Head Coach Scott Frost Quotes - 9/23

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Sept. 23, 2019
Ohio State

Scott Frost
Nebraska Head Coach
On wide receiver/running back Wan’Dale Robinson’s performance
“You can tell we had a special one in Wan’Dale right away when he got here in spring. He had a couple of injuries in fall camp, so I’m not sure we completely saw everything that he can do. We kind of knew that it was a matter of time before he became a weapon for us. It was good to see that Saturday.”
 
On Robinson telling Frost that he wanted the ball more
“We talked all week about our team’s response to tough situations since I’ve been at Nebraska. It seems like we haven’t been at our best in tight spots or when the pressure is on. That was the message all week. I wanted guys that would stay calm, do their jobs no matter what situation. We found ourselves in one of those situations and two or three times he came up to me and said ‘I got you. Get me the ball. The 'I got you.’ And he did his job, stayed calm and played well.”
 
On if that impacts him as a play caller, when a player asks for the ball more
“No. I’m still going to call what I think is needed to make the offense go. He got more touches than we expected because of guys getting dinged up at running back, and it was pressing to get a little more service there. He did some special things when we got him the rock.”
 
On if there will be an uptick in touches for Robinson
“If he keeps playing like that, you have to try and create ways to make sure he touches the ball a certain amount of times. I don’t know how many he can handle, but he’s going to make us better.”
 
On if he works more with running backs based on the situation
“No, we still need him at receiver. We’re not a super deep team there and we need him on the field. We’re a better team when Mo Washington and Dedrick [Mills] are on the field, too. So we have to try and get all of those guys out there as much as we can. Everyone was good to go today at practice, so he’s going to practice mostly at receiver. He knows the rules at running back well enough to go in if we need him.”
 
On quarterback Adrian Martinez’s play
“He played really hard for the majority of the game. Ran the ball like I expected him to with some tough runs and made big plays for us, especially down the stretch. You should never need anyone to tell you to play as hard as you can. I don’t think Adrian does, but I definitely saw the Adrian that I expect that game and I don’t expect to see anything else.
 
On if Martinez let it rip on Saturday against Illinois
“I think he needs to understand that it’s not always going to be a perfect play.There’s a lot of plays for every offense that don’t work out exactly how you expect to work out, and a good players just have to go make a play. But you have to be decisive and playing fast for that to happen. I thought he was a lot more decisive with his reads and took off with it. He still made some really good throws and had a good game for us.” 
 
On if he’s been surprised at Ohio State first-year Head Coach Ryan Day’s success so far
“I’m not surprised at all. Number one, he’s got a really talented team. They’re good in all three phases. They have future Sunday players all across their lineup. He’s really smart. I met Ryan for the first time at a Chip Kelly golf tournament in Maine many years ago. He’s done a good job everywhere he’s gone. He’s climbed the coaching ranks and landed in a pretty good spot. There’s no question in my mind that Ohio State is a better team than they were a year ago.”
 
On if he got an explanation on incomplete pass that was overturned to a fumble on Saturday
“All I know is what I hear on the field, that they thought the ball was moving in his hand before he threw it. I don’t know how much good explanations after the fact do for us anyway. I’ve gone into search in those a couple times. They might make you feel a little better, but they aren’t going to change anything. I can understand watching in slow motion why they thought the ball might have slightly been moving before he threw it, but you don’t see fumbles go 20 yards down field very often. They also called it a clear and immediate recovery which I’m not sure I agree with. Our players all stopped and the ball bounced in the vicinity of a bunch of them and none of our guys reacted to it. I’m not a rules expert, so I don’t know, but I’m not completely sure about that one.”
 
On if he knew that a kick returner could stand out of bounds and the ball could be inbounds and it would still be flagged for an illegal kick out of bounds
“I saw that happen in an NFL game a decade ago. I can’t remember if it was Westbrook for the Eagles or one of the really good return men in the NFL who stood out of bounds and picked up a kickoff. At the time, 10 years ago or whatever, I go ‘what a dummy.’ The rule is if you are out of bounds and recover the kickoff it goes to the 35 yard line. The kid made a really smart play. Obviously, the kid is well-coached.”
 
On the kicking situation
“Until that last game I thought our special teams made huge improvements. We didn’t kick it well at all. We didn’t punt it very well. We kicked some line drives that were very returnable in the kickoff game. We had some penalties on special teams. We didn’t play very well in that phase, so we will put a lot of emphasis on that this week. The reason Ohio State is so good is because they are good on offense, on defense and they’re really good on special teams. They keep pressure on you on all three phases, so we need to be at our best on all three phases.” 
 
On Chase Young
“He is a creature out there. Physically looks as imposing as any player that I have seen on tape in a long time. We have to be aware of where he is and do a good job on him. We also can’t cripple ourselves by focusing too much on him because there are a lot of other good players on the defense as well. We will know where he is and we are going to challenge our guys to do a good job, try to give them help where we can, and hope for the best.”
 
On penalties and the special teams situation 
“The penalties are easy to address. We jumped offsides on a field goal that was important and we ran out of bounds on kickoff coverage. Those things are easy to address, we need our kickers to hit it better. I thought (William) Przystup did a good job last week kicking off for us and this week it was out of bounds and we had some line drives that were very returnable. You can’t give good teams those opportunities. We will address those things and Coach Dewitt will address those things where he needs to.”
 
On how the defense benefits from practicing against Adrian Martinez
“I hadn’t seen much of Justin Fields. I didn’t know how good he would be, becoming eligible at Ohio State. He’s impressive. He throws it really well, runs it really well, their offense has been efficient. They have play-makers all over the field to help him. So, he is a pretty special player. We do have a couple of quarterbacks that run pretty well and throw it pretty well, so we will give the best look to our defense that we can and see if we can try to mirror what he does a little bit.”
 
On wide receiver JD Spielman’s toughness
“I talked to the team this morning and one of the things we talked about is the guys that showed a lot of toughness in that game. I give a lot of credit to Illinois’ secondary. They were physical in that game. They put a lot of hits on our guys and a couple of our little guys. JD is tough. Wan’Dale took some shots and kept going. It is good to see the heart out of some of those guys.”
 
On the keeping the focus on the game
“Our guys need to be and need to learn how to be comfortable in situations. This is special. Regardless of how this game goes we are going to do the best we can. I hope we can win. Regardless of how this game goes this is a special time for Nebraska. There are some big things coming this week. GameDay hasn’t been here in 10 or 12 years. This is a good opportunity to highlight our program, the direction the program is going, the improvement we have made, the path that we are on. Its going to be great to get national attention here in Lincoln. If we weren’t improving and getting better and going in a really good direction that was obvious to a lot of people, we wouldn’t have those guys on ESPN coming to town. This is special. Our guys need to be able to operate and flourish amidst whatever distraction brings along with it.”
 
On weeks like these when Frost was a player
“That’s why I am not that worried about the distraction of that as a player. I never even noticed anything. It was practice and the games. A lot of this stuff is for the fans. People eat it up. The audience at GameDay is big for a reason because those guys are the best at what they do. But as a player, our guys certainly won’t be on set with Herbie (Kirk Herbstreit) and those guys. They are going to be getting ready for a game. I don’t think it will distract our guys or their guys too much.” 
 
On Frost watching College GameDay Saturday
“Will I watch it? I don’t know. I don’t know if they will ask me to be on set. I don’t know what’s going to happen yet. We have a lot of practice to get through first.” 
 
On giving linebacker JoJo Domann a Blackshirt
“JoJo probably deserved a Blackshirt before. He missed some training camp. Wasn’t with his team for part of it. So we didn’t feel it was appropriate to give it to him then. But his play on the field has certainly been deserving of a Blackshirt. It was good to see him gut it out. Saturday he wasn’t 100 percent and he went out and played hard and played well anyway. So he deserved one.”
 
On Frost’s approach to this week
“It’s fun. Anytime there is a spotlight on your campus, your university, your town, I think it’s a good thing. If you let it be a distraction it can be. They will probably mic me up at practice or something, but I don’t raise my voice much anyway so I don’t know how much good footage they are going to get. I don’t want it to distract the players. It’s not going to distract us. We've got a really good team coming in here and we need to be at our best to have a chance to beat them.”
 
On recruiting visits this weekend
“I think it is a great timing with all the official visitors we have coming in. They are going to get to see a show. They get to see what Memorial Stadium in Lincoln looks like on a big game day. I think it is good timing. I know the fans are going to turn out. Fans here are always great. They are the best in the country and we need them to be at their very best this Saturday and at GameDay. I expect for as many years as it has been since GameDay has been here, I wouldn’t be surprised to see us set some kind of record for attendance at GameDay. That’s just what you expect out of Nebraska fans.”
 
On balancing games and recruiting
“That’s why we have a recruiting department. They are going to do a lot of that work. Really the tough time for coaches is on Sunday after the game. We are trying to get a game plan for the next team and we have a bunch of visitors on campus you have to spend time with them. But Saturday is about our players and our team and trying to perform as well as we can."
NU Athletic Communications