Mike Riley Press Conference Quotes

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Monday, Sept. 5, 2016
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)

Nebraska Coach Mike Riley

Opening Statement
"I thought I could start out by summing up the game a little bit. I think that it was good to win. Offensively, I’ll go over some of the positives first. We had 400 yards of offense and ran the ball for 292 yards, no turnovers and no sacks. In the red zone we were 5-for-5. I think notable players up front were Dylan Utter and (Nick) Gates. (Terrell) Newby and (Devine) Ozigbo had good games and Alonzo Moore had good plays.

Defensively, there were some good things there. Their biggest play was 32 yards and their next biggest play was a 19-yard scramble by the quarterback, then they had an 18-yard pass. We did a better job, obviously, than almost ever a year ago with big-play defense. We had two interceptions and four sacks, rushing totals were outstanding for sure, 1.2 average, 31 yards, and they had 274 yards of total offense. Guys that stood out were Dedrick Young and (Josh) Banderas, Chris Jones had a real solid night. Ross Dzuris had a good game, Kevin Maurice. (Joshua) Kalu was really productive, he’s a good football player. Plays a couple different spots for us when he goes in and did a nice job. Kieron Williams went in for his first start and he made some good plays.

Special teams, Brad Simpson showed up and did well, he was our top point-getter. JoJo Domann as a freshman was kind of seamless, as was Lamar Jackson. They went in and did a nice job. Luke McNitt made a couple tackles, he’s the fullback, special teams player this year. Big shoes to fill from Andy (Janovich) but did a nice job. Chris Weber had a good night. The specialists were solid, (Jordan) Ober had a real quiet night, did a nice job. Drew Brown kicked well, his kick-offs had good hang time. We were proud of Caleb Lightbourn, lots of different emotions going on, I thought he handled the night well. His get-off time was good. He gets a punt hammered, which was not his fault. His punts were actually really good, his get-off times were good. He kept his poise that way, and then we were able to get Spencer Lindsay in a couple of plays. Kickoff return, part of it we had a better looking return than we had all last year, which was encouraging. Tre Bryant did a nice job, had some good blocking. Our kickoff cover was sound, we had good hang time from Drew if they weren’t touchbacks. So we were pleased with that.

Our punt coverage and all that was OK, except for the blocked punt. That’s a big exclamation point negative in that deal. Our punt return in general was not good, it was just not very well executed in any way, and we were trying to handle short kicks into the wind, and we were our own worst enemy in that part of it. Some of the other spots that need work, we had two special teams penalties. We had the halo infraction where we bumped into the returner and then we had the celebration penalty in the end zone after the swinging gate play. Celebration penalties in general, I was really disappointed in all that because I actually had the sense on the sideline that every time we made a good play we were going to have a penalty, and that’s a bad feeling and that’s got to stop. And of course, targeting is a good issue in football, but it’s a big penalty. Of course, we lost a player in the game from that call. I think we just have to continue to learn and coach that thing hard, and players have to be especially aware and smart in those situations. We had a late hit that was totally unnecessary on a penalty at the end of a play, illegal formation that was inexcusable, cost us a first down and a drive. We were just average on our personnel substitutions. We had a blocked punt, many times you don’t survive a game with a blocked punt. We had a procedural thing where we had an equipment problem. We had a guy actually go down but he got back up, so then we had a hard time substituting, that’s just part of knowing about how to play the game in that regard. We had a missed execution on a play that had real good potential when we fumbled the fly sweep, our under coverage on defense was average at best, and like I said we did not handle the short punts very well in the game, and the execution of that which should have been an advantage for us in that situation just fair catching the ball and having about a 30-yard net on the play turned into kind of a scary play every time.  Looked like a cartoon, us trying to get out of the way of the ball. So, that’s kind of summary of that ball game.

Looking forward to Wyoming. Some of you know Craig Bohl, he’s done an outstanding job coaching and he’ll do a great job at Wyoming. They had a solid win against a good team the other night, and so we’re looking forward to beginning the preparation for this game and improving, which we have to do in some areas. We liked the rushing yards, obviously, but we didn’t have anywhere near the balance we’ll need as we go forward in the passing game.

Wyoming, they have some notable players. Defensive end, #91 (Carl Granderson) is very quick. #7 (D.J. May) and #45 (Lucas Wacha) are good linebackers that we’ve already noted. Their two safeties are good players. I think that #28 (Andrew Wingard) was a freshman All-American a year ago, good player. They play a 4-3 defense, lots of pressure and blitzes against Northern Illinois last week, more than they showed a year ago, and so with that we get a lot of man-to-man and three-deep type coverages.

Offensively, they’ve been historically at North Dakota State and at Wyoming a run-play action, run-action team. They have a real good runner, #5 (Brian) Hill. Their quarterback (Josh Allen) is really strong. Big guy, 6-5. I haven’t seen the whole film yet, but I guess he scrambled for the winning score the other night in overtime for a touchdown. #83 (Jake Maulhardt) is a good receiver for them, #4 (Tanner Gentry) is a fast guy that they run the fly sweep with. They get good plays out of him. They have two good returners, a kick returner #7 and their punt returner #25 (Austin Conway) both have returns for touchdowns that were called back, so we’re talking about very capable people there. Solid punter, we don’t know much about the punter because his first game was last week."

On Nebraska's 13 pass attempts against Fresno State
"The last time I remember that was when I was the quarterback. That would’ve been a big, big number. And the coach was smart, I couldn’t throw very well. That’s been a while, pretty unusual. Like I said, we will need more than that and more effectiveness there. Offensively, we have to have a little bit of balance for sure that way."

On creating balance in offense
"We didn’t have a conversation about let’s throw more. We got into that mode where most of the time especially since there was a guy running pretty effectively, that was probably the thought as we went through it, that this is how we were going to win this game. I think that the thing that for sure will be an emphasis will be the ability to blend it better than that."

On offensive coaches Danny Langsdorf and Mike Cavanaugh in the press box
"I think particularly good with Danny. I think everything was pretty smooth. I think that part of it was good. I’m not sure about Cav. I have been thinking about it, and I may want him on the sideline."

On comparing Saturday's running game and offense to the bowl game win over UCLA
"I don’t think it’s really different. I think that we want to run the ball effectively. It felt different in the bowl game, in that what we did looked better than what we did the other night in the passing game. That’s the best way to say it. Had we looked sharper, I might be all right with how many times we threw. I think that not yet having looked crisp in the passing game in a game which we’ve only had one still means we have to prove that we can do that with better consistency, look better, that’s probably the best way to say it. When we threw against UCLA it was pretty effective, good percentages. It felt a lot better, even though there was six more attempts, it just felt better. It didn’t feel that way to me the other night."

On the lack of explosive runs
"We thought the backs played well, and I think that what we missed that could’ve been longer, maybe touchdown runs for sure, was some blocking by the receivers. Those blocks at the end of the play like that are the touchdown blocks, so we were not necessarily pleased with that."

On offensive lineman Sam Hahn
"At this point we have not had a sit-down, personnel discussion. This is the player’s day off, so we will do that today. My feeling after watching the film is that Sam did a very nice job in the game, so as we go forward, if anything, we will look at continued rotation of people which we haven’t always done. I’d like to think about something like that more with Corey (Whitaker), because we’d like to get him going, but I thought Sam did a nice job in the game.

On linemen Tanner Farmer and David Knevel
"Tanner could be Sam. Corey has played tackle, guard, and a little center, so he’s pretty versatile. We won’t rotate him in all of those places but a spot, some could be in the works."

On Lamar Jackson
"I thought it was good for him, and I don’t think he shied away from anything. I thought he played aggressively and confidently, made a nice tackle. Had nice coverage on a fade ball that was nicely placed, and they made a good play. They hit a touchdown pass on him on a play-action slam, could’ve got a hand on it and was in pretty good shape to get a hand on the ball but really kept competing, did not seem phased at all which I appreciate a lot."

On the set up with safety Nathan Gerry returning to action against Wyoming
"We’re going to have to talk about that because we like Lamar Jackson on the field, and I think he’s going to do nothing but grow, so how we do that, the good thing is that we played with a group last night, had a new starter in Kieron, and a new starter on the nickel team with Lamar, and of course Kalu has played nickel before. That was a pretty good group actually. They had a good, solid game. Josh got lost on that one play and didn’t need to. I don’t know what happened to him on that one play. That was their longest game of the night but that group played pretty well and now we’ll get Nate back and we’re going probably to get Antonio Reed back, and he’s a pretty good player and all of the sudden we’ve got more parts to live with here and that should obviously help us. Deciding how it looks is the next piece to the puzzle.

On Mike Cavanaugh potentially moving back down to the sideline
"Oh, I miss him down there. I think that I just got a sense I’d like him to be the one meeting with the line when they come off the field. Now, his eyes in the sky are good when we had to do it for him, and we liked it, but at least we’re going to evaluate it and talk about it in the next couple days just to make sure that all of that communication is taking place and seeing if it might not be better to switch him and Tavita (Thompson). Tavita is smart, sees things well, he could also be the guy in the box, and they could just flip it."

On if he thinks the penalties they received are due to the officials or coaching
“That is a commentary on all of us, not the officials. I think that they called it right. You can’t go spin the ball and Zack (Darlington) did that, so he is going to get a penalty. It is my fault, his fault, everybody’s fault. What you can point out on a deal like that is that if that is a close game and you just scored to take the lead and you do something like that and then you kick off back there, they are going to get the ball right in scoring territory. That is the reality of something like that. It can just kill the game for you. That is part of the discipline that we have to have. And it is a funny feeling to have, because that is what I got to thinking as we were finishing out that game.”

On if he thought the team was too excited to make plays, leading to penalties
“I think these are good guys. I really like our team. And I think that they were really excited to play. I didn’t even mention this. I was really impressed with how the defense ran to the football. It was impressive. When you watch the video and you see completion of the plays, you see a lot of hustle. So they were excited. I guess there is that fine line between just being happy and getting a penalty, and I have always wondered about that. You penalize a guy for being happy, but there is something over the top and there are some defined things like spinning the ball that you have to avoid. So I know better than to curb their enthusiasm, but I also know that we can’t hurt ourselves."

On if sophomore wide receiver/holder Zack Darlington had any say in the decision to go for two or if the decision is made by the coaches
“No, we do. I think that is a good point because eventually as we do this a little bit, you should have kind of a green light-red light deal where something is on according to what you might see. But we had done it enough in the game. I frankly wanted to do the swinging gate deal because I got so tired of other people doing it, and I spent practice time, I wanted someone else to have to do it, too. So I kind of like it, and I think we had this planned because of Sam [Foltz]. His athleticism, he was the holder and we did not even know if we could continue to do it, but Zack is actually the perfect guy to replace him and try to do some stuff with it. As he showed the other night, he is a good athlete, a former quarterback. So I think it just gives us one more little bit of a threat there in the game, and I kind of like it.”

On if he feels better about the win after reviewing some of the tape
“I feel good about our team. I just thought, and want it to be cleaner. We had seven penalties, which is actually probably better than we did a year ago. But we did not have to have those. You look play-to-play, you just want it to be cleaner than that. I think that the one thing for sure that I learned a long time ago is that you can’t overlook in a win what you would never overlook in a defeat. You would be really mad about it. We have just got to clean that up if we want to be the kind of team that we want to be. We get rid of some of those things, then that game is even better. Score-wise it is better, everybody’s feel for it is better. You can eliminate the celebration penalties, I think you can eliminate the targeting, you can certainly eliminate the late hit unsportsmanlike play, you can eliminate the illegal formation, we can be cleaner on substitution. That was a simple blocking assignment on the blocked punt. It was just a messed up assignment. It was so simple. It was something that was a day one thing and we blew it. We can clean up the deal with the guy having equipment problem. We’ve got to execute better on the fly sweep. We can improve the under-coverage on the defense, and we can certainly look better on a punt return than we did the other night. So those are real deals as we go on in the season and those will all cost you the game.”

On if he is more upset about some of the things he listed this year
“It probably is since we have been here a year. These are the kinds of things, I didn’t want it to look like that. None of us did. So now we just go back and try to make it better. You just wanted it better on the very first day.”

On how honoring Sam Foltz may have affected the team and how they plan to keep him in their hearts moving forward
“I think that it was handled perfectly by Nebraska, by our fans. I applaud Fresno [State] for how they handled it. Tim DeRuyter’s group, he was aware of what we were going to do and I thought that part of it was good. Going forward, as I have said, we needed to do that right away in the first game. Nobody could have done without that. I don’t think our fans could have done without it, the Foltz family, our team, everybody associated in the whole state probably. We had to do that and that doesn’t mean that our memories and thoughts won’t continue. We will always remember who Sam was and what he brought and use him as a continued great example for Nebraska football. So I think that part of it is ongoing forever, and we can only look back and be thankful for that time and what he brought. And like I said, for everybody that was just necessary and I thought our folks put that together real well."

On what needs to happen before junior wide receiver De’Mornay Pierson-El gets back to returning punts
“I think we just need to get him in there. The other night was just one of those nights where I have already described what that thing looked like, so it wasn’t going to be pretty. But he is a weapon there, and we just need to get him going with it and I am going to talk to him about that this week.”

On if he thought that the team was satisfied with the win
“I think that they were happy and I think that they should be happy. I pointed out all these same things to them yesterday that I just told you about and basically posed the question, ‘who do we want to be?’ because these things will get you beat. I think it’s a pretty mature group, actually, and it is a good group of guys, and I think they should be happy. And after the game I want them to feel good about winning the game. I don’t want to take that part away at all. I don’t think they should have to go out of the locker room after winning the game unhappy. But it was the first game of the year and if we want to do some stuff then we have got to improve, so we take it. I had to say this a lot last year, but win or lose, you have to take the game and it just becomes something you learn from as you go to the next ballgame. So that is our goal, and I don’t mean to be a downer on the win, either. I liked it a lot better than losing it on a Hail Mary on the first game of the season. But it is also encouraging to know that I think we can fix this stuff and improve some other parts and be better for it."

On if he thinks that Wyoming’s wide receivers will be tough to cover
“I know the job Craig [Bohl] will do there, so I know they are being put in a foundation that is growing to be a good football team, and you can sense that in their recruiting. As I talked to all the coaches, offense, defense, special teams, it was almost uniform in describing Wyoming that they are well-coached. And I talked to them separately. So that is kind of the pervading thing as you look at it. This is a team that is going to be on the rise. They already started off with a nice win. And he is young in his time there at Wyoming, so we expect a good football team that is well-coached coming in here.”

On if Wyoming may have a chip on its shoulder with all of its ties to Nebraska
“I suppose so. I can’t speak for any of them. I have known Craig [Bohl] for years and we are on that board together, so I see him quite often. And frankly his memories of Nebraska are really, really good. He is proud of his time here. But I don’t know. The recruiting part of it, I’m sure enters into somebody’s mind. Every time you play somebody, like Fresno [State] or like Wyoming, I know those guys because I had kind of the same deal at Oregon State. They do have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder. When our guys used to play USC, they were fired up to do that. So this is a big, big game for them, but it also should be for us.”

On how it will be to have senior safety Nate Gerry back this week
“It will be great to have Nate back, it will be great to have Brandon Reilly back, and then like I said we will get Antonio Reed back so we should get some more good pieces here.”

On if he spoke to Nate Gerry about his history of being involved in targeting penalties
“I don’t know that we have talked, I have talked to the group in general about it. I didn’t mention anything during camp or anything to Nate about it, but it is something that is a continual message to the team about the fact that this is a focus and an emphasis by the officials for a good reason. I use the analogy of when you are playing basketball and you get into the first part of the game, you get a feel for how the officials are going to call it that day. That is what has happened in general with the tackling. It seems like it is always in space where you have got to be really, really aware and smart. We could have very easily had another late sideline hit. I might have called it if I was the official on one of our players that shoved the guy after they already had him out of bounds. All those kinds of plays, that wasn’t kind of a targeting deal, it was just unnecessary roughness or a late hit.”

On the issue of more recruits electing to receive a scholarship at smaller schools instead of walking on at Nebraska than in the past
“We have talked about that more here in the last couple of months more than ever before because I think it was more prevalent back in the day, when more guys would make the choice to walk on here than possibly in the last decade or more. And that is understandable because you’re talking a scholarship and all that. You are also talking about the rise of some of these programs that are close to here like North Dakota State and the other programs that are getting better. What we have talked about doing is continuing to get an earlier feel of who these guys are. And earlier, I am talking sophomore and be able to track that. Of course we want to be right on every guy that we scholarship that is local, but we also want to be ahead of the game on who that next group might be that we would really like to still have come here. And then it becomes from there kind of a personal choice for them. But what we want to do is be really well-educated, I guess is the best way to say it.”

On his thoughts about the Foltz family being robbed during the game this weekend
“I guess my only comment is that is a really sad story. I probably shouldn’t even say anything, they probably were just targeted knowing they were not going to be there. I would not want to be that guy, I know that, in this state.”