Here is a full recap of Nebraska's weekly press conference here at Memorial Stadium.
Here is a link to the Huskers.com live stream of the press conference...
***Jack Gangwish is now up.
***Gangwish said the message is that they’re here to be the best team we can be, and goals are still out there. “Nothing is impossible.”
***Gangwish said the goal this week was to remain even-keel and not get too high or too low no matter the outcome, but admitted it’s going to be tough.
***Gangwish said there shouldn’t be any issue getting the team up to face Wisconsin given the rivalry that’s built up there. However, he said they aren’t going to put any additional emphasis on the game than they do any other week.
***Gangwish said despite all that Nebraska has gone through over the past few months and the way the season has started, there's always a concern about keeping the locker room together. He said the media, social media, and people around town can cause "unnecessary weight" for player that they have to tune out.
***Gangwish said "people can be vicious" on social media, but he wasn't sure a social media ban would benefit NU. He said he would hope guys could be able to handle themselves professionally on social media, but admitted it's not always the case.
***Gangwish said the media distractions are mostly "noise" that gets players fired up because not everybody knows what's going on on the field all the time. He said it's just more stuff that players need to block out and ignore.
***Gangwish said he felt "really good" and thinks his recovery from his elbow injury is going really well. He said it's yet to be seen if he'll ever be back to 100 percent this season.
***Gangwish said Alex Lewis "knows what's expected of him as a leader and as a team", and it's been "expressed to him what needs to be done" after his recent exploits on social media and after Saturday's loss at Illinois.
***That's all for Gangwish.
***Mike Riley is now up.
***Riley said the defense made some steps against Illinois, especially in its third down and fourth down defense. Riley said Maliek Collins had a "monster game" and that Chris Weber has been playing really well the past two weeks.
***Riley said Kevin Maurice suffered an injury and will be in a boot for the next four weeks.
***Riley said Alex Lewis had a good game. I'm sure he'll get to Lewis's antics after the game soon.
***Riley said he was disappointed with the offense and its inability to find any rhythm or sustain much of anything. "All it did was give Sam (Foltz) a chance to be named Special Teams Player of the Week."
***Riley said the third down call at the end of the game, he said in retrospect it would have simpler to just hand the ball off, but he chose to call the quarterback sweep. Riley said Tommy Armstrong "just acted like an athlete" on that play and tried to do what he could.
***Riley said Wisconsin is good on defense, especially their pass rush. Offensively, he said they use lots of shifts and zone blocking in the run game and have an efficient quarterback.
***Riley said his message to discouraged fans is that he understands why they would be nervous about the 2-3 start, and he knows the team has to play better and win some games. "That's the nature of this thing, and I get it... That's the beauty of this place. I wouldn't trade it at all."
***Riley said Nebraska definitely should have stuck with the running game against Illinois.
***Riley said they're looking at all sorts of options with the defensive line due to the injury situations. Kevin Williams is not ready to return, Vincent Valentine had an optimistic injury report last night, and the option of moving Greg McMullen inside "is real." The last option they want to do is pull Carlos Davis's redshirt.
***Riley said that third down play at the end was called as a run, but he blames himself "for the training of it" and Armstrong just reacted to the play. He said the call is normally a pass play, but they reiterated that they wanted it to be a run when it was signaled in from the sideline.
***Riley said they have recognized that Andy Janovich and Devine Ozigbo need to be playing, and admitted it's taken them too long to figure that out, especially with Janovich.
***Riley said the simple fixes for third-down offense problems would be execution of the plays, but he also said the coaches need to continue to put players in the right situations with their play calling.
***Riley said he hasn't talked with Lewis yet so declined to go into detail on the situation, but said he was "obviously disappointed" and that was "not a good reflection of what we want to be."
***Riley said he would talk with Lewis today about the situation, and again declined to talk more about it until he does talk with him.
***Riley said Maurice suffered a stress fracture against Illinois and he actually played through the injury much of the game.
***Riley said the peer leadership is a "real big deal" in a situation like this. Having veteran players step up and set good examples was crucial for making it through tough times. "All the bugs crawl out in times like this."
***Riley said in retrospect they probably should have had Jordan Westerkamp handle the first punt return over De'Mornay Pierson-El, but they put DPE back there because of how well he had played in practice. The intention is to continue to get Pierson-El more in involved both in the offense and in the return game.
***That's all for Riley.
***Tommy Armstrong is now up.
***Armstrong said that third down play all happened so fast because the play didn't get in until about 8 seconds left on the play clock. He said he knew the play was called a run, but the pressure caused him to try to make a play and he threw it to Ozigbo. His mindset was losing yards would knock them out of field goal range, so he didn't want to take a loss with a sack. He took full blame, and knows that if he took the sack NU would run down the clock and probably win the game. "It's on me."
***Armstrong said the game conditions at Illinois made throwing the ball challenging. He said the wing took a couple of passes he thought would have right to receivers.
***Armstrong said they threw the ball downfield so much vs. Illinois because the Illini were basically daring them to throw deep by playing their safeties up and leaving one-on-one matchups on the outside.
***Armstrong said the offense let the defense down on Saturday by not making enough plays. He said they left too many points on the field and spoiled a great performance by the defense.
***Armstrong said he's not letting the rough start bother him. He's been in tougher situations than this, and said he doesn't play for anybody else but his teammates, coaches and family. He doesn't let any other outside factors dictate how he handles himself.
***Armstrong said Nebraska doesn't think of Wisconsin as a rivalry, and they just treat it like any game. People might call it a rivalry, but for the Huskers, every game is big.
***That's all for Armstrong.
***Sam Foltz is now up.
***Foltz said he's "definitely not 100 percent" coming off his ankle injury, but he feels good enough to keep playing. Obviously it's not affecting him too much since he was just named the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week.
***Foltz said the punt where Chris Jones caught the ball at the one-yard line is actually a play they practice where he sets up the gunner to catch the ball before it hits the field.
***Foltz said he's going to share his player of the week award with 10 other guys, because it wouldn't come without them.
***That's all for Foltz.
***Chris Weber is now up.
***Weber said one of the biggest challenges about Wisconsin's offense is all of the "window dressing" they do with pre-snap motions to disguise plays. He said the defense would have to be locked in mentally on every play to avoid confusion.
***Weber said NU can't feel sorry for itself this week, because Wisconsin isn't going to feel sorry for them.
***Weber said a lot of his 17 tackles vs Illinois was a result of the play of Maliek Collins and Maurice up front. He said his body is a little sore today but not too bad.
***Weber said he'll continue to prepare this week to be the starter until the coaches tell them otherwise. Josh Banderas has missed the past two games and his status is unclear this week.
***Weber said the Huskers aren't going to "pack up our bags" and quit because of three tough losses. He said the only thing they can do is keep on moving forward.
***That's all for Weber.
That wraps up the up-front portion of today's press conference. We'll have much more up later on this afternoon.
Here is a link to the Huskers.com live stream of the press conference...
***Jack Gangwish is now up.
***Gangwish said the message is that they’re here to be the best team we can be, and goals are still out there. “Nothing is impossible.”
***Gangwish said the goal this week was to remain even-keel and not get too high or too low no matter the outcome, but admitted it’s going to be tough.
***Gangwish said there shouldn’t be any issue getting the team up to face Wisconsin given the rivalry that’s built up there. However, he said they aren’t going to put any additional emphasis on the game than they do any other week.
***Gangwish said despite all that Nebraska has gone through over the past few months and the way the season has started, there's always a concern about keeping the locker room together. He said the media, social media, and people around town can cause "unnecessary weight" for player that they have to tune out.
***Gangwish said "people can be vicious" on social media, but he wasn't sure a social media ban would benefit NU. He said he would hope guys could be able to handle themselves professionally on social media, but admitted it's not always the case.
***Gangwish said the media distractions are mostly "noise" that gets players fired up because not everybody knows what's going on on the field all the time. He said it's just more stuff that players need to block out and ignore.
***Gangwish said he felt "really good" and thinks his recovery from his elbow injury is going really well. He said it's yet to be seen if he'll ever be back to 100 percent this season.
***Gangwish said Alex Lewis "knows what's expected of him as a leader and as a team", and it's been "expressed to him what needs to be done" after his recent exploits on social media and after Saturday's loss at Illinois.
***That's all for Gangwish.
***Mike Riley is now up.
***Riley said the defense made some steps against Illinois, especially in its third down and fourth down defense. Riley said Maliek Collins had a "monster game" and that Chris Weber has been playing really well the past two weeks.
***Riley said Kevin Maurice suffered an injury and will be in a boot for the next four weeks.
***Riley said Alex Lewis had a good game. I'm sure he'll get to Lewis's antics after the game soon.
***Riley said he was disappointed with the offense and its inability to find any rhythm or sustain much of anything. "All it did was give Sam (Foltz) a chance to be named Special Teams Player of the Week."
***Riley said the third down call at the end of the game, he said in retrospect it would have simpler to just hand the ball off, but he chose to call the quarterback sweep. Riley said Tommy Armstrong "just acted like an athlete" on that play and tried to do what he could.
***Riley said Wisconsin is good on defense, especially their pass rush. Offensively, he said they use lots of shifts and zone blocking in the run game and have an efficient quarterback.
***Riley said his message to discouraged fans is that he understands why they would be nervous about the 2-3 start, and he knows the team has to play better and win some games. "That's the nature of this thing, and I get it... That's the beauty of this place. I wouldn't trade it at all."
***Riley said Nebraska definitely should have stuck with the running game against Illinois.
***Riley said they're looking at all sorts of options with the defensive line due to the injury situations. Kevin Williams is not ready to return, Vincent Valentine had an optimistic injury report last night, and the option of moving Greg McMullen inside "is real." The last option they want to do is pull Carlos Davis's redshirt.
***Riley said that third down play at the end was called as a run, but he blames himself "for the training of it" and Armstrong just reacted to the play. He said the call is normally a pass play, but they reiterated that they wanted it to be a run when it was signaled in from the sideline.
***Riley said they have recognized that Andy Janovich and Devine Ozigbo need to be playing, and admitted it's taken them too long to figure that out, especially with Janovich.
***Riley said the simple fixes for third-down offense problems would be execution of the plays, but he also said the coaches need to continue to put players in the right situations with their play calling.
***Riley said he hasn't talked with Lewis yet so declined to go into detail on the situation, but said he was "obviously disappointed" and that was "not a good reflection of what we want to be."
***Riley said he would talk with Lewis today about the situation, and again declined to talk more about it until he does talk with him.
***Riley said Maurice suffered a stress fracture against Illinois and he actually played through the injury much of the game.
***Riley said the peer leadership is a "real big deal" in a situation like this. Having veteran players step up and set good examples was crucial for making it through tough times. "All the bugs crawl out in times like this."
***Riley said in retrospect they probably should have had Jordan Westerkamp handle the first punt return over De'Mornay Pierson-El, but they put DPE back there because of how well he had played in practice. The intention is to continue to get Pierson-El more in involved both in the offense and in the return game.
***That's all for Riley.
***Tommy Armstrong is now up.
***Armstrong said that third down play all happened so fast because the play didn't get in until about 8 seconds left on the play clock. He said he knew the play was called a run, but the pressure caused him to try to make a play and he threw it to Ozigbo. His mindset was losing yards would knock them out of field goal range, so he didn't want to take a loss with a sack. He took full blame, and knows that if he took the sack NU would run down the clock and probably win the game. "It's on me."
***Armstrong said the game conditions at Illinois made throwing the ball challenging. He said the wing took a couple of passes he thought would have right to receivers.
***Armstrong said they threw the ball downfield so much vs. Illinois because the Illini were basically daring them to throw deep by playing their safeties up and leaving one-on-one matchups on the outside.
***Armstrong said the offense let the defense down on Saturday by not making enough plays. He said they left too many points on the field and spoiled a great performance by the defense.
***Armstrong said he's not letting the rough start bother him. He's been in tougher situations than this, and said he doesn't play for anybody else but his teammates, coaches and family. He doesn't let any other outside factors dictate how he handles himself.
***Armstrong said Nebraska doesn't think of Wisconsin as a rivalry, and they just treat it like any game. People might call it a rivalry, but for the Huskers, every game is big.
***That's all for Armstrong.
***Sam Foltz is now up.
***Foltz said he's "definitely not 100 percent" coming off his ankle injury, but he feels good enough to keep playing. Obviously it's not affecting him too much since he was just named the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week.
***Foltz said the punt where Chris Jones caught the ball at the one-yard line is actually a play they practice where he sets up the gunner to catch the ball before it hits the field.
***Foltz said he's going to share his player of the week award with 10 other guys, because it wouldn't come without them.
***That's all for Foltz.
***Chris Weber is now up.
***Weber said one of the biggest challenges about Wisconsin's offense is all of the "window dressing" they do with pre-snap motions to disguise plays. He said the defense would have to be locked in mentally on every play to avoid confusion.
***Weber said NU can't feel sorry for itself this week, because Wisconsin isn't going to feel sorry for them.
***Weber said a lot of his 17 tackles vs Illinois was a result of the play of Maliek Collins and Maurice up front. He said his body is a little sore today but not too bad.
***Weber said he'll continue to prepare this week to be the starter until the coaches tell them otherwise. Josh Banderas has missed the past two games and his status is unclear this week.
***Weber said the Huskers aren't going to "pack up our bags" and quit because of three tough losses. He said the only thing they can do is keep on moving forward.
***That's all for Weber.
That wraps up the up-front portion of today's press conference. We'll have much more up later on this afternoon.
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