Nebraska vs. Iowa State
Postgame Quotes
Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009
Memorial Stadium - Lincoln, Neb.
Opening Statement
“I give credit to Iowa State. They made the plays necessary to win the football game; we didn’t. That is pretty obvious.”
On if they walk away from this game feeling like they beat themselves
“Yeah, it’s pretty obvious, eight turnovers. I give credit to Iowa State. They did what they needed to do to win the football game. I don’t want say that because that would take discredit against the effort they put forth. They did what was necessary to win the football game. I’m disappointed in our football team. I’m disappointed in it. It starts with me.”
On how to explain that many turnovers
“It’s coaching and want to. We didn’t get it done. We got beat.”
On what his level of concern is with the offense right now
“It’s pretty obvious. We moved the football, we didn’t finish off drives. Like I’ve said, you have to execute.”
On if it was Iowa State attacking the football that caused fumbles
“I’ll have to look at the film. Like I said, you have to give them credit for making plays. We didn’t make plays. We didn’t finish off drives. We had plenty of opportunities to win the football game and we didn’t get it done. I am very disappointed.”
On if he had been seeing a lot of turnovers in practices
“No, I have not.”
On how he rated Zac Lee’s performance
“I thought he played well. He was 20-of-37. I don’t think we played well around Zac. I think Zac was the least of our problems today.”
On how they addressed turnovers at half
“We addressed it before the game, we address it every day. We address turnovers and protecting the football. It’s part of the deal. We didn’t make the plays. We didn’t handle the ball or protect the football. It’s a classic example; we were our own worst enemy today. It’s the bottom line. You have to make plays in this game if you’re going to win.”
On if the situation at running back complicated things today
“No.”
On if Roy Helu’s shoulder problem added to his tendency to turn the ball over
“No. There was no problem physically.”
On the decision to go with Zac Lee over Cody Green today
“Zac is more prepared. Cody Green is not quite ready, he’s getting there but Zac was ready. It’s not a difficult decision for me at this point.”
On if they discussed putting Cody Green in the game
“Like I said, I think it was pretty obvious from watching the football game that Zac Lee was the least of our problems. I though Zac did well. I thought he did a lot of good things. He worst play was probably the last throw. We didn’t play well around Zac; we had dropped balls and bad execution around him. We had a chance to have a boatload of points on the board and we put the ball on the ground. We were lucky to be in the football game. Eight turnovers? We could have gotten run out of the stadium. I don’t know if I’ve ever been around that in my coaching career. You can’t win a football game like that.”
