Nebraska Coach Bo Pelini

Coach Bo Pelini
Football Press Conference Quotes
Monday, Aug. 25, 2014
Pre-Florida Atlantic

Opening Statement
“Before we get started, I wanted to announce who the team elected as team captains yesterday. We have three on offense, Ameer Abdullah, Kenny Bell and Jake Cotton. And we have two on defense, Corey Cooper and Josh Mitchell. We never really officially announced it, but we had a couple walk-ons who were put on scholarship, Sam Burtch, Sam Foltz and Brandon Reilly. There will be a few other walk-ons who will go on scholarship this year, and we’ll announce that at a later time when all the i’s get dotted and t’s get crossed. We've got a good group. I like what we have going heading into the year. We’ve got a lot of good work done. I’m looking forward to the upcoming season. I think our kids are anxious to start playing against somebody besides hitting each other. I think they’re looking forward to that. I know I am. We’re ready to get this thing started.”

On the development of punter Sam Foltz
“You know Sam has done a fantastic job. I think he’s really come along. Obviously he’s a great punter and member of the field goal unit. He’s really come along fast. I think he’s exceeded expectations. I’ll tell you what, I’ve got a tremendous amount of confidence in him. I think he’s only going to get better with time. He worked very hard in the off season, and I think he’ll have a big year for us.”

On Sam Foltz as a specialist
“Well I know one thing, I’m not coaching him because I don’t know much about punting. Coach Papuchis probably knows the most about punting on our staff. But yeah, you pretty much have to coach yourself. And at the same time, he takes some time to work with different people in the offseason to discover the fine details and figuring out what’s going to help him progress as a punter.”

On the players who have progressed the most since camp
“From the beginning of camp until today, I tell you (Dylan) Utter on the offensive line has done really well. I think he’s come a long way and has really made a lot of progress. He’s really going to help us. I think all the quarterbacks have done a good job. I think all of those guys are progressing as a group. Those guys stick out to me. I think Alonzo Moore has come a long way as a wide receiver. He’s got a ways to go yet. On the defensive side of the football I’ve seen a lot of guys make progress. Now the test will come. Once we get to the first game, the question will be can we apply what we’ve learned? Can we react with 93,000 in the stands? That’s where the true test comes. I’ve seen a lot of guys really across the board who have made progress. But that progress has to continue. I told guys the natural reaction that when camp is over and school is getting started, they just want to take a breath. They’ll have that behind them, but really it’s all just starting. The sense of urgency you start camp with, you have to have that sense of urgency and carry that right on through, especially with school starting and into the first game.”

On his attire
“You know, it’s the 125th year and I wanted to pay my respects to Coach (Bob) Devaney and Coach (Tom) Osborne. I was actually just downstairs trying on some different things we’ve been thinking about doing for game day, and I really didn’t have time to change. I like the look.”

On the scholarship status of Offensive Lineman Alex Lewis
“Alex Lewis is on scholarship, yes.”

On the improvement of the middle linebackers from last year
“Well it’s a lot more settled. We would much like it if Michael Rose was in that mix, but unfortunately he went down. But I think Josh Banderas has done a good job of stepping up and Trevor Roach has done a good job stepping up, too. I have confidence in both of those young men. I think we’ll be better around those guys. Are they where we want them to be yet? No, not quite. But believe me, it’s night and day compared to where we were a year ago as far as our understanding of the defense and ability to execute.”

On the improvement of linebacker Josh Banderas
“Well he’s got a lot better handle of the defense as far as the techniques that are required to have success on that side of the football. I think he’s playing a lot more physical because I think he’s playing more comfortable in the position. I think that I like where he is right now. He’s significantly improved right now.”

On the status of Jaevon Walton
“We’ve worked through some things with Jaevon. There’s some things that he’s working through. If he follows through with those things, which I anticipate he will, there’s a good chance you’ll see him in January.”

On the depth of the team despite injuries
“Like I said, any time you lose good football players, you take a hit. You can’t just replace guys because those guys are all good football players. We feel good at this point in time. If it were earlier, then maybe we could plan certain things and guys would have an opportunity to learn to step up and show the ability to help us. Is it good that we lost them? Absolutely not. I think that the people that have stepped into those roles have done really well. I feel good going in.”

On the helpfulness of playing a young defensive team last year
“It has helped me because at this point last year, I knew what was ahead of us. Like I said I think on the defensive side of the football, we’re still a work in progress. But I think we’re significantly ahead of where we were a year ago. We’re not even in the same ballpark. That gives me a level of comfort. You can just talk to guys at a different level than we could a year ago. Last year we were just hoping to get lined up. Let me tell you, it’s harder to play defense these days. There’s a lot more formation. It’s more spread out. There’s a lot more variety on a week-to-week basis. Teams are a lot more multiple. Let’s face it, a lot of these guys were playing for the first time last year. You get to this level of college football, it’s a lot different than what they’ve seen in college and the things that are required of them to have success. In our defense, it requires discipline, it requires knowledge of what’s going on, not only what we’re doing defensively but also in what offense has going on. We’re further along obviously and we’re more prepared to be able to handle the things we’re going to see.”

On the potential of the defense
“I think we have tremendous potential as a unit. I like what I‘ve seen from those guys. I think our backups have come along. We’re a lot deeper than we were. Even on the front line, we didn’t have necessary starters last year. We were trying to find out about a lot of these guys a year ago. And those guys played at a pretty high level through camp. We’re starting to refine them now. We had some experience in the secondary, but that whole front seven was young. And it made it difficult. There were times where we could see that talent last year, but there were also times where we weren’t very good. It’s just the situation we were in. I thought we got better as the year went on and we continued to get better through the offseason. And I think that’s what we’re seeing right now.”

On the progress of defensive tackle Maliek Collins and defensive end Greg McMullen
“Well I think the light turned on for those two during spring practice. There were some good things last year, but also a lot of things they needed to get better at. They needed to progress. And every guys comes along at a different pace. For those two, if you put on the film and look at how they were last year, they’re not even close. They’ve made significant jumps. And I can really say the same thing about Vincent Valentine. He’s a lot more consistent. He’s grown up and matured as a football player. He’s always been a mature young man, but I’m talking about maturity as a football player. He’s made a significant jump also.”

On what fans can expect to see differently for punt return
“I mean hopefully we’ll execute at a higher level.”

On the development of senior I-back Ameer Abdullah
“He worked his tail off like he always does in the offseason. He’s stronger and maybe a little bigger. He’s probably more explosive than he was. We haven’t overused him in camp. I think we’ve done a good job of managing him. He’s put in enough work so that he’s able to move along. I like where he is. I think he’s in a great mental state. I think we need to play well around him for him to be able to do what he does. He’s going to play, and he’s going to play well.”

On Abdullah’s multiple roles
“He’s got a lot of different roles. In the return game, as far as returning, we have a couple of different roles for him. Will we use him week one? I don’t know. There are different things that we’ve been working on. He’s good at everything he does. He’s got great balance and great strength. And he competes. He wants to be out there and we’re going to use him. I’ve looked at him in a number of different roles.”

On if there is a plan for the backup quarterbacks
“Well Tommy (Armstrong Jr.) is going to go in and start the game Saturday. And we’re going to play to win the football game. We’re going to do what we need to do. First of all, I’ve got a lot of confidence in Ryker (Fyfe) and a lot of confidence in Johnny Stanton (IV). When you see them it will be the situation of the game we’ll dictate. I’m not going to sit there and say we’re going to use them for this play and that play. At the end of the day we’re going to do what we need to do to win the football game and move this football team along. Tommy’s going to be that guy on the center. If we see fit as a coaching staff to get Ryker in there or anybody else in there, that’s when we’ll use them.”

On Armstrong as a game manager
“I think that’s always a case with any quarterback. You have to experience some things, especially at that position to progress and move along. I think he has a lot better handle of the offense. I think he understands the offense. Is he perfect? No. I don’t think there is anyone who is perfect that plays that position. There’s a lot of things happening and there’s a lot of things on his shoulders just by the nature of that position. I know this, he is a lot more prepared to be lined up on the center this year than he was at this point a year ago or even at the end of last year. Does that mean he’s going to be perfect? No he’s going to make a mistake. I’ve never seen anybody play a perfect football game. He’s going to make mistakes and hopefully he understands that there are times when to do things and when not to. There’s times when you take your checkdown. There are times when you can take your shots. Not only that, but it’s about understanding situational football. I think we’ve spent a lot of time on that. He’s worked through some growing pains like everybody has in these situations. I think he’ll continue to get better as we move along.”

On his view of team efficiency
“Absolutely efficiency is the key. Keeping ourselves out of long yardage situations, moving the sticks, giving us winnable third downs and all those things. And also knowing the times when it’s OK to take off and run, and when it’s time to throw the football away. All of those things play in. It’s hard when you have the ball in your hands every down. It’s difficult. That’s what makes it hard at that position. You’re the focal point. The light’s on you. Really every decision you make whether good or bad can become magnified.”

On the passing game and tight end Cethan Carter
“I think Cethan’s a really talented kid. He’s had a great camp. He’s a guy that can do it all. He’s physical in the running game and he can get down the field in the passing game. He has great hands. He understands the passing game. I feel like he’s a heck of a football player. And gosh, he’s still only a sophomore.”

On the new coaching staff at Florida Atlantic
“Well you always deal with that to a certain extent going into the first game, and sometimes even the second game like we’ll see this year. They won’t have played a game before us. You've got to prepare for a lot, and you have to prepare to make adjustments. At the end of the day you have to execute your football. What they’re going to do and how much change they’ve made in the offseason is hard to tell. You do your homework and use your best guesswork, then you prepare your guys. The biggest key is to try not to over-prepare. You can’t have your guys chasing ghosts. You just have to lean on your training to be able to apply your roles for things you’ve maybe haven’t seen up until this point. There are times when you might give up something because you might see something you haven’t seen and a guy might not react the right way. It might cost you some yards or a big play or whatever it might be. You can’t panic. You’ve just got to teach them. You’ve got to move on and make your adjustments.”

On Florida Atlantic quarterback Jaquez Johnson
“I think he’s got a strong arm, a good arm. He runs fairly well. I think he manages the offense well. I think he has a good handle on things more than he did a year ago. I don’t know how much things have changed. He’s a guy that can kind of do everything you ask him to do. Like I said he’s got a good, strong arm, he’s got a good running ability. He seems to make good decisions.”

On his feelings about Florida Atlantic with Carl Pelini as coach
“It’s not about personal feelings. It’s about our football team. I haven’t had a lot of conversation with him about that.”

On the overall progress of cornerback Josh Mitchell
“I think Josh has come a long way. He’s one of my favorite guys that I’ve coached. It’s always rewarding. Every kid you get kind of goes down a different path. They all have different backgrounds and different things they have to go through. Josh has really grown and matured as a young man, not only as a football player. I just used him as an example for another player. Eventually the light came on for him on the football field as far as the technique and the how-to. And when he did his game really progressed. You’re not going to have a guy that will compete and play harder than Josh. Early on in his career he was sort of his own worst enemy. He wasn’t enough into the details on how we were asking him to play. Once he bought into that, we saw him progress.”

On the defense this year compared to last year
“It doesn’t really matter the way I see it right now. It's what we’re going to put on the field. Are we going to be the finished product on Saturday? No. I mean you never are. I’m looking forward to what we’ll put out there on the field. Time to talk is over. It’s let’s find out where we are on Saturday and from there we’ll assess it and see where we need to go from there. That’s how we assess and that’s how we’re looking at it. I feel good about our team going in, both defensively and offensively and what we’ve done up to this point special teams-wise. Saturday will be a starting point and then we’ll move from there."

On the emphasis of forcing turnovers
That’s always an emphasis. The turnovers will come if you execute the right way. Your opportunities will increase as you play better. There is no magical thing. We could sit there in a room and have a séance about getting the ball out, but if we’re not executing our defense, it’s not going to happen. If we’re not in the right spots, then we’re not going to have any opportunities. If the opportunities come we have to take advantage of them. I think it’s the same thing offensively. We need to be better in the turnover margin. That has to happen for this football team. Talking about it, emphasizing it, yeah we can do that all day. We’ll do it on Saturday. That has to happen. Time will tell.”

On taking advantage of opportunities
“Well when you have a veteran unit, you have guys that are more confident where they are and what they’re doing. And they’re going to execute hopefully at a higher level. If you’re in better positions, you’ll have a lot better opportunity to have those opportunities. A year ago when your eyes are always in the wrong place and you’re having trouble with your guys handling their responsibility, it’s a lot harder to have guys in the right positions. Sometimes it’s luck. You've got to make your own luck too and being in the right places to increase opportunities.”

On playing potential neutral site games in the future
“If the schedule sets up right, we’re not opposed to it. We’ve actually had that conversation with Shawn (Eichorst). We’re not going to shy away from playing anyone, but it has to fit right with the schedule. It’s got to be able to fall on the line right. It just depends on how things are set up.”

On whether neutral sites have to be in recruiting territory
“Not necessarily, because usually in those games if it’s the right opponent, we’ve recruited effectively enough to not even be outside of out recruiting territory. Most of those games are nationally televised which is good for recruiting.”

On continuing to sell out every home game
“I think it’s important. How much thought to I give it? I mean that’s not really my job. My job’s to hopefully put the best product out on the field, and that will hopefully take care of itself.”

On his impression of the Big Ten today
“I think it’s a great conference. I think it’s deep. And I think there are a lot of great football teams. That’s about all I’m concerned about this week. I’m not really worrying about what’s going on at the end of September and the league play. I just want to get our football team ready where we are right now. I do know this. We’ll be a different team by the time the Big Ten play comes around than we are right now. It normally always plays out that way.”