Nebraska Coach Bo Pelini

Nebraska Football Weekly Press Conference
Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009
Memorial Stadium - Lincoln, Neb.
Pre-Iowa State

On if there was anything he thought the team did well in the Texas Tech game

“Yeah, there were a number of things we did well and there are a number of things we have to get fixed. It’s really no different than any other game. You never play perfect. It’s never as good as you think. It’s never as bad as you think, and you have to look at it the same way. Things you did well, you have to keep emphasizing those things, and the things that you need to get fixed you get fixed.”

 

On what things he thought they did well

“We did a lot of things well. Defensively, I thought we rushed the passer really well. Most of the time we did some good things in coverage. We didn’t make a couple plays at times. For the most part we tackled well. Offensively, there was some good things in there, just as a group we were inconsistent. It was a guy here a guy there, especially in the running game. One guy on offense, one guy breaks down, you end up with somebody free and a gain that could be a breakout gain, one guy makes a play it makes it look like everybody screwed up when it was one guy here, one guy there. We hurt ourselves at times with penalties. Some of those things happen. We just didn’t play a clean game. We didn’t execute very well on a consistent basis.”

 

On the two third-and-long conversations Texas Tech had on the first drive

“We didn’t make plays. That’s the way I look at it. They made a play, but we didn’t make plays. The kid made a great catch. We had two guys there on the first thing and we bat the ball in the air and the other guy doesn’t hit the guy. We had two guys going for the ball. It’s a shame. They threw the ball into coverage. That’s what you want them to do. You have to win in that situation. That just hurt. That drive, it’s a drive that shouldn’t have happened, but you have to make those plays. That’s the game of football. You have make plays and we didn’t do that in that situation. It kind of took the momentum away from us to start the football game. It’s not the way we wanted to start, obviously.”

 

On IowaState quarterback Austen Arnaud

“He’s a good player. They’re running a different offense than they did a year ago for the most part. He does some good things. He can run, he throws, he makes pretty good decisions. I think they’re playing to his strengths. They do a good job.”

 

On what they are looking for from their quarterbacks this week at practice

“Execution. It’s always across the board at every position we have, it’s always in essence a game-time decision. We don’t make announcements and things like that. You earn your playing time by how you play during the week and your execution during the week. Right now at that position nothing has really changed. That’s where it stands right now.”

 

On if Zac Lee is the starter until it is taken away from him
“Yes.”

 

On how close Cody Green is to taking the starting spot

“There are a lot of if, ands, or buts. You watch the film and you evaluate and you play the guy that’s ready to win football games for you. There is a lot of things that play into that. I’ll expand on that more if you guys want me to. To me it’s pretty cut and dried. You evaluate all their snaps. You evaluate what they’re doing. Somebody has to execute and do the things necessary all the time to win football games for you. It’s real easy to magnify the quarterback position, but there are a number of times it’s not the quarterback position, it’s what’s happening around him. Unfortunately, it sometimes always falls on him. As a quarterback, when you evaluate the quarterback position like any other position, you have to evaluate what they’re doing in the given situations and give a fair assessment of what’s going on and who’s prepared. That goes not only in games, but in practice and who’s doing the things necessary to have consistent execution.”

 

On if Cody Green’s running ability helps them make a decision on the quarterback spot

“Yeah, he’s a capable runner.”

 

On what he has seen from the offensive line

“I thought the offensive line, for the most part, did some pretty good things in pass protection. It kind of goes the same way as to what I was saying before. The way I was saying the guys around the quarterback have to help the quarterback, the same way the quarterback has to help the offensive line. It works hand in hand. There were a couple times where the offensive line didn’t help the quarterback. There were a couple times where the quarterback didn’t help the offensive line and it’s a growing process. There are times where we held the ball to long, where we stepped up when we didn’t need to. That’s part of the deal. You have to work through those things and improve in those areas and make sure we’re all working together so we all give each other the best opportunity to have success.”

 

On if having general execution problems six weeks into the season has him scratching his head

“No, it’s interesting because I see ourselves on offense going through many of the same things we went through a year ago on the defensive side of the ball. We have some inexperienced guys. We have some new guys. We have some guys we’re tying to find the right combinations for. We have youth on offense. We’ve gotten hit a little bit by the injury bug and some different things. You don’t make any excuses, obviously, that isn’t what I do, but it’s very similar to what we went through on defense a year ago. The inconsistency, part of the process of developing guys and developing that consistency of execution and that culture. You knew going into the season a little bit, the main guys we lost were on the offensive side of the ball, the leadership on that side of the football. What that brings is inexperience and youth. It’s where we were a year ago on defense and it’s where I see us right now on offense. What I’ve learned over the years is you can’t panic. You just stay with your process. You stay with what you are doing. You keep teaching and keep developing and in time you turn things that are inconsistent into something that is consistent and a strength. But you don’t do that by panicking and overreacting. I’m going into my 20th game as a head football coach here at Nebraska and one thing I think I’ve said in here a lot, I don’t get real high and I don’t get real low. I don’t overreact to wins or losses. I believe in the process. Myself, the staff, we stay right on focus, right on par with the process and really look at things in a black and white manner. Watch the film, stay with the process, continually and constantly evaluate and keep working and keep the work ethic going in such a way that you stay consistent in your effort and you keep working to improve. You can’t ride the highs and lows. You have to stay consistent in your approach in the process and eventually it wins out over time. I believe in that.”

 

On if he is seeing more light bulbs come on in practice week after week

“Yeah, I see more progress in some areas than I do others. We ride these guys pretty hard to get the results that we want. Our want to, the effort is there, but you have to push for the constant consistency of execution. It’s a day to day thing. It’s something that you have to earn. You have to earn the right to play great and that happens over time. You just have to keep chipping away at it, chipping away at it, chipping away at it, and it has to happen on a very consistent manner. Like I said, I’ve learned that over the years that’s the only way to have success over the long term.”

 

On if he must sometimes use his gut instinct when deciding what player to play

“Absolutely. You know most of the time, grades, situations, practice and how you practice, I really have a firm belief you’re going to play on Saturday how you practice and how you go during the week. I’m in the fortunate, sometimes unfortunate, situation of being able to watch every snap. You can’t make rash decision. You have to look at the bottom line and what somebody is doing consistently. As a coach you end up with a lot of information in front of you because you have a lot of snaps and you have to take all those things into account when you make the decisions. You can’t just make rash, emotional decisions in this position because you do that and you find yourself doing things for the wrong reasons. I always believed you take the information that is given to you and you make the decisions that are right for you. You can’t let outside influences or opinions, or people, I shouldn’t say uneducated, not necessarily as informed as us, informed as what we are seeing on a day-to-day basis, influence what we do because I believe in those situations you do things for the wrong reasons. A great example I have is last year before we played Missouri. I was frustrated where we were defensively and I made a rash, bad decision in how I approached that football game. I went for a quick fix. There are no quick fixes in life. It’s about hard work. It’s about fundamentals. It’s about technique. It’s about staying with your beliefs and your principles and continually stressing those things. Eventually, over time, it wins out. That’s just what I believe in. That’s the only way to have success over the long term.”

 

On if there are concrete things the coaches can do to prevent penalties or is it more of a situational thing that players have to learn

“We constantly, constantly talk to them about penalties. I think you hit it on the head. There are some penalties that you can control. There’s some that you can't. There’s some that are judgment calls and there’s some that are pretty cut and dried. I think it was pretty obvious the ones that hurt us the other day. Some of them, what are you going to do?”

 

On if he thinks laying into the officials can be counterproductive for the team

“You know what the interesting thing is, I think this year I’ve been pretty tame with the officials. I’ve been making a pretty conscious effort of doing that. Sometimes you find yourself in a situation where there is only so much you can stand. I found myself in that situation the other day and you have to continually work at it. I’ve been probably the calmest I’ve ever been in my career this year. I continually work at that. Believe me, you always have to keep working on things and look at yourself in the mirror and get better at things. I was frustrated the other day. It really didn’t happen until the second half, until late, is when I got really frustrated. I don’t want to get into all the reasons why. I have to work on being too animated probably. I’m not trying to be. That’s just the area I have to work on.”

 

On if that is something that Athletic Director Tom Osborne talks to him about

“No. It’s pretty obvious. I’m a pretty intelligent guy. I know when you have to fix things. That’s about the end of that.”

 

On Roy Helu’s health status and how they will handle him during practice this week

“Roy is doing better. He’s improving. He’ll be out there today. We don’t want to get him hit so we’ll probably put him in a green jersey to limit the hits. That’s more of a precautionary measure when you see that happen. He had a stinger and that’s part of football.”

 

On how those kind of nagging injuries can affect an I-back like Helu

“It can affect anybody. You want to feel right all the time. Usually when you’re six games in and the type of football you play, you’re going to have bumps, bruises, nicks. He’s a tough guy and I think Roy will respond. If not we feel like we have some capable guys to help him carry the load.”

 

On what they are doing this week in practice to improve the power running game

“It’s just something that we’re emphasizing, I’m emphasizing. We just need more of it. We need more work at it. We need more reps at it. It’s about hard work and getting down in the trenches and doing it. You get what you ask for and you just have to keep working at it and keep stressing it. It’s something that we have to be able to get done.”

 

On if calling for more of a power running game is like the change the offense experienced after last year’s Missouri game

“I don’t know. I have a belief that it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it. It’s about fundamentals. It’s about technique. It’s about effort and improving in those areas and playing with a kind of attitude. You don’t win football games by just out-scheming people. It’s about what you do or it’s about how you’re doing things. That’s the area that I believe needs addressed. To me, I just have a strong belief in fundamentals and technique. I think that’s what you have to lean on. Obviously, schemes are always a part of it, but it’s about doing things and doing things the right way.”

 

On what he has seen from Iowa State that is different from a year ago

“I recall the IowaState game from a year ago. They’ve changed offensively. They’re a lot more spread out, I can say that. I think they’re playing harder. Right now they are a lot better football team then they were a year ago. Obviously, that has to be attributed to Paul (Rhoads) and his staff. They’re doing a good job.”

 

On Iowa State running back Alexander Robinson

“Good player. He’s a good player. He runs hard. They stay committed to it. They’re going to run the football. They’re going to be committed to running the football. Obviously, he’s a very capable running back.”

 

On if he is more involved now in evaluating the offense then he was at the beginning of the season

“Somewhat, yeah.”

 

On if he is trusting Offensive Coordinator Shawn Watson to make the final decision at quarterback

“I have input in everybody that walks onto the field, but obviously I lean heavily on Wats. He’s the guy who coaches him and he has a heckuva lot more experience in that area than I do. I have total and the utmost trust in his evaluation and his decision-making ability.”

 

On if the number of snaps each quarterback was getting during practice changed this week

“Not much. We don’t really change how we do that. We rep, kind of how we’re going about things, most drills we rep three guys. It’s never just about one guy. It’s about having one guy, developing a backup and developing a guy down the line. That really doesn’t change regardless.”

 

On how Zac Lee has responded to the criticism over the past couple days

“I think he’s done good. Obviously it’s going to effect the guy. He feels like the whole state of Nebraska is against him. That will effect anybody. I’ve been there as a coach. You fight through it. You perservere. You take an ?I’ll show you’ attitude. It’s disappointing when people boo and people do those things, but that’s human nature and that’s who they are. You can’t let it effect you. You have to fight through and you find out what’s deep inside of you. That’s disappointing to me that that happens. People take that attitude and they want to point the finger. We point the thumb.”

 

On if he thinks Lee’s confidence is broken and he tries to force the issue

“I don’t know about that. We try and get them focused on the task at hand and take all the other things out of it. We have belief in him. We have belief in our players and the guys we put out there. We’re going to do everything we can to enable them and help them have success.”

 

On if he has a one-on-one meeting with Lee in a case like this

“I meet with all my guys. It’s not just one guy. It isn’t just Zac Lee.”

 

On if Lee’s practice level has dropped over the past two weeks

“No, I think he’s practiced well. He’s done some good things. He just has to carry it over to the game. He’s got to stop putting so much pressure on himself. I think that’s one of the deals. He has to learn how to handle that, handle the quote unquote negativity and some of those things and just go out and play. He’s one of 11, but he’s an important one of 11. Same with Cody (Green). You can’t get caught up in all those things. You just have to execute. You have to eliminate all the distractions and execute.”

 

On if he thinks the way he answers questions after games or his demeanor on the sideline paints a bad perception of him

“No. I’m never disrespectful. I answer things pretty directly. I’m a very direct person. I’m very black and white. That’s how I answer questions. I understand people have a job to do and you guys have a job to do. I don’t believe I’m ever disrespectful, but I’m very direct. I’m very to the point. That’s who I am.”

 

On if he ever gets amazed at how high or low the public can get

“Yeah, but I don’t really concern myself with that. You can’t. That’s why I say you have to remain consistent in your approach and not get influenced by all those things. I have the realization that, I think I said this earlier, it’s never as good as people think and it’s never as bad as people think either. It usually lies somewhere in between and it’s our job to make that evaluation regardless of what’s going on. I’m going to come to work whether we win by 21 or we lose by 21. It’s not going to change my approach in what I exactly do the next day and how I address what happened in the latest game. It’s definitely not going to change our approach with what you have to do, because there are always things you have to get better at. There are things you have to fix regardless of what the perception is on the outside.”