Nebraska Offensive Coordinator Dana Holgorsen Pre-Akron Quotes

On his overall assessment of Thursday’s game
“We won against a quality opponent. I have a lot of respect for that program. I’ve competed against those guys a lot and they’re tough to beat. They were pretty motivated to play. That’s a good-quality win. All wins are hard. That one was hard. I was proud of the players. I do feel like we executed the game plan. That structure of defense, that can frustrate you with how many people they drop and add. I’ve coached against it a lot and the biggest thing is you have to be patient and put the ball in play. I felt like we were patient and we put the ball in play. We snapped it 78 times, we made them tackle us 64 times. That’s getting us into the right runs. I thought Emmett (Johnson) ran the ball very hard and very well. Dylan (Raiola) with his completion percentage, putting the thing in play and making them tackle us. They did a good job of tackling us. That’s the lowest tackling bunch I’ve seen in a long time, I’m not criticizing. That’s not a criticism, that’s just what happened when we lost Wood (Janiran Bonner) and they got Jacory Barney Jr. pretty bad too. We didn’t get what we expected out of Jacory because he was hurt the entire game. That was frustrating, but that’s football. My heart goes out to Wood, he’s a tough, hard-nosed player. He brought energy every day, he brought work ethic every day. He brought physicality every day. I feel bad for him and I feel bad for us. That does hurt our team. Special teams-wise and offensively, he did so much. His attitude was so good and his work ethic was so good. It’s going to take multiple people to replace him. There’s nobody on our team that can do what he does. The good news is, it’s football and it's an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for some guys. We’re going to rep some people in that spot to try to get some snaps. It’s an opportunity for a guy like Carter Nelson. It’s an opportunity for a guy like Isaiah Mozee. Those guys will eventually get there. It’s our job to get them there as quick as possible. I’m not happy with 20 points, we had nine possessions. It was a possession-type game. The yards per play isn’t what I expect. The explosive plays isn’t what I expect. We’re going to keep harping on that. Unfortunately, I didn’t see it out there today. How do you fix that? One is the structure of the defense that we played and waht the game plan was that allowed us to win. Two, we have to do a better job of blocking down the field and getting people downfield. We have to do a better job of getting people downfield and we have to do a better job of staying on our feet and making people miss. We made somebody miss six times out of 64 times. We’re going to work hard on that. The last drive, I was pretty aggressive with it, just based on not wanting to hand the ball off and punt in three plays. I was pleased with the three first downs and the five minutes of clock, but it is unfortunate that we didn’t finish the four-minute offense at the end of the game. Clearly, I would’ve liked to possess the ball or get another first down, game over. Put an extra 2:30 on our time of possession, which was fantastic, and make it a little less dramatic at the end. There’s some things to work on."

On the running backs’ loads
“The way that game was, it was a close game, hard-fought game. He (Emmett Johnson) was rolling. He played his tail off. I’m so proud of him. He ran hard, was good in pass protection, was good in the pass game, minus the one drop. I’ve never seen him drop one pass in practice, let alone in the game. He was the player of the game in my mind. Tight game, you had two freshmen on the sidelines. We handed the ball to Isaiah (Mozee) twice early and it didn’t look good. He’s still trying to figure things out. With his (Johnson’s) veteran presence and the way it looked out there, he just kept going. I don’t regret that. We have to do what we have to do to win the game. But that can’t keep happening. (Kwinten) Ives has to get going, Mekhi (Nelson) has to get going. Ike (Isaiah Mozee) will continue to improve in that area. I don’t care who we play this week, but that has to change.”

On explosive plays
“He (Dylan Raiola) did what we asked him to do. I didn’t want to start forcing things downfield into eight people covering. That was the game plan. It’s a combination of what the game plan was but also downfield blocks, springing people. We had the ball three times in the open field and fell down. I saw people falling down out there today. It’s staying on your feet, being athletic, making people miss. It’s the emphasis of where I’m at right now, because we have to become more explosive. Right now, we’re just not.”