Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule met with the media following the team’s 28-10 victory over the Colorado Buffaloes. The head coach started his availability by discussing his pride in his football team.
“I’m really proud of our team. The defense scored for the second week in a row and made some contributions. It was my kind of game. We won the game, but there’s still a lot to improve. I get to be the coach, and be happy for a night.”
During his press conference, the head coach also talked about the stadium atmosphere, setting the tone physically, and how to coach with a lead.
Nebraska will now prepare for another home night game when the Huskers host Northern Iowa at Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. CT and the game can be seen on the Big Ten Network.
Scroll below to find all the comments from coach Matt Rhule after the win over the Buffaloes.
On the stadium atmosphere
“It was more than I hoped it would be. It was electric. The crowd noise was fantastic, the energy was fantastic. I think our players fed off of that. In this modern era, in terms of communication and all that, it’s really hard to play in an atmosphere like that. Thank you to the student section. They were there early. Thank you to our fans. It was really a special night.”
On three goals
“We have three goals. One, win the turnover battle. Two, be the most physical team in football, and have a culture of execution. There were a ton of penalties, just a ton of penalties. We have the iPads now, and we looked at a lot of them. We’ll wait and see. I was disappointed we didn’t have many calls going our way. It’s a Big 12 crew. I can’t get fined by them, I don’t think, so I’ll go ahead and say that.
On the running backs
There’s a lot of things to fix, but I thought we were really physical. I thought, even on that first run, I hate that Shilo (Sanders) got hurt, but I thought (Dante) Dowdell set the tone with his physicality in running the football. We are a physical team. We might have some areas we have to improve on, but we are a physical team.”
On Dante Dowdell and Rahmir Johnson
“I thought we had some flash plays, really, with them. Even Rahmir had the long run at the end. This was a game where, across the board, we didn’t do a ton of rotating. On defense, we played most of the older guys. It was a unique game. It’s no referendum on those other two. Gabe (Ervin Jr.) and Emmett (Johnson) will get to play a ton of football as we move forward. I thought Dante set the tone and Rahmir did some good things, so we stuck with them.”
On how he coaches the team to play with the lead
“Preparation will not be our issue. Those guys worked their butts off. We practice really hard and the guys work their butts off. I think, again, learning how to finish. We still haven’t solved the close game thing because we haven’t been in that yet. I think, probably a lot of people thought this was going to be a close game. I’ll be honest with you, we expected this score. We expected this to be like this. We have a good team and we felt like we were going to play really well tonight.
On how to prepare
We’re going to go right back to work and treat this like a game that we lost. That’s what we did last week. Like I told you guys, correct the correctables. That’s a really good football team. They’ll make a ton of noise in the Big 12. Guarding number five (Jimmy Horn Jr.) and guarding number 12 (Travis Hunter) and guarding number two (Shedeur Sanders), those are as good of players as you’ll play against.
On playing time
On the defensive side, they’re as active and violent of a defense as we’ll see. We’re just going to work, and I think the biggest thing is we have great competition. A lot of guys want to play. Jacory (Barney Jr.) keeps making plays, Jaylen (Lloyd), we got involved again in this game, Thomas (Fidone II) made a big catch down the middle. We just have a lot more I think we have to get done.”
Post Game
This article originally appeared on Cornhuskers Wire: What Matt Rhule said after Nebraska beat Coloardo
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