Defensive Coordinator Carl Pelini

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Pre-Iowa State

On if was hesitant to put in Kevin Thomsen
"No, he had a great week of practice. He's very athletic. He's very strong. He was a switch over from linebacker to defensive end. He has great speed and he is physical. It's a hard change over to make. I was actually antsy the other way, trying to find opportunities that he could help our defense. He was so athletic. As soon as we kind of came up with that, I said great idea. He was able to back up Cameron (Meredith) and did a great job. He could have played more if he would have had to. We didn't skip a beat when he was in there. That's saying something about Kevin because that position in the game had to check our fronts, had to be aware of when they motioned the back into the backfield. We went from an empty check to a regular defense. He had to make all those calls. For a young guy, he just did a great job with that. We had no busts on that call, which was a lot of him."

On how quickly Thomsen adjusted to playing on the defensive line
"It takes time to go from a two-point to a three-point stance. He's only going to get better.  It will probably take another offseason before he is reaching his potential at that position."

On never knowing when you'll play
"We have a lot of interchangeable parts. It's what our program hopefully is about. It's about guys who just work hard and earn opportunities for themselves. As a coach you have to reward those guys for that kind of investment, so you look for and seek opportunities to reward them. As hard as he's worked, he deserved an opportunity. It felt great to give him that."

On what he's liked about Courtney Osborne
"Courtney is money. You watch him through the course of a week at practice, there aren't very many mental mistakes and he is a very physical tackler. Put those two things together, like I said after the game. Sometimes as a coach you just become complacent, just playing the guys you've been playing. But again, if you're going to preach competition, you have to reward guys and give guys opportunities at certain times. Courtney certainly earned the opportunity and made the most of it, as did Austin (Cassidy)."

On if he ever hesitated to put the new guys in there
"No, you just put the guys out there you feel are going to give you the best chance to win regardless of experience. Shoot, I remember looking up in the Big 12 Championship Game last year and watching Austin Cassidy out there. The guys are ready. It's up to you to prepare them. They might not be real experienced in Memorial Stadium or at this level, but they've played a lot of football in their lives. Once that game starts, it's just another football game, you just have to prepare them."

On the ability to change schemes with flexible personnel
"You can get a little bit creative, you have some versatility. Everyone wants to talk about (DeJon) Gomes and (Eric) Hagg, and they're both very versatile players, but so is Cameron Meredith, so is Kevin Thomsen, so is Eric Martin, so it Lavonte (David). You can be more creative when you have guys who can play multiple positions like that. That lends itself to creativity, that's for sure."

On what Ciante Evans did to put himself in the position that he was on Saturday
"I think he paid Courtney (Osborne) to hit Alfonzo (Dennard). They come in when camp starts and they're at the bottom of the depth chart. We tell all of those guys, you're on the depth chart and you're not redshirting. You have to earn an opportunity to move up the depth chart. That's what he did, slowly but surely throughout camp he moved himself into the number two position and really became the third corner. Other guys that do redshirt don't quite get to that level. He just worked hard at it. He's a real talent, but at the same time he has a good understanding of football. He was well-coached in high school, played with good technique coming in and had a certain swagger and savvy about him. He's very confident."

On Evans' progression as a first-year player
"Very similar to Alfonzo (Dennard), Prince was making a position switch, that is a little more difficult. Ciante was a DB and saw himself as a DB. He came in with a certain skill set like Alfonzo did. I would say his rise and Alfonzo's are very similar."

On Evans' performance
"He just loves playing football. I was just impressed with the way he handled himself. He just played football. He played with his technique, he wasn't enamoured or star-struck, and he just played football. That is not easy for a rookie to do in a big game like that."

On the Iowa State offense compared to Missouri's offense
"They are very different offenses. You can't even compare the two. Iowa State has an experienced quarterback, as good of an offensive line that we've faced. They've got three guys back. They use them well, they are very disciplined, they are very patient. They run the offense, they execute and you have to stop them. They're not going to try and fool you a whole lot. They do give you a lot of different formations and whatnot. They just try to be physical at the point of attack, and they are patient in how they call the game. They eat up yardage, and they eat up clock. It's going to be a big challenge for us. It's a well-thought out offense. It's well-coached and they execute very well. They don't make many mistakes that's for sure."

On whether the Huskers are motivated by last year's loss to Iowa State
"I don't know, that's up to them individually. To me, it's another year and two different teams facing each other. I have enough to worry about."

On last year's game
"I can't remember."

On preventing a let-down
"I think the harder you try to prevent against a let-down the more of a chance you're going to have to have a let-down.  We just try to go business as usual. Monday is no different whether you have had a big win or a terrible loss. You just move forward and focus on the next opponent. I know that seems like coach speak, but I do think that is the key. If you're always up and down and trying to worry about the psychology and changing the way you do things, I just think you end up messing with your players' heads. Our guys are in a routine now, Monday is Monday, and Tuesday is Tuesday and so forth. We just stick to it that way."

On the battle at safety
"I know how they'll respond, they responded well. They are trying to win their positions back. Maybe they will and then the other guys have to fight to get it back. That is what you want on a football team, competition. That is what depth gives you."

On if they were substituting more on the D-line more Saturday
"I was, as far as I am concerned. Defensive line is a place where you want to have more substitutions. We have a lot of depth now, but I tell my guys, you earn it during the week. We had a good week of practice before the Texas game and they got their snaps, then Oklahoma State, they had a good week of practice and they got more snaps. They had another good week of practice last week and they got even more snaps. They've continued to earn they're snaps and they'll continue to get them. It makes for a much happier meeting room, and I think it is good for everybody, them, the whole team, me, and everybody. But again, we're not giving anything. They have to earn their snaps during the week."

On what he's seen out of Thad Randle
"Marked improvement from the first game until now. He has become better before our eyes. He just really has a grasp of what we're asking him to do, technique and everything. I like the way he is progressing, Terrence (Moore) too, Josh Williams. All those guys provide great depth on the D-line."

On watching Iowa State's game versus Texas
"You learn from every game you watch and play. We focused in on the Texas game, but we focus in on all the games. You break them down and try to guess how they're going to attack you and do your best to stop them. I don't know that we learned any more from that than we did any other game."

On the role Eric Hagg has played this year
"It's very important, but he's no more important than anyone else on the field. He's a great player. We rely on his skills, but that is true of everyone we put out there."

On keeping competition going
"You have great competition during camp and a trap you can fall into as a coach, is that once you start focusing on opponents you get so scheme-oriented that you teach game plans and packages and you forget about that aspect of the equation. Not saying that we did or not, but we had some things we needed to fix. When you do that, shame on you as a coach if you don't try some different formulas to fix it."

On Iowa State's running back
"He is very quick, very decisive. When they run that zone-read with him and the quarterback, he hits it so fast and so hard he puts your guy in a real pickle. His speed makes it difficult to play both aspects of that play. As a coach you're trying to figure out a way to help guys. He just is one of those guys. He has a knack. He can take that ball in the zone play. You think he's got nothing and then all of a sudden he finds a little crease, he gets vertical and six yards later it's second and four. He's perfect for their offense. He's a very good back."

On his impression of Ndamukong Suh's start to his NFL career
"Suh, he is a heck of a player. I don't know, it's amazing what he is doing in his rookie year. I'm sure you'll understand, I work Sundays so I just watch the highlights. I know he is happy there and is doing a good job. The organization is happy with him. I actually have not been able to sit down and watch a game that he's played in."

On if he still talks to Suh frequently
"Yeah we've talked a couple of times during the season. He came back once. Like I said, he is very happy there and is excelling like I knew he would."

On what has helped Suh adjust to the next level
"We only scratched the surface of his ability. The NFL is a different game. I'm sure he is coached to do things a little bit differently up there. I do know this, he'll always be physical and he'll always play hard, and it will always be important to him. With his level of ability, if he continues to operate on those three things, he'll be able to be a great player at that level."

On the defensive line position
"Ultimately, I think it's the hardest position to play. I think if you find a great one, it can change your team. It's a hard position to recruit at our level to find the great ones, when you do you go after them but every team in the country is going after them, too. It's the same thing at that level. It can change a team, to find one that plays at that level is difficult. Look across history, it could alter the course of a game."

On if he is surprised that Suh is playing so well in the NFL
"I'm not surprised at all. When the Lions came in before the draft, I told them whoever gets him will have a special one. I knew it would happen, I'm not surprised at all."