Mike Riley Press Conference Quotes

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Nov. 14, 2016
Pre-Maryland

Mike Riley’s Opening Statement
“It was a wild weekend in college football and I’m just glad that we stayed on the side of the winning ledger, I guess. It was a good win. Kind of as I said the other night, typical of how we’ve won games. We kind of put ourselves in a hole early. We made some mistakes, and they made some plays and of course had that lead. But we kept our poise. I think it’s a very simple fact that we shut them out in the second half, and we scored twice to win the game. That’s kind of how it went and that’s kind of how we’ve won. We certainly have continued to try to be our best at the football part of it more consistently throughout the game.

You know here we are 10 games in. And I think that’s a kind of natural approach for everybody. But we’ve got improvement to do, we’ve got things we can work on and we want to play our best football these last two games of the regular season. So we’re looking for that. We played a physical game against a physical team. I really appreciate and like Minnesota’s...their approach, their identity. And I think we had to play well to beat them. They don’t make many mistakes. Whether its penalties or turnovers or kind of their history this season, so it was good to beat them. It was great to be home. Our fans bring so much energy to this thing, and they helped us win. There’s no doubt about it. And the good thing about our team, we responded from adversity, kind of the big adversity from the previous two weeks losing games, especially the way we lost at Ohio State. So we responded I thought well to that, and then we responded in the game, because we were behind at halftime. And so I liked how we responded and came back.

You know in the big three that we talk about all the time, the penalties kind of resurfaced for us on things that we can control. We had two personal foul penalties, we had two false starts that were unnecessary, and then we had two pass interference calls and a holding call. So we lost that battle to them. They don’t commit many penalties. So it made a big difference, particularly that first penalty of the game with too many men on the field. That was ridiculous, and it cost us a touchdown. And in a game like that it could’ve been disastrous for the game. The turnovers, we were plus one, and it was a big one. It was good. If you look in the difference in our team from this year to last year, I think the two biggest factors might be, there’s probably other reasons for sure, but it might be that our turnover margin is so drastically different than it was a year ago, and then the big plays. You know, I think our pass defensive stats have gone up like 70 points nationally. I mean its crazy something like that. So I think that those are two big key factors in the deal. In the explosive play category we beat them, not by much. We only had what we thought were seven explosive plays in the game, but they had four. So that’s pretty good defense overall. There’s some plays we’d like back for sure and we gave up some yardage but overall it was pretty good that way.

I think guys that need to be noted that played well were on defense were again, Josh Banderas, he continues to play at an all-star level. As does Kevin Maurice, both of those guys are real factors. Lamar Jackson made some plays on defense, made some plays on special teams. And I think that Joshua Kalu is another one of those guys that is playing at that high level in our league. I thought Tommy [Armstrong] had a terrific game. You know he played on a short week of practice, had one of his highest completion percentage days of the year, made plays in the running game, I think had another 60 yards in a touchdown run that was big. I think Terrell Newby again showed that he is playing at a high level for running backs in our league. Sam Cotton had a good game, Tanner Farmer had a good game, Cole Conrad went in there and had a good game for us. Special teams, Chris Weber continues to be like one of our top point getters, made one great play on the kickoff. Brad Simpson made another play in the kickoff. Luke McNitt continues to play well there, and Drew Brown had another really good night kicking and kicking off. I thought that last kick into the wind after we scored was a big play. The location of the ball was good, the depth of the ball into the wind was good.

Injury situation, you know everybody obviously wants to know about Tommy [Armstrong]. I think that Tommy’s deal will be, even though it’s a lot different kind of injury, it’s a leg, it’s a hamstring, we are going to approach it like we did a week ago. We’re just going to find out how he does you know and see where he is. Ryker [Fyfe] will be taking the snaps, backed up by Zack Darlington, backed up by Patrick O’Brien, who I hope we don’t have to play. So that’s what that will look like there. I think Brandon Reilly should be ready to go. He was in good shape by the time we got to the game. So with no setbacks, we’re hoping that he can practice all week and get ready to be a factor. Dedrick Young is limited and didn’t play much in the game. And I’m really hoping that he makes it back. He’s continuing to get treatment. He’s got that lower leg injury. And then D.J. (Jerald) Foster is not hurt, and I just thought I’d make note of that. It was great to have him back and he did a nice job for us.

Just a quick summary about the Maryland game. You know it will be our senior day and we will have the chance to honor I think its 30 guys. I think that’s always a great celebration day. The Foltz family will be included in that celebration. We are playing a Maryland team that runs a spread offense, a lot of zone read stuff. They’re the third-ranked running team in the conference. They have two good players on the perimeter, #1 and #8. Defensively they’re a 3-4. A 3-4 gives you a little bit different kind of animal to protect against, run against. Their inside linebackers are good players, #23 and #2. And so that’s kind of a summary of where we’re at. We’re going to be facing a rugby-punting team, so balls will be all over the place. I think that’s the most interesting thing in the last less than a decade in college football really is the change in punting, punt formations, how the punts come out, it’s pretty interesting stuff. And it will be a good research for someone in this room to find out how the punt return averages have changed in the last 10 years, it’s harder. All right, that’s my kind of summary of the week and looking forward to this coming week.”

On defense
“You know I think that overall, just a general statement about that is that we are playing better, sounder defense. You know we’re not as highly ranked in the rush defense as we were a year ago, but that’s OK because we’ve way balanced out the past defense. So overall defense is sounder, we’re just playing better, which I think has allowed us to be sounder like in those crunch situations in the fourth quarter when you’ve got to make a stop of some kind where we didn’t ever do that last year in those kinds of ball games. I think that it’s probably a very general answer, but I think that it’s probably just an overall better blending of the coaching and the playing and the players that are involved, and the utilization of the players of what they can do and what they can do well. A little bit different blend of what we’re doing in pass-coverage as well. And just playing sounder football and giving the quarterback I think a little bit more variety to look at in the secondary as they deal with it. So I think we’ve done a nice job in that way and the players have had that much more time to kind of adjust to a new system, and I hope that that continues to grow just like that.”

On Tommy Armstrong's Big Ten Offensive Player-of-the-Week award 
“I think the thing that is confirmed always is how competitive Tommy is. He really wants to play. He was really worried at different times about being able to go through the protocol and being healthy enough to play. But, when given the opportunity, I found it really, really good to see how prepared he was. He only got to practice half the time during the week, yet I felt that he was sharp with all the parts so that’s a great sign, how engaged he stayed during the week. We always add a few new things, formations and motions and he handled all of that very well. The preparation that he had mentally compensated for the physical preparation and he competed. It was good to see. I thought the game plan for Minnesota for him was excellent. I thought we got off to a good start with some good, early, easier type pass plays that were easier completions in the game. We just hit a couple of those bubble screens in the game and gained some confidence. I think that was all good leading into him having a higher percentage, making the plays. We’re still pretty darn good on third down. We weren’t very good on third down defensively, especially in the first half, but we were offensively overall. We continued to do that and that has a lot to do with the quarterback making the right throw and made some tough catches. I think Tommy got himself prepared even though physically he wasn’t able to do it all week.”

On Armstrong's primary injury this week 
“Hamstring, it is definitely his hamstring. I think his ankle is OK. If it was his ankle, we wouldn’t have to worry about him in the next game. The hamstring as you all know is one of those mysterious things depending on really how it feels and then if indeed he could practice as we go through the week, how it lasts. He’s limping pretty heavily.”

On Armstrong's chances of playing on Saturday
“Can I imagine him not playing? I don’t want to. It’s senior day. All those parts. He’s had a terrific career here at Nebraska. Part of this thing is biology, and the hamstring is a hard one.”

On special teams
“Right now, the overall summary of our year in special teams is a 50/50 bag I think. There are some parts that I do really like. I think our kickoff with Drew (Brown), our kickoff coverage led by (Chris) Weber and (Brad) Simpson, (Luke) McNitt. The other guys are making some plays too, I thought Lamar Jackson looked good doing it the other night. That’s a good looking unit, and they overall perform pretty well for the majority of our year. The other parts, punt return is a lot better than a year ago and of course having De’Mornay (Pierson-El) going is a great thing. I’m disappointed overall we can’t get him a little more room. Get a little bit better blocking. I think he doesn’t need a lot, if we could just give him some space. That’s kind of in that 50/50 mode, too. Punt team, in general, it has been less than 50/50. The protection is not always great, Caleb (Lightbourn) is young and he’s erratic, obviously. But at the same time, there’s a lot of talent. He’s a good worker and I think his continued development and work with him and coaching is a big, big factor. We will get better there as we go. I’m just describing a mixed bag of special teams, and we would certainly like to be more consistent.”

On the 12 men on penalty
“Oh boy, here’s what happened. Whenever there’s that situation that the other team is going to punt that 40-to-40 area in there, I have to make a decision on whether we’re going to put the punt return team on the field or leave the defense out there. The code word for that is Delaware. Delaware means that the defense is staying. But, we still have a couple of issues there that we still have to deal with. For one, a player has to come out for the returner and we take a safety out of the game so the returner goes in. The other part of it is, and this is kind of our own doing, it’s not uncommon in college football, we have to substitute for #15 on defense. If Michael Rose-Ivey is in the game, he has to come out because De’Mornay is #15, so that adds one more layer to it. And then the other layer that’s added to that, and as I’m building this I’m not building an excuse, it was wrong and it was bad. The other layer to this is that we play with different personnel groups on defense so different people have to come out, whether it’s base, nickel, or dime. We blew that part of it, that’s what we did. One of the players thought that we were in base and he stays in, and we were in nickel and he comes out and that’s what happened."

On special teams coordinator Bruce Reed’s work
“Bruce heads up the whole group. Bruce is a meticulous, detailed worker. His scouting report, game plan stuff comes with a lot of thought. I’ve been with him a long time, and I’ve lost him at different times to a couple teams in the NFL, but he’s come back. So, I know the kind of work that he does. The year for us as a staff, what happens with our special teams is that Bruce heads it up but he has many staffs for each group. The responsibility of coaching isn’t just Bruce Reed. With 11 guys on every team, we have different guys assigned to it so it’s a group effort as we go into it. The coaching parts are all divided up. Bruce is ultimately responsible, and like I said he’s a meticulous detailed worker. In grading us, I just did. We’re a 50/50 special teams this year. So, we’ve got at least three games left this year, and we’ve got to immediately start evaluating how that doesn’t become that way again. We want to be a factor in the return game. I didn’t mention our kickoff return. I think overall it’s better than a year ago and we obviously have a good weapon there in Tre (Bryant). There’s stuff there that’s exciting to me, but it’s like OK let’s go with it a little, let’s take a step up and move to another level in that. So, there are those parts and we’ll have De’Mornay for another year, so let’s get this thing ready to be a weapon. I shouldn’t talk about it too much because I’m talking about the future and what we have to do, but I think that kind of tells you about what I think is happening now. I mean, it’s truly a mixed bag. There are some parts that are outstanding or at least good, and then there are other parts that aren’t, that are subpar to what we want to do and look like. And, part of it is the development of the players. Caleb I think is a talented kid that should, with work get nothing but more consistent. And I think that we have a really consistent person and player in Drew. The best tag you can give a specialist is consistency. A guy might not punt the longest or the highest or the furthest, but if you can rely on a 40-yard punt with 4.0 hang time, you’d lead the league in net punt so that’s where we have to be more consistent. That’s the big issue, and we certainly have to do a better job. We’ve already had two punts blocked. I don’t know if that’s ever happened to one of our teams before, so there’s some glaring things there that aren’t good.”

On what he sees on the punt return blocking for junior wide receiver De’Mornay Pierson-El
“One thing that’s happened in general, I mentioned too, the different punt formations, punt styles that have come up have really made the punt-return team almost more of a defensive unit, making sure you cover everybody, they’re spread over the field, they go in motion, and that never used to happen in a punt. Everybody would stand back there with a personal protector, a couple of wingbacks, a couple of gunners. You knew where everybody was. You could rush or you could hold up, so a little more complicated now. And not to say we can’t do better, but that’s the first issues, is making sure they don’t fake it and you have everybody covered. And so then sometimes you’re not in as good a position to be a hold-up player. And that’s really, to me, the key factor in a punt return is what you can do with the line of scrimmage. Can you hold that guy up long enough to buy that time down the field, and then you either man it up and run with that guy and you’re in good position. So sometimes I think big factors are we don’t get a great hold-up, guy releases and you’re in bad position to block him when the ball is coming to your block. The key thing in a punt return is the timing of the ball and your block, and they have to occur pretty much at the right time. And that is, again our biggest factor is losing guys, not in good position, or losing guys and they are forcing the fair catch. And the other part of punt returning is, I can almost see it coming, you know, a certain kind of punt, I just know ‘this one’s coming back, we’re going to get a chance at this one,’ and then some of them are just not returnable, they’re high, relatively short, it’s going to be a fair catch. So, you know, you get the right punt, you get good position in the blocks and good hold-up, now you’ve got something going on. Those are the big issues."

On if he’s ever had as large of a group of walk-ons as the current senior class and his thoughts on how almost half of the seniors on scholarship are walk-ons
“I think that that’s a great stat, I did not know that exactly, but I guess I’m not surprised by it. I’ve been totally impressed with the guys that walk on on this program and have such pride in it and put such work into it. You don’t know the difference in them and the guy that’s on scholarship when you go day-to-day, because they’re working at the same level. They have the same pride. It really, I think, sets a great tone for our locker room, the pride that that large number of guys that walk on here, the pride they have in the team, in the school and in the state. I think it’s pretty special. So yeah, we’re real thankful. I’m really glad I got to coach this group. It’s a great group of kids.”

On Riley’s thoughts on how the team was a year ago
“Well, it reminds me of a bad year. That’s for sure. But I am proud of that, I think that that was absolutely necessary, and I think some of the things that we addressed, the kids worked on, and how it went, I think that the result is that we’re winning close games. And I like a team that has, you know, we’d all like the football better, more consistent, I know all that, but I do like kind of the mindset of this group, so it’s been fun to work with them, fun to see them turn the thing around and play with such confidence late in ball games, and always kind of fight back, you know, with the one outlier of course with Ohio State, when it got way out of proportion. But I like this team a lot, and I think that they’ve done a lot of good work in order to turn that thing around like that.”

On how the seniors buying in has helped this season
“Oh I just love kind of the atmosphere, culture of what it is, and it is truly, I think, the product of the...there are so many fine people in this older group. I wish I had more time with them, because it’ll have gone too fast. You know, I had forgotten, I think, what that whole idea of the transition means to everybody. Fans, but particularly players, coaches, it hadn’t done it in a while, and what you lose is that continuity of that closeness that is really the fun part about our business, where there’s trust, you know. These guys don’t know us at all. We come in and you know, there’s a lot of doubt there. All the people that they’ve been close to, recruited them, coached them, that they liked, they’re gone. And so the transitioning thing for the players is not easy and then you’re trying to develop that culture that you’ve been so used to for 14 years, and then all of a sudden, you’re not in a comfort zone anymore either, because it’s not the same, they don’t even know you can’t be the same. It’s one of those things that takes time, but it’s really the fun part of our job, because once you’ve got everybody kind of believing, then you can overcome the hard times, you can enjoy the good times, you can grow, and there’s not a lot of wondering what it’s going to be like. I think that one of the hard things for players is if they don’t know who you are when they come up every day. And so establishing that is a key, key factor, but you have to have good people to do that, and that’s what this older group has done here, you know. I could go through name by name and basically tell them I appreciate them because they allowed that to happen. They could’ve put up a wall, especially after the year we had, so that part of it’s been good.”