Nebraska Coach Bo Pelini

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Monday, Oct. 31, 2011
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Pre-Northwestern

Head Coach Bo Pelini
On Northwestern
"I told the team after the game that this is a tough stretch ahead of us. We have a good football team coming in here, a well-coached football team. We will be challenged. It'll be a good test for us. We will keep looking to get better."

On the defense playing with an extra defensive back against Michigan State
"I wouldn't say we made a switch. You have to do what you have to do with every game plan. Our third linebacker Sean Fisher was ready to go in this game. There were some packages where we used him, but we haven't changed much from what we did last year. Little things here and there. It comes down to execution. It doesn't matter who is in there. We have interchangeable parts, guys who can do multiple things. We put our guys in the best situation to have success. That is what we do. We play to guys' strengths. It worked out well for us last week. We played well defensively."

On injuries from last week
"No, we are OK. We are fine. Normal bumps and bruises. Any time you come out of a physical game like that, you're going to have guys that are nicked up. It is nothing long-term."

On Northwestern's spread and comparing it to Big 12 teams
"They're a little different in some ways.  They can put some stress on you. I think the quarterback is a really good player. He is elusive and can make throws. It is a well thought-out offense. They do some unique things in the running game. There are some similarities to what we do offensively at some times. Probably not as much in the run game but they do unique things. It'll be a nice test for us. We have to play well and practice well this week and be prepared."

On Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Pat. I think he is a great coach and a tremendous person. Obviously, Northwestern knew what they were getting when they hired him. He is a tremendous coach and an outstanding person. I have a lot of respect for him and the program and what he has done."

On defensive end Eric Martin's showing against Michigan State
"I thought he played well and we challenged him to step up and get better. He got nicked up at the beginning of the year and missed some time. He was playing really, really good at the beginning of camp and then went through some injuries that happened to him. He wasn't feeling very good and dropped off a little bit but is now getting healthy. He's getting back into shape since he missed some time. He is hitting his stride now and getting a lot of confidence. He is also doing a nice job on special teams. I don't know if you guys caught it and how he started that football game but he did a pretty good job for setting the tone of the game for us. He did a heck of a job."

On the defensive line and if they did anything different
"We mixed some things up and came up with a package to move our guys around and make the quarterback uncomfortable. We gave a new look to their offensive line and I thought it worked well for us. I thought our guys up front played well. We got nicked up there in the last few weeks and so we needed guys to step up and play well and they did. They rose to the challenge."

On how Andrew Green got some of his snaps back
"He prepared. He kept working. He is getting better and he had a good week of practice. Stanley (Jean-Baptiste) had a good week of practice. We kind of went with the hot hands, and I thought our guys at the back end made a lot of strides in the past few weeks. We made a jump and our back end played really well."

On if the team just needed the bye week to step back
"I think so, and I know you guys get sick of hearing me say it, but it's a process. You don't panic. I know I can get criticized for a lot of things, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to play good defense. Over time, you stay the course, don't panic, and you get better as the year goes on. Our guys are playing with a lot of confidence right now and I don't think we were earlier for a lot of different reasons. I will tell you this, we are not the finished product. We have a long ways to go and a lot to learn. We will have to. We are hitting a rough stretch. We have to keep getting better and stay the course. If we do, we will be OK."

On if the mindset changes knowing that Nebraska controls its own destiny
"Honestly, we do not talk about it. What we talk about is what we can do today. Our approach on a Monday is no different than had we lost the other day. You can only control what is in front of you right now. Our guys' mindset is to look at the good things and learn from them and look at the things you need to do better. Hopefully, we can grow from the things we didn't do so well. You hope each week you make progress and get a little better. I think this week is going to be a tremendous challenge for us -- to come back emotionally after all the hype surrounding that game for a lot of reasons. The last thing you want to do is take a deep breath here now. You want to put your foot on the gas pedal and keep going. That is a challenge for college students and kids that tend to read the internet and papers. We have not arrived. We have a lot ahead of us to keep getting better."

On what is considered going into giving out the Blackshirts
"Where you are and I put a lot of stock into practice more than what happens on Saturday. It's a culmination of how you practice and prepare and timing. I really don't care what people outside think about when or why you should give them out. It is something you talk about as a staff and when you feel like the time is right, you go for it."

On if waiting until mid-season strengthens the tradition of the Blackshirts
"I'd like to hope so. I said when I first got back here and I wasn't the coach at the time. It was Frank (Solich) and I said that the Blackshirts should be earned. It isn't something simple that should be granted. We talked a lot last week as a whole football team about how we play to a certain standard. To me, that means practicing to a certain standard. Have we reached the standard that we want? No, we haven't. But when you start heading in that direction, preparing well and doing the right things, to me, that is a signal that guys get it."

On how Pelini became familiar with the tradition
"When I first got back here, I was so removed from the college game. I don't remember who talked to me about it. Everyone was talking about Blackshirts this that and the other thing. I remember asking somebody and needing to take a step back. People were talking to me about Blackshirts and I thought "yeah, I have a lot of black shirts.", I didn't know what they were talking about. It might have been Coach Solich or someone around the program for a while that gave me an idea of what I was walking into. You come from the outside and aren't quite sure, but I think it is a great tradition and we have embraced it and I think there is a pride that goes along with the tradition."

On conversations with other players about the Blackshirts
"I didn't know a lot of former players when I got back here but you do talk to those guys since they're around the program a lot. There is a tremendous pride that surrounds it."

On if the Blackshirts are a burden
"I'm not really into distractions. I'm into keeping our guys' minds on what they should be on. I like how we have handled it. We are the ones watching film and tape and have an idea of what our standards are and what we want to have. I wouldn't say it gets annoying, but the constant asking of when we will do it gets bad. When we do it is the right time. You don't want to just do it. I always feel like anything you do in life, you don't do it just to do it. You do it when you feel in your heart it is right and that's how we like to handle it."

On if Pelini worries about players stepping back after getting Blackshirts
"One thing our guys understand is that it is something you earn and continue to earn. Just because you put the Blackshirt on doesn't change anything. It should make you want to play that much harder, to live up to the standards that surround that shirt and tradition. It is something our kids fully understand. They understand what it means to actually put one on."

On how Taylor Martinez has grown this year as a game manager
"I think Taylor has come a long way in many different ways. I think he has done that very well. Early in the year when people were asking me about him, I still think there are places he can grow, but this is one of the things he has done really well. We put a lot on the quarterback in this offense with the audible system and recognizing the defense and getting us in and out of plays, the change in tempos, he has done that all really well. There is a lot more room for growth too. He hasn't played perfect and he needs to grow but he is doing well. It comes down to details and what he is being coached to do. He can improve on a lot of things that aren't visible to the naked eye. Little details week to week present great opportunities for learning. We have a lot of types of offenses that give him a chance to run the other way or lead, and those are all learning opportunities that we give to Taylor."

On how tough it was to change Martinez's personality from trying to score every play
"It wasn't easy. It is still a challenge at times. He wants the ball in his hands. He has a lot of confidence in his abilities and that is part of the maturity of somebody, especially at his position, knowing when to and when not to. I think he has grown in that area and a lot of playing quarterback is decision making, and it isn't easy when things are happening 100 mph out there. He is making progress and would be the first to tell you he has learned a lot along the way and has much more to learn."

On Martinez's throwing mechanics
"You don't overhaul somebody's mechanics. He has a few habits that we are working on. Sometimes it is footwork but he can make all the throws. I don't care if you throw it underhand. It is habit he has. You listen to some of these guys on TV, and we are not in the NFL right now. It is a different style of offense. I hear everybody talking about Tim Tebow and he might be one of the best quarterbacks to ever play in college.  Everybody is not the same, we won't change him into a robot. Everybody is not the same. Taylor has his style, but does that mean we can't tweak it? It comes down to mechanics. We will help him within his motion to keep getting better. A lot of those things are footwork and shoulder placement and we talk about those things every day."

On who taught Martinez his hard count
"I don't know, but we had to tone the count down because he was going to get called for it if he didn't tone it down after the Minnesota game. I think he taught himself. We had to draw it back so we didn't get some five-yard penalties. He has done a nice job changing up his cadence and doing some of those things. He has that deep voice like he is a 70 year-old-man with his cadence."

On Northwestern quarterback Dan Persa before and after injury
"He looks like his mobility is still pretty good. He is elusive and does a nice job when things break down. The thing that makes it hard is that he finds ways to escape, inside, outside, up the middle. He puts a lot of stress on our line and it is a concern. He is a really good football player and has great instincts in the pocket."

On how different it will be to prepare the pass rush this week than against MSU
"It is different but when you aren't pressuring, you have one extra guy. That creates issues. You can't just squeeze and get a rush in a guy's face, that will hurt you. You have to pick your spots and have a plan going in. We have a good idea of what we want to do but I'm also a realist. When you are rushing four, he will get out a couple times. You can't keep this guy in the pocket the whole game, that's unrealistic. He will get out a couple times."

On limiting Burkhead early this week
"He is actually feeling pretty good today, but like I said, he had 35 rushes and did what he did. We will limit him, especially early in this week. We might have to put handcuffs on him to get him out of there but we will do that."

On last year's rushing numbers compared to this years and the big play
"That's a good observation. I said last year that even when we were putting up big numbers, we weren't being very efficient. We were living on the big play and the big chunks of yards. When people made us earn it down the field, we struggled. That is where we have been dramatically different this year. That is one of the things we wanted to accomplish. There is a lot that contributes to that. Not only the rushing attack, but we have had good balance. The audibles help and Tim (Beck) has called some good football games. We put a lot of stress on defenses in a lot of different ways. Something that hasn't been talked about a lot and maybe isn't that obvious and knock on wood, but we haven't killed ourselves penalty-wise. I think our tempo has helped in that area and getting up on the ball early. We aren't rushing at the end of the clock. You get those delay of games and false starts and it takes away your efficiency. You end up in 1st and 15, 2nd and 15, and that happened time after time last year. We made a big emphasis on fixing that and it's helped this year."

On if defenses are getting gassed in the second half
"I think there is a reason we play well in the second half, and that is one of them. You look the other day and in the third quarter we had a 15-play drive and a 16-play drive. I thought they helped us a few times with penalties, but those are two drives where we didn't hurt ourselves. We stayed efficient and we stayed on track. We were getting points and keeping our guys on the field and that will wear a defense down. I've seen a culmination of that. I don't brag about them enough, but you've seen how we played in the second half and we've done that to a few teams now and we've stayed strong, and that shows how good of a job James Dobson and his crew do down in the weight room with conditioning and how we play in the offseason."

On the Big Ten with Wisconsin losing twice and Minnesota beating Iowa
"I think it makes it a lot easier when talking to your team to be ready each and every week. This is going to be a heck of a test for our team, and we need to practice well. We need to play our best football Saturday and we will be challenged."

On Nebraska not feeling too good about itself after last weekend's game
"I just think you can get off track and I have a lot of respect for the team coming in here and how they go about their business, how they play and how they prepare. They have a lot of pride and I tip my hat to Pat Fitzgerald and his staff. They'll be ready to play. They're a good team and a well-coached team."

On how nice it is to have Alfonzo Dennard playing up to speed
"It is nice to have Dennard against anybody. He is a good football player. The guy is as prideful of a player as I've been around. He played like he always does. He is feeling healthy and playing good football."

On senior defensive back Lance Thorell
"We ask him to do a lot of different things. He has played well like he always does. We ask him to step up and fill a role and he always steps up. He is a wonderful guy to coach, and I love having him on our team and what he does for us."

On if 30 carries is too much for Burkhead and if the team needs to rely on the freshmen more
"I think we have used the freshmen a lot. He hasn't had 30 carries every game, but every week is different. I know Rex would like to have the ball 40 times. That is who he is. Every game is different, but trust me we have a lot of confidence in our freshmen." 

On Kain Coulter at Northwestern and his play
"He is a good player. He does a lot of things. He is a versatile guy and he is a good athlete. We think he can make plays, and they think a lot of him and find a lot of ways to get the ball in his hand."