Mike Riley Press Conference Quotes

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Nov. 23, 2015
Pre-Iowa

Head Coach Mike Riley

Opening statement
“I want to start off by saying what a great event this is in our stadium right now. That’s pretty neat to be able to have all these games and these schools here. A lot of towns represented and even though we don’t get to see it, it’s pretty exciting. The other thing I want to address right off the bat just so we can talk about it is that I have on the serious issue we continue to go through right now at this time is I have no new information on it from the University, from the athletic department. As we all know, it’s an ongoing investigation that’s being handled by law enforcement, the University. For me right now, there’s no need to speculate on anything about it and no need to deal in any hypotheticals. It’s all being handled. We all know the seriousness of the situation and then the other part of it, we have to compartmentalize our lives all the time, and the other thing we are getting ready for is a great football game for this University and our team.

That’s really all I have to say about that, and we can get on to the next part of things which is Iowa. This is a great opportunity, as we all realize, for our team for all the obvious reasons. It’s a top-ranked team, it’s a great game in the Big Ten, and it’s really exciting for us. We played better and have gotten better in a lot of areas. Our last game, we didn’t get to talk about it here last week, but we played overall maybe as good of defense as we’ve played. If you combine all the parts with run defense, pass rush, pass coverage, it was kind of our best picture of what it should look like as we go forward. We were all pleased with that and we’re looking for continued growth. The philosophy for how we approach stuff is you should, given the opportunity to play, get better all the time and defensively in some ways we did that. Like I said, we may have played our best game of being sound run, pass together. All those parts. We were better on assignments. We were good on tackling. Overall in the game we had two penalties, so we actually had a pretty good overall game. I think the thing that was good about it offensively is we ran the ball pretty well. We made a couple big plays in the passing game. We obviously weren’t consistent enough there, and we also in that regard let them back in the room with the turnovers. That was a negative.

Talking about Iowa, this is a good overall football team in all three phases. Offensively, they have multiple personnel groups much like ourselves really. They’re a zone team, zone blocking, inside zone and the outside stretch play, that’s their top two plays so what they do, they do well that way. They run with power. Their quarterback is a very efficient player who throws over 60 percent and one of the best qualities he has is he extends plays. Not really a runner in their offense but as far as how they play and what he can do to hurt you is he will move around and make plays from there. He’s athletic. They have good receivers. One of them, (Junior WR Matt) Vandeberg, has been their number one receiver. I think he has close to 60 catches now. The other guy, (Senior WR Tevaun) Smith averages 18 yards a catch, so kind of their big play guy. They do a great job of using their tight ends. I think you all saw the tight end delay they scored on Purdue. But they’re big in the bootleg game. With all the zone plays and the stretch plays they run, they fake that play, the quarterback comes out the other end, tight ends are heavily involved in the receiving part of that. Defensively, they’re 4-3. I think I’d describe them as very solid. They have two very good defensive tackles. They are very disruptive. Their linebackers are active and productive. One corner has eight interceptions. He’s a really good player. Very instinctive player and you have to be careful with him. The other thing about their defense that I like and don’t like at the same time is they don’t give up big plays. I think that’s one of their trademarks. Special teams, I think we are going to have two solid special teams units playing against each other. We’ve got big matchups in coverage. This is going to be a big field position game. How we punt, punt direction, punt hang time, kickoff direction, kick hang time or touchbacks are big factors in the game. All the specialists are good. All of them are ranked high in the league. Should be a great matchup there. Injuries for the Huskers, (RFr. I-Back) Mikale Wilbon is out. He has a scope and won’t be playing. (Sr. Defensive Tackle) Kevin Williams is good news, I think he’ll be able to play. (Jr. Linebacker) Michael Rose-Ivey has gotten better. (Jr. I-Back) Terrell Newby is better. We expect him to be able to play. (Jr. WR) Alonzo Moore is healthier. (Fr. WR) Stanley Morgan Jr. is healthier. (Jr. WR) Brandon Reilly, he had a pretty severely sprained ankle, he would not have been able to play if we played last weekend. He is going to run today extensively. Not many routes but tomorrow should practice, so I’m very hopeful that he is able to play.”

On seniors
“The seniors on this team, in a transition, that’s probably the hardest group. They’ve been here the longest, they’ve been with the former coaches the longest. I would say that we have been able to function well through some hard times because of the stability of that group. I really appreciate them for who they’ve been and how they have gone through this year. They’re good representatives of this program and school.”

On how to stay motivated
“I think all those parts, playing a good team, our natural growing rivalry with Iowa, I think there is lots of stuff here that is real about that. Just bringing it back to the basics, I think our guys are just excited for the opportunity to play in a big game against a good team and get a chance to prove what we can do. Everyone is obviously aware of the ramifications for them, but I think our guys want to play and win. Whatever motivates them, I think it’s really about us more than anything.”

On having a bye week
“I think the things that are more obvious about the bye week, they’re not surprising. I think that our guys have basically gone through all of camp and 11 straight games. It probably felt good just in a lot of ways. We all understand the physical part of it. I think all of our guys' bodies are feeling pretty good right now in general. Some of the injured have been able to come back. I think as much as anything, taking two or three days with a mental break, I think that part of it is good too. I’m hopeful this is just a good preparation for this team. I find ways to worry all the time. We had more of a regular day five lead up to the game jog through yesterday. I’m anxious to get more full speed practice today and have two good days like that before we head into day two.”

On if anything has changed since allegations
“Right now we are business as usual. The repetitions and preparations is the same as they have been.”

On if he’s heard anything
“I haven’t been assured of anything.”

On depth of team
“I like that for sure. I think it says something about depth and people had to fill in everywhere we’ve gone. The linebackers have held that thing together somehow. As thin as it was and as new faces that are involved in there has been really interesting. I think Trent Bray has done an outstanding job that way. I think it’s either that they’ve been able to hold it together or we’ve had good depth. The defensive line, that was a really good picture heading in and then everybody had to play and then there’s been a lot of questions as we’ve gone through so that part of it is good. Then the mental makeup of the guys is probably as big a factor if anything. To get through what we would all deem as a lot of adversity and still be able to improve and play better in the end.”

On if he has gotten any details involving investigation
“I’m not involved in that at all. The investigation is between law enforcement and the University. Not me.”

On how winning this game would make up for past mistakes
“I’m going to live in the moment. We want to put all of our focus into this like we always will for here forever more. We are where we are right now. We can’t redeem those games or get them back in any way, so what we try to do as coaches is continue to grow and play our best game. What the players need to do is do that too. I think we’ve done that the last couple weeks. We’ll need to do that with another jump to win this game. That is it. Yes, it will feel good. It will feel good to beat a good football team. That’s the goal.”

On linebackers
“It didn’t take us long to learn that Dedrick Young is a special freshman. He played almost twice as many plays as almost any linebacker last game because of the versatility and whether he plays on nickel or first and ten or whatever. I’ve seen remarkable improvement in (Sophomore) Marcus Newby. The combination of (Sophomore) Chris Weber and (Junior) Josh Banderas, how they have traded injuries and traded time, those are two really good people and have played good football when they have been in and been healthy. It was a scary look before we ever knew any of these guys or got into games, but I’ve gained a lot of admiration for the guys playing there and the guy coaching that position. I think they’ve done a really good job.”

On adding more depth heading into next year
“Definitely. In the prioritizing recruiting, that is still a major area. I don’t even know if we can complete where we want to be for next year depth-wise. A certain number of guys whatever that is. All I know is when you look at our punt team, there are only two different defensive players on it each time. That’s an unusual picture. That’s how I will describe it. That’s because we don’t have enough depth at linebacker and safety probably. Those body types can be the same. Look at a young guy on our team (Defensive Back) Antonio Reed, he’s a freshman that’s done a really good job. He’s become one of our core best special teams players. That kind of body, we could take 10 of them. That’s a major priority for us.”

On Iowa Quarterback C.J. Beathard
“Well, he really runs that team well and he does exactly what (the Iowa coaching staff) wants him to do. That team is built around the run, the bootleg off of the run, play-action passes down the field. He takes care of the football. He’s only thrown, I think, three interceptions for the year. He does not hurt the team and he manages everything really, really well. The other thing that he gives them is when it’s not good, when something’s broken down, whether it’s protection or he can’t find anybody, he moves well enough to extend the play and hurt you, and that’s what we have to prevent. So, one of the big issues in this game is containment of the quarterback, and it’s not like a zone-read team where you’ve got to tackle the guy off of a real play, it’s more of make him throw the ball on time, don’t give him extra time. We’ve got to build on what we did last week. We had not had a pass-rush game or a sack game like that all year, and we did a better job. Now this is going to be a tougher, by far, opponent to do it against, but it’s going to be a key issue.”

On the running back rotation with Terrell Newby healthy
“I’ve been thinking about that and I knew that was going to be asked. I think that we’re not ready to exactly say because Newby has not really participated in practice. He went through the jog-through yesterday and looked good. My guess is, that if he is truly healthy and can play like he can play, that he will play and we will probably find ways to rotate them.”

On Imani Cross’s increased production and if he will see a sizable amount of carries
“Yes, absolutely. A very, very important part of this game will be us running the football and Imani has done a really nice job for us.”

On if he thinks about the possibility of ending the season with victories over previously undefeated Michigan State and Iowa
“Yeah, you do think about stuff like that and it would be big for our team, and our team going forward. It would give us a chance to continue practicing (if bowl-eligible) and in that practice, work longer with younger guys in the development part of it, the guys that are redshirting right now that we could spend a little more time with. Lots of residuals there, just for this team, it would be great and also for our upcoming team.”

On building relationships with the senior class
“I think it’s a credit to the older guys, too, that they were open to that. Absolutely, I think, my reminder to our new staff as we gathered up is ‘we are joining this place, and these guys are here and they’re entrenched here and we have to respect their place here and their choice to come here, and we have to coach the whole team.’ I really have urged every guy as we have gone forward to not pay attention to age, to be as fair as we possibly can as we evaluate who plays, because I told them ‘we are not focusing on the 2016 or ’17 season, we’re focusing on doing our best right here in 2015.’ That’s just philosophically how we have always done it. I think it’s the only right, fair way to do it. So I appreciate (Kevin Williams’ comment on a strong relationship with the coaching staff), because that was our goal. That’s what we always wanted to portray, that our job is to coach this team as best we can.”

On if Andy Janovich’s emergence this year is an example of “coaching this year’s team”
“I would say that that probably would be. I haven’t thought of it that way, but I think that our job as coaches, as we said a long time ago, is to really study and look at this personnel in the spring and then try to find a way to blend the talent that we see with what we’ve done before and see if we can make it work. It didn’t take anybody very long, including Bruce Read, our special teams coach, to note that Andy is a really good football player. So, from what we’ve done with people like that in the past, he fit perfectly and then we saw him as one of our best players, so we were going to get him in the game.”

On the ups and downs the team has gone through over the past year
“Yes, I understood it, I could see it. I didn’t really know anybody’s feelings, which was probably good, but the first thing we did was acknowledge this is hard. They just lost all the guys that recruited them, coached them. That’s never easy. We don’t expect it to be, and of course they’re going to have built in loyalties there. Nothing’s going to change about that immediately. Only through time can we kind of gain those relationships that you really got into coaching for. That’s what I have found to be different for me, too. I mean, I was a place for 12 years and so everybody understood what it was to be in the program, the expectations, behavior. The older guys were kind of the teachers as we went forward. Starting anew actually is very motivating and energizing and takes time. With all that, this was a good group to break in with. From the beginning, they were pretty darn open, considering the hard situation for them.”

On if he had any idea one year ago that he would be the head coach at Nebraska
“No. None whatsoever in my wildest dreams at this moment a year ago I would not have thought it because I had always made it pretty public and said it many times, I intended to retire probably there at Oregon State. In about a week’s time, some new information came up. The newest information was when we found out about it, my wife said, ‘Let’s look into that.’ That was the newest, most surprising information I had gotten in a long time (laughs). So that’s not necessarily exactly the reason why, but it opened a door that was very interesting for all of us, and we’re all very thankful for it, as we know. We always will miss parts of our life in particular there, but very thankful for being here.”

On how much football he was able to watch this past Saturday
“I got to watch more football of other teams playing each other than all year, obviously. At one time, we kind of had four games going that we were looking at. It was all interesting and fun to watch. That was a very good hard-fought football game (between Michigan State and Ohio State), and it was just going to be somebody making a play to win was going to be the difference. It’s what I have found this league to be, is very, very competitive. Just look at the number of scores, through time, as I’ve gotten to know it better, it’s kind of week-to-week. Who plays the best is going to win. In general, I think that’s a pretty accurate observation.”

On the biggest differences in this season than in past seasons in his coaching career
“There’s more similarities, we’d all move back probably 15-20 years and see probably a distinct difference in style. The general Big Ten style of play, the general West Coast, Pac-10 style of play, you could probably really note the differences in the run/pass ratio as much as anything. I think nationally, that’s blended a lot. We actually probably have seen more zone-read-type teams here than we did out there because people talk, in general, about spreads. Well, there’s all sorts of spreads in this conference, all sorts of different spreads in the Pac-12. The way I can describe it the best is it’s a whole different deal between what Washington State does or what Oregon does or maybe what a team like Minnesota does. They all have their own flavor a little bit, but I think there’s been a blending of all that nationally. There’s going to be, maybe in some regards, maybe the weather and wind, there’s going to be a little more emphasis on running and then you have a team that has been the leader in this deal that really runs the ball a lot in Ohio State. Then you’ve got an NFL quarterback in (Connor) Cook at Michigan State, they’re going to run a pro-style passing game with him. There’s a nice blend of football in this league. College football is really special that way. We can all see different styles, different kinds of personnel that fit and how people run it. I will say this: this is a really well-coached league. I think these teams are all well-coached.”

On the challenges that Iowa’s defense presents
“Well, I think they’re really solid up front. Like I said, their defensive tackles are very disruptive. They always get good pass rush. Their linebackers are tough and active. In the running game, they’re very, very solid. In pass defense, those linebackers play a big role in disrupting. You’re going to have to negotiate those linebackers as you go down and run a pass pattern. If you’re Jordan Westerkamp playing in the slot, then there’s going to be a linebacker looking you up every time you come off the line of scrimmage. They do the best job that we’ve seen on disrupting players running pass routes. We’re going to have to be strong in our routes, we’re going to have to be good in protection because if indeed you’re getting disrupted, if you can buy the quarterback a little bit more time so that those receivers have some time to get back and win in the secondary, that’s going to be a big issue in this game.”

On the possibility of accepting a bowl bid with a 5-7 record if there are not enough bowl-eligible teams
“I’m going to only say we’re going to go win this game and not even have to have that discussion right now.”

On his success in upsetting highly-ranked teams
“I don’t know, there’s no magic to it, you have to go play well. I would say that I think what we try to do, so that we don’t have to change all of a sudden, because somebody says ‘Wow, this is really a good team. We’re really going to have to be different this week’ is we try to maintain a consistency in preparation. Now obviously in this year, it hasn’t always paid off well, but maybe it’s paid off in the long run on us getting better. So we don’t vary. Every game is a big game to us. I tell the players ‘we only get one game a week. It’s not baseball. There’s no three-game series. Let’s get ready for this game like it was the last one and take advantage of every minute of preparation.’ If you really live that, then when you get to games you can be ready and the same thing with this one. Then, you have to have some inherent pride in being a competitor and so these games are all going to be tough and you’ve got to love that as a coach and as a player, to be able to take advantage of an opportunity to beat a well-respected team.”