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Nebraska Football
Penn State
Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020
Press Conference Video
On redshirt freshman quarterback Luke McCaffrey making his first start
“Luke prepared like he was starter, even whenever he wasn't starting, so it really wasn't anything new to him. He was going to come into work and work like he was the starter no matter what. I just knew that we had all the confidence in the world in both of our guys, Adrian and Luke. So whichever one it was coming into with Luke being in the game, we were really, really confident with that.”
On winning a close game
“I mean it felt great. It just feels good to finally get over that hump and know that we can continue to do this and hopefully we aren't in too many close games. But if we are in close games, we know exactly what that's like and we know what we have to do to push through and win.”
On Zavier Betts’ 45-yard touchdown and his ceiling as a player
“I don't know. It's through the roof. Just some of the things that you see him doing. Just run and jump. You're like this kid can be special, and I tell him that all the time. I'm like, ‘dude you can really be special you just gotta keep working and come to work every day and just do the right things and everything's gonna fall right into place.’”
On getting over the hump as a team
“It can just push us through this whole season. Obviously we feel like going through the rest of this season we’re really confident with what we’ve got and who we're going against. It's just coming to work each and every day and not getting lackadaisical over this one win. We’ve just got to keep going and get the rest of them.”
On being in the backfield and whether he’s spent much time there in practice
“I had a little bit, but once Deidrick went down they kind of told me (I) might need to take a little bit more carries in the backfield. I started the ball with how much pressure they were bringing, it was a lot easier just to kind of just give me the touches that way, too. So it just worked out that way. But like I said before, if I have to play running back the whole game I play running back, if I’ve got to play receiver the whole game, I play receiver. It's really whatever they need me to do.”
On whether it feels natural to play running back
“I played running back basically my whole life, so being back in the backfield is just really natural. Being out at receiver is natural for me, too. I just feel really comfortable at both spots at this point. So just being able to do both.”
On Penn State’s defense
“It's really, really athletic. They just want to cause a lot of chaos and bring a lot of pressure, which they were successful on some things doing that. They're just a bunch of athletes out there, and they're going to play hard, and they showed that they weren't going to quit in that second half, too. That was a really, really good defense that we played.”
On the growing pains of the young players in the Nebraska offense
“I feel for them because I know exactly what it's like to be in your third game and still trying to figure things out and bullets are flying, and you're trying to get all the signals and everything. I feel for them and I just let them know like, ‘look, just relax and calm down, you're going to be alright. If you have any questions, there's usually a veteran out there that can help you.’ So that's really what I just try to tell them. Just keep coming to work and do what you’ve got to do. Everything is going to happen that should happen.”
On the causes of the offensive struggles in the second half
“Definitely the pressure that they were bringing, and then a little bit of it we just really didn't have the time possession that we wanted. We wanted to try some things, but obviously we kind of got a little bit behind in the chains, but that's just some things that we can clean up for next week.”
On the Nebraska defense’s performance on the final two Penn State drives
“It was crazy, but I had all the confidence in the world in them. We've been through so many scenarios like that where the defense has stopped us before. So I was really, really confident that they were going to go down there and make that stop and we were going to win that game.”
NU Athletic Communications