Opening Statement
“It was a great bye week. It was really good to get out on the road recruiting. I left Wednesday and got back Saturday morning. I think the reaction to seeing Nebraska on the roads was significantly different than it had been previously. I think the national TV games, I think the night games, the style of play, I think seeing what our players doing, I think quite honestly the media presence we’ve been able to have. I’m grateful to Pat McAfee for having me on every week. I’ve had a couple coaches that we’re watching and asked, coach, when are you going to do your spot? I think mainly it’s our players. A lot of people talked to us about the black out. I think we’ve done a great job of getting kids to come to the games. It’s really cool to see the respect and excitement around the program. We’re obviously excited to go play an excellent Penn State team. Despite being four and six they’ve outscored their opponents by 93 points this year and they’re doing a great job right now under Coach Smith. Terry (Smith) was on my first staff. I hired him out of Gateway High School and he was on my first staff at Temple. I have a lot of respect for him. Speaking of coaches, if you guys don’t mind, two guys I don’t know very well so I’m embarrassed about that but I just respect what they’ve done. First of all, Brian Keller over at Nebraska Wesleyan. After 30 years he’s retiring. Brandon Cool over at Kearney High and all the things he’s accomplished. I just want to tip my hat to them. I’d love to be here for 10 years let alone 30, so it’s just impressive when people can do what they’ve done with the consistency and the competitive stamina. I think the one thing that really hits you is how many people’s lives they’ve probably affected, so I’m grateful to them and I think it’s great to see that in our state.”

On injuries
“(Dasan) McCullough, full go. (Dawson) Merritt practiced. Anybody else I'm missing? (Vincent) Shavers is out there with his cast, you know V9, he’s got different DNA. Rocco (Spindler) has a cast but Rocco’s good.”

On getting a night game
“They want us to play on national TV so I love it. Our league is unique in that they have tolerances for certain teams, so certain teams have in the rules that they don’t have to play late in the year. We don’t have those tolerances so we’re going to go play on NBC, national TV. Do I love getting back at 3 o’clock in the morning and playing Friday at 11 a.m.? Yeah, we’ll go do something tough. Now you guys know why I say things like lets stop fighting as a Husker nation, and lets all come together because we got bigger fish to fry. That’s what, four night games this year? Four road night games this year. Everyone is going to get a chance to see our defense fly around. I think we’re in the top of a lot of defensive categories. I think we’re second in completion percentage. They’re going to get to see the o-line and Emmett (Johnson) versus a great Penn State defense. It will put us under duress, but that’s okay. We’ll be good.”