Nebraska Coach Mike Riley

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Monday, Oct. 26, 2015
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Pre-Purdue

Nebraska Head Coach Mike Riley

Opening Statement
“Well, I don’t have anything Earth-shattering to bring up except I’m going to start like I normally start. There were some good things. (Sophomore kicker) Drew Brown continues to do well particularly in the field goal area. The other day I thought he had a couple nice balls, and Sam (Foltz) punting was good. We’ll talk about the other part of it but his average, he was hitting the ball well. His average was 50 yards. Offensively, we had quite a few receivers make some plays and mixed in the ball game. Tommy (Armstrong, Jr.) made some big-time throws. Defensively, against the running back, we played some pretty good run defense. The quarterback was 13-for-28 passing, so we did a nice job in the area of percentage there. The sack safety was a big play and our third-down defense continued to be pretty good, they were 5 out of 13. On the other side of it, the special teams I don’t think had a particularly good day in general. Our kickoff return game is not good. Right now we have to do a better job of getting that thing started. Initially it was blocks at the point. The kickoff coverage was suspect right from the start and our average was bad. Punt coverage was tough for some of those booming kicks. That’s one of the issues there right. What your goal is when you punt the ball is you’d like your hang time to match the distance. We had some deep punts and they had some space and that can be an issue. Kind of indicative of our game in general, we were close but not quite able to down the ball inside the 10. The whole part of it, I think we kicked three touchbacks which lots of field position affected the net punt then. Offensively, all those things that we talked about hopefully, trying to continue a week ago, we fell short of. We ran the ball for less than a hundred yards. We threw way more passes because of that I think. We turned the ball over. We had numerous drops and hurried a number of times. I think a general statement offensively was just a lack of consistency with some good plays mixed in but not enough consistency. Defensively, there are some very obvious things there. We let the quarterback run for 139 yards. The two long scrambles and another third-down run were big plays in the game and what may have been our worst quarter of football defensively was the fourth quarter, where we needed to play our best. Injury updates, some new ones, (Sophomore Defensive Back) Chris Jones’ neck is being checked out, and we’ll see where he is. (Sophomore Defensive Back) Boaz Joseph continues to be questionable. (Junior Linebacker) Michael Rose-Ivey re-tweaked his groin. (Junior Wide Receiver) Alonzo Moore had a stinger that we hope gets better as the week goes on. He’s questionable right now. Some of the old stuff that may be getting better, hopefully get them back in the mix, (Junior Defensive Tackle) Kevin Maurice, (Senior Defensive Tackle) Kevin Williams, (Sophomore Linebacker) Chris Weber and (Redshirt Freshman Offensive Lineman) Nick Gates. We didn’t want to make it the story right before the game, but (Senior Cornerback) Jonathan Rose was suspended for last game and will be suspended for this upcoming game. We’ll talk about Purdue as you ask questions.”

On Jonathan Rose suspension
“Violation of team rules.”

On finishing in the fourth quarter
“I think that when you talk about the fourth quarter and finishing, I think you have to throw all of us into the barrel. They all have their own story so it’s hard to generalize necessarily about what that might be. The definite part is that there are isolated cases where one more first down offensively and we don’t get into a Hail Mary. You can go all the way back to that. Just taking better care of the football and the time management in Illinois. There is isolated things as we go that you could pinpoint game to game and that’s what happens in close games that are down to the wire. Those things are glaring, so we all take part in that failure.”

On depth at cornerback position
“(Redshirt freshman) Trai Mosley is probably that next guy up. Fortunately, (Senior Cornerback) Daniel Davie was healthy last week. Trai was ready to play as his backup. That would be in that group including Daniel and (Sophomore Cornerback) Josh Kalu. With Trai, that would kind of be our depth right there. Obviously, the nickel situation is thin. We hope Chris (Weber) is going to be OK.”

On improvements in the kickoff team
“We have to continue to work on the blocking. One of the hardest things to do in football is block in space, and we’re obviously not doing a great job of that. We’re not getting the things started. We think we've coached that hard, and yet there is nothing to show for it, obviously. We just have to continue to look at the best scheme for the week. You have your base returns, the things you’d like to do. To secure basically just like the offensive play, the point of attack and then make it better. We just have to do a better job of blocking in space and getting the thing started. I’m actually excited to see (Freshman I-Back) Jordan Stevenson get a little room. I know this is no consolation as an answe,r so I don’t mean it to be, but often times it’s a block on the kickoff return. It’s hard to watch because you can see it taking shape. If one guy loses, it’s a nothing play. If you just stay on that block a little bit, it’s just like everything in football, the line between success and failure is pretty tight. We just have to do a better job of blocking, picking guys up and securing some room for the runner and getting the right ball in opportunity too because it’s just like punts. There are some good returnable kicks and some that are not so good.”

On evaluation of effort level
“From the very first opening kickoff, it felt different for a second there. That’s a very vague answer. It didn’t feel the same, but it’s hard to generalize about a total effort because there was a lot of good play, and there was a ton of good play defensively if you think about it, I thought. It’s just we broke down letting the quarterback scramble on two big plays that were probably the difference in the game. It’s hard to generalize that whole thing. We were not in sync offensively running the ball or protection. Then obviously the completion of the pass. We had very little to say, OK this is something we can rely on. If that’s a result of us and I think a pretty good defense. The big guy up there was giving us a hard time both run and pass. It’s hard to make a general statement about a whole group about that, but it had a different feeling to it for sure.”

On the possibility of alternate uniforms, 1995 championship team reunion and other distractions affecting the team in a negative way
“I sure hope not. All we can look at is the concrete issues of how the play was, so that’s what we did.  Now whatever else might have been, I don’t know. It’s so subjective, it’s hard to put a finger on what that might have meant to the whole deal. You certainly hope that those things would only be something positive, but it’s hard to say.”

On his experience here so far
“This will be a funny answer because of our question, but it is an awesome place with the greatest fans in the world. It’s a privilege to be a part of it. We are really disappointed with what’s gone on in the win-loss column, but that does not deter anything about how we feel about the place. It’s everything it’s advertised [to be].  We’ve just got to continue to work real hard on our end to make this football team product better.”

On if the scrutiny that comes with the job has surprised him
“No, I’m not surprised by those kinds of things. Frankly, it’s everywhere in our world, if you’re [at] any college, if you’re with an NFL team. I’m not really surprised nor affected by any of that. The biggest issue I deal with is the football team, and how they feel and the fact that I’ve been impressed with their work during the week and that gives us a chance. The hard part is how do you react after so many losses. It’s kind of unusual, but frankly your season turns on close games and ours has gone the wrong way. We’re just going to everything we can to prepare them for the next opportunity that we get in to win a game and if that takes all of 59 plus minutes, then we’ve got to do it next time. That’s what our main focus is. It’s like I’ve said before, you want to be at a place where people care and they’re interested and of course, with that, is scrutiny about everything and when you’re not winning don’t be surprised by the reaction.  You just kind of stick with what you know has to be done with your team.”

On if the team is physically prepared/fresh when they get to the fourth quarter
“I think that perhaps this last week might have been a different story than the first one because I think it’s really hard to generalize. Go back to early in the year, like the BYU game, I think we played our best football in the second half up until the Hail Mary. And then this last weekend, not so much. It’s all different. It think that this team is in good shape. I think there are times where maybe defensively we have to play too much. A couple first downs offensively can make a huge difference in the completion of a game. There’s probably too many different stories to generalize about that, but I don’t think, if I could generalize, that it’s about their physical shape or physical playing at the end.”

On how different the season would be if the defense would have knocked down the Hail Mary against BYU
“That is an interesting question and I don’t want to go there because we didn’t win. And everything has to go forward. That’s kind of life so we have to react to what we have down and make it go from there.”

On special teams
Generally our specialists are good. And those parts that go with them, I think there’s been some bright spots. The kickoff coverage, until this last week has been pretty good. The punt inside the 10 [yard-line] has been outstanding. Our overall grade in those areas, which kickoff coverage [and] punt coverage are two of our biggest emphasises, as we practice, as we plan for the season and we took a little downturn in our grade overall, but those have not been bad, so it’s something that we want to bring back up immediately. Punt return is a funny thing. De’Mornay [Pierson-El] had a nice one, Jordan [Westerkamp] had some early that were good. You have to look at – in this day and age of punting, and how people punt and what we’re seeing – how many returnable balls do you have? In general, that’s been OK. The punt-return part, obviously the kickoff return, not so much."

On the special team penalties
“I have no excuse for those penalties nor any real reason for them. I don’t think they need to happen at all. You don’t need an offside, you certainly don’t need an unsportsmanlike (penalty) which is not good in any way and the illegal block was unnecessary. The blocking on special teams has so much to do with making the right choice (and) being in the right position. There are some times where you’re not in great shape and you've just got to pass up the block and go get the next guy. Give your returner a chance. Our issue's been blocking a little bit, but you just can’t make an illegal block because on a kickoff return it just kills your field position. You end up with the ball, oftentimes, inside the 10-yard line. You just can’t have that mistake. We had three special team… half of our penalties were special team penalties.”

On Michael Rose’s injury and if they rushed his return
“I’ll say this, we are really, nicely – this is a positive comment – nicely conservative about guys returning. It is a joint effort between the trainer, doctor and the player. So a guy’s not going to get to come back from an injury unless everybody’s on board with that. Unfortunately, that doesn’t guarantee anything, right? We haven’t ruled him out. Hopefully it’s not so bad that he won’t be able to play, but it is something, again, like I said, that we’ll be very careful about.”

On going 3-for-3 on third-and-shorts when running the ball and going 1-for-6 on third-and-shorts when passing the ball, can the staff look at stats throughout the game to make future
“Well, I think, you certainly can. It’s one of those things we have gotten better running the ball on third-and-one and two than we were earlier in the year. We have not improved on that third-and-short to medium range throwing the ball. We’re not bad on third-and-long throwing the ball and that’s where we’re examining it hard for this upcoming game.”

On how certain he is that all his players are on the same page
“I think we try to have a real good pulse on our team. I’m sure we don’t hear or know everything, but we try through just general day-to-day conversation and… the football day involves a lot of interaction, so through this we try to get as much information as we can and address anything that we think is important. In that way, we hope we have a pretty good pulse on what’s going on. We know the issues that can occur when you’re not winning, and we try to hit those head up, face-to-face, in our meetings and address everything that we possibly can and keep the focus on growth and building the best atmosphere we can in that, so that we can teach and so guys are open to teaching. (It’s an) ongoing process. (There’s) always something you have to battle when you’re not winning and (it’s) always a key factor in continued growth.”

On if he has any sense that there may be a division on the team
“I, personally, do not think that anything like that is getting in the way, but, you know, like I said, when you’re not winning you've really got to stress and look for any possible things that are getting in the way of that growth.”

On how he balances accountability and making changes just to make changes in personnel groups
“I think players have to know that you’re doing the best you can as a coach to put the guy that has won the job or is playing the best or has the best opportunity to do a good job in the game. Players have to know that you’re always trying to do that. That’s why, at least within the two-deep scheme during the season, we try to give guys ample opportunity in practice to play and we look at that and examine that all the time. As to who should have an opportunity. Now, Dirk, when you talk about offensive line, we have… kind of our history together with the guys I’ve been working with, we haven’t rotated that group much. We have had a starting five, and maybe a sixth or seventh guy, and that’s really been our depth of guys that can play in the games. Those guys are getting most of the reps, but we haven’t rotated because of that kind of chemistry thing that’s going on. That doesn’t mean we don’t talk about it. Just about every day or, in particular, on those days like Sunday after the game and the evaluation of it and then, probably, the next time it’s brought up is Tuesday after you get started again. So we continually talk about possible rotations, possible personnel changes, what’s the best thing to do, who’s doing what, who’s pushing to get into the game. Those are always ongoing topics.”

On if he has to resist the urge to make personnel changes just to make a point
“Well, I don’t like to do it for the individual just to make a point about that at all. I think it has to be done with some real substance to it. Those are big moves when you make those and can affect a lot. When you’re talking about the kinds of games we’ve been in, is that really the right thing to do because a one-point game here? You’ve got to be careful of not issuing a scapegoat statement by doing something like that. I think you have to be real careful with all of that. Make sure that anything you do is well explained to everybody. The parties involved.”

On Nebraska throwing the ball more than 40 times, six times in the last four years, and three of them coming this year and what he attributes that to
“I think that our numbers go up in the passing game with probably the lack of success in the running game. Sam, that’s probably just a general statement, off the top of my head, but it’s probably on. It’s like I said, we really don’t intend to be that 48 passes a game team. Sometimes you have to play the game that you’re in. We certainly want to be more adept at running the ball. We continue to examine our threats running the ball whether it’s the tailback, quarterback or wide receiver running the ball. We’ve got to make sure… I think we can threaten the defense better if all those parts have a place in the running game. Our goal is not to be that team that’s throwing that much and there’s a valid reason for it. It’s because we’re not running the ball well enough.”

On why the team isn’t running the ball well
“Some of it may be the opponents, right? Some opponents are naturally going to be better. We ran into a deal where we were… I think we had six tackles for losses against us the other day. Those are tough to take in the scheme of keeping… you know, making a choice on your next play call. It’s a big factor in how that goes, so it might be defensively who we’re playing that’s better at that. That doesn’t mean we still shouldn’t be good or still shouldn’t have a will to do it, but you've got to make it go otherwise you get into some bad deals. Maybe we should get into third-and-long and just throw it from there. (laughs)”

On when he looks at inserting the running backs
“I think we’ve tried to be pretty versatile with our rotation there. So different guys have gotten an opportunity, maybe not enough to get a rhythm, but they have gotten an opportunity through the year. I think we’ve played at least three guys enough to get some turns and to know and they all, in their way, can and have played a part in the game. A lot of times, we also have to examine the rest of the story. How it was blocked and so, in retrospect, we’ve just got to do a better job, I think, in two ways of completing the blocks and giving our backs a chance and then making sure the right back is in the game.”

On if he’s become an advocate of the legalization of Stickum glue for the receivers
“Oh… yeah. Maybe I would be. (laughs)”

On what he attributes the dropped passes to
“This last week, I think, we counted eight. I think that, probably, it’s always a big deal about a drop is focus and taking care of first things first. I know a couple of times we just didn’t catch the ball. A couple of times we were running before the catch. Those, particularly, those when you’re throwing the short runs. It’s a run-pass key and you’re giving the guy that has some room the ball as quick as you can. Now, all of a sudden, that’s incomplete. Those are deflators for sure. You can feel it in the whole stadium when that happens, so we've just got to be much more consistent. That’d make a big difference in what the percentage looks like for Tommy (Armstrong Jr.) and gives us some continuity on the drive. A lot of times, plays like that, everybody uses the little bubble-screen off of a pass or the key throw out there off of a run as part of the running game. So it provides you some continuity in getting a good second down play or, maybe, a first down out of it.”

On the leadership on the team and if he wants to see some guys step up vocally
“Well, it’s still about reaction and, probably, it’s still about the work that they put in that’s going to be the most important part. It’s like I’ve said, every Monday, and through the week, we’ve maintained a pretty good atmosphere out there as far as getting ready. So I’m not really going to worry about that until I don’t see that and so, I think, the older guys on the team, obviously, are setting a tone of just work and that’s what we need right now. You know, you’re going to have a good response or a bad reaction to what your circumstances are and, so far, we’ve had good responses. So we’ll see if we can do that again today and I’m pretty sure that we will.”

On linebacker Chris Weber's injury
“Well, I think, the best way to say it for Chris is day-to-day. It has to do with strength. He is getting better, almost daily. So this is going to be a matter of how it goes through the week. It’s a shoulder, neck stinger.”

On the struggles of the pass rush and if he thinks he needs to go after some junior college kids
“You know what, that is… there are some areas like that, that we will look at as far as… you know, that is one area. Depth at linebacker and a guy that can play immediately is another area because we don’t have enough of those guys. It might even be an outside back or type that can rush the passer. We don’t have enough of those guys on the team. We’re probably five or six short of those kind of people. We are looking. Might they come from the junior college ranks? Yes, but you've got to be right in the junior college recruiting. So everything that we can do to be right there. Same thing goes for anybody that can provide coverage ability in the secondary. You’ve got to be right there, but we don’t have enough of those guys as we’ve already gone through our depth and getting ready for this game.”

On if he recruited junior college kids on defense that had success at Oregon State
“Yeah, we have.”

On Purdue
“This is a team coming off a bye. They’ve had a lot of close games. Obviously, for us, every game is a big, big game. Defensively, they play a 4-3, but they get into a three-man front, so what we call an “Okie” look with their four down people. They’ve got No. 54 (Jake Replogle) leads their team in tackles for losses. He’s an interior defensive lineman. No. 11 (Antoine) Miles is their sack leader. And then No. 36 (Danny Ezechukwu), a linebacker, is their leading tackler. They’re one back, three wide receivers, four wides... their backs are versatile. They’re, obviously, their leading rushers. They play two backs and they’re also in their top four as receivers. They’re catching the ball out of the backfield, they’re versatile players that we’re going to have to account for. That’s it. We’re just looking for a good week of preparation against Purdue.”