Mike Riley Press Conference Quotes

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Monday, Oct. 12, 2015
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Pre-Minnesota

Nebraska Coach Mike Riley
Opening Statement
“All right, here we go again. I’m going to take the liberty to start out with some good stuff. I think that there are parts of this thing that are going well, and one thing that we don’t talk about enough probably is the work that the specialists do. Sam Foltz, after being hurt and coming back, is really coming on. Some of those plays are really big-time plays. Punting into the wind, he’s really outkicked his opponent. Placing the ball, giving us an opportunity has been awesome. Drew (Brown) is kicking well and he’s kicking off really well. That kickoff at the end, there was a plan to that where we basically kicked across the field into the wind, and his placement and depth of that ball and what it caused (Wisconsin), the confusion put us in a great opportunity. We had a great opportunity to make them have a really long field and win the game. Offensively, as inconsistent as we were, we didn’t turn the ball over, nor, to a team that had been very good in sacks, we didn’t give up any sacks. Obviously, part of that is due to Tommy (Armstrong’s) mobility. People like Andy Janovich offensively played really well. Alonzo Moore played well. Third down, our percentage was better. We still had too many three-and-outs, but we were better percentage-wise. Defensively, we’re growing, is the best way to put it. I thought that our coaches did a great job of fitting personnel in. Greg McMullen played some inside, guys like (Marcus) Newby have filled in. Dedrick Young that is a freshman playing, those guys played some really good football Saturday. So the preparation done with the personnel the way it’s been, I think they’ve done a really good job. Run defense, until we got a couple big hits late, I thought was good against a good running team. Pass defense-wise, I would say it’s progressing. We’re still a work in progress, but we’re challenging more. We’re making more plays on the ball. I think we had at least close to a total of eight breakups down the field, which we hadn’t been getting. (Wisconsin quarterback Joel Stave) was less than 50 percent throwing the ball, so I think the way we’re challenging receivers is better. We’re doing a better job of that. Third down was good again. We held them to 31 percent of completing third downs. Maliek (Collins), Jack (Gangwish), Vincent (Valentine) (played well). Vince Valentine actually got 50 plays in, had a sack and a tackle for loss, so it’s good to have him back. Greg McMullen played a good game. I already mentioned Marcus Newby and Dedrick Young. Byerson Cockrell led our team in tackles (with 10), and I thought played a solid game in coverage. Josh Kalu had four breakups and made a lot of plays and also a lot of tackles. Offensively now, it’s pretty evident that we have lost our ability to have effective balance. We ran the ball OK and had decent rushing numbers when you looked at the total. Consistency of rushing in the game itself was just OK, but our inability to have balance with the passing game is really obviously evident to everybody. Our explosive plays have gone way down. We have to really define what we can do in the passing game and then fit it with what we need to do in the games, and really, really commit ourselves to the definition of what it is that we can do. We’ve got to look at personnel hard and where we need to get the guys the ball. When a guy like (Jordan) Westerkamp only catches two balls, that’s not good enough, but that applies across the board. We have ample weapons, we have to be able to get them the ball effectively to be as good as we can be. The runners in their roles are doing a nice job, and that includes Tommy when we’re running the ball with him as a runner, but we have to be able to balance this offense out better. Defensively, when you look at tackling, you want to be good and perfect. We had too many missed tackles. We had 12. The other thing that was a really big factor in that game was we had (Wisconsin) backed up twice, really backed up in their own end and let them out with big plays. That’s a game-changing opportunity. You punt the ball down there once and get them pinned and another time kick them off down there later in the game and don’t get them off the field with an opportunity with good field position, so that’s pretty disappointing. The other thing is the fourth quarter, we weren’t at our best. We did a good job of run defense almost up until that point. We gave them two big runs at critical times. That’s where they had actually the bulk of their yardage in the fourth quarter. Special teams, we need to continue to improve in the field goal protection area. It’s not blatant, because we haven’t had any blocked necessarily, but we know the holes in there and we’re plugging new people in because of injuries, and so the training of them and how that looks is important to us. Kickoff return, we need to be better at, when given the opportunity. We think that Jordan Stevenson can give us a boost there, we’ve just got to do a better job of initially getting him some room. Punt return, I know everybody’s going to ask about De’Mornay (Pierson-El). He really didn’t feel ready. We had a plan for him to go in, and then as the game turned out, well, we really didn’t have a return on the day. It was fair catch, it was short punts. It was that kind of a day to deal with. In the injury situation, we have some good news. Josh Banderas is going to practice starting today. Daniel Davie is going to start practicing today. Guys that are on the way back, I don’t know what their status will be for (Saturday), but you could say questionable right now would be Michael Rose-Ivey and Kevin Williams. That would be great (if they could play), but it’s good to know in one way that they’re on their way and getting closer to being back. The bad news is Nick Gates will be out for this game, he’s got a high ankle sprain. Chris Weber is questionable with a neck. That will be like a day-to-day thing, we’ll find out as we go.”

On improvements he would like to see over the final six games of the season
“Well, we’ve worked at getting a shorter, 59-minute game (laughs). I think one of the initial things that has to happen is we have to find balance in our offense. We’re not going to live effectively like we are right now, so we have to, as coaches, be selective in what we do and then be good at it. So all the parts have to fit there. I’d really like to see us get more of our game going in the screen game. We’ve had some pretty good looking plays there, but not enough of them, and I think we can do more yet in that way. There’s stuff offensively that we just (have to do better). We’ve got to be more versatile on pass, for sure. I think we’re running OK, and I think if we passed better, and I’m not talking about just the passer. There’s protection issues, there’s route issues, there’s all the detail of what you do. If we pass the ball better, we’re going to be even better running, because the makings are here. Even if we were winning games and we had a winning record, these things have to be addressed. They’re a big factor there. Defensively, I think that we just need to continue to grow. There were good signs of being able to play pretty good run defense and challenge in the passing game better. Even though we only sacked the (quarterback) one time, I thought we put pressure on him and at least made him throw on time. That allows the coverage to challenge like that and make some plays. The overall efficiency of the kicking game with our specialists is good. Now we’ve got to surround them with the other parts, the return parts of it. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do about the punts. You just want to have the ability to fair catch a ball or the ball’s being punted into the wind and there’s all sorts of stuff that could happen, to save yardage Jordan’s (Westerkamp) been doing a great job with that. Every part of it, I could go into detail, but initially, we’ve got to continue to grow defensively, we’ve got to continue to try to shut down the big plays. Those are, I think, the major factors there. Offensively, it’s that balance that has to come.”

On cutting down penalties
“The one penalty that we had offensively with an illegal formation, that was, I guess, a judgment mistake by our player. He thought he was on the line, he pointed to the official and got the nod, and maybe the nod meant that he was OK before we motioned, but he thought it was OK from where he was. I was kind of surprised at that call, but that’s how that came down. Most of the calls in that game were those judgment-type calls that we have to help our players with technique better, so yes, we can do that. Certainly, the late hit was a bad choice on the boundary over there. That was a bad choice and so was the hold on the punt return. So yeah, we can clean all of that up.”

On deciding which running backs to use on a week-to-week basis
“Some of it is situational. It’s going to be one of those things where it’s pretty obvious. You see Imani (Cross) go in there on some third-down stuff. We’re trying to do what’s best in the overall picture of what we’re doing, and at the same time look at personnel and give guys roles, so they are involved in the game. Imani has been doing that and then there is a one to three rotation between (Terrell) Newby and (Devine) Ozigbo. So that’s what we’re doing right now. We think that’s not a bad deal. Newby is our number one back, our most versatile back who can stay in there in all the situations. We want to give him a break in the series, and we only are giving him a break because we think Devine is a good player and can go in there and play and be effective running the ball, which he has shown. Those two guys, we have a pretty good idea of what we want to do there. The other backs that go in, like Imani there, they are in roles in situational parts of the game. Andy is kind of out of that box because he’s a fullback. He’s going to get some fullback runs. He can be in there with any tailback, and that thing, as you know, is working out pretty well. He’s a good football player, one of our best football players on all the parts. That’s the plan today. We will discuss this as the week goes on if that rotation changes in any way or there’s different roles, but that’s been our thought process for the last couple of weeks.”

On play-calling
“Well it’s a selection, really, of what we start putting in today. In the passing game, that’s what we do initially for first down. What we select today is really both a product of what we need in the game, (and then we say) ‘OK, what do we need to do with personnel and what are we good at?’ I have a vision, and this is all in a staff discussion, with him back now, what do we want to feature with De’Mornay? He’s got some unique skills. Now if Brandon Reilly and him are rotating and playing, Brandon can run too. So that doesn’t mean he can be excluded, but you have to think about people, you have to think about the other team’s defense, and then you have to really define it for everybody. These are plays that have come out of packages that were put in in fall camp. I make that point just because of the fact that we have gone downhill that way. We looked like we had a better picture of it, and we’ve all seen it earlier in the year. I think that it’s gone downhill in two weeks. I don’t think we played very well and we just missed some plays at Illinois. We missed some opportunities. I think that this week, we played a good defense. They challenged us with a lot of man-to-man coverage. Even though they didn’t sack us, it was disruptive, and so we were thrown off a little bit and we missed some opportunities, but we were challenged. We’ve got to always assume we’re going to see that, so we’ve just got to get better at it. You go back and coach it harder, you don’t try to reinvent the wheel and add a bunch of new patterns. We’ve got enough inventory, believe me. It’s the selection of it, and then the detailing of it, and building the confidence for all the players, especially the quarterback. That’s just where we are, you never know, you just have to react to the situation that you’re in, it’s obviously a big, big factor in losing close games, is not being able to keep the ball, sustain it and make some big plays in the passing game.”

On the decision he wrestled with the most toward the end of the game
“Well I think that, obviously, the calling timeout is, you know, a big issue. I think you’ve got to play the percentages. I think that once it got down there to the point where, if indeed they made the field goal, it was going to be a relatively short (field goal). It was shorter than the one that he made. So if indeed you just let it play out, can you live with the… just almost no time left and I couldn’t do that. I had to figure, ‘OK this is a pretty high percentage kick. I better start saving us some time to come back and give ourselves a chance to win the game.’ But do you wrestle with it? Because you know what the result of that was, right? I certainly do (wrestle with the decision). I will restudy that for the next time, but, frankly, I don’t regret that. I think I would’ve felt worse the other way had they made it and we had 20 seconds left on the clock. You would’ve been asking me that question the other way around. (laughs)”

On what they are doing with the defensive backs to work on their ball skills after dropping a few interception opportunities
“Tons of ball drills. Tons of ball drills. The biggest step forward was we were covering them pretty well. That’s what I mean, we’re in better position to challenge receivers, to challenge the throws. We’re getting a better combination of rush and coverage. We, obviously, would like to finish some of those with an interception. I thought (Josh) Kalu made some great plays. Some of those were… I always tell defensive backs and even coach them to that point where you’re not going to intercept this ball, but sometimes one finger on a ball saves a game. So you’ve got to practice ball drills in all ways. Whether it’s just getting that one finger or that hand on the ball or when given the opportunity to make a play and intercepting (the pass) and making it a big factor in the game. We work on both of those a lot. So we hope individual guys are improving in their ability not only to cover, but to also make a play. Whether it’s getting a ball down or actually intercepting it.”

On when he wants to see his cornerback turn to look for the ball
“That’s a great question about playing defensive back. I’ve learned a lot (about) coaching defensive backs early on in my career. I had two guys in Winnipeg. One of them was… I might’ve told you this before… one of them was an older veteran and one of them was a rookie. The rookie was a long and linear guy. He spent his whole time… he loved to press and then play into the hands of the receiver and the older guy played off. He had a good sense of the quarterback and the receiver, great vision. (He had) been playing a long time. Totally different how they played the ball and how they played the deep ball. But really, in general, the way that you have to play it is if you are in a great shape on a receiver, we call it being in phase with him, basically being on the high shoulder, and you’re in good shape, then you can look back for the ball. If he’s ahead of you, if he’s beaten you off the line of scrimmage, there’s no sense in looking back because if you look back you’re going to lose speed and he’s running full speed. So you’ve got to gain ground and that’s where you find guys playing into them and that’s where they get into trouble. First of all they're not in great shape. They’re trying to recover to a position. If they look back, the balls not being thrown to them, that’s what I always tell them. It’s being thrown to the other guy, so you better get to him before you look back for the ball. So you've got to be in good shape to look back for the ball, in general.”

On how much of Tommy Armstrong Jr.’s passing difficulties are on Tommy
“Well, I think, what would you like to think… you can help him with a good definition. Tommy has shown himself to be an effective passer, to have a good percentage. So I’m certain that there’s throws that he’d like to have back and that he can make. And then the other part of it is we’ve got to really be defined. A big thing for quarterbacks is being decisive. So that’s a coach’s job is to help him be decisive. So if we are drop-back passing, then so much depends on an order of openness. This balls going to go to you, but if you’re covered then it’s going to go to him. Making that decision quickly is a key to your success.”

On the gap between him and backup quarterback Ryker Fyfe
“Well, you know, I think that Tommy really gives us a lot of versatility. It’s like I said, if we would just put this thing together, improve that area of the game, having the versatility of the quarterback… we have some quarterback runs, as you know, that look pretty darn good. They’re designated runs for the quarterback or options for the quarterback, and I love that part of it. I think that can help our tailback running game, but none of it’s going to be as good if we don’t pass the ball better. So our job is, right now, to be real effective teaching Tommy progressions, getting rid of the ball and then having receivers in exactly the right spot. How to beat coverages. How to play against certain defenses. It’s adapting what we have to that. And getting to Ryker, I like Ryker. I like his decision making. I like his throwing ability, but with what Tommy brings to the big picture we want to continue with that growth.”

On if he’s considered passing less and running more
“Well, we… yes. I think, really, that’s what we tried to do in this last game somewhat. You saw that early, I’m sure. At the same time, when you’re playing good defenses, you’re not going to be able to just do that. That’s why I say even if the balance is just being more efficient, not necessarily more times, but more efficient in the times that you do it, you can still run more and pass not as much. The efficiency of the passing will still key how you do because you’ve got to open that thing up at some point.”

On his level of concern about the team’s unity and cohesion
“Well, I think, you know, I can kind of go on what I see and what I see is, most importantly, how they engaged in everything that they’re supposed to do. Which is the stuff they have on Sunday, the weight-lifting. Are they fading away in school? Is there a disengagement here? What’s the energy level for practice? What’s the attention? Those are all tell-tale signs, right? I’ve been in it long enough to have seen all of that. So those things are addressed, and we actually had a record number of guys that volunteered and lifted yesterday. Most everybody took care of their business and so those are good things. I’m not going to be overly dramatic about it until I see a real issue there because they’ve answered the bell every Monday to me. They’ve gotten ready to play and I’ve thought… I’ve already noted the things that weren’t so pretty on Saturday, but we can’t fault their effort in the game, how they played it and how they went right to the end. So I’m going to, at this juncture right now, remain positive in that they will come today and do what they’re supposed to do and have that good engagement of getting ready to play. We’re obviously in a box that it’s just a game. A chance to win. A chance to really prove what we can do. You know, without having to think about big ramifications or standings. We’re out of that right now. We’re just into a box of a game. And that’s a good way to live anyway. Winning, and especially right now, where we are with our record, so let’s just… I just have faith that they will come (and) be ready to go. We’ll start practicing. We’ll get ready to win.”

On a defining characteristic that’s most critical in times like this
“I think, obviously, the leadership engagement is huge. I can remember right before we went on like a seven-out-of-eight game winning streak at Oregon State, when we were like 1-3, I heard (Oregon State quarterback) Matt Moore say to the group, ‘We worked too hard to let this die.’ So people stepping up and just getting ready to play and really, really just competing. I think there’s, one thing for sure, is there’s been a good investment made by this group offseason-wise. That helps in that reluctance to just give it up. They’ll fight harder and I have faith that this team will. There’s good leadership that way.”

On being six weeks in and not having an established offense
“Well I thought we were making one, earlier. I mean we were averaging 500-something yards a game and we had pretty good run-pass mix and it looked pretty good. So, obviously, we have not arrived because we have faltered badly the last two weeks. Those kinds of things are disappearing, but we had good numbers. We had good balance. We had good production. We had good percentage and it’s faded. So we've just got to bring it back, and we bring it back with the definition of how we do things in helping the quarterback with progressions and that’s where we go with it.”

On Minnesota’s defense being strong and the challenges that will present to his team
“They are strong defensively. They have a defensive tackle that gives everybody fits; number 96 (Steven Richardson). They are obviously well schemed up, well coached, and that’s our task. Without everything I just talked about about us, that’s our task against Minnesota. We’ve got to continue to grow defensively against this team. Handle the running game. Make sure we’re sound in the passing game. All those things… they watch the film too. So those things that have been Achilles heels for us defensively, we’re going to see that every game until we can prove we can stop it and be effective. So that will be our challenge against this team. I already mentioned offensively. If we will find our balance and be effective in the passing game, we’ll have a greater chance to win the game and really control the game on our end of it and not let their good defense win the game.”

On if he expects Minnesota’s corners to be in the face of his receivers
“Yeah we do, and we have to be ready for that all the time. Sometimes they’re playing that out of the zone defense, inside pressing the guys outside. Sometimes it’s all man-to-man. Sometimes it’s a fake where they’ll bail out. We have to be ready for all of that. We have to defeat… the one thing we’ll have to prove is we have to defeat man-to-man press coverage. That’s one thing we’ll have to prove for sure.”

On how much true freshman running back Jordan Stevenson pushed to play and Riley’s philosophy on pulling redshirts four or five games into a season
“The philosophy about redshirting or not, a player, especially at this juncture, is a very difficult one. He was definitely a proponent of it. He probably would not have ever redshirted had he been healthy in camp and been practicing. He has worked hard in all areas of his life here, not just the football end of it, to get back. To get back in shape. To get back with an opportunity to help. And since he really wanted to do it, and he has done those things as of late, we thought… the one thing we want to make sure is that we’re doing everything we can for this team, right now. Not about future teams, all that. So we thought he can give us, in different ways, and maybe some other parts of other special teams initially and maybe, maybe down the road, as he learns more of what we’re doing offensively, as a runner. It’s a long season and so the more healthy, good athletes that we can have ready to go, that’s why we did it. He wanted to do it and all those things kind of fit in with that. So we said let’s go.”