Nebraska Football
vs. Buffalo
Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021
On where the focus is now
“I am ready for next week, ready for Monday. Coach Mo, his boys are going to have a good season. I am ready for next week.”
On the 9/11 tribute
“I remember the day. I remember how I felt that day I cannot imagine how the people that are more affected felt. It was tough after that. It was unbelievable though to see how the country came together right after that. Wish it could be more like that again.”
On Adrian Martinez’s 71-yard run
“I thought Adrian played another great game. He is a big-time player. He is missing some weapons right now. We had a lot of guys at that point that were not in the game. We should have scored more offensively in the first half than we did, and did not. Then got bailed out by a couple big plays that Adrian and Samori (Toure) made in the first half. First, I have to say, defense and Coach Chinander and Fish and Dawson and Ruud and that whole group what a great performance by them. They gave up a little here and there, but man they just did not quit the whole game against a good football team. Offensively, we have to establish our base round a little better so we can keep drives going and give ourselves more chances. They were packing the box on us a little bit but we still need to be able to hit it downhill and get some yards and did not do that well enough in the first half but a couple plays by a couple of really good players kind of bailed us out.”
On specific play that bailed them out
“Not until I watch it on tape. To be honest I was watching the route develop.”
On play calling
“We need to be able to take more shots downfield and we did take them today we hit them. So we have to do more of that. That is going to help back people off, but we also need to be able to run it better to help open those things up, so it is hard to complain about a game against a good team where you win by three scores and have 500 yards on offense or whatever we had, but it did not feel like that and I was not satisfied so we have work to do.”
On effort of defense in heat
“Zach and Andrew and the boys did a great job of getting our guys ready in the summer. They did a lot of work out on the turf in the heat in the stadium. I thought that paid off today we had some cramping issues but not many. Those guys were out there a lot and we need to help them out a little more on offense by sustaining, but they did not quit. That is the biggest compliment I can give them I think we have a tough defense.”
On linebacker Luke Reimer
“We have seen that from Luke since his first day here. Kid from Northwest 12th Street in Lincoln. (He) lives eight houses from my parents. We were lucky enough to get him to walk on and it was about the second day we figured we should have scholarship’d him and he is going to make a lot of plays around here.”
On Markese Stepp not playing in the second half
“I do not have much to do with that. We kind of talked before the series about what plays we want to get to, and Held has those guys on a rotation and I expect you will see more of him.”
On trust in place-kicker Connor Culp
“I am scratching my head a little bit because two of our best players on our entire football team are Connor Culp and Cam Taylor-Britt, and Cam made a ton of good plays on defense and he is a captain. I love him like a son, but punt return bit us again. We have to scream and yell and get everybody away from that one. I am not sure what is going on with Connor, but he will get it fixed. I do not want it to turn into a mental thing for him, he is too talented.”
On deciding to punt
“Well we are doing a little bit of a better job on pinning them on punt than we had. We actually got a couple down there. The defense was in control definitely had something to do with it. The score of the game definitely had something to do with it.”
On Cam Taylor-Britt’s miscommunication on punt
“Well we have to be screaming ‘Peter Peter Peter’ and get everybody away from the punt return and we have to train them even better than we have trained them.”
On having six quarters without giving up a touchdown
“It is going to be harder next week.”
On deferring on the coin toss
“It almost worked out for us we scored right at the end of the half and got the ball back in the third quarter and had a drive going and sputtered, but if you can score at the end of the first and steal it and drive and score at the beginning of the third you have a good chance of winning the game and we almost made it happen today.”
On improvement that needs to happen to win next weekend
“It is little things. I think we have a good enough team that we could win about any game we play, and we can lose about any game we play. It is going to come down to a few plays. I have to figure out how to have our players stop getting called for penalties on scoring plays and explosive plays. I have never seen anything like it so we will review those and find out what is going on.”
On the ruling of an illegal forward pass
“They told me it was a forward pass downfield.”
On thinking of last two minutes of play
“To be honest we were ready to run it out until they use the timeout, and then Mo is going to keep the throttle in, but when you get new guys out there you want to give them a chance to run the offense and make plays too. I thought Logan made another good throw that is good to see, and Chris made another play and we did not out any more points up so no harm no foul.”
On giving a game jersey to Corporal Page:
“I tell you that puts everything into perspective. Everything I am doing, everything everybody is doing. Daegan was over there and did not come back and that is a lot more important than a first down a third down or a ballgame in general, and what a great family. His sister Emerson was so sweet and mom and dad and that was touching and it puts in perspective how important that is compared to what we are doing.”
NU Athletic Communications
