Coach Speak(s) Nebraska Week!

After that “game” against Illinois Coach Brohm stepped to the mic to discuss the aftermath and to look ahead to the game against Nebraska. Let’s dive right in shall we?

First and foremost, what’s the QB situation?

Right now Jack Plummer will start for us. We’ll get both quarterbacks ready to play. Like always, it’s never as good as you think after a game and it’s never as bad as you think.

We need to make some better decisions early on. I think we can find the check-downs better. I think we can locate the No. 2 receiver a little bit better. I think we can occasionally pull it back and run it a few times.

It was rough conditions, and you know, it wasn’t the easiest to throw the football in, and I think the quarterbacks will continue to work hard and get better, but Jack will be our starter.

Is Rondale healthy for this week?

You know, right now, when it comes to where we’re at with that injury front, it’s probably better for me to wait towards the end of the week to tell you where we’re at. There’s quite a few of them. I know they are all working hard to get back on the field but I probably won’t know the status of quite a few of them until later on in the week.

With just four games left are there any youngsters looking to break onto the field?

Cam Craig on the offensive line is the next one up. He’s got good ability. I think he’s got a bright future. Understanding everything is a little bit of the issue and you know, I think this week we’ll push him forward and try to get him in the game.

On the defensive side of the ball, you know, we had Sanders up ready to go. He got injured. He actually, you know, will monitor him where he’s at but he’s somebody that’s got especially closer. On the defensive line, Steven Faucheux may be a guy we’d like to hopefully get in here these last games and maybe even Hunter as well.

What is your message to the team this week?

We’ve used the back against the wall this past week and the playoff format this past week and even before. I think at this point, that’s zero of our focus right now.

Our focus is finding ways to get better this week. We’ve got to take the small steps in order to get that done. We can’t worry about anything beyond that.

So for us, you know, playing an historically good football team in Nebraska that that’s going to come in here hungry that needs to get a win. We just need to improve and get better and have a great week of practice and try to win come game day and that will be our approach this week is do everything we can to try to win this game, practice hard and then go out and compete. But we want to see improvement.

What is the issue with failing to generate turnovers?

Well, turnover margin is always going to be an issue whether you win or lose. I think that this year, getting turnovers, we’d like to get more, and we haven’t, you know, been able to get as many as you would like. We work it every day. In the end, you’ve got to read the quarterback. You’ve got to tackle, strip, be physical and you’ve got to come downhill and make plays and find ways to get that done and cause some pressure.

On the offensive side, you know, when you turn it over, it’s going to be hard to win. Especially in this pass game and the weather is bad and that’s what we had. We tried to make a play at quarterback and it’s a costly turnover and we tried to make a play running and it popped out.

We worked very hard at getting this done, and when you don’t do that, you probably don’t have a good chance of winning.