Nebraska Football
Postgame Quotes vs. Illinois
Oct. 29, 2022
On offensive change after Casey Thompson’s injury
“Obviously, it’s unfortunate that Casey (Thompson) went down, but we’ve got great quarterbacks in our room. Guys trust Chubba (Purdy) and Logan (Smothers) and the other guys in that room. Nothing changed for us, we came out and had a great game plan. We just didn’t execute, so I give a lot of props to Illinois’ defense. They’re a great team and a fundamentally sound, tough-nosed football team, and it just didn’t go our way today.”
On continued fight in second half
“We were running the ball well, blocking well, and making plays. Nothing really changed in the second half, it all just comes down to execution and that’s something we’ve talked about all week in practice. We have to find ways to execute.”
On use of bye week
“On bye weeks we’re always preparing for the next opponent. We did a lot of stuff, and I trust the coaches and our preparation. I think they did a great job in getting us ready to play and ultimately, we didn’t come out as players and make plays to get the win. Our coaches know what they’re doing, and they put us in great situations at practice but we just didn’t execute.”
On his touchdown catch
“We knew Illinois was going to come out and play man coverage, so nothing was really different. We came out and they played exactly how we thought they would play.”
On preparing for second half without Thompson
“We’ve got great quarterbacks in our room, so nothing changes for us. We all trust the guys in that room, and we know we have great players who continue to practice and play well. Nothing really changes for us, and we have the quarterback’s back just like we know they have ours.”
On the message to team
“There’s a lot of season left. Our locker room is so tight, we’re brothers in there. It’s a positive locker room right now, and obviously it sucks we lost, and guys are upset about that, but we have the 24-hour rule. We’re going to come back tomorrow and learn from our mistakes. We’ll find what we didn’t do well and move onto next week, it’s another opportunity. Guys are excited about that, and we’ll learn from this one and move on.”
NU Athletic Communications
