Idaho Coach Robb Akey

Idaho Coach Robb Akey
Postgame Quotes
Nebraska 38, Idaho 17
Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)

On giving up 21 points when Nebraska's offense only had the ball for 9 seconds
"We gave the ball away that were interceptions for touchdowns. That's a damn good football team over there. They're ranked sixth in the country for a reason, and I think you can expect them to climb over the course of this season. So therefore when you play a good football team like that, you can't turn the ball over that many times, and that really killed us. If we could stop that swing right there that changes the things that you need to do with your offense as the game goes on. But instead the scoreboard starts to dictate things. We have to be able to respond to adversity like that."

On if quarterback Nathan Enderle playing his homestate affected his performance
"Maybe he could tell you different, but I don't think it was the location of the ball game that made the difference. I didn't see a guy out there that let that get into his head. If that had been the case we would have pulled him out of the game early to settle him down. Sometimes it's the quarterback throwing the ball in a bad spot. Sometimes the protection isn't what it needs to be. And sometimes the balls in the air and either player can go get it, and the player who plays the most physically goes out there and gets it. I think that a couple of the them was a DB and a receiver of ours who had the opportunity to go get the ball and their kid went and got the ball, and that's not the quarterback's fault when that happens. I'm not going to blame this on him. I've said this a million times, when we win, the quarterback probably gets too much of the praise, but when we lost he definitely gets too much of the blame. But I won't get to know what happened until I get a chance to see the tape tomorrow. But I can promise you that, that kid is as frustrated as can be and he wants to get this ship righted."

On Martinez's quickness causing problems for the Idaho defense
"The longer runs are put more about the pursuit. If you make a mistake and it may only be one step against a guy who has pretty good wheels like that can be very, very costly. That was far too many running yards, and I think that guy is pretty damn good."

On the offensive line's performance 
"Can our offensive line get better? Yes. Will they get better? Yes. Are they playing the way I want them to? No. But that's a pretty good defensive front they played out there today. Those guys are big, they're strong, they're athletic and there might be another Outland Trophy winner out there, and I'm serious about that. I saw them push pockets on us and I didn't see guys running free all the time. So when we get back playing in our conference against similar opponents, and I hope nobody takes this the wrong way, but I don't see anyone else like that lining up against us in our conference."

On if it's good for the team to go and play a 'money game' against a much bigger opponent
"It's great for our football team when we do it one time. I think to play a BCS opponent is an important thing for us. Here's the football coach, I'm not talking about the money. We're in the process of building this team up right now, and this helps us. Just like the game we played last week, when we're supposed to be the better opponent, that was to help us get the kinks out of the way. If we had the kind of penalties we had last week against Nebraska - my God that would have been ugly. Having an opponent like this is a damn good thing because we're going to play someone like that when we get to the bowl. And we're going to go out and play folks from here on out who aren't Nebraska, we will play teams from the WAC and the Mountain West Conference and this game will help us."