Mickey Joseph
Interim Nebraska Football Coach
Pre-Rutgers
Press Conference
Opening Statement
“It’s good to get back with a short week and a lot of momentum coming off the win on Saturday. I thought the boys played well in all three phases. Indiana was one game. The sign of a good team is who can move forward and get to the next one. We are now on to Rutgers. The schedule is accelerated because we have to move the days up because we are going to leave Thursday. Usually you leave on Friday, so everything is getting pushed up as far as practice. We are doing it right now. I appreciated the coaches and the players adapting for what we want to do."
On Casey Thompson’s toughness
“Growing up in my family you had to be tough physically and mentally. It’s number one on my list. If I question your toughness then I can’t play you. If I had a friend and my dad didn’t think he was tough, I couldn’t hang with that guy. Toughness is high on the Joseph list, so it’s high for Nebraska football right now. Casey (Thompson) is tough. Casey comes from a tough family. Charles raised tough kids. Casey has been getting hit, but he’s getting up. When he was down on the turf he took my arm and said 'I’m going back in the game'. I said okay and that’s what I expect you to do.”
On the improvements needed on the offensive line
“I think they are doing a great job of run blocking right now. We have to work on our pass protection, but I think when you shuffle them in and out you’ve got to get your best five on the field. Right now is not where we want them at, but they are getting better every day in practice. Donovan (Raiola) is doing a really great job of getting them out there so they are getting better at doing it. As coaches we need to make sure we are helping them with the scheme.”
On the right tackle position
“(Hunter Anthony and Bryce Benhart) were 49 and 44 snaps, so they split it. We are going to rotate them again. I thought Hunter (Anthony) played okay. I don’t think he played great, but he played okay and held his own. There’s 86 plays in a game. There is going to be some mental errors and some physical errors. It’s going to happen. The big thing is that if you do make a bad play, get to the next play. Don’t let that one play beat you twice. I think those two kids together can give us a solid right tackle performance on Friday.”
On the Big Ten West
“I think it’s football. You don’t know what’s going to happen. I think everything in athletics is day-to-day and each game is week-to-week. It’s the Wild West right now. Everybody is fighting. The games are coming down to the fourth quarter. We are going to take one game at a time. We’ve got to get ready for Rutgers. The West is wild right now.”
“I think it works in everybody’s favor right now because it is out of balance right now. We are just going to take it one game at a time. It’s all you can do right now. Worry about getting ready for Rutgers. I’m sure everybody notices but it’s nothing you can control right now."
On the feeling from the team after a win
“That was the big emotional part for me, seeing their faces after the game. They’ve been in so many close games that they hadn’t closed out. Just the moment in the locker room and seeing the relief on their faces. We know we can do it. You can always tell somebody that you know they can do it, but if they never do it they will have doubts. They didn’t have any doubts in the fourth quarter. We asked them to finish and strain to finish in the fourth quarter, and they did and won. They practiced that way for the last two weeks.”
On the differences on defense
“We talked about it last week. We said what we were going to do. We were going to get them lined up. That’s the big thing on defense. Just get them lined up. My brother Vance yesterday got his team to line up. When you can get them lined up now they can recognized what’s going on and recognize formations. That’s the big key. I thought they lined up and then they played with their hair on fire.”
On Malcolm Hartzog’s progress and his award this week
“That’s a great honor for Malcolm (Hartzog), but we do everything around here with the team. Malcolm couldn’t have picked that fumble up unless (Chris Kolarevic) blocked it. Chris wouldn’t have blocked that punt unless we wouldn’t have had that rush from (Grant) Tagge and the rest of the boys. It’s a team thing, but we are happy for Malcolm. We knew Malcolm was going to be a good player we just had to bring him along. He’s a good young player.”
On Ty Robinson
“I asked him to cut loose. I said 99 go back to your old ways. Start cutting loose. I thought he played free, and I thought he played with some fire because that’s the only way that kid can play. He can’t play calm. He’s got to play charged up and ready to go and he did that Saturday. I’m proud of him for that.”
On Isaac Gifford
“(Isaac) Gifford is a solid player. He understands the scheme and plays fast because he understands where the ball is going before it’s snapped. He’s got a lot of heart. He’s going to tackle you and cover you but he’s going to play his heart out. He plays hard every snap but he’s a smart football player. He understands what’s going on before the ball snaps.”
On receiving the game ball from Trev Alberts
“I was happy for the kids and the coaches. I am always going to be happy for them before me because I understand without those guys there wouldn’t be me. It was a great accomplishment, but it was a great accomplishment for the entire athletic department, entire university and entire state. It felt good that we were able to get the win and people can wake up Sunday mornin, go to church and have something to talk about.”
On how he and Mark Whipple managed the clock offensively
“I thought we did a really good job because (Mark) Whipple has been doing it for a long time. He kind of runs with it sometimes. Sometimes I'm thinking it, but he's already thought about it. So Whipple does a really good job of running the clock down and he understands that, and I'll just give him my sight sometimes. Most of the time he's going to tell me 'No. This is what we need to do.'”
On Garrett Nelson
“He's a big part. He’s our emotional leader. When he speaks, he speaks volumes. So we love Garrett (Nelson). Garrett always comes out and plays hard. I have to get him to get lined up after he gets a sack because he wants to run around and do his little dance. I have to get him lined up and get him back because I was screaming to go back and get lined up because they will go tempo on us. But you know what? I wouldn't trade that kid. I'm happy to have that kid. That kid's been a day-one leader since I arrived on campus. And he works hard. He comes to practice every day. The kids follow him. So it's good to have Garrett Nelsons on the team like that.”
On if Anthony Grant has surprised him
“No. We thought he was probably the best back in the country coming out of junior college, so nothing surprises us. You speak to the people from Florida State, they say no. Because you know, they called and tried to get him back. They tried to get him back, but no, nothing surprises us about Anthony (Grant). He just was a little sore today, so he didn't understand that he had to go get treatment. He didn't know why. We let him know why he needs to get treatment. But no, not surprised by that kid. That kid is going to do what he has to do for us to win games.”
On the amount of carries Anthony Grant will take in a game
“I wish I could tell you that, but I can't. Because we have to do what we have to do to win the game. So, I wish I could tell you that he's going to carry 30 or 35 times a game. I couldn’t tell you that. I wish I could, but I can't. We're going to do what we have to do to win the game. If he carries it 10 times, and we have to throw 60, then that's what we have to do. It depends on what's going on with the game. And this week we felt like we had to feed him, because he was getting tough yards.”
On Anthony Grant's ability to block
“It shows you that this team has bought in about being physical on both sides of the ball. That was play 80. It was a team thing. You see (Chancellor) Brewington come across and he knocked this guy right. He knocked this guy off, and then Anthony (Grant) let up and Casey (Thompson) was able to walk in the endzone. It just shows you that they try to be physical. They don’t worry if it’s play one or play 80. We're going to stick our face in the fan.”
On how Chubba Purdy bounced back from the fumble in the end zone
“He's gotta have a quick memory and just erase it and move on. They have to learn to move to the next play. You can’t let that play beat us twice. He was ready to go back into the game if he needed to. He understood what happened. He held the ball, but you have to put the ball away, but you have to take the safety and not give them a touchdown. He understood that. That's giving him game reps. He needs game reps.”
On if his second game as head coach felt different
“Like I said before, it slowed down a little bit. The referee knew my name this time, so that was pretty cool. And I knew his name. He still didn't help us. We still got a lot of flags, but it slowed down a little bit. It was just coaching the kids the same way I’ve coached them and staying engaged with them. I thought the coaches did a really good job of helping me do that.”
On what he sees on Rutgers film
“Rutgers has a really tough defense that’s really good against the run. I think they’ve only given up 292 yards or something like that per game. (Greg) Schiano, if you know one thing about him, he's going to have tough football teams. So it's going to be a battle. It's going to be a 907 drill.”
On the hardest part of getting ready during a short week
“Just trying to get the bodies back and trying to get the mental workup. You have to try to get the bodies back and you have to try to get the mental workup, because everything's accelerated.”
On how Casey Thompson was affected by seeing things from the sideline
“Casey (Thompson) was okay. Casey was okay with that. He came in yesterday, and we sat down. One thing that kids can do with me is we can talk, and they can tell me how they feel. And he didn't want to be taken out of the game. He expressed that. He let me know he didn't want that. But then I explained to him why we did it. Because I'm always going to explain to him why because this is a why generation. So he wanted to know why, so I told him why. And he said 'I don't want to do that again'. I said I don't want to do it either. If I have to I will, because I'm going to be consistent with him. I'm not going to be wishy washy with him. I'm going to be consistent with what I'm saying. He's no different than anybody else. If we think he's struggling, he's coming out. That's anybody. That's the way you have to run your football team. You can't treat him any differently. He doesn't want to be treated any differently. He expressed how he felt, and I appreciated that but at the end of the day, he understands who's the coach.”
On the environment at Memorial Stadium
“It was great for (recruits). It was great. Some of the families stayed back to visit with me after the game. Some of them stayed as late as 11:15 or 11:30. I thought it was a great atmosphere. I thought all the commitments were solid. It was a great night for them to see us play.”
NU Athletic Communications
