Tuesday Press Conference Quotes

Nebraska Head Coach Frank Solich
"Well, obviously it was a disappointing loss for the players, coaches and program. It was a game, after viewing it we feel that we need to play much better in order to get things done in the Big 12 Conference. I give Missouri credit I thought they played well, and were well prepared. We had five turnovers and nine penalties. Those kinds of things destroy opportunities to win ballgames, and yet we were still not only in it, but ahead going into the fourth quarter. It was a frustrating loss, maybe one of most frustrating losses that I've been involved with in my career. But as we always preach, we do move on. We will take from that game, a number of things that we hope to work on and improve on and become better. And put that aside, all of our attention is on Texas A&M, it's obvious they are playing their best ball of the year. Offensively, they are putting a ton of points on the board and they have really done that throughout the course of the season. It will be a difficult situation to control what they are all about offensively. It will be a big challenge for our defense. Defensively, I think they are physical. Their people up front are very strong. Their rush ends are bigger than the rush ends we've been dealing with. So there will be some things that we'll have to get done to get in order to get an offense that moves the ball consistently. They have good speed on their football team so obviously special teams are good for them. We are moving on, yesterday's practice I thought went very well. The kids are disappointed but yet they came out, moved around, and did some things that were very encouraging as a staff as we viewed yesterday's practice.

On Kellen Huston incident
"The incident with Kellen (Huston) and the young man after the ball game, I don't think there is anybody that feels good about it. I think everybody is down-hearted about what took place. Kellen certainly feels bad about what transpired as does our program. He was put in a situation that never should have been. Anytime fans storm the field, and there is an understanding that some of those fans are elated with the win and want to be with their players and congratulate them. But there are also those that have been heavily drinking and are out of control. So it's not a very good situation for players and coaches, for either team, when fans storm the field. As I viewed it, having talked to Kellen, as he was walking off I think it happened so fast, I think he felt he was in a situation that he did not know what was transpiring around him. The guy was rushing (Kellen), he was coming at and angle that would have made contact with (Kellen). (Kellen) looked up after unbuttoning his chin strap and I think reacted to the situation that he was in. No one feels any worse than Kellen, or the program. I hope that as things unfold, people understand what Kellen Huston is all about. He is a player that walked on, has contributed in our program, has been very team-oriented, never been in trouble, has a 3.93 grade-point average in pre-medicine, has never been confrontational, that I know of, ever in his life. I did speak with his parents today; they are certainly distraught over the situation. Really there are no positives to it for anybody. It is a situation that did happen. I will continue to look into it further. There are people that did see it; I have talked to some players that did see exactly what transpired. I will talk to two people that are not involved in the program, that people in our program have heard from, that were right there, and do want to contribute what they know about the situation. That's kind of where we're at on it. Hopefully, both parties will be able to move forward without major, major problems to either person. I know its probably being regretted by both sides.

Will Huston play Saturday?
As I mentioned, I will visit with a few other people and will make a determination after doing that. That has been my track record. I will try to get to the bottom of what has happened. I will talk to everyone that I need to talk to. I will be fair in the decision that I make. And from that you will find out as soon as I get all the information gathered.

What are the Big 12 and NCAA doing to help with the situation of fans storming the field?
"I think everyone is concerned about the potential problems of having fans storm the field. It has been discussed in Big 12 meetings. I know the Big 12 is looking at ways to try to control the situation in the Big 12. But it's around the country and when it does happen, there is generally not much good transpires from it. If you go back to the Wisconsin situation, the tragic situation where people were actually killed trying to get on the field. To times when quarters were so tight that you can't move, and really there is very little protection for anyone on the field. Regardless if you are talking player, coach or a fan so it's not good for anybody. I would like to think people will continue in the Big 12, I know they will, and people around the country to look at the situation, to find a way to help the situation. Is it resolvable? I don't know. They seem to be able to do it, to my knowledge in the pros. But it takes a great force in order to get it done.

Disciplinary action for Kellen Huston?
"We are coming from a disciplinary action there, and once I decide the discipline involved in that. I will make a decision and I'll let you know. I have visited with Steve Pederson about the incident. We have viewed the tape together. But I will make that decision.

What is your understanding of why he threw the punch?
"I believe he reacted to what he thought was a threatening situation that happened in less than a second.

What you know right now, what he did was appropriate?
"Striking someone is never appropriate. We all understand that as coaches, and we all understand as a member of this football team.

Has Kellen expressed any interest in apologizing publicly to the individual?
"I've talked to Kellen twice. He is distraught. I was attempting to talk to him this morning. He's in classes until 1:20 p.m. I will visit with him this afternoon some more and we'll take it from there.

Texas A&M and Dennis Franchione's system?
"They've played some good football teams. They got behind early in some games. I think any time you have a new coach, a new staff, there is that transition period where players are getting a feel for what you are doing. I think it is showing right now. I think they are playing better week by week. That is a sign of a good team and good coaching.

Why David Horne is still No. 2 on the depth chart and hasn't moved up?
"He had opportunities this game; he took advantage of those opportunities. Josh (Davis) in some previous games had major opportunities and took advantage of those. They're both being used in manner of speaking as number one I-backs. Josh certainly is looking that way. He will start, with the chances that he's got. He's performed very, very well. We have a third I-back that we want to give reps to and that's Cory (Ross). And so we are going to look at ways to try to do that. It's obvious that is someone if having an excellent game that you are more apt to stay with that guy and he's more apt to get more reps.

Avoid mistakes down the road, specific things you are doing in practice this week to avoid that?
"Reemphasizing ball technique and looking for opportunities to instruct players in taking great care of the football. You can go overboard, you can go to a point where it's on everyone's mind. We are trying not to do that. We talk about turnovers. We look at where we are rated in the Big 12. We look at where we are rated in the country in turnover margin. We look at what the opponent has done coming in. We talk about how important winning the turnover battle is. How important playing smart football is. And not making mistakes penalty-wise that are going to take you out of the game. So that is addressed on a weekly basis. You hope that things work well. Up to this point, we have not been a team that just threw the ball totally around, whether it's a fumble or interception. This game was on the verge of being ridiculous. We have been a team that at times has been penalized, but the type of penalties that we're receiving, six false starts are tough to explain and it's going to be very difficult for you to get anything done offensively with that combination of things. So we are continuously addressing turnover, penalties that continually have a major effect on the outcome of the game.

Did the fullback spot become more competitive after what happened on Saturday?
"I think Steve (Kriewald) did a very good job when he came in. I think DeAntae (Grixby) showed signs very early on of being an excellent fullback in our system. What we feel we have are three very good fullbacks. And really when you run a red zone offense, a goal-line offense sometimes, you have more than one fullback in the game. So we will get a chance to utilize the talent we have there.

Did Franchione bring his Alabama defense over?
"Yes, he brought his coordinators over, brought the schemes over. They're probably more multiple defensively than anybody we have faced. We saw an awful lot against Southern Miss. They're probably more of a blitzing team than anybody we've faced. So that is what we will be working on this week.

You normally get off field fairly fast. You stayed on field for some time after game.
"I stayed on field for a couple of reasons. I wanted to make sure all of our players were off the field. We have a group of players, it's probably around 15 or 20 who gather afterwards who take a knee. One of the last things I did on the field was move toward that group, and I did cut their prayer short and told them I wanted them to move toward the locker room right away. You never feel comfortable as a coach. I don't think you ever feel comfortable as a player when you are in those kinds of situations. The thing that you want to have happen is get your players in the locker room as quickly as possible, keep their helmets on, get in the locker room as quickly as possible. There was no quick and easy route to the locker room. We have to walk around the back side of the stands in the one end zone in order to get to the opposite side of the field, where our locker room is located. There is no roped off area that your players can go to. No protected area where your players can go through to get to the locker room. You are just up against what is coming your way as you are walking to the locker room.

"We talked extensively yesterday in team meeting, after practice in dealing with adversity. If you are in sports, at some point in time you are faced with dealing with adversity. If not in a given season, if your team goes undefeated throughout the course of the year, in your career you're going to have to face it. And actually you are going to have to face it in wins. You are going to have to face adversity when you have a bad play, being able to come back to the huddle, get yourself focused on what is ahead and moving forward. All those things are critical in athletics, and really are critical to being successful in life. We visited about adversity, handling it, with an understanding that in talking about adversity and handling it, no way were we feeling good about our performance. No way were we feeling good about an opportunity lost. There is a combination of things that I think you address with your team. They knew. It's not something where you have to stand up in front of them and say ?Fellas, we missed an opportunity. We didn't play our best football.' And I'm not taking anything away from Missouri and I don't mean to do that in any stretch of imagination. They played a game to win and they got it done.

Timeline of action taken in Huston incident
"People, in general, I think expect and want an immediate action taken. And I will try to get this thing resolved as soon as possible. We will attempt to do some things this afternoon. We are also preparing for a football game. I still consider myself a coach, also, in a manner of trying to help our team prepare, so I'll continue to move forward. I have found the job is multi-dimensional. There is no question about that. I will get things handled as quickly as possible. But I will not take a step until I feel I have gathered all the information that I can about the situation.

On Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne coming back to Lincoln
"Bill, I'm sure is doing a great job there at Texas A&M. His hands are full, my plate is pretty full. It has not been a situation where we have kept in contact with one another. I'm sure he will be glad to get back and visit with some old friends he hasn't seen in a while.

Jammal Lord in first three quarters
"I thought he had a great game for himself. He was doing it on the ground, doing it in the air at times. He showed to be a great runner at times, put things right where it needed to be throwing-wise. He played about as well as you would hope your quarterback would play in the first three quarters. He had some things happen in the second half. The one fumble was an attempted screen. The back got tangled up, couldn't get out of the screen and so he was forced to scramble and lost yards. If you know how it works, you cannot just, even outside the tackle box, throw the ball away across the line of scrimmage as you normally could outside the tackle box if it isn't a screen because you don't have linemen downfield. So there is an awful lot going through his mind as he was scrambling there at that point in time. It was too bad that we had some plays that lost such big yardage for us. It took us out of having a day offensively that could have been a great offensive day for us?the best offensive day we had this year. That last quarter prevented us from having a very good defensive day. There were some things along the way that we didn't do well. But all in all, we did enough things, that if we had finished it out right, to feel fairly good about some accomplishments.

On Jammal Lord throwing to (Steve) Kriewald on fourth-quarter pass
"He's part of the pattern. We did have other people involved in the pattern. He made the right read, he went to Steve (Kriewald). And Steve, as fullbacks go, has pretty good hands, but he did take his eyes off just prior to the ball getting there. You look at it on tape, you'll get a first down. Then you start a whole new series of downs, and you've got better field position.

Jammal's (Lord) progression
"You look at his passing percentage this year and that tells you he doing things at a lot better level than he did last year--that he's going through his reads better that he is finding the open guy. I believe his passing percentage is around 58 percent, which is really pretty good. There are a lot of factors that go into having a good passing attack.

Renewed sense of team focus
One thing about this team, I don't know that we lost focus going into this last ballgame. They're a great group to work with, coming out on a daily basis, being focused, wanting to get things done right. Were we physically and mentally and emotionally at our peak or close to the top? I don't think we were. I don't think we were at the level that we had been through the first five games. It's difficult to reach that level, game after game after game. And you are gong to find yourself having peaks. You're going to find yourself at times having come down into a valley. You just don't want those peaks to be too high and those valleys to be too low. If you can accomplish that, then you're probably doing your best week after week to meet the challenge."