Nebraska Coach Bo Pelini Postgame Quotes

Nebraska 31, Missouri 17
Saturday, Oct. 30, 2010
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)

On I-back Roy Helu Jr.'s day
"Roy played well. Obviously, I just said to the team, you break a school record for single-game rushing at this place, with all the tradition around here, it's a pretty big deal. He played a heck of a football game, but it's a team game. The guys up front blocked well. I thought it was well-designed, good game plan. I just thought it was a team win for us. I'm proud of that group of men in there. It was a heck of a win for us. It's a good football team we played today."

On the defensive play today
"I thought the defense played inspired. They played well, they executed. We did a couple of things a little bit differently. They played hard and they played with passion, that is all you can ask them to do."

On what they did differently today
"We just did a couple different change-ups. We fit some things a little bit different. It was a well-designed game plan by the defensive coaches, I thought they did a heck of a job."

On if they played a three-man front
"We played a lot of three-man front today, mixed and matched. We mixed it up good to try and keep them off balance, try to give some different looks to (Blaine) Gabbert. We didn't settle in on one thing the whole game. You have to, they have a good offense and you can't just sit there in one thing. I thought we were able to keep them off balance some and get some pressure on them and make them uncomfortable."

On blitzing in the second half
"Same thing, you can't just sit there and blitz every down. You have to pick and choose your spots and the situations that are going on. It's no different than we ever call a game."

On the first quarter
"We were at home, so I wasn't sure what was going to happen. That's a joke, maybe a bad one, right? I don't know. You never sense that is going to happen. Like I said, all we did was come out and executed. We made the plays that were there, it was a heck of a start. It really gave us some good momentum obviously."

On if it was good to get that kind of performance at home
"Oh yeah, no doubt. People act like we've lost the last 10 here, we lost one game. But yeah, in a game like this, it was just fun. I tell you, the crowd was great today. The stadium was juiced up. That always helps you."

On the status of quarterback Taylor Martinez
"He's OK, he just couldn't push off. He has a bone bruise, his X-rays are negative. He's going to be OK. Taylor has taken a lot of hits over the last however many weeks. He wanted to go back out there, he couldn't push off on it. I thought it felt better as the half went on, which we went with Zac (Lee). That was the way we were going to finish the game."

On defensive back Ciante Evans playing today
"Ciante played his butt off and really made plays. For a true freshman to go into that situation, it says a lot about his character and toughness. He played well."

On defensive back Alfonzo Dennard's status
"He'll be OK. He got dinged up, he has a concussion. I just talked to him and he's feeling a lot better already. You just don't know how long that's going to take. He took a hard hit. Actually our own guy hit him. He was hit by Courtney Osborne, I said hit the other guy. You know, that stuff happens."

On switching up the schedule before the game
"I don't share that. We just changed up our schedule a little bit, did some things a little bit different. It was a little more similar schedule to what we do on the road, that is about it. It wasn't anything earth shattering."