Noah Vedral Quotes - 10/7

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
Monday, Oct. 7, 2019
Minnesota

Noah Vedral
Sophomore, Quarterback
On if Saturday’s game enhanced his confidence
"I mean, I was already confident in my abilities going into it, but a little bit of a proven concept, so its nice to see that and see the look and see how I saw it and be able to make the throw." 
 
On his read on the situation for this Saturday
“If Adrian [Martinez] is ready to go, that’s awesome, hoping for the best for him. Myself and the quarterbacks, we’ll be ready, when we need to be and if we need to be.” 
 
On if he ran the first team today at practice
“I took the first unit today. We’ll see. I think they’re day-to-day with Adrian.”
 
On if the reason he came back to Nebraska from UCF was to play in a game like Saturday’s
“Any chance you get to play here is special. As a quarterback, anywhere I can get that chance in those moments in those games and see what you can do, so it was a lot of fun.”
 
On if this week will feel different for him
“Coach Frost had a great quote the other time when we were getting ready to play Ohio State. He has a friend of his who climbed Mt. Everest, and he says ‘What do you do differently to climb Mt. Everest?’ And he says ‘Nothing. If you have to change something, you shouldn’t be climbing Mt. Everest.’ That’s a quote that kind of goes for this week for the quarterback unit. We don’t need to do anything different. We prepare the same every week regardless of the team or who’s playing or whatever the situation may be.” 
 
On if he had any contact with the Mike Riley staff
“No sir. I did not.”
 
On if it bothered him at all not getting recruited by Nebraska considering having multiple family members having played at Nebraska
“No. I mean it might have frustrated my uncles or my family a little more than me. To see something take a step back that was special to our family, but again, I wasn’t immediately impacted by it, so no not really.”
 
On what camp he met Scott Frost at
“It was at Oregon. I believe it was either between my sophomore and junior year or my junior and senior year.”
 
On if he has had conversations with many of his family members following Saturday’s game
“No, I haven’t had too many conversations. Immediately after the game, I got to see Jon [Vedral], but I think he had to get going. He might have had some work that he had to do, so he had to get going. He was on his way home Saturday night. I got to talk to my dad and stuff like that and some of his stories. I haven’t got to talk to Matt [Turman] yet, which will be a fun one to kind of see what his was like then compare it to mine.”
 
On how many reps he gets during practice in a typical week
“Adrian will take the vast majority. Any given week it can vary depending on how many team periods or other what we would call situational periods and stuff like that, so it can vary. I mean he will take the vast majority on any given week when he is healthy.”
 
On if he thinks he can gain something from talking to his uncle Matt Turman with him being in a similar situation in 1994
“I am hoping I get to talk to him sometime early this week. I think he is going to have great insight for me. It will be fun to hear how he prepared for it and what he thought.” 
 
On if he had conversations with Turman at his time playing quarterback in the past
“Not as much as I should’ve asked being a backup for now. I will play catch up this week.”
 
On what he thinks his strong suits are
“I take pride in making quick, decisive decisions. Then once that decision is made, is making it work the best that I can. That’s what I’ve done for the last two and a half years of my career, and that is what I will continue to do. That’s what I think is what I do best.”
 
On where he learned what his strong suits were
“I think from the beginning that’s where Coach Frost’s offense thrives on. Even looking back to my grandpa running the triple option in high school, there’s a little bit of it. It’s not going to look pretty every time, but you've got to take a picture of it when the ball is snapped, and you’ve got to live with it. If you’re wrong, you’re wrong. Don’t make a bad play worse. Take what you can and do the best that you can.” 
 
On what it would mean to be a starter on Saturday night
“It would be a lot of fun. Like we said earlier, nothing changes. The preparation is the same. The film stays the same. We’re focused on what they do. Today we had a good practice, so that’s good. I’ll be ready if it’s my time.”
 
On how important it is to be engaged during the game as a backup quarterback
“It’s super important. That’s part of the job of being ready as a backup quarterback, being engaged, playing the game through like we’ve done for the past few games through Adrian’s eyes. We make sure we know what’s called, and make sure we are watching the defense. Some of us might have a role to watch his feet and make sure he’s carrying out his fakes correctly. A vast majority of us will watch the game and try to play it as if we were him. What would we do? That way when he comes off the field, we can talk to him. Coach Verduzco will talk to him. Coach Frost will also have his thoughts. If it’s me out there, I know they will do the same. I know Adrian will be great about that. If Adrian is out there, you know I will be great about that, and we’ll have a good idea of what they’re doing during the game.” 
 
On Luke McCaffrey checking into the game so quickly after his helmet came off
“That’s just how Luke works. He’s a quick kid. He’s on top of things. He was out there pretty quick. I was happy for him to get his first snap as a Husker, so I was happy for him.”
 
On if he was surprised McCaffrey ran the ball on his first play
“I mean he’s pretty fast, might as well try him, right? But no, that was fine I was excited for him.”
 
On if he likes playing in the snow
“I’ve done it before. I don’t think really anyone loves it, but we’ll make the best of it. I mean, what did they say it will be? 30 to 40? Still not quite cold for Nebraska’s standards so we’ll be okay.”
 
On his thoughts on Minnesota being a top 25 team
“They’re a good squad. They have the confidence to be dangerous and they know that. We’re just going to treat them as a nameless, faceless opponent. We’ll be ready, taking pictures of the defense, watching our tape. We’ll be ready though.”
 
On if he played any high school games in the snow
“In the snow? Only a few. My freshman year I was playing free safety against Lakeview and that was one of the coldest games I remember playing. Ski masks were on, three layers of long sleeve shirts. Tackling that game was not very fun, in fact I missed a tackle and gave up a touchdown, so that’s not a great memory, but we’ll be better this week if it is cold.”
 
On where he thinks the offense can improve and get better
“I think like Coach Frost has said we’ll get faster and faster and faster the more people know. That’s really where we can go with this is faster and then with better execution, operating in that realm of chaos where people are running around, blocking who shows up and stuff like that. I think we can get a lot better with that and that’s where we’re going.”
 
On if it is nice to establish a game plan instead of being thrown out into a game
“That’s obviously super nice. Funniest part is that those guys that got thrown out there were my normal guys, if I’m running with the twos. So, in a weird twist of fate there’s a little bit of comfort that comes with that knowing that I’ve thrown to this guy, he knows what he’s doing. No, it’s nice to sit back, reevaluate, know who were going to have and build our plan accordingly.”
 
On Wan’Dale Robinson
“He’s a special kid I’ll keep saying it. He’s a really special receiver. We have him do a lot more than just play receiver, and I think that makes him even more hard to defend. I think Coach Frost does a really great job using him and all the guys we have in that style of player in a way that makes the defense really have to follow him. They’ve got to know where he is all the time and there’s no real sound way to prepare for that. So I think that Coach Frost does a great job using him, and Wan’Dale does a great job playing that position.”

On the missed snap that bounced back to him
“I was watching it kind of closely and was just thinking ‘bounce straight, bounce straight,’ and it did and luckily Kanawai [Noa] was out there. We could just throw it over his head and live to see another day.”
 
On if it is hard to have that kind of composure to make that play
“No, but fortunately the snap was over my head which gives me another five to six yards of cushion that guys have to catch up to me, so that gives me a little bit of time to field that ball and get my eyes around. Again, Coach Verduzco says that’s our job. If something like that were to happen, that’s our job we have to get outside the pocket and get that ball out of bounds.”
 
On if there is any irony that this week Bishop Neumann is playing Wahoo
“Oh man, I was hoping that game was on the bye week. I would have liked to been home for that one. It makes it fun. I get to talk to my little brother who is a freshman at Neumann right now. I get to listen and hear how they’re preparing and see if Wahoo is doing anything different than they have done in the past. Just a little more fun. It’s a big football week for my household.”
 
On if his dad will coach on Friday and drive up Saturday
“Yeah most likely. I think he’s a little happy it’s a 6:30 game or an evening game, so he doesn’t have to red eye it or anything.”
 
On when the first time he played quarterback
“Flag football. I started in third grade, I think. That was when I first started playing. Then played tackle in sixth (grade), and middle school through high school.”
 
On how long he was a point guard
“I started as a center when I was in fourth, fifth, sixth grade and played center, power forward, small forward, shooting guard and then worked my way backwards. I did, in high school, like to take smaller guards down there, but I worked my way backwards in basketball I guess.”
 
On if running offenses in two different sports helps him
“There’s a lot of parallels, probably more than most people think, between basketball and football. Maybe the biggest thing is just trying to see people move it 20 yards instead of 10 feet apart. All the movements are the same, when you get someone’s back of their head, that’s significant. When someone takes a false step, that’s significant. It makes a lot of sense. It helps a lot getting a chance to run offenses in football and basketball for a long time now, and the chance to do it again is I think really nice and helped out a lot.”
 
On if Frost’s scholarship to Central Florida was the key to picking between the two sports
“Yeah, I think so. I think that was a really special opportunity and again, I was a small, white point guard from Nebraska and it’s not always the easiest to make it out of here, but yeah, I think so. My family played football, that was the sport I fell in love with first. Though basketball was a close second, that was always the way I was leaning.”
NU Athletic Communications