Huskers Turn Attention to Tigers

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005
Coach Bill Callahan

 

Opening Statement
"Our staff is preparing hard for Missouri. They certainly present a unique set of challenges for our football team. It will be a fun environment to go down into. As we prepare for this game, the thing that stands out about Missouri is that their offense has changed somewhat in that they are more spread-oriented. I had a chance this past summer to sit down and really delve into the Utah spread offense concepts and watch Utah throughout a period of 12 games, and I would tell you [Missouri] is very similar to the type of offense that Utah ran last year and that they’re running down in Florida. They’ve added a lot of that mixture into their attack, and it’s pretty evident as you watch them play. Their system, their offense revolves around their quarterback, Brad Smith. I think he’s one of the most outstanding players in the country. He can beat you with his arm. He can beat you with his feet. He can create outside the pocket. They feature him in a lot of inside running plays, what we call insert runs. They have the ability to really spread you out. They spread you out with a lot of big wide receivers. They’re the biggest receiving corps I think we’ve seen to date. There’s not one receiver on the field who is under 6-3, so this will present some challenges to our secondary and how we match up and how we cover their fine receiving corps. They present a lot of problems. They give you a full agenda to work on throughout the week in preparation. It will be a real challenge to our entire team.

 

"On defense, they are aggressive. They’re a pressure front ? no doubt about that as you watch them play. They’ll give you a variety and a lot of mixture of different blitzes, an array of pressures that come from all over the field. They feature a lot of different players as they put pressure on the quarterback or the running back ? it doesn’t matter. If it’s just in the passing game, it’s no concern of theirs. They’ll blitz you whether you’re running the football or whether you’re throwing the football, so our pickup efficiency is going to have to be dead-on for this game.

 

"Just quickly, to briefly speak about special teams ? again, I think it’s going to be another deciding factor in this football game. They have an outstanding punt returner in (Marcus) Woods. We have to show the ability to condense the field. We have to be able to close the field with leverage in our coverage. We have to do a great job of being inside and in front, staying on the proper shoulder so that we can really do a great job of sliding and relocating to the ball carrier down field. Those are really the main challenges as we get into Missouri, and that’s what our focus is on right now."

 

On establishing momentum with the road win over Baylor

"I think it heightens our focus as we again go back on the road. It’s pretty evident that we have to remain at a heightened focus. Not turning the ball over and drawing upon the positives that we achieved at Baylor was key. Learning from that experience and learning from what we did well and didn’t do well will be crucial as we go into this game. It’ll be a more livened environment. It’ll be a little bit louder, a little bit more intense. I think both teams have a lot on the line as we go into this game. It’ll be pressure-packed. Every series will be key, so it will be important that we don’t waste a series in this particular game. The focus on the turnover game will be crucial. It will be paramount in terms of who wins and who loses. Going back to last week’s game, watching IowaState play Missouri down at Missouri, Mizzou did an excellent job of turning the ball over twice in the early portion of the game and go up to a 14-point lead. That stood out to me when we first started as a staff to watch the film on how quick and aggressive their defense can be and the ability that they have to make plays on that side of ball. We’re going to have to protect the ball. We’re going to have to do a better job that we did last week, and I think that’s the key. Then be able to create some type of turnover on the defensive side. How we complement each other in that respect will be important as we go down there."

 

On Missouri’s backup quarterback Chase Daniel

"I don’t know what they’re going to do, but we’re ready for it. We’re preparing for both quarterbacks. They are excellent. Chase Daniel is an outstanding quarterback. What he did in engineering that two-minute score and that drive and putting them on the board and bringing them back from behind to take the lead and going into overtime to win it was very impressive for a young guy. He has good poise in the pocket, and he locates receivers well. It seems like he has a real good understanding of what he’s doing. I just go back to a conversation we had in here three months ago about young quarterbacks coming out of high school and playing in these spread types of systems. This is an individual who has been in the shotgun. He has been in a spread system, so that carry-over and that transfer of knowledge and what he’s been able to do on the high school level ? it seems to me that it has transitioned smoothly for him. He looks consistent. He looks like he has great poise. He functions very well in terms of his ability to read and work through the progression. Then he makes plays outside the pocket, which he did on one of the plays that broke down. He shows a lot of poise, and for a young player to come in and play in a pressure situation and then to come back from behind and then to win it says a lot about his character."

 

On Missouri’s starting quarterback Brad Smith

"I think this quarterback presents a unique set of circumstances for us defensively because of what he is capable of doing. They feature him more in the running game. He is their leading rusher on the team. Obviously he has thrown for 60 percent, so he’s a more versatile guy than one we’ve seen. He’s not a one-dimensional player. You can’t force him into a one-dimensional attack and feel good about it. You have to be on your guard, and in terms of your contingencies, you have to keep them flowing throughout the game. If he breaks you down in one area and you don’t solve that problem, he can continue to break you down. There are so many factors that go into this game with a quarterback of that caliber because he can run, he can throw, and they do it out of a multiple formation where they spread you on every play. Every time you line up, there are going to be four or five wide receivers lined up. They love empty. There are going to be a lot of empty sets. There are going to be a lot of one-back ? what we call three-by-one, three receivers on one side, one on the other. They just spread the field. They just have a tremendous feel and confidence in that particular system. They’ve added to their attack, and because of that, they’ve been able to put more points on the board this year."

 

On Smith’s success within the spread attack

"I believe any time you spread the field, especially with big wide receivers and they force you to defend the field horizontally and vertically, it just limits you numerically. You have to make a decision whether you want to load up the box and defend the running game or defend the passing game. There’s a real fine intricacy, and there’s a real fine balance as to whether or not you’re going to make that commitment. Certainly you’re going to have to do it on some downs. I will say that. Other downs you’ll go in the other direction. He’s capable of reading that because the field is so spread out, and he utilizes the audible system as well as any quarterback we’ve seen. There are all sorts of problems, all types of things you have to prepare for as you get ready for this football team."

 

On Missouri’s offense

"I go back when I first started coaching, I remember the Dallas Cowboys featuring this system with Roger Staubach and Tom Landry. They were in the spread gun years ago. I just think that this system has taken off in college football with the mobile quarterback because it presents another issue. Numerically, you can run the quarterback more on particular runs, and that quarterback becomes more of a ball carrier than he does a true quarterback at times. If your quarterback has that ability, then it puts more pressure on the defense. That’s where you get caught numerically speaking. It’s a tough challenge. If you have a great one like a Brad Smith or like a Vince Young (Texas), they can present those types of problems for your team. I tell you, they are tough problems because they spread you out so much. This team has gone to bigger line splits similar to Texas Tech, so they’ve kind of evolved into their own system, and it’s worked well for them."

 

On Nebraska cornerback Cortney Grixby

"I think he’s done tremendous. I’ve always looked at him as a fiery competitor, a consistent competitor on a day-to-day basis, and a guy who takes that competitive value into a game. He transfers it easily. I would tell you it would be different if he wasn’t that way in practice and he was a gamer, but he’s not that. He’s a guy who prepares diligently. He’s focused. He’s a meticulous, detailed player in terms of his technique. He has excellent athletic ability where he can change direction. He can change the field on the punt return game as we saw Saturday night. Then, of course, as a competitor, covering one-on-one, man-to-man, he’s really improved his game. He was only a freshman a year ago. He’s only a sophomore. He’s only in year two of his collegiate career, and he’s made tremendous strides. He was challenged greatly down at Baylor on Saturday night. They went after him, and he knows that. I think everybody knows that they try to pick on him because of his size, and he takes that personally. He takes that as a challenge, and he goes out and competes. You’ll find that he’s a guy who is going to tighten up his coverage, make plays around your body. He’s going to obviously elevate when he has to. He’s going to play physical when he has to. He’s an excellent tackler. So he has all the qualities that you look for out of a corner. What he doesn’t have in size, he makes up for in his athletic ability and his toughness and his tenacity."

 

On covering Missouri’s receivers

"We’ve given him a lot of looks in our own offense. When we practice every day, we practice best-on-best and seven-on-seven. So Cortney sees Matt Schroeder. He sees Todd Peterson. He sees Chris Brooks. He sees big-bodied wide receivers, and we try to give them that challenge and that match-up on a daily basis. The transfer and the comfort zone for him to go into a game and feel confident are there because he’s done it in practice. I think Cortney’s the type of guy where it doesn’t matter how big, how small you are ? he’s going to challenge you. That’s they type of guy you want on the field."

 

On wide receiver Todd Peterson

"We have tremendous confidence in Todd. That’s pretty obvious by our ability to use him, and Coach (Ted) Gilmore is very confident in his receiving ability and also his blocking ability. You’ll see him in a lot of different roles. He’s capable of playing inside as a slot receiver. He can play the outside positions as well. He can run, and he has great height. You saw the great elevation he had in the play that he made against Baylor where he elevated and toe-line dragged right there at the end line to make that play. He has great ability and great upside for such a young wide receiver. I don’t want to get into comparative value, but we think the world of him."

 

On finishing the season strong

"I don’t even look that far into the future. I’m just trying to get through the Missouri week here. We’re just focused on Missouri. That’s where we are as a team, and that’s where I am as a coach. I don’t worry about anything else besides what we have to get done this week. Our team has had a tremendous consistency in that respect. We just focus in on what we have to get accomplished this week."

 

On the race for the Big 12 North

"We talk about the race. We talk about our position in it and what we need to do to get better and how the race could shape up. That’s all personal within the realm of the team, but the race is something that we talk about because that’s the main thing. That’s our goal."

 

On the finish of the 2004 team

"It’s an 11-week season, so it’s all relative I guess. I think we did the best we could, and it didn’t work out. I think this year we’re practicing a little bit more intelligently. We’re fresher. We’re into that point of the season right now with the remaining games to just focus in on the fundamentals early on and not beat our team up and keep them fresh for the stretch run. We want to be fresh for every game, and this one is the most important game that we have to get ready for. We’ve talked to our team about the early start because it is different. You just have to be able to adjust. I think the adaptability of the team, whether it’s playing at night, in the afternoon, late afternoon, on the road, at night, whatever it may be ? they’ve answered that. They’ve prepared themselves mentally for all the different contingencies and the different things that could come up with the scheduling."

 

On studying other teams’ offenses in the off-season

"I just want to learn about it. I’m trying to expand my knowledge of the game, and I’ve always loved to study film, and I like to look at other people’s offenses and defenses. I looked at SC hard this year. I studied them in-depth. I studied Utah. I studied a lot of people. Even throughout the conference, I studied the offenses and defenses inside and outside of the Big 12. It has to do with personal growth. I think you get a better feel of who you’re competing with and some of the problems and issues and trends that are current within college football. I try to keep myself up on that. I used to do it in pro football during the draft to get a pulse on what other teams are doing collegiately throughout the country when I looked at college kids and would write them up on reports. During the summer, I’d sit around and watch what we need to do to get prepared for the season. I think it’s always best to incorporate some of those concepts in your own offensive system to prepare your defense. I learned a long time ago from Bo Schembechler that you have to prepare your defense for what it’s going to see throughout the year in terms of the toughest opponents. We try to give our defense those particular plays and concepts and principles to prepare for, so they’ve seen them. They’ve already addressed the issues of what they have to adjust to in the course of training camp and during the course of the off-season so when those situations do arise, they are prepared for them, and our players have confidence that they’ve seen those particular looks and that they have the confidence that they can execute against it."

 

On Nebraska's offensive line in the Baylor game

"It was a packed-in front, like we had discussed. There were a lot of people. We constricted the formation. We condensed it to the point that it was really like goal-line football. The stride you make is that you run the ball 51 times, and as you grow, you get more confidence as you run. We still have to improve our average per attempt. We weren’t satisfied offensively with our attempt yardage in the rushing game. We all understand that it’s not so much about yardage per gain as much it is per attempt. Per attempt obviously allows you to chew some clock and kill some clock, and when you’re doing that and controlling drives, then you’re absorbing a lot of the clock. We still want to work on some of those facets of our play in terms of increasing the yardage per gain."

 

On Nebraska not being included in the Top 25 rankings

"I really don’t pay attention to it. We just keep working hard and keep our noses to the grindstones and let the experts all figure it out."

 

On the team's focus

"It’s really early, really premature to have a conversation about that. This team has had a tremendous focus and really zeroed in on the bull’s eye of what we have to accomplish on a week-to-week basis. We understand the dynamics of team football. I think that’s crucial. When you’re in that mindset and you deviate from it and start thinking about other things, it really has a tendency to distract you from what you’re doing. I would tell you that this team has been on the screws. They’ve had their eye on the bull’s eye in terms of what we have to get accomplished, and we’re working to that end. It’s all about improving yourself and being more consistent on a weekly basis, and this week is no different. As we go down and get ready for Missouri, the outcome of that game will be based on how we prepare and how diligent and how detailed we are and what has to get accomplished this week. The challenges are great. As you sit out there and you watch, listen and write, when you turn on that film projector and you start watching Missouri come at you and attack you with the variety of things they do, you have a full night as a coaching staff and a full day as a team to get ready for these guys."

 

On ?bottling’ Missouri’s offense

"It’s different. It’s totally unique. It’s a totally unique set of circumstances comparatively. Last year you can throw last year’s game out. It really has nothing to do with last year. When you change a system as they have changed it, that film is no good. You can look at it to study personnel. You can look at it to see how a guy runs and how he gets out of breaks and how he performs under pressure and things of that nature. From a schematic standpoint, from a structural aspect, you don’t get a lot out of it because it’s so different. It forces you to change. Our defense will be different than what it was a year ago. That’s just the way it is."

 

On linebacker Nick Covey moving to No. 2 on the depth chart

"He gets reps every practice. I don’t have any idea how that game is going to flow. Adam Ickes is the starter, and we have confidence in all our players. Like I said, with these depth charts, the players don’t read too much into that. They just line up and play. They know their roles. They know where they stand. The backups prepare as hard as the starters, and that’s what our team is all about. It’s kind of a selfless attitude about where they are and how they’re going to perform and how they’re going to inject into the contribution on the team."

 

On Nebraska's group of tight ends

"I don’t look at them as tight ends because they’re not tight - they’re open. You can call them open ends. They’re out in space. They’re not what you normally see down at the line of scrimmage where they’re boxed in into a three-point stance with a two foot-split next to the offensive tackle coming off and trade-blocking or double-teaming. These guys are out in space. They’re using their big bodies to create mismatches against linebackers and safeties, so we’re more conscious of that aspect. Let alone, they can block in space. I don’t want to disrespect their ability not to do that, but for what they do, they do it well. It will present a real challenge for our people."

 

On Nebraska's increase in defensive sacks this year

"I think our front is improved. I look at our front across the board and what we did in the off-season and spring and training camp and the emphasis that we placed. I think John [Blake] has done just a terrific job of getting those guys to play as a unit. They played well off of each other. They’re experienced players. They’re upperclassmen. They’ve been around for a while. They’re doing a much better job using their hands. They know the pass rush techniques that we want to employ, and they’re building off it. Week in and week out, you see guys using a variety of moves, and they’re learning. They’re stacking their moves. They’re adding the new move to their pass rush. You don’t give them a lot, you just give them one thing per week to work on versus a match-up so you’re always throwing something different at a particular blocker. But that group has improved, and they need to improve for us to be successful. That’s an area that we pointed to early in the season that we said needed to perform well. We felt it was an area of strength of our team and that we had to draw upon it. That’s what our players have done. They feed off the energy of our defensive line."

 

On the advantages of Nebraska’s offense featuring many players

"It’s a team game. Everybody plays a vital role in what we do, whether we decide to run it 50 times or throw it 50 times. Everybody has a part. Everybody has a role. That’s the way we’ve always approached offensive football. Some players are better than others at certain things that they do, and it all really comes down to what a defense is going to allow you to take advantage of. If they’re allowing you to throw an out-route or allowing you to throw a square-in or a post-route, and you can throw it five times and hit it, so be it. Then all of a sudden they deem you a go-to guy. It’s really what the circumstances are out there and what you’re taking advantage of. This system has been player-friendly from that respect where you can distribute the ball and get a lot of people involved."

 

On tight end Matt Herian’s status

"There’s no update. He’s continuing his rehabilitation, and we just take it week by week. He won’t play this week."

 

On being prepared with pressure situations for the Big 12 North race

"I just know we’ve been in the games we’ve been in. It is what it is. Missouri’s been in some pretty good games themselves. They came back from behind to win a key divisional game last week. They played a heck of a game against OklahomaState the week before, and they’ve had some excellent road victories and home victories where they’ve come from behind. I think it’s pretty comparative in that sense."

 

On playing a day game versus a night game on the road

"I would tell you it doesn’t matter to us who we play or where we’re going to play, and it really doesn’t matter in that respect. The only thing that matters to us is how we play, and that’s what we go by. The environment, the weather conditions, the time of day ? it’s really irrelevant to what we have to get accomplished as a team."

 

On quarterback Zac Taylor’s sliding technique

"He knows what he’s doing. He’s a guy who has played a lot of football, and he’s comfortable doing what he does. I just want to make sure he protects himself. He has a pretty good feel for where the first-down marker is, so if he does extend forward and he does go head first and decides to ?Pete Rose’ it, I’m alright with that. If he’s going to be a guy who slides, I’m OK with that as well as long as he protects himself and protects the ball. He’s been pretty smart about that. He’s at-risk a few times, but you watch all these other quarterbacks around the country, and they’re running counter plays up inside like tailbacks with this spread system. So for a little scramble where he ducks and dives and nips and tucks a little bit, that’s OK. But we’re not going to feature him on any quarterback draws or any counter plays or anything like that".