South Dakota State Coach John Stiegelmeier

#6 Nebraska 17, South Dakota State 3
Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)

Opening statement
"I am tremendously proud of our football program, but however you measure it, take it up a degree higher than that, I'm disappointed. Two teams play, one finished first and one finished last. In addition I am tremendously proud of their attitude and they don't settle for playing close, moral victories. They go try to win football games. I'm very proud of them."

On their defense
"The defense did a great job. I credit our defensive coaches too, with the game plan. That's a tough offense to defend. Go look at the stats. For them to pull their starting quarterback, out of frustration or whatever, is a positive for our guys. It's a disappointment for our offense, somewhat. Their speed is great, so one play that might be eight yards is four against these guys. We didn't have a lot of opportunities for big plays. We knew if we were going to win the football game it wasn't going to be 44-43, it was going to be play your tails off and that's what we did. We had an opportunity early and felt that we scored but we didn't."

On SDSU fans being at the game
"It was a treat. We were honored by the fans and their excitement. They don't want to hear this, but there were so many positive comments out there and there should be, but our guys hurt also. The pride they have for playing their tails off, there is also a hurt."

On whether or not this is Jackrabbit football
"That was Jackrabbit football. In a close game it's crucial to score at the start and we need to score a couple times. We had our opportunities."

On SDSU's game plan on approaching Nebraska's offense and quarterback Taylor Martinez
"I thought the game plan was excellent. The first time they ran the ball our free safety came up and smacked him and he fumbled the ball. Many times we had two guys on him. That was the game plan. They ran into that in the second half by handing off to the outside zone, that lateral play they ran. We wanted to take him out of the game."

On the atmosphere in Memorial Stadium and playing Nebraska
"The noise might have been a factor a little bit, but I think our guys were locked in and played their game and had a lot of positives. When we go to the next intense environment, we'll know it's not going to affect the football game. That's what we'll take out of that.