Austin Allen Quote 9-20-21

Nebraska Football
Pre-Michigan State
Monday, Sept. 20, 2021

Press Conference Video

On playing with Travis Vokolek
“Having Travis back is a huge aspect or he is a huge asset to our team. Not only is he a great football player he is a great teammate he is a great leader so it is great to have him back and it is nice to have some fresh legs in there so to say it is nice to get a break once in a while. It is also nice to get back into our two tight end personnel a little bit more than we are used to when a guy like Travis is in there so all around it was great seeing him back out there on the field.”
 
On thoughts when Travis Vokolek got hurt
“Frost finds a lot of ways to get his guys on the field what he feels best with. It seems like we are successful with two tight ends on the field so it is not necessarily we did that more in fall camp it is just whatever is working we are going to roll with it until you can find a way to stop it we are going to keep doing it so like I said it is nice to get him back on the field. It kind of opens up a lot of things in the run game it opens up a lot of things in the pass game I mean he is pretty versatile out in the route tree as well.”
 
On when Allen knew he was going to play on Saturday
“It feels pretty good. I knew Thursday I was going to play so just had to fall back in training a little bit did not necessarily get the reps that week from what I am used to but all the training we have done for the last month and a half helped me to get to that point but the Oklahoma game it is a bruiser. They are a tough football team we are a tough football team we went out and played some smash mouth football and we felt that they felt it. It was a football game.”
 
On penalties in Oklahoma game
“It has to be a self-disciplinary thing at this point. It cannot be so much me saying ‘You have to stop jumping offsides’ it has to be ‘I have to own it. I have to stop jumping offsides.’ I have been saying it cannot be more say we are going to do it it has to be us do it. There is some ownership that some guys need to take and it is just the way people have to move forward with that.”
 
On offensive line penalties
“It was a little bit frustrating for me. We knew they were going to stand the fronts we knew it was going to be loud in there we knew their linebackers were going to give a loose call and we still fell for it which is undisciplined by us but it was frustrating looking back and watching it but we still got a lot of things accomplished on offense that I was happy with. We will learn from it and it is all we can do at this point.”
 
On early impressions of Michigan State
“They have a really good football team. They are off to a hot start and Mel Tucker has them dialed up at this point. They are 3 and 0 they went down to a tough environment in Miami and got the job done. They handled it pretty well. We have to handle our business the same way we did last week and we were going to handle it next week got to treat everything like it is a Big Ten Championship and right now we are playing Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship that is how I am treating it this week so they are a great football team and we have to prepare like rightfully so.”
 
On treating every game like a Big Ten Championship
“Yeah that has been my motto. We have been kind of trying to speak that into existence on the team a little bit. I think I need to be a little more vocal with making sure that is everybody’s mindset not just mine especially as a captain of this team. You have to put your vision in your teammates minds in what you want to get accomplished and how you want to accomplish it. That has been my mindset this year is treat every week like it is a Big Ten Championship.”
 
On supporting Connor Culp after tough game
“I know Connor is frustrated because of practices he hits those all the time. I think it might be a thing where it is a little bit between the ears and flashing back a little bit here about follow suit with that. In high school I had never air-balled a free throw in my life until my senior year and I did it. About 50 in my senior year I did six that year just because it was between the ears. So we have people on the staff that could help calm nerves or I do not know what it is with Connor I have not really talked to him yet but Connor is a great kicker he is going to make kicks and he will get it figured out.”
 
On takeaways from Oklahoma
“We have a lot of different stuff dialed up every week and last week we had a package with Teddy Prochazka as a tight end which was cool to see him in there it was cool to see him get reps on he did really well. Watching film going back and we were pretty successful that package so there is some things that we can work on in the run game from Oklahoma there are some things that worked really well for us that we can build on. So we need to have a great week of practice this week and hopefully get that run game started for Michigan State.”
 
On limping off field
“I went to redirect to go make a play on the ball and I did not see an Oklahoma guy laying right there and I stepped on his foot and rolled my ankle but if I had a dollar for every time I rolled my ankle I would probably buy a car by now.”
 
On watching the blocked extra point
“There was some poor technique on the inside but with that dialed up is a lack of focus probably just on his technique and the guy blocked it and we just can learn from it now. We cannot go back and change it.”
 
On Big Ten football
“I mean Frost does a pretty good job of keeping us healthy and taking care of us during the week he knows that we are on week five now and our bodies are going to feel that way so he can trim up his practices the way he feels like it. We have eight Big Ten games now it is go time. Let's go. Take it week by week and see how much noise we can make, That is all we can do but I am excited to get this new chapter started with just straight Big Ten games now but Frost will take care of it.”
 
On back-to-back road games
“It is football you have road games you have home games. It is going to be kind of cool playing a night game. First time we have done that in a little bit. It is going to be a little different for us but it is a cool experience especially on the road see a new environment feed off that energy that Michigan State is going to bring and it is all we really can do but playing grass back to back I like that especially when it is warm. It is not like you are landing on concrete so I am excited to see how we prepare this week for Michigan State.”
 
On playing on grass
“I like it it is better. It is easier to make cuts. It feels better on your joints. I mean I feel like I am 60 now but there is just something about the aesthetic of playing football on grass too.”
 
On Big Ten game right away after big Oklahoma game
“I do not see based on the practice today us having any let down from what we did last week. I mean yeah we lost but there was a lot of positives we can take from a game like that. Oklahoma is a really good football team and we went stride to stride with them in every statistical category we just got to take care of some things here and there. I mean that is a victory for us but I think a lot of our guys see that and we are going to use that as lighter fluid for this week and get this things started off right.”
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