Nebraska 35, Iowa State 17
Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Opening Statement (Audio)
"That was a good win for our team out there today. I thought in all three phases, we made plays. It was great to see our defense respond the way they had to respond in the first quarter. We put them a little behind the eight-ball, and then we turned the ball over and had a couple of coverages on special teams that extended the drive. Overall, we made enough plays to win this game. I'm really proud of that. The kids played hard. Their efforts are improved, and right now we're looking forward to getting ready for Missouri."
On Nebraska's defense (Audio)
"I thought they played physical. At times, they showed, they played good, physical football. I know there are some plays they'd like to have back. But I thought overall, they made the plays they had to make to score and get off the field at times. We put them in a bad position in that first quarter. We turned the ball over three times, and whenever you do that, you're going to give up a lot of time of possession."
On cornerback Cortney Grixby's 51-yard kickoff return (Audio)
"I thought it was huge -- a great spark, a great lift. When you're kicking into the wind, we felt the conditions out there today were really going to be focused and isolated on special teams. It had a dramatic effect in a lot of ways. Yardage in special teams was really big. That's why I mentioned our specialists, our kicking teams and our kickers and coverage units and what they did. Hitting yardage makes up for a lot of things."
On I-back Marlon Lucky (Audio)
"He had over 100 yards. We were trying to separate and get into a run-oriented attack, and he just didn't quite get there. I have to give Marlon a lot of credit. He had a nice breakout run there in the third quarter that started us off fast. I thought he did an excellent job scoring on that first possession. We try to mix and match, but we couldn't get into that rhythm that we wanted. We couldn't get that established."
On taking the Iowa State win as motivation for Missouri next week (Audio)
"I think we have to get better. That's the great thing about coming off a win like this. You'll see plenty that you can improve from and plenty that you'll certainly learn from and get better. Just like in a game, win or lose, you take the positives and the negatives and you go back to work. You refocus. It's good to come back with the win because it builds your confidence level and really reinforces the things that you're trying to get accomplished with your team. There is some good positive reinforcement from that aspect."
On the play of linebackers Bo Ruud, Steve Octavien and Corey McKeon (Audio)
"They were playing sound football, solid football. We were fundamentally sound in a lot of areas. They ran that zone linebacker play with the blocker going across the formation. They were trying to run the tight zone. They made some yards on that. We had practiced that play quite a bit this week. I think it was basically a function of doing what we normally do -- just getting better, that's the focus."
On turnovers (Audio)
"I think it's huge whenever you can turn the ball over and create a new, short field for yourself. It takes away the field of possession. There's no question, we value turnovers and the ability to make them and get off the field and not allow a team to score points. I think that was big."
On linebacker Bo Ruud's 93-yard interception return (Audio)
"He's a good football player. He's very instinctive, and he has great awareness. He's the type of player that as the game progresses, he can feel and sense what's going to happen. I think we saw that a year ago in the Texas game in the Red Zone where he made a play on one of their tricks. He's a very smart, intelligent, savvy player. We're very fortunate to have him on the field for us. He's a great kid. He has great lineage, and he's a football junkie. He loves the game, and I'm just proud of him. It was a collective effort to go the length of the field, so I came away really encouraged by that play."