Pre Iowa Press Conference - Mike Riley

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Monday, Nov. 20, 2017
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Pre Iowa

Head Coach Mike Riley
Opening Statement
“OK, well thanks for coming today. We’ve got a couple injury deals. Aaron Williams, he made it, he played in the game, but is sore right now, so we will revisit his neck as we go through the week. I’m hopeful he’ll feel better to play. It would be great for us obviously. JD Spielman, you might have seen him reinjure his shoulder early in the game, relatively early, he played through it, we’re hopeful that he feels better. I doubt if he’ll do much today. I’m hoping he can do something tomorrow, but I know him, he’ll stay right in with the game plan and if he’s healthy enough to play, he’ll play, and we’re going to remain positive about that. Devine Ozigbo sprained an ankle, hoping that comes along so he can play in it. You know we had some guys play well, Stanley Morgan, made some big time, strong, plays in the game. JD played well, De’Mornay made some plays, I thought Tanner in a real hard circumstance not being able to run the ball really well, throwing a lot, I thought he made a ton of plays. Tyler Hoppes continues to grow playing that position, that’s been a fun thing for me to watch from last spring through the fall, another guy that is like that but younger, Jack Stoll is going be a player, physically he’s a great fit and as he develops of knowing what he’s doing, he’s going to be good. I thought our specialists handled the weather in a great fashion. Caleb (Lightbourn) had a good night, got lucky on a couple rolls, but that’s OK. I think specialists from both teams could have had big problems in that, but I thought Drew (Brown) handled it well and did a great job. As you saw we had a different plan for kicking off, and he placed the ball in strategic positions like we wanted and thought we could limit their return game, which I think was a good plan, and those guys did a good job. Jordan Ober was again unnoticeable because he was consistent. I was proud of Jaylin Bradley, after JD hurt his shoulder I took him off the kickoff return team and put Jaylin in there and I thought he reacted well, had a good return day and Zach Darlington handled the ball well. I probably don’t have to recap the game for you, you saw it the big plays early. Those were really, I thought, in a game that could have been better those big plays, not necessary, we missed tackles on both of them early on that I thought didn’t have to happen, and then we went into a shell for so long offensively before we finally responded in the second half. That was the difference in the game. We’re playing, everyone knows Iowa, it’s going to be run, run-action, and a good dose of the run. We’ve got to be better, run defense, we’ve got to be solid and smart playing against them, play-action passes. They hurt us last year with a couple of sharp play-action post routes that hit us and then they, their zone running game is a good one. You’ve got to be able to fit the run, make the plays, get off of blocks, and defensively they know exactly what they’re doing. They’re really solid, they play with a four-man front, corners coverage scheme, and they’ll switch it around in a nice way with good variety, but they know exactly what they’re doing so we’ll have to be real solid in how we block, and how we pick up when they do blitz, and how we can beat their coverage. So, it will be an exciting week of practice. I know people will have questions about where our kids are. I anticipate our team, we don’t normally meet on Sunday, but we did on yesterday because of the short week, so we lifted some weights, we viewed the film, and got a little dose of Iowa under our belts and we’ll get them back this afternoon at three, and have meetings and practice and I anticipate a good week of practice. We condense our week in the short week in a way that we feel is good. We’ve had one week of practice like this this season, and so I think everybody, coaches and players, will adapt to that and get ready to play a good game on Friday.”

On this team being a mystery
“This team being a mystery, you know no matter what happens when you enter into the year, the reality of it is that it all unfolds, and you have a vision of what that should be and, of course, losing isn’t part of that. I don’t anticipate years like that. I don’t really judge it like that, once you get into it you find out more of what you have and what you have to do. Whether it’s short term, long term, but you have to make plans for how to make it better. So, you live in the week-by-week process of working with your team. So, I don’t really look at it like that, before the season ends, I’d like to focus on beating Iowa and do reflection on what went wrong, what needs or needed to be fixed as we’ve gone along, but in the moment, without looking back too much of all that, just trying to focus on this game. I think we owe our kids the energy of this preparation and I think that for every coach and player in adverse circumstances you can do a lot for who you are by what you put in, and the coaches can lead that, so that’s what we’re trying to do. I’m not answering your question at all, I don’t need to reflect on the big picture yet.”

On why he stays positive throughout all the losses of the season
“Oh boy, I think everybody has a, if they think about it, a vision of what they think leadership is, what they think is important for a group of young men, and I really don’t see any need at being angry at anybody in particular. I was brought up in coaching in a way that if it’s not working, then it’s our job to try to fix it, so the focus goes on that. I try to not play the blame game, there’s no need for that. What we have to do is try to help them. So, I’ve always thought that maybe it’s what I would have liked as a player, or as an assistant coach, is that stability is the best thing to surround these people with, coaches, players, so that they can work, and do their job. We have people, I think that are giving effort to do that, and I just think that… short answer to your question, that’s the way I want to do it. I want to enjoy these kids, and coach, and teach them, and have an atmosphere about learning, and that doesn’t mean that you disregard the demand part of it. This is a demanding, physical thing. We’ve probably had our most demanding offseason program ever. We tried to find and build some of those things into this team that we thought would be important. In general, as an approach, that’s why I do it like this.”

On playing for Paul “Bear” Bryant
“When I played for Coach Bryant he was passed his days of being much on the field, he was in the tower most of the time, but I think when you look at it, there was no doubt who was in charge. I think you felt that from both the team and the coaching staff. You knew that there was a part of him in every part of the program. There was great, great pride surrounding every bit of the team, school, and program that he coaches. For us, I think that it might have been different as far as a player/coach relationship, I mean maybe on one hand I can actually count how many times I’ve talked to him, and sometimes you didn’t want to, you wanted to avoid that at times, and go the other direction, but it was a privilege, but more I think as I’ve gotten older, I appreciate that more, and certainly feel like I drew a lot from getting to do that, from being in that program.”

On being 9-2 going into the Iowa game last year
“That was a disappointing day, a disappointing finish, and there were lots of things entering right into that time, with the health of Tommy Armstrong, how’s this going to work, so there was a lot of question marks as it went, and then we were all unhappy with how that game went, that’s why it would be great for this team to be able to put everything aside and finish on a real good note, in what will be a real tough game, and win the game, that would be good.”

On what he has told the defensive staff
“One thing about that defensive staff that has remained consistent is the time of preparation put in, what they do to get ready, like for today the presence of the players is impressive. They’ve continued to work that, every part of the game. Even the parts that really stood out the other night. We just missed a lot of tackles, and that part never takes a back seat as to what we are working on, I think that they really dissect the game and then they present a good plan in a positive, optimistic way to the players, and so the message is to continue to do that at the highest level and get ready to play. That message really went to everybody, but and to the players included, let’s do that. This can be considered a little vacuum of what we can do, and what we need to both improve in, and what we need to do specifically game plan-wise to win this game.”

On Stanley Morgan Jr.

“Stanley Morgan has been that guy that we have appreciated since he was young because of his approach day-to-day. He is very competitive. He uses his attributes well. He is strong, he is physical and he is pretty much fearless, you know he’ll go play and so despite some injuries he has had, whatever has gone on, he has remained the same person that way. You kind of always know what you are going to get in day-to-day in practice with Stanley. Frankly, the other day in the game, that is what I have been waiting for from him as a weekly deal. I think that he goes up and wins the one-on-one battle and makes those plays and he is capable of doing that. He has shown that sometimes throughout his career, a lot of times in practice but as far as a game of opportunity and him making plays, I have been kind of waiting for that. That looked good. Just how physical he played and how he competed. Those battles out there with defensive backs and receivers become that one-on-one kind of ‘who is going to win it?’. When you can feel confident in throwing a one-on-one which is what the quarterback is looking for, you do not often get zero (defensive backs) on one (receiver) so the best you might be able to do is one-on-one, you should win. A lot of our offense in my history has been predicated on that guy over there, if he is one-on-one we are throwing the ball and we are going to win. So that is the kind of deal that happened the other night with Stanley and it was good.”

On the seniors

“We are proud of those guys that are going to be involved in senior day, you know, now for me I have been with them, this is their third year, which I appreciate. Time to find individuals that I think have done, individually, their best in representing. It is always a special time for them and their families. They will always be proud to have come to this great place and have been Cornhuskers.”

On the defense against Iowa

“Well that’s our challenge. There is no doubt that that is what Iowa will present. We will get a good dose of that and we are going to have to hold up against it and do well against it. We will have to have a good plan together and then guys are going to have to be ready to play physical because that is what it will be upfront against them. They do a nice job, too, they have mixed some things in. They have a nice play-action game, quarterback has done a nice job. One of the more impressive games that I have watched on film this year was them beating Ohio State and how they functioned offensively and the variety of things that they did. Many of those things that day were in the passing game, it was pretty interesting.”

On what it means to play Iowa

“I love the idea Sam. Don’t you guys think that is what it should be. I mean it feels right. Whatever amount of time we have been in the Big Ten, with the proximity there just seems like a lot of common ground there and it is right over there that it feels like it should be embraced in that way. I think in due time the whole division will feel like that but I think there is a special quality with Iowa that should only grow.”

On what the players think of the Iowa game

“I think that that was absolutely brought up in our meeting yesterday about beating Iowa and what has happened historically that this is just a great opportunity for this team to get that level of satisfaction of winning a game here at the end but also playing Iowa.”

On who brought Iowa up in the meeting

“Oh, I did in a team meeting. Let’s focus on Iowa. Let’s beat Iowa. This is that kind of game for us.

On Iowa’s quarterback Nate Stanley

“Nate looks like an important part of their offense. He is a good athlete. He is making plays in the passing game that he utilizes in a good way. We are going to have to be sure… he will be hard to attack but we will have to defend well because he is athletic and big and they utilize him in a good way.”  

On Tanner Lee

“You know I think that Tanner will… I. have not even talked to Tanner about this so I will only approach this subject as hypothetical that in my history when guys are able to come back or enter the draft that those decisions become, at the end- and if they ask me I will give advice, I will tell them what I think and why, but, I will always add at the end that this will be a personal decision and you need to do what you want to do, what is best for you do to, and you need to get good opinions from people that care about you in a way that isn’t about money. You know, they are going to make money off of you, don’t talk to those people, talk to people who really care and get some good advice that way. The advantage for a quarterback coming back is that it is the chance to play in more really, really competitive games and grow in a system and really enhance both your opportunity, which means your draft pick, and also your ability to play. I think the more the play, because they may not play right away so the more playing time they actually get in can be helpful to them in the long-term of their career and put them in a better place as they go in. So, those are issues that they have to kind of dissect. They can get some information about where they will be placed, where they think might be placed or where people think they might be placed. But, it becomes very personal.”

On wanting to be more involved in the offense

“You know that was kind of reflective over a long period of time. I don’t want to get too much into what I might do, could have done, or anything like that this time. Those were decisions that were made a while back and then what I do in the future in that way I will study it and decide how that would look.”

On if he is talking about play calling

“Yeah, and just more involvement.”

On if he wishes he would have taken over play calling

“I won’t say that.”

On if he even took over play calling

“No, I did not. I only threw in those plays that scored touchdowns.”

On the defense

“You know I would like to look at the big picture after we are done to say this is what we have to do.”

On what it means to play

“Absolutely, that is one thing I approached the team with, just the opportunity to play and win and what it means to you as an individual to really get ready to play. I think some things like this, in adversity, and how you respond to it go directly to your soul. If you don’t work. If you let thing slide, if you don’t really get ready, then you are letting down a lot of people but mostly yourself about who you are. I made the point that when you are a kid and they rolled the ball out, you picked it up and wanted to win. But, you have to get ready to do that. In college football, as competitive as it is, if you want to beat Iowa you have to get ready, mentally and physically to do that. It will be a physical game, you have to play smart, you have to have your whole self into it. Any part of your whole self that isn’t there, you’re cheating your team and yourself and you won’t be ready and you probably won’t win.”

On slow starts

“I wish I had something I could say about slow starts. It is kind of what I brought up in summary, we gave up big plays. We had chances with good field position, we had 10 points and we had the chance to have 14 points and we certainly didn’t need to go… we went stagnant for so long offensively that it really hurt us. It is like I said before, when you are playing someone as high powered as Penn State you have to give them some credit to the versatility they have: receivers, tight ends, running backs, and quarterbacks all pretty special. You know, they are going to score some points and you just have to be ready to respond. We responded but it was late, too late, we went stagnant for a long time after making a few plays early. You just have to find your answer to that consistency and I think it just comes through being ready at the start but also being ready to sustain and continue to make plays. You just have to score more points and respond when you are in a game like that against a team like that that has so many weapons.”

On what he appreciates most about coaching at Nebraska

“I have to be overly reflective about it right now but I think that probably what I have appreciated the most is not a lot different than normal. I have appreciated the growth of the program as a part of the culture of the team and I have really appreciated the people here. I think it was an easy place to move into, people are as advertised and so that part of it… I really appreciate that comfort, walking around town as we do so often and then settling down and then getting to be a part of this. Walking out in that stadium, I will never get tired of that.”

On possible changes in the program

“I don’t bring it up and I don’t know if ignore is the right thing but maybe it is for me. I don’t talk about it. Our situation as coaches, my situation, I talk to our team as if I am going to be here forever and I approach each day like that. It is like I said, I want to provide them our best. Whatever I can alleviate that doesn’t have to do with the football part of it or our lives part of it, or their part in the program, or going to class or being in the weight room, I try not to complicate it with anything else, they don’t need any of it.”