Nebraska head coach Scott Frost addressed the media on Saturday following the Huskers' loss to the Purdue Boilermakers, 42-28.
Frost spoke about the warriors on his team that he wants to go to battle with, the repeat mistakes over the first four games, potential depth chart changes and plenty more.
Here's the full transcript from his question-and-answer session postgame.
On is earlier quote that this was a "winnable game"
“In three of our games, we’ve played well enough to win a game. In my opinion, we honestly look like one of the most undisciplined teams in the country, and it kills me because it isn’t like we aren’t trying to give them messages, it isn’t like we aren’t trying to hold them accountable. That being said, we’ve got a bunch of guys that are warriors that didn’t stop fighting. When I see guys like Ben Stille turning and getting out of the pass rush and running down one of their receivers 30 yards downfield, I’ll go to battle with guys like that anytime. It’s up to us as coaches, but it’s also up to that team to stop allowing the other stuff to happen. We can’t get holding calls on interceptions and then talk trash to their sideline and start dancing on the field. I didn’t know what was going on, when we’re down 13 points and we’ve got backups and reserves dancing on our sideline before kickoff. They look like they love losing, and they look like they’re undisciplined.
"We got another penalty on special teams and instead of starting at the 30, we started on our own 8. We get penalties on 3rd-and-20 and we get penalties when are drives are going and we kill them. I’m tired of looking at it. There’s really no difference from a coaching perspective from 'I can’t do it' and 'I won’t do it'. The people that won’t make good decisions, the people that are hitting people that are three yards out of bounds, if that keeps up I’m just going to ride with the guys that are doing it the right way. We’ve got a lot of warriors on this team and a lot of guys that played well enough to win, but I’m tired of coaching an undisciplined team.”
On potential roster and depth chart changes
“We’ll take a look at the tape and we’ll let you know. I don’t want to be the only one that won’t put up with it. The team has to not put up with it. We’ll see where we are at an injury standpoint. We don’t have a lot of depth at certain positions, and we need young guys to step up and some guys to come along. In a lot of cases, if there was someone else to play we would’ve already had them on the field in some kind of role. You talk to them after week one, week two, week three about the mistakes we’re making. We played well enough to win game one, game two and game three but not when you make those mistakes. You’re not going to win."
On why this is happening
“I’ve got a sense of why but I don’t really want to say why because this is my team, this isn’t somebody else’s team. In order to have a disciplined team, you have to have guys that really care, and guys that are accountable and you have to have an environment where they’re held accountable. It’s all of the little things that they do, on and off the field. We’re doing that, I don’t know if it’s taken root with people. I don’t know how many habits people have. We’re trying to break a lot of habits. We’re trying to teach them how we want things done, because I know when things are done that way you win championships. As hard as this team has played and a lot of guys on this team have played well enough to win, we’re not going to win as long as those things are happening.”
On encountering habits he did not anticipate
“I’m still encountering habits that I didn’t know or expect. Listen, you can go back to all these games, we can’t run down on punt and run into the punt returner. We can’t block somebody in the back on punt return, we can’t hit somebody out of bounds, we can’t get 15-yard penalties on 3rd-and-24. Every time we’ve addressed what we need to address we find another way to shoot ourselves in the foot. But it all comes down to caring enough to do it right. Not just on the field. It comes down to caring enough to do it right on Monday, on Tuesday, when you’re supposed to be in study hall, when you’re supposed to be at class, the way you treat the people that serve you food in the lunch line. People that do all those things the right way are winners, and they win. We have a bunch of them on this team. We have a bunch of them. We’re doing enough little things wrong that we can’t overcome it right now. We’re not good enough to overcome those things.”
On whether he thinks the team has moved up from “rock bottom” following the Michigan game
“I appreciate the fans here so much because I walk out of that tunnel at 0-3 and little kids still want to slap our hands and people are saying ‘you’ll get them going, coach.’ And we will. It’s going to happen. I’m so proud of the guys, the way they fight. We've got a bunch of guys. Devine Ozigbo, the way he played today, Adrian Martinez, to continue to be willing to take shots, run the ball, zip it downfield. JD (Spielman) had to come out, we had to put him back in, he didn’t want to stay out he’s going back. Stanley (Morgan Jr.) wants to win as bad as anybody I’ve been around. Luke Gifford, it hurts him. I’ll go to battle with Luke any time. That’s not all of them, I’m not touching on all of them. I’m proud of those guys. At times the offense looked like I want it to look. We were shredding them at times, and this is the second time we’ve lost I think with almost 600 yards of offense. That’s not supposed to happen, but it happens when you make all the mistakes. It happens when you beat yourself, it doesn’t matter how many yards you have when you beat yourself.”
On what he liked about Adrian Martinez’s play today
“I think Adrian grew up a bunch today. I saw a guy today that looks like he kind of figured out he can win a game. Some of the throws he made, some of the decisions he made to take it down and run it. Now he still made a few freshman mistakes, and in a couple cases we have to put him in a little better situation. But we knew those were going to happen. I was watching the Clemson game today and they’re probably the only other team in the country that I know of that has nothing but freshman quarterbacks on their roster. Heck when we started the season, our starting quarterback is a true freshman, he didn’t play as a senior in high school. So inevitably there is going to be some growing pains. But that’s my guy and we’re going to ride with him, and this is my team and I’m going to ride with them. But I’m tired of putting up with undisciplined people.”
On the 4th-and-1 play in the first half
“We missed one block. Listen, we’re going to have to adjust and continue to adjust as coaches. I don’t want to make any excuses, we have to do better. As we’re trying to get our offensive system in, we’re not executing the basic stuff well enough yet. And we need to rep that so that it all works. Some of the situational stuff comes along a little later. 4th-and-1, a lot of times we just try to go fast and get the yard, and if we can’t do that, if we’re not good enough to do that consistently, then as coaches we need to figure out another way to get it done.”
On why Devine Ozigbo saw the ball so much this week
“It’s pretty simple, Mo (Maurice Washington) missed practice all week because he was sick. So we weren’t going to play anyone that didn’t practice, and Devine practiced better than anybody else. When he got hot, he was a warrior today, and I’ll go to battle with him.”
On the run defense and mistakes
“I’ve got to watch the tape on that because a lot of times when the defense is on the field, I’m getting our next series ready on offense. They’re good on offense, I think Coach Brohm did a good job. You don’t win a lot of games when you give up 42. But a lot of the 42 was because we made stupid mistakes. Covering someone man on a tunnel screen and don’t cover the tight end and just let him run free. A lot of mistakes on defense. It isn’t effort, again, it’s dumb decisions, being undisciplined. And it’s not dumb kids, they just need to do it right all the time. I love this team. Like I said, there are a lot of warriors on this team. We’ve got to get better on offense, on defense, on special teams, and we’re gonna get better, with that kind of effort, we’re gonna get better, once the team stops allowing those mistakes to happen.”
On how long it takes to engrain discipline in the players
“I have no idea, I’ll let you know. Every team is different. Trying to get this team where I know it needs to be to win games and championships is a different process then other teams that I’ve been on. But, we’re gonna keep fighting. And I appreciate the people of Nebraska so much, because I said this last week, I know where this is going. Nobody hates this more than I do, and we’re gonna keep swinging."
On takeaways on defense
“It’s just little things here and there. When you start executing things well enough to make them work, good things happen to you. We’ve had bad breaks, but when you’re a good team, you make your own breaks. You make your own luck. It was 7-7, and their receiver threw a ball up in the air and we were an eyelash away from picking it and scoring, and we would have been up 14-7. You gotta take advantage of those things. They threw enough fades with corners out there, if we go get one of those, it changes the game. When we sack somebody, instead of just sacking, we need to strip them, it changes the game. We gotta keep working, but you don’t win games when you’re negative in turnovers.”
On if the team can build off the first drive of the game
“We’re going to build off everything that’s good and go forward. When life knocks you down; I’ve been through this at Nebraska before, I’ve been through a hard time at Nebraska before. And I told the team this week, the thing I’m most proud of about my career at Nebraska, is that when I was down I fought back. And life’s gonna throw a lot of things at you. Football is not the hardest thing life is gonna throw at you. Being 0-4 isn’t the hardest thing life’s gonna throw at you. But if you can look at yourself in the mirror after that and know that you have two choices when you’re down; stay down or keep fighting. And I’ve been through this before, I got a bunch of guys on this team that’ll keep fighting, too.”
On Central Florida’s turnaround last season
“I’m not worried about Central Florida.”
