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Postgame Quotes vs. UTEP
Aug. 31, 2024 (Lincoln, Neb.)
Nebraska 40, UTEP 7
Head Coach Scotty Walden
Opening Statement
“Obviously Nebraska is a great football team, but disappointed with the outcome for sure. It certainly felt like through preparation and what I’ve seen in fall camp, other things of that nature I definitely thought we’ve played better. I thought offensively we can’t do that to our defense. They obviously had double the time of possession which is normally a stat I don’t care about but if you’re not scoring points it matters a lot. They had close to 80 plays compared to our 40 plays or whatever it was, and that’s maybe as bad as I’ve ever seen. I just got done talking to the team and as a head coach, you got to sit back and look at it all. I saw a lot of really good things today that led me to believe things that we can build on. That goal line stop to hold them to a field goal there late, I thought was crucial. We started playing better against the run in the second half, but offensively we have to execute on a higher level to help our defense out. Certainly thought that guys played hard. Coming off the field I didn’t feel like our guys didn’t expect to win. I told our team just now, I think everybody in that room expected to win. But when you play a great team like Nebraska and you play great teams that are in Conference USA, you have to execute, and we did not execute. I think you saw glimpses of some of the playmakers we have. I’ve got to do a better job of getting them the ball. I’ve got to do a better job of managing our defense better, and I’ve got to have a better plan for our offense in terms of simplicity, to be able to execute at a higher level. Certainly felt like with playing the team with the caliber of Nebraska, we couldn’t just go out there in 10 and 11 personnel and just run base plays. It felt like we were going to have to be unique with our approach. That leads to your guys having to think a little more and that’s okay, but when you have too much of it that hurts you and that’s what I think I did today. I didn’t manage it well as a head football coach. I’m very proud of the way we traveled, I’m proud of the young men that expected to win on this trip, and I do think there’s a lot of things we can build off of, but we got to get to the tape and see it. And I want to give a shout out to Miner nation, I want to thank our fans, I want to thank our donor base and those people that came along for the trip for this first game. That really meant a lot to us. We’re going to be able to build off of this and go forward, but congrats to Nebraska and Coach Rhule on a great game. They played well, and they deserved to win today.”
Spur Kory Chapman
On takeaways from the game
“We came out and played hard and we did what we needed to do, but it wasn’t the outcome we wanted. At the end of the day we played hard, we didn’t quit on both sides of the ball. That’s pretty much all I can ask from our team.”
On the environment
“I wouldn’t say the environment had too big of an effect at the end of the day. Fields across the country no matter what level you are are the same size. I don’t think environments ever really play a role.”
Quarterback Skyler Locklear
On his assessment of the game
“Of course the outcome isn’t what we wanted. We all came here wanting to win. That’s going to be our goal every single game no matter who we’re playing. But it’s also not just negative. It’s not only negative. There’s positives. we played hard, and we’ll be able to watch the tape and see things that are good and see what needs to be worked on. Like Corey (Chapman) just said, that third quarter third down stop, forcing them to kick a field goal. That just shows what our culture is about so that was a big positive. Third quarter we could just give up and not play hard but our defense played hard. We had them on the field too much. They don’t usually have to defend 80 plays. That’s on the offense not being able to sustain drives and keep them off the field but this team showed grit. I think a lot of teams across the country down 30 points would stop trying but that’s not what we do, and that’s not our culture.”
On the three play touchdown drive
“Our P and 10 play, first play of the drive. I think we had first down, slant to goody for 12 yards. That’s really what started it was a good first play of the drive. Then just getting into our rhythm, a great run by Javon . Having them on their toes, when we have our tempo and we aren’t hurting ourselves with penalties or missed assignments or bad reads, we can have the defense on their toes. When they’re on their toes like that, we can attack, and so that’s what helped that drive be successful.”