Head Coach Bo Pelini
Nebraska Football
Weekly Press Conference
Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008
Memorial Stadium
On the 3-3-5 defense that New Mexico State runs
“It’s unusual; we don’t really know what they’re going to do. Just going off what defensive coordinator (Joe Lee Dunn) has done in the past, they’ve done some unusual things. There is a lot to prepare for.
“They do a lot of different things and a lot of different lineups. It’s unusual; their guys are kind of all over the place. From our standpoint, we’ve just got to execute.”
On preparing for New Mexico State without any game film from this season
“You prepare exactly the way you would if it were the first game of the year.”
On the team’s focus
“I feel good about where the team is. There is a lot to prepare for, so they’re focused.”
On the advantage of already playing two games
“I think the speed of the game (is the biggest advantage). They have some experience on their side too, but there is nothing like having the fastball look. We’ve had two (games) and they haven’t played a game yet. You hope that is somewhat of an advantage, but time will tell.”
On the play of the tight ends
“(They played) pretty well the first game. The second game they didn’t play quite as well. They’re getting better. It’s a very talented position for us. We need to be consistent. (We) didn’t quite block as well as we’d like to last week, we made some mistakes. I think we’ll get them fixed. I like who we have playing there. I like that spot for us.”
On the shift of the San Jose State game in the fourth quarter
“We just played better. We made plays and we executed. Obviously, the kick return gave us a little bit of a jump start. We didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot, we executed.
On if the team took a step backward in week two
“No. We won. I pretty much know where we are right now. You’ve got to get better every week. I don’t care if you win by 60, you’ve got to get better. There’s a lot out there to do.”
On shuffling the running backs in and out
“We’ve got three good players. We’ve got three really good football players and they all deserve snaps. That’s a tremendous advantage because you keep guys fresh. I don’t see any disadvantages. If a guy’s hot, we’re going to keep him going. We’re going to give them all touches. I didn’t see anyone get real hot in the first half.”
On sophomore defensive end Pierre Allen
“He’s been good since I’ve been here, he’s played well. He’s come a long way. I thought he had a really good spring, and I think he’s continued into the fall. We need him to step up and keep getting better.”
On true freshmen Josh Williams and Cameron Meredith possibly being used in game action
“Practice will help determine that. When we have the opportunity, we’re going to start repping them more.”
On what causes poor tackling
“Technique. For the most part, it’s about technique. It’s being careless, it’s being sloppy. I think the effort’s there, but you have to take your technique on to the field.”
On the spirits of Barry Turner, who was injured against San Jose State
“Barry is doing well. I talked to him last night. He’ll have surgery tomorrow and he’s looking forward to getting back. He’s a tremendous guy. I feel for him, but his attitude right now is great. I just think he wants to get back to 100 percent, which he will. I spoke to the doctors last night and they said he’ll have a full recovery.”
On Turner being back by the spring
“I would guess so. He’ll be back. It’s probably about three to four months, at the long end, of recovery. It happened so early in the season, he should be ready to go after the first of the year or in February.”
On the details of the injury
“There was something with a ligament in there, too. He’ll have a full recovery - they feel 100 percent on that.”
On playing the nickel defense based on the offense on the field
“We match personnel. You’ll see nickel, you’ll see dime at times. We don’t play base defense when they put extra wideouts in the game, we put extra defensive backs out there. “
On seeing passing offenses early in the year with the type of defense NU plays
“We’re going to have to play some nickel and dime later on. We’ll be in it a lot this week. This team, they play three or four wideout sets. That’s good. It’s kind of what I’ve always done as an assistant.”
On playing certain linebackers
“It just depends on who you’re playing and what their style of offense is. If it’s a team that’s going to hammer the football and be in base sets then we’ll be in base defense. It’ll be dictated by the style we’ll see in that particular week.
On the possibility of redshirting Blake (Lawrence) or Latravis (Washington)
“We need depth. It just depends. It’s hard to say right now. He (Blake) won’t be redshirting. That’s not even a consideration right now. Latravis, possibly, because of his injury, but we’re hoping he’s going to contribute here sometime soon.”
On freshman Justin Rodgers
“He missed a week of class, so we’re just trying to make sure he gets his feet on the ground academically before we get him out there practicing. It’s difficult enough starting school for the first time, but you miss a week of class because of the situation and his (academic eligibility) ruling. We’re trying to get him caught up in the classroom, that’s the No. 1 priority.”
On New Mexico State quarterback Chase Holbrook
“He’s a good player. He gets the ball out fast. (He has a) good arm and can make all the throws. He poses a good challenge. They’ve got a lot of speed on the field, (they) do some unusual things. It’ll be a good test for us.”
On seeing something new from an offense as a defensive coordinator
“I feel like I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen a lot of different things. It’s not about me. Being able to put the scheme together is not an issue. We’ve just got to be able to execute. We have to be more consistent in our execution, our communication, our discipline and our focus. We’ve got to take care of us and execute our game plan.”
On what he’s learned after being a head coach for three games
“It’s been kind of what I’ve envisioned. I don’t approach it much different than I did when I was a defensive coordinator. I prepare much the same way. You’ve got some duties that are different. Obviously, I speak to you guys more often. It’s been a good experience so far.”
On being on the bench at the volleyball game versus LSU
“I haven’t even thought about that. I’d like to make it over there and I’ll do my best to make it over there and see (NU Head Volleyball) Coach (John) Cook. I think what he’s doing so far is phenomenal with that young group of girls. They are doing a great job.”
On breaking down some defenses for Coach Cook
“For him? He’d have some problems if that happened.”
On learning from Coach Cook
“I know one thing, anybody that watches them play sees the tremendous intensity and focus that his girls bring in their matches. He looks like he’s a football coach coaching volleyball. He’s a tremendous coach.”
On the committee approach at I-back
“I don’t really know what’s happened in the past. I just know it’s a position where your guys get hit and they get beat up some. You can’t just go with one guy all the time. If you have a few talented ones like we do, you like to get the guys all involved and keep them in the flow of the game. It’s hard to go and sit for two quarters and then go and play football. You’ve got to learn (from) your guys and experiment. You need to let it kind of evolve. It happened a lot at LSU last year. We had a number of running backs and they all contributed and they all deserved minutes. I know the offensive coaches (and) Coach Miles all got criticized at times for how they rotated their backs. There’s no right or wrong answer. You’ve got to look at your personnel, the plays that you’re running, and experiment as you go along and figure out the best formula as the season progresses.”
On if they are still experimenting with the running backs
“Somewhat. I think our offensive coaches have a pretty good angle on how they want to use each particular guy.”
On if they are decided on whose going to redshirt or play on the defensive line
“There are a number of possibilities because injuries happen. It’s hard to see right now, it’s still so early in the season.”
On if freshmen (Ben) Cotton and (Khiry) Cooper will redshirt barring injuries
“More than likely. Like I said, it’s hard to say right now.”
On if the backs, receivers and offensive line have played to his satisfaction
“Very rarely do they grade out to your satisfaction until they start playing perfect. You see a lot of good things happen. We’ve had breakdowns. We’ve had a guy here a guy there, and it’s been different guys, it hasn’t been the same guy all the time. It’s breakdowns. At times we blocked well and we missed the cut. We had a number of times in that game (where) we had everybody blocked and we blew an assignment or we had bad technique or missed the guy on the edge and you have a loss of yardage play. Some of them are scheme plays. At times you run the ball under the wrong defense. Sometimes you have to give them credit, they call the right play at the right time and you run into a blitz and you’ve got the guy unaccounted for. That’s going to happen some. Overall, it’s more of us not executing and having 10 or 11 guys executing their job. We’ve had a lot of instances where we’ve had eight or nine guys do it and one guy misses his block. We just need consistency throughout the year.”
On working on fundamentals and preparing for the week’s game in practice
“We have fundamental periods every day. We do a lot of ones-on-ones. That’s really fundamentals because you’re not really running the other team’s style. You’re going against each other. You get a good fastball look, it’s really technique and fundamentals; it’s not as much scheme-oriented. We have a tremendous amount of fundamental technique work in our practices.”
On the start senior wide receiver Nate Swift has gotten off to this season
“He’s played tremendous football, as has Todd Peterson. They both are playing really good for us. Our receiver position as a whole is playing good football right now. Not only are they catching the ball and running good routes, but they’re blocking on the perimeter extremely well. In that aspect of it they are very good. I can think of very few times in the first two games, I can only really think of one instance, where we missed a block on the perimeter that hurt us. I really like how they’re playing. I think they’re playing at a high level.”
On the importance of playing well going into a bye week
“I just want to win the game. We have our hands full. You have to go week-by-week. I want to see us execute. We need to play more consistently on both sides of the ball and on special teams. That’s what I want to see. I don’t want to see the peaks and valleys and inconsistent play. I didn’t like the way we started the football game (on Saturday). I want to start fast and I want to keep it going. We have a good test. We have an unusual defense we’re playing against and an offense that has experience at the skill positions. They pose a lot of problems. It’s going to be a good test and it’ll be good for our football team to play this game. Believe me, we’ve given them all the respect in the world. They’re a talented football team that is very well coached, so it’ll be a nice challenge for us.”
