. It should be a great game. I want them to take their thoughts about what we’d done since we’ve got here, but the whole thing is let's get this team over the hump if we can.” 

On having conference division versus not having them: 

“Moving forward, I think it’s going to be really unique. There’s a real challenge ahead for the Big Ten, but A.J. Edds and Commissioner Petiti, they’ll figure it out.”

On knowing you’ll play one team every year:

“I don’t know. Yeah, I think you build a book of business about ‘hey, here’s how we’re going to play these guys.’ I think that repetitive nature. I think that sometimes you have to diversify what you do each year because you know people are zeroing in on what you’re doing. Having a repetitive opponent every single year makes things easier in one regard, and also you have to be ready to change a little bit because they know you and they’re coming after you.”

On if they’ll be ready to play:

“Yeah, we’ll be ready to play.”

On what makes Minnesota’s defense so good:

“Well, Joe Rossi is a great coach. I know Joe from way back at Rutgers. He’s a great coach. They have really great players. They know what they’re doing. If you’re just looking at it as an outsider, it’s like ‘oh yeah, they’re playing quarters.’ The teams that do that really well – the Iowas, them – everything has purpose. You put the back here and combination over here. A lot of times you face a team like this and you don’t really understand their defense. They do such a great job. They play team defense. Everything is funneled to certain players. Everything is put together. I’ve never worked with Joe (Rossi), but I’m assuming they probably know the things that beat us and they practice those things. My defensive coordinator for 10 years was Phil Snow, one of the best quarters coaches you’ll ever see. We’d always practice these things because he’d say ‘hey, here’s what’s going to beat us.’ It’s really well put together. They have really good players. They play really, really, really hard and they have guys at every level, you know what I mean? They have an elite linebacker. They have an elite safety. They have, I think, four elite players up front. They’re a big, physical team and to your point everyone talks about how much they run the ball or throw the ball more, who knows. What I’ll say is they’re one of the top teams on third down on offense and they’re one of the top teams on third down on defense. You can say you want to run the ball. You’re going to be in a lot of third-down situations if you run the ball. If you can’t convert third downs, nothing’s going to happen. They’re over 50% on third-down offense. They’re really good on defense on third down. That’s the challenge. If you ask me, ‘hey coach, what’s a game come down to?’, besides the turnovers and the obvious things, can we win some third downs against a team that does it really well?" 

On Chief Borders:

 “Just to clarify, anybody that’s an ‘or’, we just put them alphabetically. So it’s not him then MJ (Sherman). Jimari (Butler) has been banged up. Jimari unfortunately got a stinger. He was coming back and then he took a step and hurt his foot a little bit. So we expect him back but he was really in the front of that race as well. We have three guys we know can be elite jacks. With all that being said, to answer your question, I think Chief is someone, when you look at his history number one he has the personality, he has the social media presence, so that’s all awesome. What I love is his commitment to service and his commitment to the community. You see it everywhere. You see the things he does community service-wise. You see the way that anybody he comes in contact with he tries to make their day a better day. He’s special in that regard. He’s got a magnetic personality. There was a thing, I learn so much from our team from listening to interviews that you guys do with them. I hear what they’re saying or listening to the things our social team puts out. I watch them. There was a thing where MJ (Sherman) was talking about. He comes in sometimes and he’s a lot like me. He’s not a morning person and he said Chief is like sunshine. I told Chief that’s beautiful. In this day and age where everyone wants to be isolated and be their own brand. To have someone that brings that warmth and charisma to a room is special. I love the way Chief gives back. I love who he is as a person. He’s going to be really successful in life after football is done. He’s got big plans for himself and what I like is he takes care of the people he’s around. He takes care of football. He takes care of school. He’s been awesome in school this year. He’s making a name for himself off the field, as well.”

On finalizing the kicker position:

“I think it’s just over the next couple days. We’ll obviously have Sunday and we’ll be in full pads. We’ll kick again there. As I said, (Brian) Buschini was going with the ones and Tristan (Alvano) was going with the ones. Coming to Sunday we’ll have one more day of competition. Just for me the depth chart is an organism. It’s ever-changing. I’m not a big ‘set it in stone’ kind of guy. We’re going to play guys and the competition is always there and you have the power to change your situation. That’ll kind of be a weekly thing.” 

On remaining three single digit numbers:

“They voted last night. We are going to announce those later today. Those guys do not even know yet.” 

On the secondary:

“We should have a good secondary. We have good players. Quinton (Newsome) has had a great camp. I love the way Quinton has come along. Malcolm Hartzog is A+ on the field and A+ off the field and A+ in the classroom. He is a special young man. Tommi (Hill) is a physical freak. He got a little bit banged up. He is back to full speed. Dwight Bootle has probably been one of the biggest surprises of camp. I should not say surprises. He is a young guy. He is playing like an older guy. He has really benefited from being here. Dwight is prepared to play. Ethan Nation has kind of burst on the scene. We have a lot of guys that we feel like can go play. (Isaac) Gifford is probably one of the leaders of our defense. He has done a great job. Omar Brown has a ton of talent and a ton of splash plays. Can he be the same guy every play? Can he be consistent? He has answered that challenge. When you play for (Evan) Cooper, you are never going to say, ‘Man I do not know how the coaches feel about me.’ You are never going to say, ‘I do not know what I need to work on.’ Cooper is as direct and transparent as possible and Omar has met that challenge and he is still meeting that challenge. DeShon Singleton is a grown man back there. He is probably one of the biggest most explosive fastest safeties I have ever been around. He tests out the gym and now what you are seeing is his testing showup on the football field and then you have guys like Corey Collier (Jr.). Phalen Sanford could start at all three positions. Phalen has made the jump I think from being a really good special teams player who can help on defense to he could start. He is one of the fastest guys on the team but he is now really really consistent in all his areas. Koby Bretz is doing a really nice job as well.”

On Marques Buford Jr.:

“The big thing with us is because this is his second time having a major injury we just do not want to rush him back. We kind of communicated with the family and him early on, ‘Hey we are going to put you in when you are ready but not a day too early.’ He according to the doctors had a significant jump just this past week so he is hopefully going to progress in on the field work. I think right now I would not look for him anytime soon on the field. I think it is more of a maybe week five maybe week six. If not maybe it is the last four games of this year and maybe he redshirts this year and plays two more years. Either way our responsibility is there is a big difference between letting guys know when they can come back and when they should come back. We want him to come back when he should come back because he has pro potential. We want to make sure he is healthy.”

On Arik Gilbert’s waiver:

“It is still in progress. We are hoping before we head to Minnesota we will have a little more finality on it. There have obviously been some twists and turns and things going back and forth and out of respect for Arik I have not really broadcasted all of those different things but we are still looking for some finality and everybody is working hard to get it done.”

On hopes for Thursday’s game:

“I am confident that we are going to play hard. I am confident that we are going to be a physical team. I am confident that if things do not go well early that we are not going to panic. I am confident that if things do go well early that we are not going to celebrate. I think that our guys understand that this is a 60 minute game and it is a 12 game season. I am confident we will have fun together. My wife she knows me really well and she said, ‘You are not going to be all stressed out are you? Go have fun.’ This is a type of team that you can go have fun with. You really can. This is a type of team that you can go have fun with. I am going to be loose and I am going to go play. What better way than to play an opponent like this? One that goes to bowl games every year and has success and it will be a great way to test ourselves but going back to Steve’s question about late in the game and all those things. We are going to be a team, I do not know when, but we are going to be a team that plays our best football in the fourth quarter. Coach Osborne came up the other day, what an unbelievable man, just wanted to shake my hand and wish me luck and started asking me about Minnesota and started asking me about some other things and at the end he was like, ‘We always wanted to be a team that won the fourth quarter and was the best team in the fourth quarter.’ That is what we have been preaching since day one. I tell our guys that when the ethos of who we are matches the legacy of what came before us, then we can build a legacy that comes after us. This is a really good team. I do not know if we will be the best team in the fourth quarter but I can tell you that we will be trying to play our best football then. If we do that then we are a team that is well on our way to be a team that can compete for wins and championships and bowl games and all the things that we want to have happen eventually.”

On if they’ve increased anti-gambling efforts:

“Obviously, when it first happened, we presented it to them, the athletic department presented it to them. The conference is doing some things also that allow you to provide some resources. When I was playing, obviously there was still an issue and you couldn’t gamble. Way back when at Penn State, we still had guys that probably got involved in that. All college kids did it. It’s just everywhere now. You watch the NFL, and it’s sponsored by gambling. As you walk into places where we play, it’ll say ‘sponsored by’ this thing. It’s just so pervasive in our society, and we have to remind our guys that there’s a line they can’t cross. They have to have that integrity to do that. We’ve talked about it, we’ve brought people in to talk about it, from within the athletic department and from outside. My hope is that our guys make good decisions as I hope they do in every aspect of their lives.”

On the benefits of starting the season with two weeks on the road:

“Let me say this very carefully. I cannot wait to be at home in front of our fans and to experience that. That will be like a bucket list item for my family and I. I’ve never coached in an environment like that as my home environment with that many people. So I can’t wait for that. That being said, I love to be on the road. I love being on the road. I love being in the hotel. I’m going to make sure Julie knows, I love being at home. I love being in a hotel bed, I love being around the guys. I love seeing the guys in the elevator as we come down the elevator. I love it, if we go see a movie, going to the movies. I just love being on the road and having it just kind of be us. I love getting to some ugly locker room and trying to figure out where my locker is and walking out on the field. And they don’t know who I am and they stop me and ask to see my pass and I have to get out there. I love all that. It’s just like us against the world, together. Now, I know here, we’ll travel well, which will be awesome. But I just love being sequestered and being together. And that’s what we did at Selleck. That team that was playing at Selleck is the team that I want to show up on 8/31 and play out there.”

On handing out the blackshirts:

“Yeah, we’re going to do that starting on Sunday. That’ll come out on Sunday.”