Mike Riley Press Conference Quotes

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference Quotes
Monday, Aug. 29, 2016
Memorial Stadium

Coach Mike Riley
Opening Statement
“I’m excited to put this team on the field, it’s been a memorable off season in a lot of ways. I’ve always appreciated from the end of the bowl game to right to this moment and the work that this team has done. Most of the time we’re all begging for a few more days of practice, a few more days of fall camp. It’s probably still like that, but I’m more anxious than ever to see our team play. It’s good to get into game week. As you all know, Fresno (State) has a really good football history. Through the years they’ve won a lot of football games, have been ranked well and have had a lot of players come out of there. We expect talent, speed and athleticism. That’s just them, that’s just who they’ve been. I’ve played them a couple of times at Oregon State, and then of course watched them back in the day when Pat (Hill) was coaching. I’ve known Pat and been friends with him for a while. Historically Tim (DeRuyter) is a good coach, has had a lot of wins there. We’re expecting a good, talented football team, and like I said I’m really anxious to kick this thing off and get going.”

On Sam Hahn’s development
“Sam has been a very stable guy in our program since he’s been here and since we’ve known him. He’s one of the most respected guys around, always working, obviously impressive physically and always reliable come practice time. This was a guy that was also playing tackle for us since the injury to Jerald (Foster). He’s an offensive lineman and so we’ve historically been interchangeable with positions, you know, I think we saw a pretty seamless move from guard to center with Dylan Utter. What we do is look at the situation, and look at the players that are available. If we lose Jerald, we choose the next best guy to go in there. It was a pretty seamless move. He’s a senior guy who’s been around a lot of football, moved in there easily and played well since we’ve moved him in there and it’s also been very seamless as far as assignments. I think he’s going to do well.”

On difference in offensive play calling from last season
“Well I think that we have knowledge of our team which gives an even better identity of how we’re going to approach the game and how we’re going to call the game. I think that over the course of time, whether it’s what your lineman do best and looking at each player on the team and what they contribute. Everyone will run a pass pattern but some patterns are designated more for certain guys. There’s a good route in there that we’re going to throw the ball to (Cethan) Carter, then there’s stuff in there that will be good for him and then that he has some curve balls with it. You learn more about your people, you learn more about what your offensive line does well, you learn most about your quarterback and how to go forward with that. We think that we did better with that as we went last year, and we hope that it has continued into this offseason and now into this season.”

On Danny Langsdorf and Mike Cavanaugh being together in press box
“We’re going to make a big change there. We’re actually going to put Danny and Cav together upstairs. We had a history like that before, where Cav had some injury problems. So we can safely put him up in the press box. We actually talked about that this year. He and Danny have spent a year together in the box and they like that. I think that being new last year was a good thing for everybody for them to be available on the sidelines. I called plays for years and years on the sidelines and it’s not that easy. It’s nicer to have everything kind of laid out. I think that this will be a good move for us, and then we’ll have the right people who can communicate with the players on the field.”

On who will run the offensive huddle on the sidelines
“Reggie (Davis) will take a big part of that role that Keith (Williams) had and he will be assisted by Hardie (Buck) and James Rodgers, and of course offensively on the sideline we will have myself and Tavita Thompson. He will be the guy to communicate information from Cav to the line. Hardy, myself and James Rodgers will be working with the receiving core so I think we’ll be able to cover all the bases that way.”

On Dylan Utter’s leadership
“We think that he was a good player a year ago, and then his role in not only football, but as captain, his role in this team has increased. He has great respect from his team, and I think that he’ll be a real good guy to rally around on the boundary.”

On what determines this season’s success
“Well we want to win the championship, so that’s what we are starting on Saturday to do.”

On how to ‘turn the page’ from the last month
“Getting back to practice in certain instances was almost therapy for guys. I think that there’s a chance, and I think it’s all very personal, and I hate to generalize about something like this, but I think there’s a chance that people can gain strength from the situations that we have been through and maybe pull together and lead each other a little more and dedicate themselves to the past with a little more intensity. I think from the beginning I was very curious about the start of fall camp soon after what took place with Sam (Foltz). Saturday was the funeral and Wednesday was the reporting date, so I was really curious how that was going to go. Like I said, I think that it’s a very personal reaction from every different guy on the team. I also thought that the camp went, for the most part, very smoothly with our teams, and I think the focus was great. “

On Drew Brown’s work ethic
“I can’t make up anything about Drew’s increased work ethic or anything because he was already at a high level. Chris was very proud of his craft and worked at it very hard. I might see a little bit different intensity there with Drew, but that might be me imagining that. Because I’ve been very impressed by how he’s been handling himself, his work every day, how he incorporated a new holder right away which is hard to do and embrace that and make it work. So I’ve been very impressed with him.”

On Keith Williams
“I think what was noticeable about the situation with Keith was that it was… I walked the stretch lines every day and it was really noticeable that first day with the wide receivers. There was no doubt about it, it was different. I think that they practiced fine, and I think that Hardie (Buck), and then getting James (Rogers), and then the work that Danny (Langsdorf) has done with those guys all in general I don’t think that we have taken a big step backwards or anything. But, there is a great relationship between Keith and the receivers. They have been able to connect, not here obviously. That part of it is good. But I don’t think that in itself was detrimental to any part of practice. I think that injuries are sobering for everybody; coaches, players, fans, everybody. And I hated losing Jerald (Foster). And I’m thankful that it’s going to be one of those injuries that has just about got that 100% prediction that he is going to be 100% again. That is the only encouraging thing about that. So, we hated to lose him. I loved the work that he had done. And then that whole idea about the next man up became a reality and it threw a lot of other faces in the picture, where all of the sudden, Sam (Hahn) gets in the guard picture, Boe Wilson comes out of the redshirt picture. Jalin Barnett is elevated to a situation where he’s competing. You know, we moved Sam from tackle, so who’s the backup tackle, so (Matt) Farniok comes off of the redshirt for sure list to maybe he’s not going to redshirt. There’s a lot of dominos that fall from one injury like that. But again, for a player it becomes an opportunity even though they are saddened by the injury it does go on. Though, it’s disruptive I thought that the focus remained good, and we still had, despite the things that went on, I thought we had good weeks. I don’t think we ever took any real step backward at any time during our fall camp, which was encouraging. I think we really progressed and got better.”

On running back play
“Well there is a little difference, I guess on strengths to each guy. How they go in will probably be determined by the situation a little bit. As you can see we have been impressed by Tre Bryant throughout the camp. You talk about a guy that kind of seamlessly stepped in and was able to play. You know a lot of times guys look good running the football or catching it or both. But then fitting into the offense with what you do when you don’t have the ball, when you have to pass and protect, and understanding pass protections. His football IQ his high. And you would not really know if you watched our running backs go through practice that this guy was a freshman. So, he’s going to be in the mix. We don’t not redshirt guys and then not play them. So, you can expect to see him. He’ll be also on our special teams as a returner. We are excited about Tre.”

On Lamar Jackson
“Lamar has gotten to that point where yes, we feel what we can do some stuff to the point really where we have to get him in the game. You know, he has to be on the field. I think that what he might lack in the kind of the pure evolution in playing the position as far as technique and all that, he makes up for with kind of the instinctual play of football and being a good athlete. So, if I was to summarize that, I’ll say he can make plays. So, we got to get him in the game and playing. He’ll be part of those sub packages like he just mentioned, that we’ll use throughout the game.”

On the new faces of the offensive line
“Well, one of the things about playing your first game is you’re going to enter into a little bit of the unknown. I think everybody has to understand that. But, you know we spend a lot of time trying to throw the kitchen sink at them throughout practicing too. So, you know we have gotten a lot of looks, and we have gone through a lot of pressure periods, and we’ve gone through all of our protections. So, we usually do a nice job, (Mike) Cavanaugh does a nice job of preparing them, Reggie (Davis) does a nice job of preparing the backs. But I think you’re right, I think that the expectations for me for most games is we’re going to see pressure and we have to be able to handle it. You know blitzing is one of those things whether you’re doing it defensively, or the other team is doing it. You know, it’s one of those things, that if you don’t handle it, that’s what you are going to see the whole game. So, it will be a big part of the game. Fresno plays a 3-4 so it lends itself to some different styles. We play a 4-3. So as we practice against each other, we don’t often see it. We have to spend a lot of our time when we’re not interacting during our camps and even during spring ball. Been running some scout team 3-4, so we get a vision about how we’re going to block either a running play, or how we’re going to protect in the pass. Those things all kind of have to fit together. They have a new defensive coordinator who came from South Carolina. They ran the 4-3. In five years, my thought is they’re still going to be a 3-4 team, but with the new coordinator, some new coverage, they’ve been in quarter’s coverage, Cover-3 team. You know, South Carolina ran a little bit more Cover-2. So, you know we have to anticipate that addition. The first game brings out some interesting stuff. It’s amazing how different it is the second week of a season, when you’ve watched a team play for a week, and see what they are actually into identity wise.”

On talking with Tommy about not being made a captain
“You know, my explanation and talk with him, was no different than my talk with you guys. It was about the fact that… and I even prepped the seniors in the senior meeting, this is not going to be an easy vote with this group of guys and the potential captains that are in this room. So, you know I think that that became the result of that kind of spreading the wealth and the vote, so to speak. So, yes I did speak to him. I gave him a heads up before I told the team. I didn’t want him to be surprised. It was kind of a blunt announcement, so I just let him know. He is absolutely still a leader on this team and he is really well respected. And we can attest to with the votes that we got.”

On how the captains were selected
“This year I went more through the process of visiting with players on the team, you know the seniors in particular. We kind of went back and forth on some ideas and came up with this one in the end.”

On how different of a quarterback Tommy Armstrong was today a year ago at this time
“Well I think that another year under his belt is a big, big deal. I think that even through last year, Tommy learned, progressed, and played better probably in the last month. And so I think he took that as a springboard into opportunity to grow and play even better this year. Tommy’s got a lot of skills. You know there’s one very obvious area that everybody knows that we got to pat down, and that’s interceptions. And, so through both learning and absolute practice of decision making, we hope we eliminated that and have given him the chance to have the ball more. Because when he has the ball, he’s very dangerous”

On Fresno’s offensive coordinator’s plans
“We’ve looked at Washington and Alabama, it’s been a hodge podge there and we’ve gone through their personnel. They have a quarterback that was playing and got hurt last year and got the year back so he becomes a redshirt freshman quarterback that we think is talented and athletic. Through watching, whether it’s Washington or whoever might be associated with them in the past we think we’re gonna see a shotgun, really at as high-paced tempo than we’ve seen before from them. We think that we’ll see some pistol plays, we’ll see some of what we run in the fly sweep game as part of their misdirection, that divide package in the backfield with the tight ends going the opposite direction of the back and giving them the ball, all of it at a high pace. They have (Da’Mari) Scott, that we really have a lot of respect for, a big guy that was hurt last year. Captain Peck, he’s 6’3”, 220-ish. They’ve always had these guys receiving core wise that have been scary and this group is either fast or good athletes or a combination of that, one guy is extra big. So, we have tried to look into the past associations to see what they might be doing offensively, that’s gonna be one of those first game things that sometimes you find out more about it right after the game starts.”

How much have you picked Keyan’s brain since he was on this team a year ago?
“We have, he knows guys, he knows talents, he’s been helpful that way.”

On De'Mornay Pierson-El being full strength
“It was actually a week ago Saturday in the scrimmage. He and I had numerous discussions about where he was, how he felt, did he have any thoughts about the upcoming season. He has a redshirt year to play with and so I only wanted him to play if he really felt confident and comfortable. As of right before that a week ago Saturday scrimmage, these discussions were ongoing and frankly the decision is still up in the air. When he ran a fly sweep and he caught a bubble screen and he caught a touchdown pass I didn’t even talk to him afterwards but that night when I was watching I said ‘this guy is gonna wanna play.’ And he does, he’s ready and he’s been totally cleared. He has looked to me more and more comfortable and confident everyday.”

On freshman wide receiver JD Spielman
“He’s on the alert list. We were gonna play JD, and a lot of it was hinging on the decision with DeMornay and how that was gonna go. I really think JD is gonna be a good player and I don’t wanna underuse him in a non-redshirted year and with the depth we have at this moment, I couldn’t see him getting many plays. Right now, we’re gonna redshirt him unless something happens and we gotta elevate him quickly.”

On the walk-ons
“As you know, I’m still learning more about historically what that kind of all means. I actually have a pretty good history, not near as many guys, but I’ve had some really successful walk-ons in my life so I can appreciate those stories as much as anybody. It’s been very impressive here because of the number and the passion and the loyalty and the lifelong dream. The way for us to handle that is to nurture that as very best we can, so we’ve kind of increased the roster size. At some point there’s a limit with coaching limitations and numbers these days, you can only coach so many guys and feel good about what you’re getting to do for them. This is proof that dream is alive and well for some of these kids to come here, work hard, and sometimes it takes a long hard path and there’s gotta be a lot of perseverance taking place as  it goes because they play on scout team for a long time. There’s a lot of good stories here to be on the depth chart for Nebraska is a pretty special thing.”

 

On the first punt on Saturday
“Those are those moments that you anticipate but I really don’t know the reaction. I can guess what it might be from either the crowd or the team or his close friends on the team. Like I said, I’m anticipating that moment but I’m not really sure.”

Overall feelings on the Big Ten
“The Big Ten Conference appears to me that it is becoming more balanced, there are teams that have historically been down that are getting better. You’re seeing a balancing effect that will cause what more people think of as upsets will really not be that anymore. I think that the old days of identifying a league as to style are all gone. I think that there’s a wide variety of offenses in this league and different styles that are everywhere as you approach it so you have you be diversely sensitive in that way and the other thing I think that it is a well-coached conference. I think the teams that we play are well coached throughout.”

On Keith Williams’ return
“Thursday Keith will enter back into being with our team and he will be working, but he will not be with the team for four games.”

Has Keith Williams talked to the team?
“He has not, he has not been here. He has contact with our receivers but not our whole team.”

Can he talk to recruits?
“He should be able to talk to recruits at the appropriate times, not during the game.”