Scott Frost Quotes 10-19

Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Monday, Oct. 19, 2020
Pre Ohio State
 

Will you be announcing a starting quarterback? 
“We're not going to announce much for a depth chart, I just think that's what's best for our team. Adrian (Martinez) is going be our quarterback. I feel like I have two guys that are playing at a really high level. I've seen a lot of improvement out Adrian this year, seeing a lot of improvement out of Luke (McCaffrey) this year. Both those guys are capable of moving our offense and doing a great job.” 

What do you think the level of play is going to be? Not just for your team, but maybe across the Big Ten? 
“It's hard for me to say. I have a lot of confidence in the level of play in this league. I think there are really good teams, really good coaches, so I don't have any doubt that people will be prepared and ready to go. It kind of seems nationally like people were scoring more points, maybe that because we've had more practicing to get timing on offense and less time to hit on defense. I don't know. But I expect the Ohio State to be ready. We're gonna be as ready as I can make these guys and. I expect it to be a good play on both sides of ball. 

Seems like teams are struggling on special teams, have you learned anything from watching other teams play this season? 
You know you’ve heard the stories about a couple of teams not doing any live tackling going into the game. I don't think I needed to hear that to know that that's probably not a good idea. Obviously, you don't want to get a punt blocked. That’s cost some people some games. 

With Jeff Brohm at Purdue testing positive for COVID-19, if you had to have a coach from the staff take your place who would it be? 
“We've talked about that internally. Got a lot of guys that would be capable. We know how we would handle it. I don't think I'd probably announce that, and unless that happened, but we got a lot of guys with a ton of experience. They would do a great job in that role. Guys that have been in that role, coordinators, so we feel good about where we'd be. Hopefully that doesn't happen, but if it does will be fine.” 

How is the team been doing with the testing? 
No opt outs, no test outs. You know, we've been at this quite awhile and I've said this before, but I don't think our guys are really afraid of this virus. They‘re in an age group, in a health category, that doesn't seem to affect them that much. So we have to make sure they're doing things the right way. The testing is less onerous than I thought it would be. They're doing a great job for us, the people that are assigned to do it, doing a great job for us making it easy and quick. You know, we feel safe because we're getting tested every day. I come here and come into work and go to practice and go to meetings and get tested and go home. So I'm around the same guys all the time and we all know that everybody's getting tested every day, so I think we're in about as safe of an environment as we could possibly be.” 

Where have you seen the most improvement for your team over the course of this extended fall? 
“There's been a lot of things that have happened this year that every coach in the countries had to deal with that they didn't expect to deal with. I think we've done a good job in managing situations that you didn't expect, and, in general, I think our coaching staff does a good job when there's pressure on them and we have to make quick decisions. Kind of been that way all year. Feel like we have gotten better even with a lot of circumstances that might not lead it to have the opportunity to get better so. I think our coaching staff done a good job with that. This is a process. It always has been since I came here. I've seen a lot of improvement in a lot of different position groups and we're just going to keep getting better and hope that's enough to win some football game.” 

Are you able to announce players who earned scholarships? 
“We have three that I can announce right now. I think everybody was aware of Luke Reimer getting put on scholarship. We put Kate Warner on scholarship and Damian Jackson on scholarship. We have one more that we're probably going to award before the falls over, probably even before the first game here, but those three have definitely earned it. All three have been good leaders and good teammates for us. Luke has done some great things on the field. Damian turned himself into a player that could help us on the field, as well as off and worked his butt off to get there and Kade, he was voted a captain and does a good job for us in practice and games, so those guys are very deserving glad to reward them.” 

Nebraska and Ohio were instrumental in pushing for football to restart, do you think it coincidence the you’re playing each other in the opener? 
“No, I don't think it's a coincidence. We're grateful to Ohio State. You know, it's strange where you find allies in certain things, and I think we had an ally at Ohio State to try to get the season played. I don't think it would have gotten done without Dr. Borchers there, without Ryan Day continue to push it, Eugene Smith, continuing to push it. We certainly fought for it too, because we thought it was the right thing to do to have football. Our kids wanted to play. We thought we could do it in a safe manner. We weren't satisfied with the decision to not play and kept trying to find opportunities to find a way to get it done and we're grateful to Ohio State for having done the same thing. It's two teams that I think have wanted to play all along are playing each other in the in the first game we got a ton of respect for them. I said after last season that was one of the best college football teams that I've been on a field with. I think they were one of the best teams in the country and could have easily won everything last year. That being said, I thought we did a really good job of keeping the game close last year for about five minutes.” 

With it being the first game and no tape to watch, you just have to kind of wing it and prepare the best you can. How? How much does that add to the challenge? 
“It adds to the challenge and we have a different offensive coordinator. They have a different defensive coordinator. We expect that we're both going to be similar on both sides, but you never know exactly what you're going to be looking at until you get on the field, and that's certainly a challenge in preparation. The biggest challenge in preparing for Ohio State is just the talent they have on the team. We know this is one of the best teams in the country, and we have a lot of work cut out for us.” 

Thoughts as you think back to the extended offseason you've had and getting ready this week now that it's five days away from the opening day? 
“I'm excited it's here. There's been a lot of times when we thought we were fighting a losing battle to get football, to have football. We didn't know if we were practicing for a reason or not. We were ever gonna play, if we were just out there practicing for nothing. With nothing to look forward to. It's been a battle like I just said. I think Ohio State were probably the ones that led the battle. We certainly have been in lockstep with them to try to get football back. So I'm going to root for them in every single game except this first one, because 'm grateful to them for going shoulder to shoulder and fighting to get this back, our kids are excited to play. We're excited to play there's been a lot of moments where I didn't think we'd get here but now that we're here I think playing football was the right thing to do and we're excited to be a part of it.” 

For captains, why do you think those five guys were chosen by their teammates? 
“They've all done a good job leading. There's a lot of times this offseason where the coaches haven't been able to be involved and the players had to step up and do a lot of things. It's not just these five, I think there's a lot of guys that the team look to as leaders. A lot of players on our team that got votes, but these five were out in front in the voting and I think the players respect them and look to them as leaders.” 

How do you feel about running back behind Dedrick Mills 
We feel good about it. You know we're going to be little green at a few positions. As a coach, I think you want to get old and stay old. Have experienced guys. Veteran guys. Seems like this is going to be the third year now where we have a few positions where we just don't have very many veterans running backs. Dedrick obviously has a lot of experience and anybody else we put in there for the most part is going to be pretty green, but I'm pleased with the progress.” 

Is Ronald Thompkins on a pitch (play) count? 
“We're going to have to watch him a little bit. Make sure we don't overload him, but really no different than anybody else. He hasn't shown me any reason to believe that he can't carry the ball as much as we need him to.” 

What level of concern is there that the Big Ten can get through nine-straight weeks without a bye? 
“I think there's concern. I think if you wanna play then you find ways to play. I think you'll find ways to play it if you find ways and reasons to not play, I think you can accomplish that goal too.” 

Did you speak with Ryan Day during this process? 
“Yeah, I talked to Ryan quite a bit. I think we probably developed a little closer relationship through this. I gotta give most of the credit for this to Ohio State. You know we, we might have been one of the sounding gongs in this, saying we want to play. I don't think it would have got done without their doctor taking the lead. Figuring out a way to present it to the presidents to get football back. Doctor Borchers deserves a lot of credit for this. I think they did a good job at Ohio State, kind of bringing it all together and presenting a plan that allowed us to to get back to doing what we should have probably been doing all the time. But again, that's why I say Ohio State I think did a good job of finding a way to plan reasons to play rather than looking for reasons that maybe you shouldn't.” 

What was the separator at quarterback? 
“I don't know how much separation there is. I think we have two first-string quarterbacks. That's the way we feel about them. And you know, I, I really believe if Luke (McCaffrey) would have been the one that had already been here playing and we would have had the same camp, probably would have gone with Luke. They both had tremendous camps and we see ourselves as having luxury of having two starters.” 

If I were to say to you, I think Ohio State's defensive front isn't quite as good as last year. How would you respond? 
“Chase Young is about the best pass rusher I've been on a college football field with so I'm sure it's not easy to replace the guy like that. But they get four and five star guys every year and have a lot of them. The guys that played besides Chase, beat us last year too. I'd probably have to argue with you if you if you told me they weren't as good.” 

Adrian Martinez was named one of the five captains and he did it in an offseason where he did not know if he was going to be the starting quarterback. What does that say about his leadership to earn one of these spots while dealing with adversity? 
“Adrian is a great human being on top of being a good player, Luke McCaffrey is a great human being on top of being a really good player, so I think both those guides are seen as leaders with the team. The voting certainly kind of proved that. But at every single position there's a competition to see who the starting guy is going to be. So quarterback was no different. I don't know how much separation there was between the two, but they both did great job and Adrian did a good job on and off the field.” 

How has the quarterback position at Ohio State evolved under Ryan Day? 
“We went up to Ohio State two years ago, and I didn't think they played their best game and we kept ourselves in the game. Last year they played really well and had a really good team and we were outmatched. Justin feels to me as the better of the two. That's not take anything away from Duane Haskins, but for what they want their quarterback to do he's really efficient. He can create plays when he needs to. He can take off and run and really hurt you. So he he's a phenomenal player and surrounded by a bunch of other tremendous players.” 

How hard is it to prepare for a defense like Ohio State's when they've got a new defensive coordinator and you haven't been able to see him on film? 
“That certainly adds to the challenge. Again, without we had some good plays for them last year and the biggest challenge in playing a team like this is you'll have a gap, you'll have a crease, you'll have a little bit of space and it gets erased really fast because of the talent they have on the field. Obviously they have some really good coaches and they have and they do now. I'm sure those guys will put them in a good position and we have to do a good job adjusting to what we see early on in the game.” 

Any injuries to report? 
“Only other one I can announce is Javin Wright had a MCL tear. Had to have surgery on it and we will probably be missing him for the year.” 

Are you where you want to be when it coming to testing and protocols with the game five days away? 
"I don't anticipate us having an issue with the standards and protocols set by the Big Ten for a bunch of reasons, we think our medical staff is doing a good job keeping people safe. We've already had enough on our team that have either tested positive, or have antibodies that I think we've got into a place where we're a little bit less at risk. Also the rules for when you can play and when you can't. I think it's gonna be hard for teams to get into the red and so I feel good about our chance of being able to play without going into that much deeper.” 

How do you feel about your special teams? 
“I think we'll punt the ball better, and I think we'll kick the ball better. Feel good about couple guys that we have that are new, feel good about some guys that have been here and special teams has certainly cost us games instead of helping us win games, getting the right specialist on the field is important part of that and think we're in a better position there.” 

How has special teams analyst Jonathan Rutledge handled the last nine months? 
“Well, you know he's off the field for us, so he's able to kind of coordinate. Our coaches have to do the coaching of it. He has certainly helped us by giving us a guy that can devote his time to it (special teams). It’s still on the assistant coaches to take the plans and get them executed with the players. But I think that that formula has helped us.” 

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