Casey Thompson Quotes - 10-3-22

Casey Thompson
Nebraska Quarterback
Pre-Rutgers
Press Conference

On relationship with Coach Joseph
“Mickey Joseph was a big reason why I came here, so I’ve had a relationship with him for a long time. He’s known me since I was a kid, so him and my dad have a really good relationship and are really good friends. I’ve always felt like I’ve had that relationship with Mickey. We have a lot of conversations on a daily basis in his office and on the sidelines, but he’s hard on me. He’s definitely always hard on me, and I’m hard on myself. But I told him that I don’t want to be out of the game. If I’m healthy enough to play, I’m pushing through injuries or stuff during the week in practice. I don’t even like when they don’t give me certain plays, and they put Chubba (Purdy) or Logan (Smothers) in. Me personally, I’m just a competitor. I don’t ever want to be on the sidelines and always want to be in the game. So, he understands that, and he said, ‘it’s good to be that way.’ Even when I landed on my shoulder and came out of the game, I told them no don’t take me out. They ended up doing it anyways. So, they heard about it, but it’s all good. It was just something on offense that we played 75-80 plays on offense, and they don’t want me taking a lot of hits. They don’t want me playing every single snap the whole game. I understand that we have to play multiple quarterbacks, especially Chubba and Logan with them being fresh bodies and not being banged up or dealing with injuries. That’s something that they provide as well on Saturdays. “
 
On going back into game after injury
“I told (Coach Joseph) when I came back out of the tent from seeing the doctor that I was going to play the rest of the game. They wanted to get Chubba a little bit of action and like I said, Chubba and Logan have to be ready to play at any point because your starting quarterback can go down at any point from injury. I’m just going to have to get those guys some game reps and you guys have noticed we’ve been giving those guys some game reps here and there in live situations no matter what the score is. I understand why we have to play multiple quarterbacks, especially with me being banged up from week-to-week. The bye week helped a lot but like I said, I’ve been pushing through some things the last few weeks, so I understand why they’re doing it.”
 
On the offensive line
“This past game they were actually pretty good. We rotate a lot of guys, and we had a lot of guys playing in rotation, but I feel like they gave me good time in the pocket this week. I mean I took a couple hits, but I think we’ve had a pretty clean pocket and I always just try to motivate them and encourage them. Then, whenever it’s about to be a big play I’ll tell them, ‘this is going to be a touchdown if you give me 2-3 seconds or whatever.’ They did a good job, so I was very proud and happy for the guys that got to play on Saturday, and I thought they did a pretty good job. Then, what I do tell them sometimes I talked to Coach Joseph during the bye week, and we talked about ways to approach the offensive line. It’s easier to tell the offensive line what to do or what I need than to tell them what not to do. A lot of times I will just tell them I need two or three seconds, or I’ll tell my tackles to work inside-out, so I can step up and things like that. I always just try to stay on top of them and that’s something Coach Joseph wants me to do more. He's challenging me to be more vocal and demanding with these guys. I’m always communicating with the whole offense, but he wants me to get on them harder during the week in practice so that way on Saturdays they’re used to it, and I don’t have to say anything. Then he said when he used to play quarterback that he used to make comments like, ‘when you get knocked to the ground and the line comes to help you up, tell them you shouldn’t be on the ground in the first place.’ So those are things he wants me to do. I told him I’ll be more demanding, but I’m going to do it in my own way. I don’t cuss guys out or scream in their face, but I’m just going to do it my own way.”
 
On handling game intensity
“My dad was harder on me than any coach we have here, so I’m used to that. He used to get in my face when I was a kid growing up when I was like five, six or seven years old. He was hard on me and always in my face telling me what I needed to hear. It doesn’t matter what a player or coach says to me, and I feel like if anybody has a competitive spirit and wants to win and isn’t self-motivated there’s really nothing anybody can do or say. Regardless of if it’s family, friends, coaches or a teammate. There’s nothing that anybody says to me on the sideline that’s going to make me go up or down. I always try to stay even keel. I even told Coach Joseph that I’m fine and at that point in the game, whenever I missed a read and Coach Whipple got on to me, I told him after the game that I was 6-7 with one touchdown and it’s the second drive of the game, so I’ll be fine. Having those game experience reps and being in the fire though, there’s nothing like live action in the games. Having experience for sure and having those starts last year definitely helped. But I’m a player that wants to be coached, and I want the feedback. I’d rather the coach be hard on me and give me direct feedback to tell me exactly what’s wrong and what he's expecting out of me than being passive and quiet and not saying anything at all. I’d rather be coached hard.”
 
On road matchups
“I’ve been to New York one time. I actually went on New Year’s. I went with some of my high school friends. They went and told me I should fly out for a couple of days. I went to Miami and New York just by myself and then hung out with my friends there. It was cold when I went (to New York), I remember that for sure and it was crowded and congested. But like I said, every game to me is just the same 53 yards wide and 120-yard-long field. To me it’s all the same playing on the road and I think we’ll be fine. The challenge this week is playing on Friday. I think we’ll be fine playing on the road. I love road games. I like wearing the white jerseys and plane rides, so it’s just another game for us and I think we’ll be fine. Like I said it’s just a shorter week. We have to get our bodies underneath us and our legs back but I’m excited to play on the road."

NU Athletic Communications