Head Coach Bo Pelini Quotes (Sept. 9)

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium
Pre-UCLA
Monday, Sept. 9, 2013

Head Coach Bo Pelini
On Nick Pasquale
“I speak for everybody associated with the University of Nebraska in offering our condolences to Nick Pasquale and his family (as well as) UCLA and everyone associated with their program dealing with the tragedy that they are dealing with. That’s a lot bigger than any football game. The thoughts and prayers of everyone associated with Nebraska are with Nick, Nick’s family, Coach Mora, the football team and everyone associated with UCLA in getting through this because obviously this has got to be a very difficult time for them.”

Opening Statement
“After the weekend, we looked at the film. It was just what I thought. There were some good things. There was some improvement made. There was a lot that still needs to get cleaned up in all phases of the game. I thought we made some progress as a football team but we still have a long way to go to get to where we want to be. Today offers us our next opportunity to go out there and get better this week and prepare for an excellent UCLA football team.”

On where the team made the most progress
“There were a lot of areas. You look at every guy that played. Some of the younger guys were a lot more comfortable. I thought we communicated better. There were still some mistakes we need to get cleaned up that maybe didn’t hurt us in the game the other day that will hurt you down the line. I thought overall it was a lot cleaner. There were some things that we did better and there were still a number of areas where we need to improve. It was a move in the right direction for us but by no means are we ready to take on the (Dallas) Cowboys.”

On how much better of a handle his team has on UCLA compared to last year
“We have a lot more film on what they do and our understanding of what they do. They are a good football team. They are well-coached. They are sound in what they do. It will be a heckuva challenge for us.”

On if he uses last year’s loss to UCLA as motivation
“I don’t use that at all. It’s the next team on our schedule. We lost the game to them last year. That’s part of being a competitor. You want to go out there and win the football game. This affords us that opportunity.”

On what UCLA did last year to frustrate the defense
“We didn’t adjust well a couple times. We had a lot of missed tackles in that football game. There was almost 300 yards of offense after first contact. Obviously we need to improve in that area. That’s kind of what their offense is built on. It’s about creating space and creating one-on-one opportunities for their guys. That’s their main philosophy. (They want to) spread you out and create space for their playmakers.”

On how many missed tackles Nebraska had in the first two games
“It’s been good at times. I thought we got sloppy a couple of times on the perimeter the other day. I don’t like it, especially when we go low when we shouldn’t be. At times I thought we made some plays in space that helped us. (If) you miss one tackle in this day in age, it will cost you. That’s a big part of the game now.”

On how much he needs to teach young players how to tackle
“A long time ago, if they were running lead plays between the tackles and you miss a tackle, usually there are guys that are going to be coming. When you are out there on the perimeter and you miss a tackle, it’s a lot more difficult to get more guys to the ball. Everyone’s going to be flying to the ball. I thought we did that well the other day. That’s where some of our team speed is helping us on the defensive side of the ball. Guys are coming out of the stack and getting to the football. I’ve been around the game long enough to know you’re not going to be perfect. They have athletes too. You are going to miss some tackles. You better be playing hard and running to the football and make sure you are minimizing the mistakes when that happens.”

On how linebackers Josh Banderas and Nathan Gerry played on Saturday
“I thought that they did some good things. I (think) that they have a long way to go. I thought there were some real positives. I thought they handled themselves really well. I thought their communication was good. I thought they obviously prepared really well. That’s why they were in there in the first place. Once again, I think they will learn a lot from the film and from their first experience starting a football game. I think they will be better because of it. There will be a little bit different challenges this week. I expect them to react well. Who you see at that spot is going to come down to practice this week. We have some options. I thought Zaire Anderson played well at times. He did some good things. Michael Rose did some good things. There were enough mistakes, trust me, throughout that group that didn’t necessarily bite us last Saturday but will hurt you down the line. There were things that we definitely need to get fixed.”

On if they made better adjustments during the game
“I thought they had a lot better understanding of not just what to do but more importantly why we do it that way. When you understand the why, it’s easier to apply the how. And it’s a lot easier to make adjustments. Let’s face it. There are strengths and weaknesses to every defense. There are different issues and different problems, depending on the alignment, the call and all those things. You have to have an understanding of what those issues are to be able to correct and make adjustments to how an offense is attacking you. I thought our guys had a better understanding in that game and going in of knowing what those issues were and how they applied to each one of them.”

On how he’s building the young players
“Every single time these guys go out on the football field right now, it’s important. You can’t waste a day. Every single day is like an education for them. You see it. You experience it. A lot of times, especially in practice, you experience failure. In my experience, usually you learn a lot more from failure sometimes than you do success. That’s why we try to put them in as many difficult situations as we possibly can in practice where the game hopefully slows down a little bit for them. You have to stress them in practice. You can’t just script for success in practice. Then they have an unrealistic expectation of how things are going to go in the game. It’s not going to go that way in the game. It’s going to be more difficult. It’s going to be faster. Things are going to be happening quicker and you are going to have to adjust to things that maybe you weren’t necessarily anticipating.”

On UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley
“He’s a good football player. He’s smart. He understands their offense. He’s athletic. I think he has a really firm handle on what they do and why they do it. He’s a playmaker. He’s a good football player.”

On how hard it is to defend Hundley
“You have to lock up those receivers. You have to understand that he’s going to get out a couple times. He’s going to buy some time every now and then. At the end of the day, you have to have discipline. As long as he’s in the backfield and behind the line of scrimmage, he’s a passing threat. You have to be ready to lock up the receivers. If you are staring in the backfield too long at that point, you are going to get beat. You have to get in phase with your receivers and you have to get your hands on receivers and be disciplined in those situations. You try to simulate it the best you can in practice and have some scrambles happen in practice but it’s a constant emphasis for us.”

On how much Hundley has improved from last year
“We’ve only seen one game but I thought he got better as the year went on. He had a heckuva year last year. He’s a really good football player. Like I said, I think he has a really good handle on what they do and really understands their offense.”

On the offense’s slow starts
“Saturday was strange. The first drive they were backed up and probably should’ve gotten out of there. We missed a cut that I thought was there. That would’ve gotten us out of there. It’s hard to get into a rhythm with the way that game started. With the defensive score and then you are backed up and then we score again defensively. You only get a couple plays in the first quarter. It’s kind of hard to start that way as an offense. Believe me, I’ll take it again this week if it happens again. That was a strange start. A little bit of it was the situation and how the game unfolded that made it difficult on our offense.”

On the offensive line
“I thought the offensive line overall played better the other day. There were (fewer) mistakes. Overall I thought we played a lot cleaner than we did in the first game, not that we played bad in the first game. I thought we did some better things. Believe me, there’s still a lot more out there for that group.”

On wide receiver Sam Burtch’s first touchdown
“You’ve got to love it. Here’s a guy who has really come on strong. I’ve been talking about him. He had a great spring. He came out and worked his butt off and it’s paying off for him. He’s followed up a great spring with a really good fall camp and put himself in the mix. We have a lot of confidence in Sam and what he can do for us.”

On dealing with last year’s loss to UCLA
“Any time you lose a football game, it’s hard. It’s difficult. These are two different teams in two different times. It’s really not going to impact you. You can sit there and do whatever you want. You can get mad or whatever. Both teams are going to be emotional. Both teams are going to want to win. It’s going to be whoever goes out and executes to win the football game. I’m pretty positive our team is motivated no matter what the situation. It just so happens that we played this team a year ago and it didn’t (go our way). If that provides our guys with extra motivation, so be it. I would hope it does. Hopefully that motivation will come in the form of great preparation because that’s how you win a football game. It’s not about wanting to. It’s about wanting to do the things that get you prepared to play great.”

On last year’s game plan against UCLA
“I didn’t treat that game any differently than I do any other game. Every single game I’ve ever coached, I look at it and said ‘what can I learn from it?’ and ‘what can I use to make myself better, make our defense better and make our team better?’ That’s what my job is. I didn’t approach that game any differently than I did this last Saturday or the Saturday before. Every single game, I have a system and a process that we go through to use the experience that we just had, whether it’s a win by 50 or a loss by 50. The process goes on. You continue on to use those experiences to make you better. With me, I try to take a black and white approach. I try to learn as much as I can, good or bad, in every time we line up.”

On his tolerance for defensive mistakes compared to previous years
“At the end of the day, our expectation is for guys to do their job and to execute. You maybe expect a little more from a guy who has been here for three or four years. On their last drive the other day, we had some guys in there and there were some things that happened that were inexcusable in my opinion. I don’t care how many times they’ve been out there. Our expectation is that when you’ve been through it a bunch of times and you have an understanding of what your technique is, our standard is that you execute it exactly the way that we are asking you to do it. When you do that, good things happen. When you don’t, things break down. That’s where it comes down to preparation and having a focus and a discipline to take what we are asking you to do and applying it on Saturday.”

On Andrew Green’s transition
“I think Andrew has done well. There’s a number of things that Andrew can do to help us. He’s a very versatile guy. I think he’s getting a lot more comfortable with the safety spot now. I think that’s even going to allow us to use him in some other areas too. He’s a good football player that has experience and has done a lot of good things. We have a lot of confidence in him.”

On Green’s areas
“Nickel spot, dime spot – those types of things, depending on the type of offense we are playing. (It) just gives us some added depth in some areas. He can handle it. Now he’s played at the corner spot and the safety spot. Last year he played inside some. Believe me that helps you. When you are playing a lot of snaps and they’re going fast, you need depth. You need some guys that can do multiple things and can handle it mentally. Andrew is one of those guys.”

On problems he sees with UCLA’s offense
“I hope Coach Mora leaves all the skilled people at home. I could handle that. They have some good players over there. You look at Shaquelle (Evans), their X (receiver). He’s a good player. Devin Fuller, a young man who we recruited out of high school that was a quarterback who moved over to wide receiver at UCLA. They have some guys that are good players and will be good matchups.”

On if Fuller could’ve gone to wide receiver at Nebraska
“We were recruiting him as a quarterback. Whether it would’ve played out that way is hard to say. You look at Jamal (Turner). We recruited Jamal as a quarterback. He saw the opportunity to play wide receiver and get on the field quicker. I’m sure that’s kind of what happened over there at UCLA.”

On if Nebraska’s substitutions
“We’re not going to approach it much different. Like I said, the guys we have confidence in coming out of the week of preparation are the guys that will get the bulk of the reps. I feel pretty good about our guys in how they’ve been rotating. It keeps them fresh, especially if it’s hot like it has been. You’ve got to play some more bodies.”

On if this is the most defensive rotations he’s ever used
“This is the ideal situation. We haven’t done that in the past couple years. I wish we would’ve been a little bit deeper. Like I said, I came out of last year and the biggest mistake I probably made was redshirting some of the redshirt freshmen. Later on in the year when we had some injuries, we didn’t have guys that had playing time and had experience. You look at that and say, ‘O.K. I screwed it up.’ I’m not scared to say that. Looking back, I wish I would’ve done it differently. You have to plan for those things and make adjustments as you go forward. That’s what we are doing.”

On total yardage against Nebraska’s defense
“I’ve never really been big on statistics. A little bit of it is the type of conference you play in and the style of offenses that you are playing. I don’t care if we win 50-49 or 10-9, that’s all I care about. At the end of the day, it’s about doing what you have to do to win a football game. Every game and every situation is going to be a little bit different. I don’t get caught up in all that. Some of it is the style of the game you are going to play. (Some is) how the game goes early. I’m more concerned with scoring offense than I am (with) yards. You have to look at each opponent you are playing and say what you have to do to win the game. Some of the time it’s stopping the run. There’s a little bit of a mix. Do you have to limit them in the run game? Is it about the big plays? Are they going to chuck it around 65 times? Every single week is a different challenge as far as that’s concerned. As a head coach, as a defensive coordinator, if you get caught up in statistics, you are probably not going to make the right decisions. At the end of the day, my job is to give our players the best opportunity to win the football game. That’s both sides of the football.”

On the advantages of a three-man defensive front
“It changes their running game some. It changes their targets. You give them different looks. You present them with different challenges when you see a three-man front. Same way if you line up in a four-man front. They are going to know where you are and vice-versa. We like to be a little more versatile and give a couple of looks. It gives us a little more multiplicity. That’s the theory behind it. This year our personnel lends a lot more toward being able to accomplish that. We didn’t necessarily have that type of personnel the last couple years. We were a little more limiting. That’s not what our strength was.”

On if that’s why the team is using it more
“We’ve always had it. At times it doesn’t make sense trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. If that’s not your strength, you have to lean on some other areas and play a little bit differently.”

On the keys to being able to use it
“You need guys that have a little bit of versatility. Obviously (you need) a guy who can stand up and do some of those things. Obviously (you need) a guy who can play on the nose and do that well. And a guy that can move out and play on a tackle at times. You have to have guys who have multiple skill sets.”

On the new uniforms this week
“It was something that we started a couple years ago. The players have liked it. I think for the most part, the fans have liked it. It just gives you a different look for a game. I think it’s been good for us in recruiting. I think Adidas and our administration have done a good job of working together to have something that isn’t so out there. Let’s face it. Nebraska and the fans and this place is still about tradition. That will never change here. I think they’ve done a good job of having something different without being outlandish. Even though it’s an alternate look, it’s still a fairly traditional look that doesn’t go against the values of this program.”

On if it’s a big recruiting weekend
“(The early start) hurts it. I haven’t looked at the numbers this week. That’s usually to the middle or the end of the week that I look to see who’s coming in. We’ll have a fairly good showing of recruits.”

On if TV scheduling has hurt Nebraska
“I don’t know exactly how that’s all determined or why they choose what games they choose. Obviously Notre Dame is always a play in it. Let’s face it. That’s why they are getting the big television contract. I don’t get caught up in all that. Does that hurt us? Not necessarily. It’s a good football game. People are going to know it’s two good football teams. It’s going to get its share of attention.”

On UCLA linebacker Anthony Barr
“He’s a good player. He’s physical. He’s athletic. He can rush the passer. He can do a lot of things well. He is a really good player. He plays the run well. He rushes the passer well. I think they do a good job of using him.”