Nebraska Weekly Press Conference Quotes

Nebraska continued game week activities for its matchup with Nicholls State Tuesday with a press conference featuring Coach Bill Callahan and select Husker players. Coordinators Kevin Cosgrove and Jay Norvell addressed the media following afternoon practice. The following is a detailed transcript of the press conference and post-practice quotes. Audio clips from the press conference can be found by clicking here.

Nebraska Weekly Press Conference
Pregame vs. Nicholls State
Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2006

Head Coach Bill Callahan
Opening Statement
“Our focus right now is Nicholls State. We’re preparing for a very unconventional offense which employs a triple-option attack. It’s very different than what we’ve been preparing for in the last year and this preseason.

“Philosophically, as you watch Nicholls State, their attack is predicated on running the football, maintaining ball possession and limiting the ball possessions of their opponent. A year ago they averaged 69 plays per game, and out of those, 64 were rushing attempts, on average. So this is a team that is totally committed to running the football. They are committed to their attack and their style. They rushed the football for over 364 yards per game last year, averaging over five yards per rush. If you look at them, they validate it on film. What they try to do is secure 1st-and-10, and they go about that in a very simplistic manner. If they get that, they are on schedule as far as down-and-distance is concerned.

“Our concern is that they’ll try to limit our possessions, try to chew up clock and they’ll also try to go for it on fourth down. If you look at their attempts a year ago on fourth down, they went for it quite a bit of the time. They average about three fourth-down attempts a game. So this is a team where they try to limit you to eight possessions a game, and that’s two per quarter for the offense, and so we’re going to have to do a great job to stay disciplined, play assignment football on the defensive side of the ball and take advantage of every opportunity we can when we do get our offensive possession.”

On the competition offered by Nicholls State
“I think college football is challenging, and I think this is going to be a great challenge for our team. Even though they’re a I-AA team, I don’t want to say they’re ?only’ a I-AA team because I think it is pretty noted throughout this conference what a I-AA team can do. These teams come into an opponent’s house trying to steal a victory and trying to stay in a ballgame. The longer you keep them in the ball game the more hope they have. The more they start believing, and all the sudden it becomes a heck of a game in the second half. So this is going to be a challenge for our football team, and I really believe that the good teams maintain their focus and take care of business.”

On the ability of the team to focus despite an upcoming game against USC
“Our senior leadership has been great for our focus. The main thing that we focused on in the preseason is maintaining a one-game approach. There’s no sense of worrying about anything, because they can’t control it until that point. So we just have to focus on what we have to get done this week. I think that’s a great mistake, and you can see patterns of that in college football. We certainly don’t want to be a part of that. We need to do everything we can to win the upcoming football game, and our preparation is dedicated to that. We went out yesterday and had a very good practice, and we’re going back out there today in full pads to do the same.”

On the preparation for Nicholls State this week
“This game and this week is strictly, totally about Nicholls State. It has nothing to do with USC. We’ll handle USC when we get to USC. This week is about Nicholls State for our football team. I want to be very clear about that.”

On controlling and managing the Nicholls State offense
“It’s assignment football, and the thing about assignment football is that whenever you’re playing the option attack, or wishbone-type philosophy, it comes down to discipline of assignment. And a lot of explosiveness in big plays occurs with assignment. It’s not so much what you’re doing as it is securing who has the fullback, who has the quarterback and has the pitch. You’ve got to secure that aspect of the triple option, and that’s challenging football. It’s great football. I love option football.”

On the last time the team Coach Callahan prepared for a wishbone opponent
“I think it goes way back to when I was at Illinois and we were playing Army in the Peach Bowl. I think they threw three halfback passes in that game, and I think that’s another factor you have to look at. When a team only averages seven passes a game, those are shot plays, meaning that those are seven shots that they’re going to take down the field. That’s a tough dynamic. There’s a lot of conflict in controlling everybody in the run game, as well as all those assignments, and being prepared to take care of the big play. That’s the conflict in covering the option. So that’s the thing that’s going to be challenging for us and fun for our kids. We’re excited about the opportunity to play Nicholls State.”

On the results in the Big 12 in the opening weekend of football
“History tells us pretty well that it can happen to anybody, anywhere. It’s just a matter of on that given day, if you’re not ready to play, ready to perform, anything can happen. Again, good teams handle their business, so we’ve got to handle our business on Saturday.”

On his experience with the option
“I think it’s a fun offense if you just want to sit there and pound the ball all day. It has it’s qualities that are unique and interesting. My son ran it in high school, and that’s something that’s still a primary emphasis in high school football. I loved watching Air Force and Navy film to see what they were doing in their running game. It was pretty intriguing to see what they were doing with their running options, their speed options, their freeze options, and their load and counter options. That’s fun football. I have a little background in that from my high school days.”

On what Nebraska will concentrate on for the offense against Nicholls State
“Ball control, primarily. That they try to maintain ball control,and try to be more balanced as opposed to more one-dimensional. I think theoretically we’re all trying to control the clock, secure first downs and create big plays when we get the opportunity. It’s just a different way of blocking (with the Nicholls State offense). If you look at the blocking patterns of wishbone teams that run the football and run the triple option, they really get after your legs. And by that I mean there’s a lot of cut blocking internally, a lot of scramble blocking. They try to tie up your legs to prevent you from getting to the ball. So you’ve got to prepare a little differently, the techniques are a little different. That’s why we went out Monday, to get an extra day. We changed the schedule for the first four weeks, and we’re just trying to utilize that day as an extra day for us to prepare, and we certainly need that when we’re preparing to face a wishbone team. We’re going to try to maximize our preparation with that in mind.”

On the challenges that Nicholls State will present
“This is a fine football team. There will be some carryover in the fact that they’re an over-under type front. We’re seeing the same variation of coverages that everyone is playing. There is carryover. They lose eight starters from a year ago, so they have a lot of young guys on the defense side of the ball. They have one veteran safety who I’ve got a lot of respect for. He’s a versatile guy with a lot of range. They have a defensive tackle, a MIKE linebacker and a free safety coming back, so that’s a big point for them in terms of youth.  They’re pretty athletic. They’re interesting. Last year, they played the top I-AA teams very well, and they captured their conference championship. They went 6-4 a year ago, and they were right in the mix as a good football team. (Nicholls State Head Coach) Jay Thomas has done an excellent job out there.”

On junior Carl Nicks
“We were pleased with Nicks’ performance. He showed minimal error in his game, and he showed the ability to play physical and play up-tempo, which you want to see out of your newcomers and new players. You want to see how those guys are going to transfer what they’ve done on the practice field to game day, and really what their game-day tempo looks like.”

On the performance of junior Maurice Purify in the Louisiana Tech game
“Maurice Purify really came alive on the one deep crossing route that he caught for a 26-yard gain. Watching him run that route full speed was very impressive. A lot of our guys, as I watch them, they’re getting their legs back and they’re getting confidence in the system. A lot of the newcomers are doing really well. I was happy with (junior offensive lineman Carl) Nicks, (junior wide receiver Maurice) Purify and (junior I-Back) Kenny Wilson. I think we saw (Wilson's) speed on the perimeter and what he can do when he gets on the outside edge. I was really pleased with that, watching those guys compete at game-tempo, at a high speed and at a high level.”

On whether the performance of junior I-back Brandon Jackson will earn him more reps in future games
“I think so. I said after the game that I wanted to get him more carries and more reps. He’s been integral in the passing game, he’s been an outstanding protecting I-back and he’s been an outstanding third-down I-back for us. He can create a big play in the passing game as well as the running game. So absolutely we want to get him more touches. We want to get them all more touches if we can.”

On the status of junior cornerback Cortney Grixby
“The cast is off, and I think his shoulder affected him more than his hand against Louisiana Tech.”

On the progress of the younger guys at the cornerback position
“All of these guys are working. (Junior defensive back Titus) Brothers, (junior defensive back Tyrell) Spain and (freshman defensive back Corey) Young, they’re all working. (Coach Phil Elmassian) is working all of them. You can’t give them enough work. The young guys, they’re getting more experience every day. The more opportunity that we can get to have them in the game, they’ll benefit from that. Right now it’s just a matter of continuing to prepare them, continuing to develop their skills and their traits, for the inevitability of them playing. I think a lot of teams are in that situation. You get hurt at one position and it’s an oddity, but it happens. Years ago when I was coaching at Northern Arizona, I think I lost eight offensive linemen, and six out of the eight had ACL injuries. We went up to play Montana and we ended up bringing two defensive guys to play in the offensive line who hadn’t even played. They ended up doing well and the game went into triple-overtime. You’ve just got to stay with it, stay consistent and keep coaching and trying to bring these guys around."

On what the coaches are looking for in placing guys at the cornerback positon
“We’re just looking for an athlete. A guy who has feet, speed and change of direction. A guy who has cover skills in terms of body control. All those traits, they’re all essential to playing that cornerback position. You try to work them out there in that open field the best you can, and you try to help them with different coverages. Sometimes they’re more comfortable in certain techniques, so you have to just keep working with them to try to find out what their strengths are, and that’s kind of the process that you go through as a coach.”

On the possibility for senior defensive back Isaiah Fluellen to receive a medical hardship
“I had a great talk with Mr. (Melvin) Fluellen and of course (senior defensive back) Isaiah (Fluellen), and we’ll do everything we can to petition with the NCAA, but I don’t know how they’ll look at that.”

On special teams
"Just the amount of coverage, we're just trying to fill voids and gaps and techniques in coverage right now. We're just trying to be more solid in terms of our leverage on the ball.  We have some guys outside of their lanes that we’re trying to discipline a little bit better, so that’s the extent of that, I mean we’re just trying to get better in coverage. And when you get better in coverage, when the balls start flying for real, then everything changes a little bit. It’s just a matter of cleaning up a few techniques, a few details, in the reads of those coverage people going down on the kickoff, or going down on the punt. Just trying to find the ball, locating it, and then utilizing their leverage techniques to stay inside and in front of the ball."

On health of freshman defensive back Anthony West
"He’s fine. He’s practicing. He’s still out there competing and practicing."

On how the I-back system went on Saturday
"Pretty good, I think it was pretty good Saturday. We’ll see, every game’s different. It’ll just be a matter of how the game unfolds and what we’re allowed to do and what we’re capable of doing in terms of featuring our backs. But we’ll keep the same system, we’ll keep running them by committee and see where we’re at."

On the placement of kickoffs
"We were trying to pin the ball down in there, between the numbers and the hash. I thought Jordan (Congdon) did a pretty good job. We can get better, but I thought overall we did a nice job. You’re always looking for optimal hang time, optimal position and location of the ball to try and pin a return team into the boundary and force them to come to the wide field or force them to come up into the short field into the boundary. So primarily, those are the primary returns that we’re seeing and that’s what we’re trying to get accomplished objectively on that particular phase of our game. So overall, he did a pretty good job."

On the success of third downs
"It was a good area for us on Saturday, but it’s too early to say why or whatever. It’s very early. It’s the first game and we have such a long way to go. I’ll let you know a few games down the line where we’re at in third downs."

On the safeties
"I felt real solid in terms of Tierre Green and (Andrew) Shanle, really solid play. I thought the guys did a nice job. I think we only had 50 some snaps, but that was the extent of it. I think they were really solid, they played well and did a decent job tackling. We can get better ,but I thought overall coverage was solid, tackling was good abd entries were excellent."

On the leadership role of the safeties
"I think it’s big because they have some young guys behind them, so they have to be able to provide the example and help with the tutoring of those young players, (Rickey) Thenarse and (Major) Culbert, and help them along. But just the overall communication process in the back end is so critical. One error on a shift, one error on a motion can be costly. These guys are tuned in pretty good and I thought by and large they did a good job Saturday."

On the performance of junior cornerback Andre Jones
"Very solid, very solid for an opening game.  There are a lot of things he can look back on and improve and get better from, but I thought overall he was very solid."