Nebraska 55, Louisiana-Lafayette
Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009
Memorial Stadium - Lincoln, Neb.
Opening Statement
"I said on Tuesday I was pretty confident how our football team would respond. I said they’d come out and play with passion and play with great effort and that’s what happened. I love the attitude of this football team and how they came back after the trouble we had last week. I liked the way they came out. We didn’t play perfect by any means, but we did some good things in all phases. Now the season starts. Right now. That’s the way we look at it, that’s the way I look at it. It’s time to put the foot on the gas pedal and go because we have a long season ahead of us and a lot of challenges coming up."
On tonight’s performance
"I always want us to play better. I’m one of those guys who’s never satisfied, but obviously I’m proud. Like I said, I think there are some good things that came of it. I don’t get too high. I’m going to look at the film this week the same way I looked at it last week and that’s to evaluate what we need to get fixed and work to get better because of what happened out there for both the good and the bad."
On giving many players the opportunity to play tonight
"It’s great, especially on a night like tonight. It was a pretty special night obviously with the celebration and the 300th-consecutive. There were a lot of kids who got the chance to share in that and play in that. We dressed out the whole football team, the first time we’ve done that since I’ve been head coach. There were a lot of great things that came of it. We played well, we did some good things."
On Louisiana-Lafayette’s performance
"I give credit to Lafayette. They’re a good football team, well coached, and I’m sure they’ll have a successful year as they move on. I have a lot of respect for that program from my years down in Louisiana. I think Coach (Rickey) Bustle does a great job and I wished him luck the rest of the way."
On NU’s defensive progress throughout the non-conference schedule
"I thought we’ve made progress, but we’re nowhere near where we need to be in a lot of respects. We’re getting better. Like I said, we’re in the right galaxy now, where last year we were a few solar systems away. We have a lot more work to do. We have young guys who are growing into it. We’re playing well in some areas. We’re playing inconsistent in other areas. We’ll find out. We have a lot of challenges ahead of us and we have to keep getting better each and every day to meet those challenges."
On NU’s takeaways
"It’s something we’ve been trying to emphasize and we’ve been emphasizing all the time. It’s the first thing on the ?Keys of the Football Game’ all the time to defensively get the football out and attack the football. We said last week zero takeaways is unacceptable. It’s a matter of awareness, it’s a matter of attitude. It’s a matter of attacking the football and we did that more often."
On NU’s improvements going into Big 12 play
"Across the board. I think we have to play cleaner, we have to play with better tempo. We shoot ourselves in the foot too much still. Six penalties is too much. Those will reach up and bite you and hurt you. That’s just sloppiness. We have to fix that. The things we have to fix are all in our control. We have to fix ourselves in a lot of different respects and we’ll keep working to do that. We played well, we didn’t play near perfect. That’s what we’re all striving for across the board."
On the 300th-consecutive sellout
"The achievement’s special. I thought the atmosphere was great. It was a great celebration, something that when you’re coaching a football game it’s not something I concerned myself with tonight. Obviously I’ll look back and it will be a more special event for me. I had a job to do and that’s the way I look at it. It’s obviously a tremendous achievement by this program, the fans and the state of Nebraska and I’m just lucky to be a part of it."