Nebraska Coach Mike Riley Press Conference Quotes

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Nov. 21, 2016
Pre-Iowa

Mike Riley
Nebraska Head Coach

Opening Statement
“Well we were excited to win that game the other day, and we would have probably liked to have finished it out a little bit stronger, but for the most part we are obviously pleased with winning and we will take it and continue to try to improve some of the areas that we have to do to win the next game. I think that when we talked about the big three we were pretty good. We only had three penalties in the game. We didn’t have any turnovers, now we didn’t get any turnover, but we at least maintained being even. Didn’t hurt ourselves and we took care of the ball. And we had 8-1 explosive plays, which probably was a key factor in the game. Defensively we played an overall sound game. It’s unfortunate they made a good play. We gave up a big play, however you look at it. But you know they were 4-for-15 on third-down, their production was 207. So, there’s lots of good defense in there and then we did get five sacks too defensively, so that was positive.

Offensively our balance was good. Our first-down total was good, 28 first-downs is a nice deal. And our third-down percentage was once again pretty high, almost 50 percent, 8-out-of-17. And I’ve got to mention Ryker [Fyfe]. I thought he went in there and played with poise. I thought he executed well, had good production, and managed the team. I think played it without a lot of drama. Made plays, did a nice job. So we are pleased with that. Other guys that played well, Josh Banderas continues to be really solid and play well. Freedom [Akinmoladun] had a good game, a couple sacks. Aaron Williams is a football player, productive guy. And Antonio Reed didn’t have a lot played but was productive while he played. Offensively, you know we need to mention Ryker [Fyfe]. Sam Cotton continues to be all-around, run game, pass game, special teams, does a nice job. Stanley Morgan, until he got hurt, played hard. And of course Jordan [Westerkamp] was very productive, made some good plays. I really like the way [Terrell] Newby is playing. I think Terrell has been, for me the best ball that I’ve been around him has been the last month and playing well. Nick Gates had a physical, good game. And special teams, the guys, [Luke] McNitt, [Brad] Simpson, [Chris] Weber, JoJo Domann had a good game. And I’ve got to make a mention for Spencer Lindsay. I’m proud of him. He stepped in there and did a nice job. It was kind of fitting for him and Ryker [Fyfe]. They played against each other in high school and there they were together, their last games at Memorial Stadium.

Injuries, I know you’re interested in that. We are in a unique situation at quarterback right now. Tommy [Armstrong] is getting better. We do not know what that means until we start working tonight. We’ll find out a little bit more about what he can do. He has definitely improved. Will he improve enough for the game? We don’t know yet. I’m probably guessing by not tonight’s practice but by the end of tomorrow we will have a better idea. The other kind of clinker in this thing is that Ryker [Fyfe] actually broke a bone in his wrist, had surgery, put a pin in it. Will he be able to play? Possibly. We will kind of probably go through the same sort of scenario with him as we go through with Tommy. How does he do tonight, how does he do tomorrow, how can he function? He’ll have some sort of a brace on that left hand, it is his left hand. What does that mean to be able to execute? I don’t know yet. You know, we will have to look and see if how he can function. And then of course we will get Zack Darlington ready to play, have packages ready for him. And we’ll go from there. That’s really part of it. Stanley Morgan got dinged in the game the other night. He has started the protocol of being ready. We anticipate if that all goes well, he’ll be ready. Drew Brown went through it. He should be able to kick tonight because he won’t have any contact, so he should be able to do that. Dedrick Young, we are hoping that he continues to improve. He has improved. He feels better. I do not know how much he will be able to do tonight. Tonight’s practice will not be a normal day four practice for us. It will be more like a Thursday practice than like a Tuesday practice. We’re going to get our normal installation in tonight and not be as physical as we normally would on a day-four Tuesday workday. I think I covered the injuries there.

I’ll hit Iowa really quick. We all know Iowa. This is a very solid football team, very efficient both sides of the ball. You can lok at the statistics and know that it’s Iowa. There are a real good red-zone defense, red-zone offense. They’re opportunistic when they get the ball in that area. They’re high in the league in scoring defense. They have two runners that have run for over 800 yards. And it’s going to be for us a hard run, hard play action, lots of bootleg, misdirection. Quarterback is a veteran and he’s active. So you know they get the running game going, they get the bootleg going with it, it’s hard. We’ve got to be able to play good run defense and solid, smart, sound pass defense. Their turnover margin is good. Their penalties are good. I mean this is a solid football team, that has been probably in the last couple of weeks played their best ball of the year. So that’s the timing we have Iowa with right now. All right that’s kind of a summary of what happened and where we’re going. Does anybody have any questions?”

On who’s taking the number one snaps at quarterback
“I don’t’ know. We have a good feeling that Tommy [Armstrong] is going to be able to do something. We have a good feeling that Ryker [Fyfe] is going to be able to do something. We’re going to have to assess tonight, get the offense installed, let both of them take some turns. And at the same time give Zack turns. So this will be the biggest juggling act we have to start a week. But I really believe when we come out of it we’re going to know a little bit more tonight. We’ll know a lot more after tomorrow’s practice and that will head us into the final couple days of preparation for the game. And we’re just going to have to kind of see how they are and how they function, and then we’ll start running the plays without really knowing a set rotation right this minute.”

On backup quarterbacks
“You know we talked about that a lot about if we’re going to have to get somebody behind Zack [Darlington] you now. And we really don’t want to play Patrick O’Brien. And you guys think about that, this is the 12th game, what that would mean, how do we get to that, what would that do to the start of his career. I mean I really don’t want to go there. We have talked about that next emergency guy. There have been people like Lamar Jackson that played wildcat quarterback in high school and was good. We’ll continue to talk about that. With Ryker [Fyfe], with Tommy [Armstrong], we’re hoping that they are physically able to play. And then getting Zack [Darlington] ready, I hope that covers it. But we have to have a contingency with that too, and I don’t have a great one for you right this second.”

On Devine Ozigbo
“Devine is I think the healthiest he’s been in a long time. You know as we got through the week and we talk about rotation, will he enter into it more than he has? I don’t know yet. We feel real good. Like I mentioned [Terrell] Newby, I think he’s playing real well. I think Tre Bryant has really elevated while Devine has been hurt. And I know that Tre will play. The next roles between [Mikale] Wilbon and Devine are undefined at this minute.”

On Ozigbo’s availibity
“Yes he was available. I thought late last week that Devine [Ozigbo] looked as comfortable and healthy as I’ve seen him in a long time. So he’s definitely closer. Whether or not he’s fully healthy, I’m not sure. But he continues to look better.”

On Tre Bryant
“Well there’s no doubt about it that Tre [Bryant] took advantage of kind of an open opportunity to play behind [Terrell] Newby. And at this moment he certainly is ahead as far as getting him ready to play in the games. We certainly want to give Devine an opportunity to be in the games and rotate in there. We’ll have to see how this week goes. We know how we’re going to rotate it if we do indeed do it that way. We’ve also tried to keep [Mikale] Wilbon going and active. We feel like we have. Those four guys are all good players. But I would say right now, Newby and Bryant would be the first to play.”

On winning the game
“We’ll need our best defense for sure. It’s going to be physical. They have a great will to run the ball and their thought process is really good. They have a lot of hard, flowing, running plays. Then they have great bootleg going the exactly opposite direction. So we’re going to have to be really good and sound, and yes, we have to play really good defense to win this game. But I also think we have to rally offensively and have a nice plan. We’ll have all the other parts ready to go, and actually maybe we’ll be strengthened in our line depth-wise moving forward, so we’ve gotta run the ball and throw it. I don’t know how much running we’ll get out of our quarterbacks. We’re not going to leave that stuff out of the game plan. We have a little bit more work to do offensively to see what we can do.”

On the quarterbacks
“I have a comfort level with him quarterbacking. Even if he can’t be everything Tommy [Armstrong Jr.] always is, because frankly it’s experience. He’s played in a lot of football games. This will be an exciting, big-time atmosphere and big-time game. Having him be able to play at whatever level that is, is good. But I also feel good about Ryker [Fyfe]. He’s the one who is the healthiest and can play. Certainly his legs aren’t affected. I think everyone found out that he can run. He’s a good athlete, and he can make some plays with his legs. I think we’re going to find something that’s OK and will be good. We’re going to win the game with a combination, or whoever is healthiest, or whatever works. But we all know that we have to get Zack [Darlington] ready, too. We have to have a nice package that he feels comfortable with and that fits what he can do."

On the running game
“Both teams are pretty good defensively. I think that for us to go in and think we’re going to run the ball 60 times in this game, and it’s all going to be OK, I think that would be great. We’re going to have to have some stuff with that. This is a good, solid defense that when people want to take something away, you better have a curve ball and better be able to do something. We have to shoot for balance, and our balance this year has been better than a year ago. Instead of 50/50, we’re 60/40. We can’t totally bank on being one lay. I think that would be a mistake. We have to have some balance in there. I think with the guys we have, or however we figure out to do it, we’ll find a way to do that."

On playing Iowa
“I think you have to be careful and you have to look over a broad scope, which we do at this stage of the year, and try to pick out what you really see as an identity of what this is. One of the things that does help you in this stage is statistics. They mean something at this point. These guys, the scoring defense, the rushing defense, those kind of things that stand out is an identity thing. But you have to use the game schematically as to what people did or didn’t do effectively."

On playing Iowa last year
“It’s one of those games that you don’t want to revisit, but you have to. And it really did tell us exactly where we had to go. The turnovers were so big. That was the game where we outgained them by a big margin, but lost by a couple of scores. Why is that? So you look at turnovers and penalties and explosive plays, and you say, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out to change this if we want to win games. We’d like to cap it off with this is a good solid football team we’re going to play and it would be a great win for the Huskers for a ton of reasons and for us it’s a championship game.”

On the team’s growth
“I think our whole team did a nice job of deciding if we have a chance to play in a bowl game that we were going to be better. And how we had to be better. That whole preparation time for the bowl game, and playing and winning against UCLA, but it was really good for this team identity-wise. It was good for the coaching staff to see a better picture. I think everybody gained from that time. The adversity of that season, the losses like Iowa, why they occurred, what you have to examine, what you’re going to try to make better. It kind of kick started us into preparation for the bowl game. That all ended up being good for us. But I think the attitude of what you’re talking about for players, for a young person to have and attitude about, is improving and developing instead of blaming. That’s a big step towards getting better. Everyone had to look at that and look inside. Coaching staff especially because we are the adults and we’re supposed to get a perspective to help these guys. But when the young people do it themselves, that’s a real bonus."

On winning the game
“I think it would be awesome to get the 10th win. It’s not that common. There’s not going to be that many people in the picture of double digit wins during the season. There’s lots of reasons to win this game. It’s Iowa, it’s a rival game, it’s a chance to win the division to get to the Big Ten Championship Game. It’s 10 wins. It’s a better bowl game. There’s a bunch of reasons."

On interceptions
“I think that that’s exactly where we want to push identity-wise forevermore. I think it has to do with players taking care of the football with good technique security-wise. Don’t put the ball at risk, and quarterbacks making good choices. And then catching the ball. The other thing that’s a big factor in the passing game that decreases interceptions is good timing. When you’re throwing timing type routes, the right depth and delivery and location will make it be OK."

On fumbles
“We were disappointed with our fumbling early in the year. There has been a great emphasis on it, but Reggie does a great job with that. I think there’s a pretty consciences picture by the individuals. I don’t think those guys want to fumble, I think they want to listen about how to do it better, and I think they’re more consciences about taking care of the football. They get it. We play Northwestern and give up two scores because of fumbles. It could have cost us the game. They understand that. So whatever we can do to make that better and help them, we do that. But they also have to be smart, consciences, and tough minded and take care of the football. As we know, it’s made all the difference. I was just looking at where we moved statistically nationally from a year ago to today, and I don’t remember exactly, but I think it’s at least 50 spots in the turnover margin. That’s probably the reason the record’s difference. The other where we have moved up 70 spots is pass defense. And that relates into the number of explosive plays. So those two alone might be the difference in the record.

On how big of a role senior linebacker Josh Banderas has played for the defense this year
“Josh has just made a ton of plays, he’s really emerged even more s this year as a real leader, and then his preparation is just about perfect, and then kind of his mental, physical preparation for the game is big time. I mean, he gets ready to play. He’s mentally prepared, he physically goes - plays real hard. He’s made not only tackles but really decisive kind of defining-type tackles, and so he’s ready. He is a great example for this team, this team really likes Josh. He is tremendously engaged, always ready, has had a very good year, I think I mentioned him just about every week with the number of plays that he’s made, he’s playing well.”

On how well Riley knows Josh’s dad, former Nebraska tight end Tom Banderas, and what impact he’s made on Josh
“I’ve gotten to know Tom mostly through - he likes to come in, and he kind of stays in the background, watches practice. I don’t know all their background that way, but it sure seems like a great picture to me. I don’t even know how they have talked about football through Josh’s kind of growing up, I just see a picture of a dad, a former player, all that, really enjoying watching his son. We talked about it the other day when we were walking out that the hard part for Tom’s going to be Josh’s graduating, you know, he’s just going to have to come down and watch the other guys practice, I don’t know what he’s going to do with that time. But that’s always a neat picture.”

On how Tom Banderas has another son
“Yeah, that’s right. We’ll see about that.”

On where Riley saw freshman I back Tre Bryant really raise his game
“I think when you have a freshman, and as you watch him practice every day, you gain confidence in what he knows. And a lot of, frankly a lot of what you see in their growth that kind of gives them the opportunity, it’s not necessarily, ‘OK, Tre’s a good receiver, he’s a good runner,’ you know, what about if he all of a sudden is involved in pass protection, will he know what to do? Because that can trump it. You know, if we can’t put him in the game and he’s pretty versatile because he’s going to blow a protection or doesn’t know what he’s doing, then it’s a little more difficult to put him in. So as you’re watching practice and you gain confidence in his overall game, and you can put him in no matter what it is. See, I personally like backs like that, that you don’t have to sub for. They can go in and then you can throw him the ball, he can block, or you can give him the ball, and like [senior I back Terrell] Newby is a good example of that to me. So that’s where he has kind of elevated through practice time and then, frankly the other part is, when he goes in the game, he’s been productive. He makes some plays, and you can put him in and there’s a flow to it where it’s not disrupted because the guy’s a rookie and he doesn’t know what to do or you know, he’s not making any plays, dropping the ball, all that stuff. So that’s how he’s done it. You gain the confidence of your team and the coaches, and you play more.”

On how important physical and mental toughness is for the game Friday because it’s a short week and the end of the season
“I think that this kind of week will exemplify those qualities that will be probably the separator in the game. That with where we are and how we’re going to fight through with our quarterback, it’s just going to be a different situation. We’re going to be fine, but we’ve got to figure out what that means, and then mentally and physically be ready to play our toughest game, because you’re kind of gutting it out right now. You’ve got to finish strong and hard and it’s going to be physical and it’s not going to be 75 degrees, so it’s going to be just getting ready to play physical. And we as coaches, the big deal, 12th game of the year, a short week, we’ve got to find that way that, whatever that combination is, to be really well-prepared, assignment, game plan, all that stuff, really confident, and then be as fresh as we can. And how do we balance that, that’s a hard thing, right, because we as coaches want to go practice and we want to do some practicing at speed, some of us got to be a little bit physical, but where is that fine line, because you really, you have an identity, you’re in the 12th game of the year, are you going to get tougher? So, really, you want to mentally really be sharp. I’m not really worried about how physical practice is this week as far as taking guys to the ground, doing all of that stuff, want to be really good on assignments, and then get as fresh as we can be and then go play hard. That’s the goal.”

On what senior quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr. has meant overall to Nebraska’s staff the last couple years
“Well, it was probably just initially the start with a new place and a new program and a transition situation, it’s great to have a guy that’s been in the games. There is no substitute for having played in the games, especially at the quarterback position. So for us, with a guy with that kind of experience, it was a big-time bonus. And then, him growing with us, us growing with him, I think has been a great process. Hard for him at times because of the newness probably, difficult for us at times because some of this offense is a little out of our wheelhouse, is that the right term? But it’s been really good for everybody, and I think it’s been really really good for our staff. You know, I think you have to give Danny [Langsdorf, offensive coordinator] a lot of credit for the work that has been done in that area, and also for, when you’ve got a backup quarterback that goes in and plays at a high level, some coaching’s been done in the background of that thing too. So there’s been a lot of good work done behind the scenes, but it was definitely a bonus for us as we enter into a new situation, to have a quarterback that’s played as many games as he’s played.”

On the work defensive coordinator Mark Banker has done, especially in picking up the pieces after the Ohio State loss
“The overall improvement from a year ago to what we’re doing, and frankly with a lot of kind of new faces upfront in particular, I think it’s been a very good job. I’m not going to spin the statistics, but I think they mean something. The movement defensively overall ranking-wise is pretty phenomenal. He’s done a nice job of coaching this group. And then I think the Ohio State game is a great point because you don’t know necessarily, I don’t think it necessarily has to have an effect on what you’re doing structurally, but it has a lot to do with the confidence of the players, and being able to bring that back and then play well is a good combination of, kind of the leadership of the defense, guys like, we already talked about Josh Banderas, and Kevin Maurice is one of those guys, and Ross Dzuris is just quietly one of our most solid players out there. And then you take Nate Gerry, and so, you know, you’ve got some good character, coaches come back and start coaching, get ready, and then we’ve played pretty good defense for a couple of weeks. So that is a great point, because the thing I worry about, coming out of Ohio State, do these guys know that they can still stop somebody? Because we didn’t.”

On how Michigan recently redecorated Iowa’s pink visiting locker room with Michigan stuff, and whether Nebraska plans on doing something similar
“I heard about that, I don’t think that that worked out so well for Michigan, so we’re just going to go in there and play. Unless someone comes up with a real good idea for me, I’m not going to think about it too much, actually.”

On Iowa as a rival for Nebraska players
“I think, and you guys have a better sense of it than me, it seems like a really great natural rivalry that will just do nothing but grow and become bigger and bigger. I mean, just the proximity, kind of the like-mindedness, I just think it’s a perfect fit that way. So I think it will be, and I don’t even know at this point, I think our players, I don’t know about what they think about the rivalry aspect, but I know that they see them as a - the guys in this program see them as, they’ll be a constant competitor for this Western Division deal. So every game will be big, and you know, I think the rivalry part of it will be great for all of us surrounding, the fans, and I think it will become more and more real.”