Nebraska Football
Illinois
Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020
Press Conference Video
On what he saw Illinois do well on offense
“They did a good job on offense today. They just dialed up the plays how they wanted to. Basically just put together a game plan that that was really good for them. You know, we had to do a better job of taking away what they do best and just being physical. Obviously the scoreboard indicates that we didn't do a good job at that today and we just need to continue to get better.”
On if the secondary and defense played with the edge they have been playing with this season
"Anytime we were out there we were just trying to make things happen. I mean, a lot of guys out there playing hard today. Sometimes it's just that that one play, that one play that you wish you could have back that just leads to opportunities for their offense. We just have to get cleaned up and guys are going to continue to fly around and try to make plays.”
On if there was anything this week that worried him for the game
“I wouldn't say that I worried at all. We just understand that hindsight is 20-20. You are always gonna look back and always think about what you could have done better. Are there things we could have done better during the week? Yes, of course. Now we see that we could have done a lot better. So you know it's a lesson in everything. We just gotta look, look to lessons and make sure we learn from them.”
On Collin Miller’s injury
“It’s heartbreaking. This is the game we love. This is the game we've been playing, some of us, for our whole lives. You love the game. You give so much to it and sometimes things happen. Sometimes bad things happen in the game. Nobody on the field, I don't even think Illinois would ever wish that would happen to any player, regardless of their caliber, their status, whatever their role is. At the end of the day, that's part of the game. You put on those helmets and shoulder pads and we understand the risk of potentially being in a bad position. But at the end of the day, it's the game we love. Just to see Collin down there like that, my friend, my brother since we came in, it really hit me. Heartbreaking just knowing how much that guy puts in. Just knowing at times how he's just like the heart and soul of our defense. And you know, really coming out, bringing the energy all the time. So to see him go down, that really hurt. But once they were getting him up on the stretcher, I told him he'd be good and God's got a plan for him and God is with him. He's not going to leave his side and I’ve just been praying for him ever since. I just want my guy to be good.”
On Illinois’ third down conversions
“We just all have to be better on third down. The unique thing about third down is offenses, they try to get that first down and defenses, we try to stop the first down. But one person out of place could cost us a first down. Cost us a chance to get off the field. Or not being aggressive enough in the game for us on third down, hitting yardage. Maybe it might be third and seven. They run a draw, maybe just hypothetically. You know, and we hit it to where it would be fourth and three, but it bleeds to fourth and one. Now the offense has a decision to make. We just got to be better in knowing what we're going to get and just being more dialed in on third down and everybody being able to do their job. If everybody does their job, it’s really hard for an offense to succeed. So on third down we just got to really, really dial in and crank it up again.”
On the team’s overall confidence
“I'm not concerned about confidence because I know everybody in this locker room don't like this feeling and I know that we're gonna come out the next day and right our wrongs. We’re gonna try to scratch and claw and never give up. There's nobody down in that locker room that gonna give up on anything. So we just have to continue to keep our heads up. When we get punched, when we get knocked down, we gotta stand up again. I'm not concerned about confidence. We just go into every game, take it one game at a time and just scratch away at it.”
On the momentum coming out of the half
“We definitely wanted some momentum coming out of the locker room. We had our talk in locker room, got some things fixed, made some changes. But we definitely knew that we had to go out there and make a stand coming out of locker room just to play a better half football. We get we get off the field and the punter runs for the first down. Even then, that didn't deter us. We still ran out there, we knew that we had to continue to play defense. We know that they still had to drive the field on us. At the end of the day, we are just gonna take our opportunities and just try to make the most of them, whether we gotta go back on the field or not. Definitely going down the field and them putting some more points on the board, it's definitely going to make it hard to win the game regardless of what time in the game it was. So that's just like I said. There’s some things we need to get better on it, some things that we need to fix. The coaches will probably stay here all night and work on fixing it. We got a short week and the players are also gonna look at this film and learn from it.”
On the decision to wear alternate uniforms
“I can't tell you why it happened. I just know that last night when we came into locker room, they weren't there. This morning, they were there. When we put those black shirts on, we gotta own it. We gotta play with that edge, play with that swagger, play with that chip. Today, obviously the scoreboard indicated that we didn’t. Anytime you put those things on, we have to understand exactly what’s going on. Regardless, when we put on that red, you gotta feel the same way. When we put on the white, away, you know we gotta feel the same thing. We just gotta know what we're defending, what's at hand, what's at stake. Just understanding that ‘N’ on the side of the helmet means everything.”
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