Nebraska Coach Bill Callahan
Postgame Quotes
vs. Kansas State
Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Opening Statement (Audio)
"This was a great day for our seniors. It was great with the way the fans honored them. We have a lot of respect for Kansas State. It was good to see them. They played hard. They're a good football team. Sometimes in this game, it gets a little crazy. It can go either way, so we've been on both sides of the spectrum now. Anything can happen on any given Saturday, that's for certain. I'm proud of our players and our staff, and we're looking forward to (the next game) against Colorado."
On the offensive effort led by quarterback Joe Ganz (Audio)
"That's four years of experience. Receivers, I thought, played well and ran great routes against the coverage that we were facing. I thought our offensive line had their best protection day. When you face a 34 defense, you're going to have times where it's not a great pass rush because of the way that it's structured. I thought our offensive line did a tremendous job of pick-ups. I thought we gave Joe (Ganz) plenty of time. We're real fortunate."
On Kansas State (Audio)
"I just want to say publicly I appreciate Coach (Ron) Prince's remarks during the week of preparation. He was very complimentary to us and our staff, and he is a class individual. He has nothing to hang his head over. These are the types of things that happen. They've happened to us, and they've happened to a lot of teams across the country. Coach Prince is a good coach. They're a good football team. There's no question that they'll bounce back. You just get one of those days when everything goes right, or things could go wrong. Like I said, we've been on both sides of the spectrum."
On Nebraska's game preparation this week (Audio)
"I thought our kids played really well. I thought they practiced really well. To go through the preparation and through the weekly preparation in my mind, I go back and I think about how well they've done. To their credit, they stayed focus. It's easy, after getting blown out with 76 points, to come back and refocus and play the game. I said this in the press conference during the week -- the kids are resilient. They continue to be resilient. It's a different dynamic in college football."
On the special teams
"I think we played more complete. I thought that the players, especially in special teams, were challenged against a good football team. I thought Courtney Grixby did an excellent job of returning the ball. I'm really proud of his efforts today. I thought we rose to the challenge against the No. 1-ranked kickoff return and punt return units. I thought we did that well. We did kick a little bit better at times. As time went on, I thought (Adi Kunalic) got better. The special teams really ignited our play with Courtney's return especially."
On Courtney Grixby's 94-yard kick return (Audio)
"Any time you can answer a score with a score, it takes some wind out of your sails. You have to go back out there and do it again, and our defense held. I thought our defense played well. We attacked their scheme a little bit differently than we had in the past few weeks. It was a different offense and a different challenge, and our defense rose to it, especially those young corners out there. We played a lot of (Prince) Amukamara today and played a lot of (Anthony) Blue, and they did a nice job."
On junior quarterback Joe Ganz's performance in his second career start (Audio)
"I'm proud of him. I'm really proud of him. He threw for over 500 yards and seven touchdowns. I think that's really good. He made plays outside the pocket as well. I'm just really proud of him. He deserves it. He deserves all the accolades you want to heap on him. He's really done well. He's persevered through four years, and he's gotten an opportunity in starting last week and now starting this week. I think he's been outstanding. I'm really happy for him."
On what today's win means for NU players (Audio)
"For the players, I think it's great that they played hard and played well against a good football team. I think if you look at the numbers and had a chance to see where they were ranked statistically speaking, they were exemplary in a lot of areas. We were challenged. There's no question about it, we were challenged. This was a real good win for us today."