Scott Frost Postgame Quotes - 11-6-21

Scott Frost
Nebraska Head Coach
On the decision to kick a field goal in fourth quarter down six points 
"I kind of made that decision before the third down call. We had kind of been in four-down mode that whole drive and calling plays on third down to make sure they’ve been manageable for us. And we had a good play call and decided kind of before that, let's take a shot to hit one here and you know again, we had Samori (Toure) opening up to get the first down and we had the shallow cross open and we missed it. The drive in the first half, we had a 3rd-and-8 I think, and I ran a play to try to get to a point where we can go for it on fourth down. So, you kind of make that decision on third down and at that point in the game early in the fourth quarter, the way our defense was playing, I thought a field goal would give us a chance." 
 
On the fourth-down call in the first quarter 
"It was the play, Adrian ran it. I think that’s what you’re talking about. I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about." 
 
On rethinking the fourth quarter, fourth-down call 
"Absolutely. That was a chip shot, he's been kicking really well. Wish I had it back now, obviously you second guess yourself. But again, to try to make it a three-point game, that's the right football decision, whether or not it was the right situational decision. Knowing what I know now, I would’ve done something different." 
 
On special teams play overall
"Again, you’ll never see me rundown any one kid. I’ll never do that. These are my guys, and I love them, but it isn't special teams right now, it’s specialists and that's been kind of an issue for us." 
 
On Nebraska's pass protection 
"Not good enough. You know we had run a lot of max. No, they're really good. I should have started this whole thing with that. They got elite talent at every position and I thought our secondary, they gave up a lot of yards to one kid but just overall them battling against that caliber of a player was impressive. That caliber of a running back and giving up the rushing yards that we did, man these guys are fighters. There's some things we're not doing well enough, and I think this far in the season everybody sees some of those things, and one of those things is max pro. We've just got to be better. We had to call too many max pro things and boots with extra guys in and that kind of limits us a little bit of what we can call and get going fast and get running and limits the routes you can run and that's something we've just got to keep working on. We're young up front. There's some guys banged up, up front, losing Teddy (Prochazka) certainly didn't help, but in general you know, people get on Adrian (Martinez) pretty hard. Sometimes he deserves it, and sometimes we've got to do a better job around him and protections one of these areas." 
 
On Adrian Martinez's performance 
"Listen, again you know, I've been on the high side around here and the low side around here. You know, Adrian’s been playing with a broken jaw and a high ankle sprain, and I feel good going into the bye week saying that because he's past it. But you know, he's shown a lot of grit and toughness. Those two things are obviously going to make him a little bit different player, and I agree at the end of the second half, I thought he took off and got us tough yards." 
 
On potentially using Logan Smothers as a runner 
"Logan has come along. I've got a ton of confidence in Logan right now. You're crazy if you don't think I'm playing the guy that gives us the best chance to win. Just know you‘re taking a good player off the field to do that. And we've talked about all these things, but I'm disappointed. I hate losing more than anybody in that locker room. But I just love being the coach here. I love these kids. They battled through a lot, and this is going to pop at Nebraska. It just is. We're doing too many good things right. We've got too many good young players. There's too many. We're putting ourselves in a position to win games, and we’re just not making a play or catching a break. The guys I feel bad for are the seniors. Because JoJo (Domann), (Ben) Stille and Deontai (Williams) and Marquel (Dismuke), and a lot of those guys that have just poured everything they got into this game. I thought JoJo played an unbelievable game. Those guys are the heart, heart and soul. And I feel bad for them. For the rest of these young guys, they've done a lot of really promising things."
 
On Martinez's injuries 
"No, the ankle was in practice. We had a ball on the ground, and somebody dove on it and rolled up on a Tuesday practice of the Minnesota week." 
 
On if this was the defense’s best performance of the season 
"Hard to say. Thought they played, it's hard to say you played better than holding Michigan State to 15 yards in the second half. And again, this isn't against bad opponents. Ohio State's an elite team in the league. They're going to have a chance to be in the playoff. Depending on the Michigan and Michigan State games, and Ryan (Day) does an unbelievable job with those guys. And for the caliber of player they have on offense, I was really impressed with the defense. And the secondary in particular, we give up the one long one, and the one kid had a lot of plays. And those are some elite receivers, and they battled. 
 
On Martinez's injuries 
"He had about three decisions, and I'll let him talk about it more. His decision to do it. He had about three decisions, one that would have kept him out for a while and one for the rest of the year, and he wanted to go. He loves the team and made that decision." 
 
On his emotions after game 
"Listen, I bleed for Nebraska. I’ve lived in O'Neill and Lincoln and McCook and Wood River and was born in Crete. And I bleed for this. We're giving everything and are pouring everything we have into this and nobody's more disappointed than me that has happened yet. But there's too many good things happening for us to not get over this hump. And you know, I let, you guys wrote about a lot, I let the captains talk to the team after the game. And I told them today, don't hang your head. They should be proud of the way they played. They keep putting themselves in positions to have a chance to win against really good competition. And we're doing a lot of things right, they've just got to keep doing them and keep putting ourselves in position to win games. The one thing that I, you know, I'll be critical of myself and the team, is if we play with that much spirit every game, I think we have a couple more wins. Now you go through a grind of a season and it's tough to play your absolute best every single game. But I never want us to look back. There was guys jumping around on the benches and on the sideline and that, that's the passion that Nebraska fans want to see. That's the passion that I want to see." 
 
On Domann's performance and potential opt out 
"JoJo’s playing hurt right now too and made a decision to play today because he loves his team and his coaches. I don't know what decision he will make going forward, but it won't be because he's opting out. I don't see that happening with him." 
 
On the underdog factor going into fourth down and psychology behind it 
"Again, I made a decision in the first half on a 3rd-and-7-or-8 to try to run the ball to put ourselves in a position where I go for it on fourth down. And earlier that drive we had, that was a 3rd-and-5 and we had a play call that we liked, and it didn’t work. We didn't convert. Those are decisions when something doesn't work you question it. If we complete the ball and he walks in the end zone, you’re happy. I was also trusting my defense at that point. So, you know, hindsight we can question that a lot. You can't say we've lost games because of bad clock management and bad decisions and those types of things. That’s when I question myself, and if we hit the play we're not talking about." 
 
On running back Sevion Morrison 
"He missed a couple days of practice because of a family issue and wasn’t available today." 

NU Athletic Communications