Press Conference Quotes

Nebraska Head Coach Frank Solich
Opening Statement
"There were a few things we emphasized with our team as we went through fall camp and the week of the first game, and one of them was to play fast. We felt we had a group of athletes who do have good speed and in order to play fast, you have to be confident in what you are doing. You have to know your technique, and you have to execute it. You have to also know your assignments and execute it. Then you have to believe in the guy next to you that he is going to do the same thing. If you have that belief you can let it loose and not hold anything back, and I think that is what transpired on the defensive side of it and on the offensive side of it also. The other thing we talked about was playing smart, and we have emphasized that heavily throughout the course of fall camp and leading up to the first game against Oklahoma State. I think in some areas we did play smart, and if you look at the turnover ratio we were a plus-three, and we forced them into five turnovers. We had two turnovers ourselves. One of them was from a deflected pass, and the other one was a fumble on the line of scrimmage play. You usually see those called either play. So in general we played smart and took care of the ball. We did the right things to force the turnovers on Oklahoma State's part."

On penalties against Oklahoma State:
"The thing that wasn't good was the penalties. Right now, in penalties, we are second from the bottom in the conference. We had nine total penalties for 75 yards, and eight of those came on the offensive side of it for 70 yards. So you look at that and you know you have to do a much better job in terms of the total number of penalties. From the offensive side of it, we cannot continue to let that happen. We need to play much smarter on that end of it. And another thing we wanted to do was to play physical. We did get that from our entire football team throughout four quarters, and that really added up to a 13-minute advantage in time of possession for us. That is an extreme advantage as all of you know. If you can control the football and you can defensively get them to not be able to have long drives, your chances of winning the game and especially if you are creating turnovers is very huge that ended up being a huge plus for us."

"We looked at the big plays we did have in the game and that is not what we are after; we only really had two plays of 20 yards or more. We had a run for 27 yards and a pass for 33 yards. That production has to come up, and we are an offensive football team that statistically did some pretty good things in terms of total yardage. Really the category you are after is points produced, and you could have all the yards in the world running the ball and all the yards in the world passing the ball, but if you aren't converting that into points then you aren't getting those things done in a manner that you need to get them done. We need to finish off drives and create more big plays in our point production. I thought our defense did a great job on the other side of that in that they limited OSU to one play of 20 yards or more. And that was the drive that led to their touchdown on the pass from (Josh) Fields to Rashaun Woods. Other than that, no big plays from what has generally been a big offense."

On Nebraska's Focus on Improving:
"It's kind of obvious that we need some work to get done with special teams. You look at the red zone part of it, and we were inside the red zone five times. We had one punt that Kyle (Larson) shanked, and it is not very common for him to do that, but you are always concerned about field position even though we did some things in the kicking game that were costly to us. OSU had some problems with the kicking game and that balanced out a little bit. The thing I looked at that is generally an amazing statistic that is reflective of how you are playing in all three areas is your advantage as far as field position, your starting point. We were a plus-14.9 in field position starting point wise, and if you look back over the course of some of the great teams Nebraska has had. If you look back at the 1995 team, by the end of the season, they were a little over a 12-yard advantage. In 1997, a little bit over a 14-yard advantage. In 1999, when we won the Big 12 Championships, we were a little over a 12-yard advantage. And usually what that adds up to is that you aren't getting beat in any phase of the game. Even though we didn't play exceptionally well on special teams, that probably balanced out with the fact that they didn't play extremely well in special teams. They had a field goal block for instance. Offense and defense, we dominated things from the defensive end of it. Offensively, we played well enough that we did not lose that phase of the game and that is a real heavy statistic in terms of how things are going for you. We look at that very carefully, and if you have that kind of play from your defense and then that kind of play from your offense, where you aren't turning the ball over and making bad decisions, and if things are balanced out with special teams, then you have a chance to have a big advantage."

"All in all, I was real pleased with the start of things. As far as the effort of our players, I thought they gave great effort, and we thought that would be the case going in, and all the signs were there from the off-season going into fall camp."

On Utah State as a team:
"We are scrambling a little bit to put things together. They have a new defensive coordinator, and they have gone back to a 30-Front. At one point, they were a 30-front, then they went to a different scheme, but now they have kind of gone back, and that is completely a different look than what we faced against Oklahoma State. There will have to be some adjustments made by us, especially up front with our linemen. On the offensive-side of it, they changed some there. They are putting the ball up in the air and threw 41 times against Utah, although when they did run they were productive. Their starting I-back had nine carries and averaged a little over six yards a carry, but he just didn't get very many opportunities. They do a lot of shifting, which causes you a lot of preparation. Today will be a very important practice, having gotten in a full practice yesterday in half pads. We will go full pads today, hoping to get things organized for a great game on Saturday."

On the offensive line's play against Oklahoma State:
"I thought they played well. By that, I mean they were physical and that is the starting point for us. We want to be physical in everything we are doing, and we need to do that for four quarters. We did have some breakdowns, but it wasn't an extreme number to the point where you are alarmed. But we need to improve in some areas there. I think offensively, especially with a new staff, it takes a little longer to get the timing and to get everything down the way you want it from an offensive standpoint. Yet in saying that, I was pleased with a lot of things that they did, and I think we can continue to be a physical offensive line. We have enough players who have very good movement that we can run a complete offense. That is what we hope to get to, and I like the fact that we protected our quarterback. There was a time or two, he had to scramble, but there was a time or two where Josh Fields had to scramble. We did not get caught for a sack and that is a credit to the offensive line and Jammal's (Lord) capability."

On Barney Cotton's comments about taking a step backwards from the passing game:
"To a degree, I agree with that. We are 8 of 16 if you look at final percentage, and we are ahead of last year's percentage, thankfully. We were able to complete half of our throws. We were not as effective as we hoped we would be, and we had hoped to be a little more efficient in the passing game. We need to look at that, and even though last year we only completed a little over 46 percent, we got a lot of big plays off the passing game and that is something we hope to continue to get as we go through this season. Hopefully along with that our passing percentage will increase. If we get those two things to happen, then we will be very satisfied with our passing game. As of yet, no real big plays except when Matt (Herian) was coming across the field and Jammal (Lord) was going to the right and threw off-balance and completed that one for a 33-yard gain. Besides that, nothing big in the passing game and so we need to look at that. Sixteen throws is not ridiculous, but you look at the total yardage you would like to have more yardage out of 16 throws with half of those completed."

On preparing for Utah State:
"There is nothing we have to do at this immediate point, but we have always talked the same way for a number of years about what we are all about, and we are all about taking it one game at a time. That is how it is going to be and that is the only way you can be effective in this day in age in college football. It is something we have learned over the years, and you need to prepare the same way regardless of who is coming to town whether the team is 1-0 or 0-1. There are enough athletes on every team in the country, if you aren't playing your best game and you aren't getting ready to play your best game, you could lose a ball game when you are favored. You don't like that scenario. We will continue to preach as we always have. We are preparing the same way we are for Oklahoma State, and we expect Utah State to play very hard. If we aren't playing well then there is trouble."

On helping the younger players understand preparation for game:
"We keep beating them over the heads with it, and we have done a pretty good job of that over the years. It is pretty ingrained in them. I think another key is having real leadership on your football team and having a group of seniors understanding how the game works. This team has been through everything, and they understand how it works. They will help us in terms of our younger players, making sure they understand."

On getting more depth at quarterback:
"I would very much like to get that done, and we will see how the game goes. Ideally, I would like to start getting one of those guys getting snaps in the first half in the rest of the games to be played, but we will only do that if the situation calls for it. We do need to start preparing our backup quarterback not only for this season but for next season, so with that in mind we are going to be forced do some things."

On using Joe Dailey against Utah State:
"If it calls for it then yes, we will use him."

On Jason Lohr's condition:
"He is running again, but he isn't on a time table."

On the praise received after last week's victory:
"I think it is good for the program to get off to a good start and to be back in the top 25. We still have a lot of challenges ahead of us, but our players want to get better."

On Jammal Lord's passing game:
"What you need is consistency and it is there and it looks great. Relatively speaking, we have a lot of young receivers, and it is a combination of those things."

On Dale Endorf's injury:
"Dale will have an MRI today, and we will receive news on his condition today or tomorrow. We will continue to look at Dave (Dyches), whether or not we would redshirt him is dependent upon Dale being in the picture. If Dale is not in the picture, then it brings Dave into the picture."